This is my second reading of this novel, this time as an audio book, the first being a .txt file printout when I was an undergrad. This is the seminal novel starting the 'cyberpunk' genre (which was already taking form at the time Gibson published it) and creating an entire subsection in literature. Let's be honest though, the book is hard to read. If you go on amazon, you will find dozens, if not hundreds, of negative comments complaining about jargon, density, unclear plot, unlovable characters, etc. etc. Newsflash: that's EXACTLY what the book was supposed to be. Some people even complain that the book is full of cliches. If they used their brains for anything else but mindless entertainment they would realize that this was the first book in the Cyberpunk genre (in 1984) and all of the things that are considered cliches today because they were repeated so many times over the past few decades were INVENTED by Gibson in this book. Saying this book is full of cliches is like saying 'The Lord of the Rings' is full of cliches.
This book invented terms and concepts we take for granted today, like cyberspace, jack-in, visual representation of computer networks and data, corporations ruling a technically advanced but morally and socially deteriorated world, also cloning, cryogenics, orbital resorts, black leather and chrome wardrobe were brought into the mainstream of science fiction after 'Neuromancer' became famous. The only problem is that we still today do not have enough special effects technology to make a movie out of it, though one attempt is scheduled for 2011, but may be shelved like many before it.
It is a very dense book. It is small, about 250 pages, while describing a whole new world, thus, by necessity, it is very dense. It is full of jargon which is not explained anywhere because Gibson invented it. The reader needs to be very careful, note all the references and new words and keep them in his mind at all time, as there are contextual clues later on where they become more clear. This is one of the beauties of this book, not for the feeble of mind and intelligence or imagination. There are no positive characters in the book. Everyone is an anti-hero, even the artificial intelligence Wintermute, which kills mercilessly and indiscriminately, including an 8 year-old boy in order to achieve its goal. There is very little to no moral fiber left in the world of the 'Neuromancer'; prostitution is almost a regular job (for both men and women), everyone is on some kind of narcotics, the world is polluted and dangerous and the rich are richer and more evil than ever.
The story follows the resurrection of a hacker, or 'cowboy', Case, who is saved from his last leg of life in Chiba City, coastal Tokyo suburb, and crime-capital of Gibson's Japan, by a brainwashed ex-special corps colonel Armitage, helped by a street-samurai, surgically-enhanced assassin Molly, with retractable razor-blades under her nails. Add to this a psychopathic performance artist who can materialize his thoughts holographically, a Rastafarian orbital space station, where the smell of ganja and the rhythm of Dub are the only constants, an illegal Artificial Intelligence with split personality disorder, cloned ninja assassins, and finally an alien artificial intelligence from the Alpha Centauri system which is only hinted at, and you get a milestone in science fiction and literature, a work which sole purpose is not entertainment, but expansion of the limits of the mind, something that all entertainment was supposed to do before the invention of reality television.
I am looking to read the second and third novel of Gibson's "The Sprawl Trilogy", the Sprawl being an unified metro area from Boston to Atlanta, which although do not mention Case again, and have a minor role for Molly, still happen in the wonderful, intricate and disturbing universe Gibson has created. A final note: although the book is a gem of literature, that cannot be said for the science part. Since the beginning of science fiction there have been two kinds of sci-fi writers: scientists and all the others. Scientists sci-fi writers, like Asimov and Clarke, take meticulous care to base their fiction on actual scientific theories, research, probabilities and possible directions. Their novels are based on hard science, their speculations could actually be true and possible one day, like the geocentric orbit for satellites which was first proposed ('invented') by Clarke. The other kind of sci-fi writers, to which Gibson belongs, do not care much about the scientific justification behind their work or speculations, but only use scientific concepts and facts as a jumping board into developing fantastic stories, characters and plots, which have little to no base in present or future reality or scientific research. Although many concepts and words from Gibson's novels became commonplace today (cyberspace, jack-in, etc.), most of his proposed concepts are unfeasible and unworkable, beginning from self-conscious Artificial Intelligence or machine in general, which is a favorite plot of non-scientist sci-fi authors, but has no basis in any scientific fact or theory. To put it simply, Artificial Intelligence is a branch of computer science concerned with studying function derivatives, and the probability of any kind of program, machine or construct achieving self-consciousness through this technology is equal to a big, round ZERO.
