any thousands of years into the future, the Milky Way galaxy is host to a star-spanning civilization almost inconceivable by 21st-century standards. Myriad inhabited planets are linked by both ansibles (instant communicators) and transibles (instant matter transmitters). Both of these devices are Precursor technology, leftovers of a vanished superscience. The Precursors also consciously or accidentally endowed their successor races with duplicator machines that have created an economy of abundance. Not to mention intelligent starships with hydrives, a more common means of travel than the energy-demanding transibles.
All the components of a material and intellectual and spiritual utopia are in place, then. This should be a Golden Age. But there's one fly in the ointment: the church of the Cosmic Unity. Possessed of an all-conquering Memeplex—a set of ethical and religious principles that seem to defy refutation—the Church backs up its philosophical weight with plenty of weaponry as well, including a kind of Inquisitorial force masquerading as "lifesoul-healers." And as the novel opens, Cosmic Unity has turned its attention to the conquest of a world called No Moon.
No Moon is inhabited by the polyploid race, which exhibits a massive gender dimorphism. The male polyploids resemble large squids, while the females look like living coral reefs. Peacefully exploiting their oceanic world, the polyploids trade with many visiting races, including the Neanderthals, the very same prehuman species from Earth's anthropological record. (The Neanderthals were taken off-planet before Homo sapiens' recorded history began.) Second-Best Sailor is our male polyploid protagonist, friend to the 'thals named May and Stun, who belong to the sentient trading ship Talitha. Second-Best Sailor's life is about to be deracinated, as he finds himself selected by the reefwives to form a backup polyploid colony on the world of Aquifer, a bastion against the projected conquest of No Moon.
Unbeknownst to the reefwives, however, Aquifer is already a secret haven of Cosmic Unity (as well as the homeworld of a living pond species that will prove crucial to the unfolding war). There, a priest named XIV Samuel is being trained in the deeper mysteries of the cult. He learns of the shocking reality of the heaven that Cosmic Unity preaches, and is forced to participate in several excruciations—one of which involves a captured Second-Best Sailor. But as his doubts begin to mount, Sam will find himself becoming instrumental in bringing down the very church he had pledged undying allegiance to. Yet will even this subversion occur in time to save No Moon from destruction?
Non-stop adventure and speculation
Professional mathematician Ian Stewart and professional biologist Jack Cohen have collaborated on a previous SF novel, Wheelers (2000). Good as that one was, it seems, in retrospect, plainly just a practice run for the new book, which manages to achieve a level of clarity, excitement, impact and innovation that is very rare among SF novels. Comparisons to the work of Stephen Baxter, Vernor Vinge, David Brin, Larry Niven and Rudy Rucker immediately spring to mind. But the closest touchstone is, of course, the body of work produced by the progenitor of hard SF, the recently deceased Hal Clement. Given the sea-captain role played by the protagonist of Mission of Gravity (1954), the name "Second-Best Sailor" can hardly be considered as anything other than a humble tribute by the current authors to their mentor.
Stewart and Cohen are relentless in their inventiveness. No facet of their future is left un-reimagined. Matter transmitters may be old hat, for instance, but not when they're underpinned by an actual theory of quantum physics that affects how they operate. Intelligence among marine animals might have been proposed before, but not in the intricate inter-gender manner that defines the polyploids. And when you add in such unique concepts as "ecosystem brains" and the authors' seriously twisted Matrix-style version of heaven, you've got a refreshingly different novel with surprises on every page.
But, of course, all this effort would be for naught without good characterization, and the authors deliver on that, too. Second-Best Sailor is a beguiling individual who exhibits courage, fear, steadfastness and an ability to grow beyond his own limits. The Neanderthals display an engagingly nonhuman mentality, and stand out as individuals. Even the sentient Ship Talitha becomes a sympathetic character. But perhaps the masterstroke here is in devoting so much narrative space to Samuel the priest. Getting inside the "evil" viewpoint lends the book a balance it would not otherwise have.
In fact, Stewart and Cohen use the conflict between secular and sacred to comment satirically on our contemporary world, without being overly didactic. Consider a passage like this: "[The lovebombs] had an unusual feature: before exploding, they emitted brief prayers for the lifesouls of the heathen they were primed to slay." Want to bet on how long it is before some contemporary terrorist utilizes such a device? This subtext gives the book a valuable resonance that much far-future SF lacks.
As the authors conclude, life flourishes best on the edge between order and chaos, and that's just the lively realm that this book occupies as well.
