⋙ Download Free Metaplanetary A Novel of Interplanetary Civil War Tony Daniel 9780061020254 Books

Metaplanetary A Novel of Interplanetary Civil War Tony Daniel 9780061020254 Books

Download As PDF : Metaplanetary A Novel of Interplanetary Civil War Tony Daniel 9780061020254 Books

Metaplanetary A Novel of Interplanetary Civil War Tony Daniel 9780061020254 Books

Metaplanetary has it all: big-canvas space opera, memorable characters, real hard science, humor, pulse-pounding military sci-fi action, and the most wildly creative world I've seen since Dan Simmons' "Hyperion" or Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep". This book is definitely in a class with those classics. I just couldn't put it down.

Cool stuff in this book includes ubiquitous nanotech, humans that are combinations of virtual and physical, cables connecting the inner planets, giant nebulous ships with human minds, unlimited body modification, a dictator who eats people's personalities, and much much more. There is plenty of hard science scattered throughout - the first book includes a detailed explanation of the Casimir effect, for example, and the sequel explains the basics of quantum cryptography. Tony Daniel has clearly done his homework. But it's presented in a fun and lighthearted way that actually helps to provide breathing spaces between the intense, world-shattering action sequences.

The best thing about this book, however, is the way the author makes this crazy high-tech world really come alive and feel natural and lived-in. Other authors - Greg Egan, Charles Stross, John C. Wright, etc. - have written plenty about posthumans with divided personalities, personality upload, body modification, etc., but their posthumans generally just don't feel...well, human. Daniel is an absolute wizard in terms of his ability to create characters and situations that could never exist in our modern technological milieu, but nevertheless are as poignant and instantly familiar as any scene from realist fiction. In fact, the entire plot of Metaplanetary is about the existence of something timeless in the human character. Reading Metaplantary, you find yourself believing in a man whose wife is his house. Very few authors have the magic touch to make that happen.

Unfortunately, Metaplanetary is the first in an unfinished series, of which only two books have been written. It is not certain when or even if the series will be finished. This in itself is a tragedy, since it and the sequel are two of the greatest science fiction novels I've ever read. If you don't like reading great things that go unfinished, then save yourself the heartbreak and skip Metaplanetary. If you don't mind, and you just want to plunge into one of the most awesome sci-fi universes ever created, then buy this book right now, and enjoy.


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Metaplanetary A Novel of Interplanetary Civil War Tony Daniel 9780061020254 Books Reviews

One of the best science fiction books I've ever read. It is truly on par with the early masters of the genre, Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Dick, Bester, Norton, and others. Very interesting science (at one point he actually proposes in simple mathematical terms how gravity works in conjunction with e=mc2).

Great characters - with one of the most wonderfully developed evil dictators I've seen in awhile. He has new ideas in nearly every chapter, which are short, descriptive, packed with dialogue.

This book is the first in a trilogy - be forewarned. It is a great read but ends in a cliff hanger.
This is another of those books I've read recently, the others being Ventus by Karl Schroeder and Evolution's Darling by Scott Westerfeld, that just blow my mind with their inventiveness. These new young turks have flattened Neal Stephenson, like William Gibson before him, like a pancake with their advanced extrapolations of nano, AI and cyberspace. It's so refreshing and inspiring that an author can take the debris and detritus of countless SF tales and re-combine them, like the AI sculptor in Evolution's Darling, into something compelling, dramatic and mind-boggling. This book was so fun and full of satisfying twists and turns I just wonder if the author is going to be able to pull it all together in the wrap-up to come. I had a few problems visualizing the Met cabling concept - how does it compensate for all the motions of the planets relative to each other- seems like everything would snarl up and become a big twisted knot. Except for this hitch in the tech, the rest of it is great space opera...
In "Metaplanetary," Tony Daniel provides a prologue to what is (or was--the planned sequel is nowhere in evidence) apparently going to be a solar-system wide war between Director Ames, your standard-issue cape swirling sadistic villain and the usually motley crew of humans, AIs (called "free converts" here), and sentient "Cloudships," to say nothing of the rats and ferrets.
It's entertaining for the most part, if a bit on the wild side. You may find yourself using up your entire annual quota of suspension of disbelief on this one In Mr. Daniel's construction, the planets of the inner system are tied together by nanotech cables (who would do that? why? how could it be made affordable?), the AIs (they serve as the Group Against Whom There Is Predjudice) can have biological children (wait for it!), and the sentient cloudships debate endlessly out there by the Oort Cloud (skim those parts!). The book's far too long though. It seems as if the author doesn't really yet know how the war, just begun here, is going to turn out, and maybe he even lost interest half the way through and simply decided to concentrate on the characters he created and figure it all out later. Not a bad thing, actually, but clearly Mr. Daniel sent "Metaplanetary" out to warm us up for the main act, and that's apparently still in the dressing room.
Notes and asides For all the far-out science here, Mr. Daniel seems to lack basic knowledge of astronomy. From page 464 "the sun set in the west, and a crescent moon rose in the sky. Venus burned near the moon's arms." Oh really?
First-class writing. One of my favorite contemporary sci fi authors. I just wish there was more of his stuff available! The follow-up to this book is called Superluminal. I am afraid I will not read it because I hear that the intended third part to this series will not be forthcoming. Very sad to hear this, because Daniel has created an incredibly complex and very believable world that I would have loved to spend some more time in. Hope that he is able to finish the trilogy someday -- when he does, I'll be back for sure!
Metaplanetary has it all big-canvas space opera, memorable characters, real hard science, humor, pulse-pounding military sci-fi action, and the most wildly creative world I've seen since Dan Simmons' "Hyperion" or Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep". This book is definitely in a class with those classics. I just couldn't put it down.

Cool stuff in this book includes ubiquitous nanotech, humans that are combinations of virtual and physical, cables connecting the inner planets, giant nebulous ships with human minds, unlimited body modification, a dictator who eats people's personalities, and much much more. There is plenty of hard science scattered throughout - the first book includes a detailed explanation of the Casimir effect, for example, and the sequel explains the basics of quantum cryptography. Tony Daniel has clearly done his homework. But it's presented in a fun and lighthearted way that actually helps to provide breathing spaces between the intense, world-shattering action sequences.

The best thing about this book, however, is the way the author makes this crazy high-tech world really come alive and feel natural and lived-in. Other authors - Greg Egan, Charles Stross, John C. Wright, etc. - have written plenty about posthumans with divided personalities, personality upload, body modification, etc., but their posthumans generally just don't feel...well, human. Daniel is an absolute wizard in terms of his ability to create characters and situations that could never exist in our modern technological milieu, but nevertheless are as poignant and instantly familiar as any scene from realist fiction. In fact, the entire plot of Metaplanetary is about the existence of something timeless in the human character. Reading Metaplantary, you find yourself believing in a man whose wife is his house. Very few authors have the magic touch to make that happen.

Unfortunately, Metaplanetary is the first in an unfinished series, of which only two books have been written. It is not certain when or even if the series will be finished. This in itself is a tragedy, since it and the sequel are two of the greatest science fiction novels I've ever read. If you don't like reading great things that go unfinished, then save yourself the heartbreak and skip Metaplanetary. If you don't mind, and you just want to plunge into one of the most awesome sci-fi universes ever created, then buy this book right now, and enjoy.