Monday, January 4, 2010
"Snow" by Orhan Pamuk
It took me a long time to finish this book. One because I was studying for GMAT while I was reading it, and the GMAT practices took priority, but also because the book is quite slow itself, probably on purpose, like the slow falling of the snow in a quiet mountain meadow. The title of the book in Turkish is 'Kar', the city in which most of it happens is Kars, and the main protagonist nickname is Ka. Take note of that if you are interested in symbolism, as there is plenty of it throughout the book, not the least being mapping emotions and poems to the axis of a snowflake.
Pamuk has been accused of being overly intellectual, intentionally obscure, too philosophical, combining too many things into one novel, not paying attention to character or plot development; and while many of these things might prove themselves true in certain specific cases, "Snow" is a marvelously written book and righteously brought the author the Nobel Prize for literature in 2006. The book is about a poet returning from political exile in Germany, becoming a journalist for an Istanbul newspaper which sends him in the most remote northeast corner of turkey, the city of Kars, on the borders with Georgia, Armenia and Iran, it's glory days long gone and buried in the last century when it was one of the southernmost points of the Soviet (and before that the Russian) Empire.
The city boasts many architectural remains of a better past, but they, alike the current denizens, are out of maintenance, made into something else, hastily put together in a hope for semblance of something better, but failing miserably. Snow starts falling the day Ka arrives in Kars, and the entire books happens in the 3 days of a thick snowstorm when all the roads to Kars are blocked and the outside world is locked out. Pamuk has deep love of Turkey and the Turks, regardless of their origin, beliefs, status or social standing. We see marching through the book's pages people from the military with strict secularist views, Islamic fundamentalist which do not shy from murder in order to further their goals and the Glory of God, former Communists and present Socialists who are not really sure what political beliefs they hold currently, small-time merchants, business owners, Kurdish separatists, secret police spies, religious high school students and plenty of unemployed, bored, future-less, hopeless people who form the amorphous bulk of the citizenry of Kars.
Ka also has a romantic interest in Kars, his old love Ipek, who is more beautiful than ever. Her former socialist father, her Islamic fundamentalist sister, the enigmatic and charismatic Islamic terrorist Blue, his little cohort of followers and admiring women, the mayoral candidate of the Islamic party, the failed Ataturk actor and his fat wife, who turn to political and military coup to end his not-so-glorious acting career, make the cast of the novel motley and drawn from every corner of Turkish life. The novel is written from the point of the author, Pamuk, who finds the diaries of Ka and re-traces his story, both going to Kars and to Frankfurt, putting the pieces together as he discovers them, leading up to the murder of Ka in Frankfurt, and unsuccessfully trying to find Ka's notebook with the 19 poems he wrote while in Kars, the first writing he has done in many years, and his last before his death.
The book might not be the easiest read, and definitely not an easy-reading novel with Turkish setting, but for those willing to spend the time, it rewards the reader with deep insight into the complicated situation of being a Turk in Turkey, on the crossroads between east and west, the only secular Muslim country but with a strong religious Islamic movement, the remnants of an empire, still containing many peoples and elements from all the corners once that empire stretched to, trying to look to the west, but not willing or unable to leave behind its eastern past, unsure as of where it stands, but still chugging along the best it can. 'Snow' will be a rewarding adventure for any open-minded reader willing to give it a chance.
Pamuk has been accused of being overly intellectual, intentionally obscure, too philosophical, combining too many things into one novel, not paying attention to character or plot development; and while many of these things might prove themselves true in certain specific cases, "Snow" is a marvelously written book and righteously brought the author the Nobel Prize for literature in 2006. The book is about a poet returning from political exile in Germany, becoming a journalist for an Istanbul newspaper which sends him in the most remote northeast corner of turkey, the city of Kars, on the borders with Georgia, Armenia and Iran, it's glory days long gone and buried in the last century when it was one of the southernmost points of the Soviet (and before that the Russian) Empire.
