Reventus
Hey,
So I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything by Karl Schroeder (his Virga novels are just great) and I’ve been picking up some of his older titles. Recently I picked up his very first SF book Ventus which was on sale for $3 and which I’ve wanted to check out for a while so...that’s what I did.
Ventus starts out like a fantasy novel. Young Jordan Mason lives near a small manor and does work for the local baron. The outside world is a scary place, filled with Morphs and Winds that can snatch up unwary travellers. There’s an uneasy peace between humanity and the Winds that keeps them at a low level of technology. Nobles have a limited ability to communicate with (or at least understand) the Winds.
Joran’s town is visited by outsiders from nearby countries and shortly thereafter he starts having mysterious dreams about a general in a losing war who dies and comes back to life. Jordan was an unwitting spy for this general, an off-world post-human operative who’s come to Ventus to co-opt and control the Winds for his master’s purposes. Now, Calandria and Axel, two off-world agents sent to stop the general, are using his visions to track him down.
The book starts with a fantasy flavor and even when the less-than-magical nature of the Winds is explained it pretty much sits in that state for much of the book. Slowly, that shell is picked away piece by piece and more SF elements are introduced. Eventually the book starts examining topics that Schroeder will return to in his later books -- the nature of intelligence and what it means to be human in a world with advanced AI (and what it means to be a created intelligence in a world of humans).
The book jumps around to a lot of different characters and while it feels like there was a bit of padding, the plot advances pretty steadily. It also passes the Bechdel test. Overall, it’s an interesting read and certainly lays out the framework for a lot of the author’s work in the future.
later
Tom
So I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything by Karl Schroeder (his Virga novels are just great) and I’ve been picking up some of his older titles. Recently I picked up his very first SF book Ventus which was on sale for $3 and which I’ve wanted to check out for a while so...that’s what I did.
Ventus starts out like a fantasy novel. Young Jordan Mason lives near a small manor and does work for the local baron. The outside world is a scary place, filled with Morphs and Winds that can snatch up unwary travellers. There’s an uneasy peace between humanity and the Winds that keeps them at a low level of technology. Nobles have a limited ability to communicate with (or at least understand) the Winds.
Joran’s town is visited by outsiders from nearby countries and shortly thereafter he starts having mysterious dreams about a general in a losing war who dies and comes back to life. Jordan was an unwitting spy for this general, an off-world post-human operative who’s come to Ventus to co-opt and control the Winds for his master’s purposes. Now, Calandria and Axel, two off-world agents sent to stop the general, are using his visions to track him down.
The book starts with a fantasy flavor and even when the less-than-magical nature of the Winds is explained it pretty much sits in that state for much of the book. Slowly, that shell is picked away piece by piece and more SF elements are introduced. Eventually the book starts examining topics that Schroeder will return to in his later books -- the nature of intelligence and what it means to be human in a world with advanced AI (and what it means to be a created intelligence in a world of humans).
The book jumps around to a lot of different characters and while it feels like there was a bit of padding, the plot advances pretty steadily. It also passes the Bechdel test. Overall, it’s an interesting read and certainly lays out the framework for a lot of the author’s work in the future.
later
Tom