he planet Ventus is unique among all those occupied by humans. A thousand
years have passed since the seeds of a complex nanotech
system were sent to terraform the planet
and prepare it for human colonists. The terraforming was successful, but when humans
arrived, the system refused to recognize them and stopped them from using technology.
The colonists have since lived with Middle-Ages technology and culture on a planet
inundated with nanotech artificial intelligences they call “Winds” that sustain an
Earth-like ecosystem. Ventus is protected from outside intervention by huge nanotech
organisms. Why the Winds refuse to communicate with humans remains a mystery, both
to inhabitants of Ventus and to outside scientists as well.
Mason is a young stonemason who begins to have strange visions and abilities.
He is kidnapped by Calandria, an offworlder who has come to Ventus to find Armiger,
the last remaining agent of 3340, a nanotech construct capable of enslaving
entire worlds. Armiger might contain a seed capable of resurrecting 3340, and if
so, he must be destroyed. Jordan has had nanotech implanted that connects him to
Armiger, and Calandria tries to find him using Jordan. Armiger, without 3340’s
influence, becomes sympathetic to humanity, falls in love with a local woman
and decides he must command the Winds to help the people of Ventus. To do so, he
decides he must intervene to save Queen Galas from dying in a civil war.
Meanwhile, Jordan, his ability to communicate with Armiger and the Winds
increasing, decides that he must assist Armiger, and escapes from Calandria and her
partner Axel.
All these characters, and dozens more, both natural and artificial, have their
quests converge as they seek to solve the mystery of the Winds, avoid the resurrection
of 3340, prevent the destruction of Ventus and improve the lives of its people.
An ambitious hard SF tour de force
Ventus is a novel that melds the grand visions and concepts of hard SF with
a compelling, complex plot more typical of quest fantasies, while being built around
an extensive, well-developed and interesting cast of characters. The novel avoids the
clichés and pitfalls so commonly found in so many SF novels that are really just
medieval fantasy novels dressed in flimsy far-future SF clothing.
The most marvelous part of the novel, however, is the planet itself. Ventus is
a world inundated by nanotechnology. Every organism in its biosphere, every rock
and every grain of sand, contains nanotech devices that are in constant communication
with each other. The Winds are a complex, multi-faceted organism in control of all
of Ventus, as well as its only moon, which it uses as a massive laboratory and factory.
Schroeder does a masterful job in creating this complex concept and conveying it in
a fashion that is both understandable and interesting. His nanotech never becomes
simply magic; its technological underpinnings are always visible.
One of the few common defects in far-future novels that Schroder doesn’t fully avoid
is purveying continuous and increasing technological and sociological change. The level
of human technology and society in humanity’s 31st-century interstellar empire hardly
seems to have advanced beyond that of the 21st century, when Ventus’s ecological
nanotech was developed. This minor fault, however, should not distract most
readers from thoroughly enjoying the book.
Ventus appears to be written by a mature author in the peak of his form.
The most surprising revelation is that this is Karl Schroeder’s first science fiction
novel.