The city boasts many architectural remains of a better past, but they, alike the current denizens, are out of maintenance, made into something else, hastily put together in a hope for semblance of something better, but failing miserably. Snow starts falling the day Ka arrives in Kars, and the entire books happens in the 3 days of a thick snowstorm when all the roads to Kars are blocked and the outside world is locked out. Pamuk has deep love of Turkey and the Turks, regardless of their origin, beliefs, status or social standing. We see marching through the book's pages people from the military with strict secularist views, Islamic fundamentalist which do not shy from murder in order to further their goals and the Glory of God, former Communists and present Socialists who are not really sure what political beliefs they hold currently, small-time merchants, business owners, Kurdish separatists, secret police spies, religious high school students and plenty of unemployed, bored, future-less, hopeless people who form the amorphous bulk of the citizenry of Kars.
Ka also has a romantic interest in Kars, his old love Ipek, who is more beautiful than ever. Her former socialist father, her Islamic fundamentalist sister, the enigmatic and charismatic Islamic terrorist Blue, his little cohort of followers and admiring women, the mayoral candidate of the Islamic party, the failed Ataturk actor and his fat wife, who turn to political and military coup to end his not-so-glorious acting career, make the cast of the novel motley and drawn from every corner of Turkish life. The novel is written from the point of the author, Pamuk, who finds the diaries of Ka and re-traces his story, both going to Kars and to Frankfurt, putting the pieces together as he discovers them, leading up to the murder of Ka in Frankfurt, and unsuccessfully trying to find Ka's notebook with the 19 poems he wrote while in Kars, the first writing he has done in many years, and his last before his death.
The book might not be the easiest read, and definitely not an easy-reading novel with Turkish setting, but for those willing to spend the time, it rewards the reader with deep insight into the complicated situation of being a Turk in Turkey, on the crossroads between east and west, the only secular Muslim country but with a strong religious Islamic movement, the remnants of an empire, still containing many peoples and elements from all the corners once that empire stretched to, trying to look to the west, but not willing or unable to leave behind its eastern past, unsure as of where it stands, but still chugging along the best it can. 'Snow' will be a rewarding adventure for any open-minded reader willing to give it a chance.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
"The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson
A post-cyberpunk book, meaning it has cyberpunk setting and elements, but those are not the primary focus of the book which can also be classified as 'SteamPunk' as much of the content deals with Neo-Victorian mores and morals. Very interesting vision of the future of nanotechnology and what would it cause if left unchecked and unregulated and completely within the domain of the corporations. Quite a bit of social critique thrown in, from classes in the society and different cultural norms and prerogatives, to the dissolution of nation-states and subsequent formation and grouping of individuals by beliefs, rather than genes.
The book follows the early life of a 'thete' a non-affiliated low-class girl who gets into a possession of a nanotech book, which is actually and educational and virtual reality supercomputer, made to instill values and train the owner to be independent thinker, empowered to tackle pretty much anything life throws at her, which is in stark contrast to the amorphous mass of pleasure-seeking, self-indulging, brain-atrophied mass of commoners and fiercely indoctrinated various 'phyle' members.
Extensive descriptions and explanations, of technology as well as of the social evolution/devolution and norms, take large runs of the book, and make it less dynamic and accessible than it should be, but add to the depth and breadth of the narrative. This is definitely not 'entertainment' sci-fi book, but closer to the intent and structure of books like 1984, although definitely not in the same class.
The story starts slow and the plot only fully develops by the middle of the book (around page 250), and new elements are added all the way to the end, while the conclusion of the book takes only the last 10-20 pages in which many storylines are left unfinished and the fate of many characters left hanging in limbo, unresolved, but this is part of the attractiveness of this book. While violent during the entire length, this violence reaches climax in the last 50 pages of the books with descriptions of rapes, mass murders, corporal dismemberment, etc.
