House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds

An excellent science fiction space opera. Set in the far future, more than 6 million years from now. We follow a human civilisation comprised of Shatterling Lines. Each line a group of clones of the same individual, dedicated to explore and record memories of the galaxy.  Shatterlings travel on their own and meet with the others in their Line every two hundred thousand years or so. Then they share their memories with the rest. They are known as a meta-civilisation as they witness the emergence and disappearance of human civilisations across millenia. This phenomena is called Turn over. No human civilisation (except for a handful) is able to survive more than a few thousand years. The Lines however have survived for 6 million years. The reason perhaps is that they have developed technology to dilate time.

The story starts with a couple of Shatterlings, Purslane and Campion,  on their way to a Line reunion. They are a few years late but that is not a problem. In their last circuit they have met with the Vigilance. An ancient human civilisation,  custodians of a galactic library,  containing data ranging for million of years. Campion is able to meet with a Vigilance and get access to some of their data banks. With that information they set course to their meeting. Still a few light years before arrival they get a distress message from one of their leaders. They had been attacked and annihilated. Years after and ignoring the leader's warning Purslane and Campion arrive at the reunion place finding only devastation. They set on a mission, to find survivors and get revenge. 

Concepts and things I loved:

The vigilance are an interesting concept. They achieved immortality by making their bodies grow perpetually. Now they are the size of spaceship or bigger, their brain takes long to think due to the distances between neurons. 

Hesperus, a robot,  belonging to the Machine People civilisation.  Despite being a Machine he is more human than many other human characters. He stands for friendship and loyalty. 

The Spirit of the Air, a former human being who downloaded his brain, and  now is able to exist without machines. He is admired and feared  by the people in the planet where he lives. Like the Vigilance he has lived for millions of years and has meet with numerous extinct civilisations.

The Priors. Like in other scifi novels I've read, the myths, or ideas about ancient civilisations who existed billions of years before our time. They left the galaxy,  or are extinct,  but their advanced technology is still used by humans.

Not using FTL travel but still be interesting. Fast Spaceships are able to travel just under the speed of light. However still travelling across the galaxy can take hundreds if not thousands of years. Reynolds uses other devices to let his characters survive the pass of time and make the story compelling. There is time dilation due to the fast speeds + stasis technology which allows humans to slow down their perception of time, so they can  travel for hundreds or thousands of years but experience them as a few hours or days.

The immensity of the  novel's scope, in time and space. How the narrative allows for thousands of years to pass and keep the story engaging.

Things I didn't love:

The fantasy like setting in which Abigail, the original human to the Gentian Shatterlings, plays during her childhood. I liked the idea of the game being a mind reading simulation but not the world created by the simulation and the number of pages dedicated to its story. I couldn't understand the connection to the rest of the story.

The Machine People. Their origins and general background was too obscure, being central to the main plot I expected more information about them. Also, for some reason, I couldn't imagine them other way than a 50s robot toy. And here comes another point, I found the concepts and depiction of Artificial Intelligence too simple for  future so far away. Apart from the Machine People (who were just super intelligent and super strong and fast, etc.) The only other AI we see are the spaceship computers something that lacked development and exposure in the novel.

Nova by Samuel R Delany

 Nova is a science fiction novel written in 1968. It is a space opera with comments on race, sexuality, languages and superstition.

The story is about a group of people setting up on a mission to get Illyrion from the center of a star going Nova. It's the 30th century and humanity has colonised a vast amount of the galaxy. The galactic economy depends on access and use of Illyrion, which is a super heavy, but stable element.  Small quantities of Illyrion can fuel starships and entire cities for decades. There are conflicts between different regions in the galaxy which aim to get independence from earth and allies. Possession of Illyrion would definitely tilt the balance on anyone's favour.

Lorq Von Ray has recruited a group of men and women to go on an impossible mission. But the reward will be worth every sacrifice.  Not only will he help the Pleiades federation and outer colonies get economic independence from the Draco empire but most importantly he will finally get revenge from the man he hates the most: Prince Red heir of the Red family, owners of Red - Shift Limited, producers of components for space drives.

Though the plot of the story is rich and interesting, I found this to be a character-driven novel. Delany's description of both main protagonists Lord Von Ray and Mouse (a cyborg stud for Von Ray) is brilliant. The whole Illyrion mission can be thought of personal quests for both. Both men are so different in terms of origins, race, interests but they end up together, one trying to help the other. Also at some point I sensed subtle sexual undertones in their interactions but no more. There were also some insinuations between Mouse and Katin, another interesting character.

