andy synopses to this volume's two predecessors—Echoes of Earth (2002) and Orphans of Earth (2003)—open the concluding installment of this trilogy. Very briefly, all of humanity has been reduced to a handful of hunted virtual souls inhabiting android bodies (save for one flesh-and-blood woman, Caryl Hatzis), and they are on on their last legs unless they can learn to communicate with the rival aliens—Spinners and Starfish—whose eons-old war will eliminate our species as a side effect of hostilities.
But the tiny remnant of mankind is not without resources or ideas in this crucial hour. Along with their allies, the Yuhl, who survive in the hostile galaxy by carefully following behind the Starfish, they are embarked on many last-minute stratagems of varying degrees of desperation. One of the Yuhl, Ueh, has willingly undergone bodily manipulations by the Yuhl ruler, the mysterious Praxis, mutations that seem to offer a chance to restart life on at least one scorched world. Meanwhile, the human general Frank Axford, who has cloned his virtual self thousands of times into an army of wily, self-serving warriors, is simultaneously offering some assistance to the majority of the humans while also carrying forward various secret machinations of his own. Having already betrayed a party of humans to the Starfish solely to gauge the weapons and tactics of the aliens, Axford is a dubious ally at best. Also on the fringes of the main events is Lucia Benck, who has learned more about Spinner technology than anyone else, to the point of merging her software self with it.
But the most important action centers around Caryl Hatzis, her various software avatars—including one named Thor—and Peter Alander, a human also remade by the Praxis. Hatzis and Alander have determined that their last hope is to approach the Starfish directly and beg for mercy, making a case for mankind's neutrality and innocence. Hitching a ride on a wounded Starfish ship returning to the enigmatic home of the Starfish, Hatzis, Alander, Thor, an Axford avatar and several other volunteers find themselves in the bewildering heart of Starfish central. There they learn that their enemy is not a single race but an ecology of hundreds of species. They hear the chilling news that "The galaxy is at war. It is a place of constant conflict on a thousand fronts between millions of species." Humanity seems doomed to extinction in the brutal chaos—but then Thor is offered a chance to perform a self-sacrificial mission that might offer a path to safety for the desperate dregs of humanity.
Niven and Pournelle for a new century
The impulses behind Williams and Dix's awe-inspiring trilogy are as old as the science fiction genre. From the first days of Doc Smith's Skylark series—initially conceived in 1915, but appearing in magazine form in 1928—writers have lusted to depict cosmic vistas, baffling aliens, super-science technology and mankind's role amidst such wonders. As real-world science advances, as ethics evolve, as new metaphysical and cosmological theories crop up, the previous generation's space opera becomes outdated and insufficient, requiring a new generation of writers to update the core values of the subgenre, to clothe them in shiny new chromalloy armor. Dix and Williams do so in exceptional fashion.
Their willingness to drive mankind to an evolutionary bottleneck is typical of their hard-nosed, revisionist approach. Space opera can be a very comforting, cozy mode, with its interstellar empires and royalty and guilds. But when dramatic Darwinian forces are brought into play, as here, space opera can become a kind of bracing, near-apocalyptic tale. Gregs Bear and Benford are fond of this approach, and Williams and Dix can stand shoulder to shoulder with them.
In terms of character development and successfully rounding out their narrative arc, the authors do not disappoint either. All the protagonists mature and change, even if they do not undergo literally shattering metamorphoses, as does Thor. And the climax (or climaxes, actually) to this third installment are resonant and satisfying. Although open-ended, the book feels like a true conclusion.
The authors are dab hands at speculating as well. Their super-science rings like logical yet ingenious extensions of current theories. Once in a great while, though, they will sacrifice logic for dramatic effect. The biggest instance of this is when the Starfish decide to read Thor's mind—by jamming a giant silver needle into her skull. Surely these masters of force fields could have come up with a less invasive method—even today we can chart brain functioning magnetically. But of course it makes for a hell of a scene when done the less plausible way. But such off-key moments are few and far between, and are balanced by such inevitable yet unforeseen revelations as the insertion of an entire spaceship into a human body.
This Australian team bids fair to become the new Niven & Pournelle for the 21st century.