The title of the book is a story in itself, having had the stone, bronze, iron, and the current, steel age, the author presupposes that the next age will be the diamond one, called by the predominant material used in society, as in the nanotechnological era, nanomachines and 'matter compilers' will be able to construct virtually any material directly from molecules and atoms, so producing large quantities of diamond walls, windows, pillars and other structures would be very cheap and commonplace.
The book presents an interesting and disturbing vision of the future of humanity as brought by new and uncontrollable technology, and is definitely a good read for people who also like to think while reading a book.
The book follows the early life of a 'thete' a non-affiliated low-class girl who gets into a possession of a nanotech book, which is actually and educational and virtual reality supercomputer, made to instill values and train the owner to be independent thinker, empowered to tackle pretty much anything life throws at her, which is in stark contrast to the amorphous mass of pleasure-seeking, self-indulging, brain-atrophied mass of commoners and fiercely indoctrinated various 'phyle' members.
Extensive descriptions and explanations, of technology as well as of the social evolution/devolution and norms, take large runs of the book, and make it less dynamic and accessible than it should be, but add to the depth and breadth of the narrative. This is definitely not 'entertainment' sci-fi book, but closer to the intent and structure of books like 1984, although definitely not in the same class.
The story starts slow and the plot only fully develops by the middle of the book (around page 250), and new elements are added all the way to the end, while the conclusion of the book takes only the last 10-20 pages in which many storylines are left unfinished and the fate of many characters left hanging in limbo, unresolved, but this is part of the attractiveness of this book. While violent during the entire length, this violence reaches climax in the last 50 pages of the books with descriptions of rapes, mass murders, corporal dismemberment, etc.
The title of the book is a story in itself, having had the stone, bronze, iron, and the current, steel age, the author presupposes that the next age will be the diamond one, called by the predominant material used in society, as in the nanotechnological era, nanomachines and 'matter compilers' will be able to construct virtually any material directly from molecules and atoms, so producing large quantities of diamond walls, windows, pillars and other structures would be very cheap and commonplace.
The book presents an interesting and disturbing vision of the future of humanity as brought by new and uncontrollable technology, and is definitely a good read for people who also like to think while reading a book.
Friday, June 5, 2009
"Annals of the Heechee" by Frederik Pohl
This is the fourth (and final?) installation of the Heechee saga, and by far the most mind-numbingly boring! I have no idea how and why I finished this book. I guess I wanted to learn more about the Heechee and 'The Foe' or 'The Assassins' but on a second thought I should have stopped at book 2.
90% of the book happens in the virtual reality of the memory banks of the 'gigabit space' and most of the protagonists are 'stored personalities' - digital equivalents of memories and consciousness of dead people, and their silly life which looks (and feels, apparently) as the outside world, with parties, drinks, sex, etc. etc. Ridiculous!
Much of the rest of the book is spent in conversations between the stored Robinnette Broadhead and his data retrieval system, Albert Einstein, who teaches him junior-college level science, and various other 'stored' personalities. The Heechees now live among the people and the Heechee kids go to school with human kids and even fall in love. There are a couple of old terrorists, one of them child molester who has his paws on a fragile Japanese 10 year old girl, and they get appropriately killed with knives in their throats/hearts.
At the end, the Heechee/Human alliance attacks the foe, but get a slap on the wrist instead and the big revelation that we all will one day become energy-based non-corporal consciousness like 'The Foe'.
That's it. That was the entire 400+ pages book. What a horrendous waste of time!
90% of the book happens in the virtual reality of the memory banks of the 'gigabit space' and most of the protagonists are 'stored personalities' - digital equivalents of memories and consciousness of dead people, and their silly life which looks (and feels, apparently) as the outside world, with parties, drinks, sex, etc. etc. Ridiculous!
Much of the rest of the book is spent in conversations between the stored Robinnette Broadhead and his data retrieval system, Albert Einstein, who teaches him junior-college level science, and various other 'stored' personalities. The Heechees now live among the people and the Heechee kids go to school with human kids and even fall in love. There are a couple of old terrorists, one of them child molester who has his paws on a fragile Japanese 10 year old girl, and they get appropriately killed with knives in their throats/hearts.