Some things I enjoyed in Nova:

. Characters being of different races and origins. Race wasn't an issue at all in the story but I liked Delany's short but informative descriptions of the characters and how the world be built looked like an ideal we may pursue in the present. 

. Characters being polyglot. 

. The transition between different dialects of English. The main character is able to easily switch between standard English and the Pleiades dialect. 

. Some lightweight science. Delany's explains how rare Illyrion is in nature and how it is created in Novas's extreme temperatures. We also get an explanation of how someone could flight through the centre of a Nova!

. Delany's beautiful prose. There is a passage I loved when a character, Idas, explains what Illyrion means to him. Short after, Katin, gives lecture on history and chemistry of the heavy element,  Idas shakes the reader with a personal account on how Illyrion has impacted his life and his family's.  

The Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather

This story takes place in the far future (I think), a group of nuns travel through space to spread the word of God a among human colonies. 

The story follows a group of Catholic nuns on board of the Our Lady of Impossible Constelations. They are on their way to a small colony to perform a wedding and a baptism. Their ship is alive. Organic material breed for the purpose of space travel. Though not sentient the ship has organic needs. At some point the nuns debate whether to allow it to mate as it seems to be in heat. As the ship was consecrated, would it be a sin to allow it mate?

Some things have not changed much. I mean in terms of religious beliefs and customs. The ship is a convent in space, with a silent mother superior. We get to know some of the nuns, and their religious order. Of course being in space some of them are technicians and scientists. I enjoyed the description of live a board the ship, and the ship itself but I found something was lacking. There was hardly any internal conflicts depicted in the story. Those kinds of coflicts where science questions the existence of God. I sort of expected a bit of that being nuns in a bioship. There is one character though who questions her commitment to the order and her life as a nun. Not necessarily because she doubts her faith but because she is not sure she is cut out for the job anymore. 

Sometime after the wedding and baptism, they receive a distress call from the same colony reporting an outbreak of a deadly disease. The nuns decide to go back and help. And here is when it gets exciting. The nuns switch to "hero" mode and at the same time dark secrets are revealed. There is some action which contrasts with the slow paced, convent-like atmosphere of the first part. 

This was a fun read but I would have liked the author to provide more background (how the church and Vatican ended up sending nuns to space?) and explore the themes of religion v science much more. 

An okay read.

The Bird's Nest by Shirley Jackson.

I chose this novel more or less randomly from my Library App. I have read The Haunting of Hill House and The Lotery by Jackson but I have never heard of The Bird's Nest. I checked it out out of curiosity.

 This is a gripping, dark, psychological tale of a woman with multiple personality disorder. I loved Jackson's narrative and the multiple (unreliable) pov, including some of the woman's personalities, the doctor's and the woman's aunt. Totally immersive, the novel submerges the reader into the protagonist's head, her descent into madness, internal battles, contradicting stories, and her 4 personalities, each more broken than the other. 

I don't know how accurate Jackson's depiction of mental illness is in this novel, but to me the protagonist struggle seemed real. Perhaps the doctor's approach wasn't as believable but it was the 1950s and he was a peculiar character too. The protagonist's aunt was the character who made me doubt most of the time. Loved her ambiguity.

The Vampire by John William Polidori.

Quick read. 16 pages in this beautiful #canterburyclassics anthology. A dark, atmospheric gothic tale. A thirsty monster, a female target and a hero (?) who sinks into madness. Beautiful.

Diaspora by Greg Egan.

Many centuries in the future a cosmic cataclysm threatens earth. A colision between two neutron stars will destroy every organic live in the galaxy. Humanity has divided into 3. The fleshers, some of whom have improved their bodies with genetic and technological enhancements. The rest have digitised their minds and are living either in robots or in polises in supercomputers. After the gamma-ray flash the posthumans set on a journey to understand the logic of the collision and why they couldn't predict it in time. 

This was a complex read. Starting from chapter one depicting the birth of a digital human (a posthuman), to the explanation of cosmic phenomena, to the peculiarities of digital life, cloning, immortality, multidimensional space and the scope of the story which takes place across thousands of years. 

A Concept driven novel, as opposed to character or plot driven. Thought provoking, mind blowing ideas.

New Scientist. Essential Guide N°2. Artificial Intelligence. The Past, Present and Future of Machines that think. Edited by Richard Webb.

Concepts such as machine learning, deep learning, neural networks, statistical analysis and pattern recognition. Advances in science, medicine, transport and others. My favourite chapter, AI and society, ethical, moral, social, legal, etc, impact on society, now and in the future. Excellent read.