At the end, the Heechee/Human alliance attacks the foe, but get a slap on the wrist instead and the big revelation that we all will one day become energy-based non-corporal consciousness like 'The Foe'.
That's it. That was the entire 400+ pages book. What a horrendous waste of time!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
"Randevouz with the Heechee" by Frederik Pohl
The third book in the Heechee saga, and I must admit the most uninteresting so far, which is why it took me so long to finish it. It seems that the quality of the Heechee saga steadily declines after the first, and best, book 'Gateway'. Some critiques argue that this is because after the first one the books have become more and more about explaining the mysteries and unsaid things from the first book, than concentrating on new plots, interesting twists or character development, and I largely agree with it.
In this book we find Robinette already quite old (close to 100) but still in good health (and able to have and enjoy frequent sex with his wife) brought by the money he has to purchase 'Full Medical +'. However, since most medical advances in this universe seem to consist of transplanting organs from healthy people, Broadhead feels very guilty that somebody else had to die or become handicapped so he can have his organ.
Also people have started to understand Heechee technology and constructed their first ships, almost completely man-made, from the knowledge learned from the Heechee machinery, and especially the ubiquitous 'prayer fans' which turn out to be the Heechee equivalents of books and any other data storage device. Heechee Heaven is owned by Broadhead and renamed 'S.Ya.Lavarovna' after his wife, with most machinery removed it is used to transport human colonist to 'Peggie's Planet' which is the only inhabitable planet (M-class in Star Trek speak) that has been found so far.
The book also follows a scouting expedition from the Heechee lair, a block hole in the middle of the galaxy, who discovers the terrifying fact that humans are running around the galaxy in their ships, and almost certainly have awoken 'the assassins', a pure-energy lifeform, which have destroyed all other matter-based intelligent lifeforms in the known universe, and because of which the Heechee went into hiding in the black hole.
We see Wan/One, now a grown up man with severe psychosis, running around the universe, poking into black holes in search of his father who disappeared on a Gateway prospecting trip. Wan seduces Dolly, the wife of an old friend of Robin's, and takes her around the universe in his ship, using her as a cook, cleaning lady, and sex object. Terrorist are also introduced, as earth is overpopulated and most people are poor, they turn to terrorism, now using the 'bed' from the Heechees to transmit the thoughts and feelings of a clinically insane girl.
Albert the AI, becomes more of an independent being, with emotions, feelings, and even upsets. Near the end, Robinnette dies (his transplanted gut fails) and he is transferred to the Heechee machinery, to be stored as an 'analogue' which seemed to preserve all the memories and most of the self-consciousness of a living being. Klara, Robinette's first love, is rescued from the black hole by Wan, and becomes his substitute for Dolly for a while, to be eventually captured by the Heechee scout ship, who uses her to communicate with the earth.
When the Heechee arrive near Earth, the first earthling reaction is to attack them and prepare for war, which is completely non-understandable to the Heechee, but eventually things get smoothed out, and the earthlings learn of the 'Assassins' which they call 'The Foe' and start to get evacuated from earth into the Black Hole where the Heechee were hiding.
The book is enjoyable enough, mainly through continuation of the old characters and story devices, but brings really nothing new or exciting, and can be a tedious reading at time. The insistence on Robinnette and S.Ya. having sex all the time (both 90+ years old) gives a pretty silly impression. Recommended reading as a continuation of the Heechee Saga, but otherwise largely uninspiring.
In this book we find Robinette already quite old (close to 100) but still in good health (and able to have and enjoy frequent sex with his wife) brought by the money he has to purchase 'Full Medical +'. However, since most medical advances in this universe seem to consist of transplanting organs from healthy people, Broadhead feels very guilty that somebody else had to die or become handicapped so he can have his organ.
Also people have started to understand Heechee technology and constructed their first ships, almost completely man-made, from the knowledge learned from the Heechee machinery, and especially the ubiquitous 'prayer fans' which turn out to be the Heechee equivalents of books and any other data storage device. Heechee Heaven is owned by Broadhead and renamed 'S.Ya.Lavarovna' after his wife, with most machinery removed it is used to transport human colonist to 'Peggie's Planet' which is the only inhabitable planet (M-class in Star Trek speak) that has been found so far.
The book also follows a scouting expedition from the Heechee lair, a block hole in the middle of the galaxy, who discovers the terrifying fact that humans are running around the galaxy in their ships, and almost certainly have awoken 'the assassins', a pure-energy lifeform, which have destroyed all other matter-based intelligent lifeforms in the known universe, and because of which the Heechee went into hiding in the black hole.
We see Wan/One, now a grown up man with severe psychosis, running around the universe, poking into black holes in search of his father who disappeared on a Gateway prospecting trip. Wan seduces Dolly, the wife of an old friend of Robin's, and takes her around the universe in his ship, using her as a cook, cleaning lady, and sex object. Terrorist are also introduced, as earth is overpopulated and most people are poor, they turn to terrorism, now using the 'bed' from the Heechees to transmit the thoughts and feelings of a clinically insane girl.
Albert the AI, becomes more of an independent being, with emotions, feelings, and even upsets. Near the end, Robinnette dies (his transplanted gut fails) and he is transferred to the Heechee machinery, to be stored as an 'analogue' which seemed to preserve all the memories and most of the self-consciousness of a living being. Klara, Robinette's first love, is rescued from the black hole by Wan, and becomes his substitute for Dolly for a while, to be eventually captured by the Heechee scout ship, who uses her to communicate with the earth.
When the Heechee arrive near Earth, the first earthling reaction is to attack them and prepare for war, which is completely non-understandable to the Heechee, but eventually things get smoothed out, and the earthlings learn of the 'Assassins' which they call 'The Foe' and start to get evacuated from earth into the Black Hole where the Heechee were hiding.
The book is enjoyable enough, mainly through continuation of the old characters and story devices, but brings really nothing new or exciting, and can be a tedious reading at time. The insistence on Robinnette and S.Ya. having sex all the time (both 90+ years old) gives a pretty silly impression. Recommended reading as a continuation of the Heechee Saga, but otherwise largely uninspiring.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
"Beyond the Blue Event Horizon" by Frederik Pohl
This is the second book in the Heechee series. It is less tight and organized than the previous tome, as Robinette Broadhead doesn't play as big of a part until the very end of the book. It is even more concentrated on description of technology that a super-advanced intelligent race would have, and has even less action/character development than the first volume, if that is possible. Except for some discourses of human sexuality, especially around puberty, not much of human nature is discussed, but mostly astrophysics, artificial intelligence and general futurism.
I also read this book when i was a kid, and remember very well how the Heechee solved the problem of traveling faster than light. It is different than how other imaginary FTL travel species did it, usually through traveling in 'subspace' or 'hyperspace'. The problem with FTL travel is, by Einstein's equations, the mass of a body exponentially increases with its travel speed, and if/when it reaches the speed of light, its mass is going to become infinite. With infinite mass comes infinite gravity, and a body with infinite gravity is actually an infinitely strong black hole, which will suck all of the universe into itself and destroy it. The fact that the universe still exists proves that no one has achieved travel at the speed of light in this universe.
The Heechee, however, found a way to remove mass down to 0. So a body with mass 0 could reach any speed, including and surpassing the speed of light, and its mass is still going to be zero, as any number, including infinity, when multiplied by 0 - gives 0. In the second book humans have discovered a Heechee food factory which creates edible food from comet and asteroid chunks, a Godsend for the starving (mostly) Earth. A ship is sent over, with about 3.5 years travel time, as the factory is beyond Pluto, with a crew of an old man, his two daughters, one 13 the other 39 and the husband of the older woman.
They land on the factory and discover another human boy, around 15 years old, who is driving a heechee ship to and from another Heechee mother station, huge, 1km long artifact that is called Heechee Heaven by humans. Some of the crew goes there and marvels at Heechee technology until they are caught by a tribe of Australopithecus, human ancestor species, whom the Heechee tried to make evolve quicker, but failed miserably. Also there is a sentient robot, with the memory banks of a once-living person, as the Heechee would transfer persons after their death into a computer, to continue to operate and exist.
Unfortunately the robot thinks the modern humans are pests and tries to get away, but Robin Broadhead steals a Heechee ship and gets on the Heechee heaven and together with one crew member who didn't get caught by the Australopithecus, attack and disable the robot and learn how to navigate the heechee ships and the artifact and go back to earth where he becomes the richest man in the solar system.
The book ends with a chapter about the Heechee technology and their way of thinking and how it fits in the overall cosmology of the universe, with some teasers about what is going to be revealed in the next installment of the Heechee series.
I also read this book when i was a kid, and remember very well how the Heechee solved the problem of traveling faster than light. It is different than how other imaginary FTL travel species did it, usually through traveling in 'subspace' or 'hyperspace'. The problem with FTL travel is, by Einstein's equations, the mass of a body exponentially increases with its travel speed, and if/when it reaches the speed of light, its mass is going to become infinite. With infinite mass comes infinite gravity, and a body with infinite gravity is actually an infinitely strong black hole, which will suck all of the universe into itself and destroy it. The fact that the universe still exists proves that no one has achieved travel at the speed of light in this universe.
The Heechee, however, found a way to remove mass down to 0. So a body with mass 0 could reach any speed, including and surpassing the speed of light, and its mass is still going to be zero, as any number, including infinity, when multiplied by 0 - gives 0. In the second book humans have discovered a Heechee food factory which creates edible food from comet and asteroid chunks, a Godsend for the starving (mostly) Earth. A ship is sent over, with about 3.5 years travel time, as the factory is beyond Pluto, with a crew of an old man, his two daughters, one 13 the other 39 and the husband of the older woman.
They land on the factory and discover another human boy, around 15 years old, who is driving a heechee ship to and from another Heechee mother station, huge, 1km long artifact that is called Heechee Heaven by humans. Some of the crew goes there and marvels at Heechee technology until they are caught by a tribe of Australopithecus, human ancestor species, whom the Heechee tried to make evolve quicker, but failed miserably. Also there is a sentient robot, with the memory banks of a once-living person, as the Heechee would transfer persons after their death into a computer, to continue to operate and exist.
Unfortunately the robot thinks the modern humans are pests and tries to get away, but Robin Broadhead steals a Heechee ship and gets on the Heechee heaven and together with one crew member who didn't get caught by the Australopithecus, attack and disable the robot and learn how to navigate the heechee ships and the artifact and go back to earth where he becomes the richest man in the solar system.
The book ends with a chapter about the Heechee technology and their way of thinking and how it fits in the overall cosmology of the universe, with some teasers about what is going to be revealed in the next installment of the Heechee series.
"Gateway" by Frederik Pohl
This was the first book that got Pohl a worldwide success, though he has been active in the SF community for several decades before, notably as the editor in chief of 'If' and "Galaxy'. Gateway is written in a hard boiled style, the main character Robinette Broadhead, although having quite effeminate name, is actually a tough talking hedonist, who would risk his life and all he has for a chance to become a millionaire. His character softens in the consequent books (the 'Heechee Series' consists of four novels, of which 'Gateway' is the first one).
The action is set not too far from our present time, a 100 years at most. The earth has not been destroyed in any kind of nuclear disaster, and the nations are pretty much like today, the major powers being USA, Russia, China and Brazil, but they are much more cooperative and friendly to each other than today, The biggest problem is overpopulation and the lack of food. The population of the Earth is 11 billion people, and they are so strapped for food that they stopped using oil for anything else but to grow fungi and other edible lichens. Obviously Pohl bought into the fear mongering of the day when he wrote the novel (mid 70s) which still persists today, although it is scientifically proven that our planet can sustain up to 1,000 billion people, and no food shortages will occur. Why no one is using the oceans to raise algae on Pohls Earth - is anyone guess.
I read this book and the subsequent one when I was quite young, and in Croatian translation, and was quite impressed by the depth and breadth of Pohl's imagination. This goes to say that I was very impressionable and inexperienced then, but the Pohls vision still captivates me today, although not to the same level as during my first reading many years ago.
So, the earth has developed enough technology (and motivation) to colonize the Moon and Venus (why not Mars is anyone's guess). On Venus, mysterious underground tunnels are found and lots of artifacts from an ancient alien race (Pohl says 500,000 years, although I am always doubtful of time spans beyond 1,000 years) which the humans give a name 'Heechee'. Many artifacts are found, most mysterious, but some close enough to our technology to provide for reverse engineering and huge leaps in human technology though uneven. But everything becomes more interesting when an entire Heechee star base is found on an asteroid called 'Gateway' with many operable ships, though only set to a predetermined course, with instrument panels which are mostly a mystery.
Thus brave 'prospectors' get into Heechee ships, and press the go button and hope that it takes them to another space base or planet base, and some do, but many never return, or return with dead prospectors inside. The Gateway corporation, which is setup by the four most powerful nations on earth, controls the incoming prospectors and their missions, and keeps the lion share from any industrial application of whatever artifact they find, but whatever is left is more than enough sometimes to make the prospectors millionaires for life, and this is what attracts them to risk their lives, including Broadhead.
Broadhead is very reluctant to go on trips, and even destroys one Heechee ship, but on his last trip he witnesses 'Event Horizon' which is the border area of a Black Hole, where his 9 team mates, including the love of his life remain trapped and only he escapes and becomes a millionaire, albeit with a guilty conscious, which he cures with the help of the psychoanalytical AI called 'Sigfried'. The book ends when Broadhead finally confronts his demons and forgives himself for leaving the other nine people, especially the girl of his life, in the event horizon.
The action is set not too far from our present time, a 100 years at most. The earth has not been destroyed in any kind of nuclear disaster, and the nations are pretty much like today, the major powers being USA, Russia, China and Brazil, but they are much more cooperative and friendly to each other than today, The biggest problem is overpopulation and the lack of food. The population of the Earth is 11 billion people, and they are so strapped for food that they stopped using oil for anything else but to grow fungi and other edible lichens. Obviously Pohl bought into the fear mongering of the day when he wrote the novel (mid 70s) which still persists today, although it is scientifically proven that our planet can sustain up to 1,000 billion people, and no food shortages will occur. Why no one is using the oceans to raise algae on Pohls Earth - is anyone guess.
I read this book and the subsequent one when I was quite young, and in Croatian translation, and was quite impressed by the depth and breadth of Pohl's imagination. This goes to say that I was very impressionable and inexperienced then, but the Pohls vision still captivates me today, although not to the same level as during my first reading many years ago.
So, the earth has developed enough technology (and motivation) to colonize the Moon and Venus (why not Mars is anyone's guess). On Venus, mysterious underground tunnels are found and lots of artifacts from an ancient alien race (Pohl says 500,000 years, although I am always doubtful of time spans beyond 1,000 years) which the humans give a name 'Heechee'. Many artifacts are found, most mysterious, but some close enough to our technology to provide for reverse engineering and huge leaps in human technology though uneven. But everything becomes more interesting when an entire Heechee star base is found on an asteroid called 'Gateway' with many operable ships, though only set to a predetermined course, with instrument panels which are mostly a mystery.
Thus brave 'prospectors' get into Heechee ships, and press the go button and hope that it takes them to another space base or planet base, and some do, but many never return, or return with dead prospectors inside. The Gateway corporation, which is setup by the four most powerful nations on earth, controls the incoming prospectors and their missions, and keeps the lion share from any industrial application of whatever artifact they find, but whatever is left is more than enough sometimes to make the prospectors millionaires for life, and this is what attracts them to risk their lives, including Broadhead.
Broadhead is very reluctant to go on trips, and even destroys one Heechee ship, but on his last trip he witnesses 'Event Horizon' which is the border area of a Black Hole, where his 9 team mates, including the love of his life remain trapped and only he escapes and becomes a millionaire, albeit with a guilty conscious, which he cures with the help of the psychoanalytical AI called 'Sigfried'. The book ends when Broadhead finally confronts his demons and forgives himself for leaving the other nine people, especially the girl of his life, in the event horizon.
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