Customer Reviews

The Golden Transcendence: or, The Last of the Masquerade (The Golden Age, Book 3)

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I recently finished reading The Golden Transcendence by John C. Wright. A great novel that serious science fiction readers should pick up.

The Golden Transcendence is the third book in The Golden Age trilogy. The first two books were The Golden Age and The Phoenix Exultant.

The book are firmly in the space opera genre with a dash of Heinlein libertarianism tossed in for good measure. The story takes place in the far future when artificial intelligences (known as sophotechs) and humans live immortal lives in a libertarian society of near unlimited technology. The experience of real physical interaction is replaced in many cases by remote bodies, recorded experiences of others, and complete control of what a person perceives. Humanity has moved beyond the one body - one brain system and has adopted many different systems of thought and even physical form.

Mr. Wright puts forth a brilliant vision of technology and society in the far future where wealth is measured in seconds of computer time and physical labor is non-existent. In this future, there is are still wealthy and poor people but in a different way. In a good interview, Mr. Wright explains:

"There would still be rich and poor, even if the poorest of the poor were absurdly well off by our standards. No advancements can eliminate differences in the abilities of men, or the differences in how men value the abilities of their fellow man (which is what causes inequality of prices and hence of incomes). If only by comparison, there will be poverty, even in Arcadia. My characters Ironjoy, Oshenkyo, and the Afloats [...] are meant to represent this idea of future poverty; the Seven Peers represent wealth."

As an example as just one of the concepts presented, we can look at the idea of 'sensefilters'. Perception is no longer what organic senses directly tell the mind. The signals received by the body or remote bodies are processed to be acceptable to the person's particular preferences. If a person doesn't like to see advertising, their mind eliminates the advertising from their vision and fills in the scene with what would be there if the advertisement wasn't there. Consciously, the person isn't aware of this, only that they have requested not to see advertisements. Sensefiltering can be used to remove (or add) objects, people, and even ideas from an individual's perception. The plot devices are interesting stuff that Mr. Wright explores in just enough detail to keep you wanting more throughout the trilogy.

The protagonist, Phaethon, is the son of one of the most important people in the society (known as the Golden Oecumene). In the first two books, Phaethon struggles against first the realization that he is missing parts of his memory, his struggle against society, his fall into exile, and his return to strength.

The third book finds Phaethon poised to fight against the true enemy that has been revealed to him. Without spoiling too much, Phaethon is forced to fight for the very survival of his society (which tossed him out) or allow it to be destroyed.

The author, John C. Wright, obviously has a libertarian heart and embodies the attributes of individuality, resourcefulness, ingenuity and desire for progress in Phaethon, the hero. In the opening novel, we find a society content with things how they are, willing to simply stop progress to prevent anything from changing their utopia in any meaningful way. Phaethon is a man of action in opposition to the statist Golden Oecumene. The underlying theme is that without mankind's strive for exploration and new goals, it is doomed.

Overall, an excellent book and series for the science fiction reader looking for something more than blasters and evil six-legged aliens. Getting used to the terminology and concepts is slow at first but well worth the effort.

If you enjoy Iain Banks's Culture series, Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn, or John Varley's Eight Worlds, you will enjoy the The Golden Transcendence and the entire Golden Age Trilogy.

The author, John C. Wright, is a retired attorney and is working on the upcoming novel, Orphans of Chaos.

"The Golden Transcendence" is a book of ideas that works--a rare bird indeed. Wright weaves philosophy, action, and character skillfully into a wildly creative novel that is very hard to put down. It's refreshing to read a good optimistic space opera that isn't all about galactic-scale battle strategy and tactics.

Most "books of ideas" at some point become talky at best, or preachy and didactic at worst. Wright avoids these pitfalls and integrates the ideas pretty seamlessly into the story. For those familiar with objectivist philosophy, you will be on familiar ground. In some respects, the hero Phaethon, more so in than in the previous few books, is reminiscent of the architect from "The Fountainhead." Both have similar values, and both have constructed a magnificent structure to express those values. However, this novel is far from a clone of "The Fountainhead," and any baggage the reader may have with regard to Rand's novels should not affect his or her opinion of this book.

The glossary at the end does clear up some of the terminology and naming conventions used in the three books of this Golden Oecumene trilogy. However, I recommend waiting to read it until you're done, unless you are completely baffled, because there are potential spoilers in there.

A great read--don't hesitate to read all of the books in this trilogy. You'll be glad you did.

"The Golden Age" as a trilogy will take its place among notable space operas but should exceed them in importance and influence. Particularly, fans of Alastair Reynolds, Peter F Hamilton, Dan Simmons, and other notable space opera, hard-science enthusiasts should embrace Wright who will quickly supersede these other authors. He will do this precisely because he will take on literary themes that are ignored in favor of the action and the special effects that publishers believe the audience demands. Where Wright's influence will extend is in the notions of artificial intelligence, legalistic understandings of individuals in an age where consciousness can be transferred, manipulated, and quantified, and in the freedom to explore the Golden Age of times rather than dwelling in the aftermath of some collapse as is so often the case in science fiction.

WHO SHOULD READ:

It is often said that Isaac Asimov's Foundation series is re-telling of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In many ways, The Golden Age trilogy feels much like the golden age of classical Greece just before its absorption and transmogrification in to the Roman Empire. Only these people, with the transcendence at hand, are able to foresee their own long age of warfare. It's a beautiful moment and concept; it is what we would call a worthy triumph to a series that has been besotted with notions of immortality, super-intelligence, and cosmology. It is unthinkable that those who have started the series should not finish it.

WHO SHOULD PASS:

For those people who were not impressed with the philosophical speculations of the first novel The Golden Age and are reading ahead in reviews to see if there is any change let us be blunt: there is not. The debates do not slacken though neither does the action. However, the importance of the action takes a far second place to the outcome of the ethical dilemmas faced by these protagonist. Those readers who were hoping for serious warfare to break out (at least the kind with guns, bombs, and the like) between the Golden and Silent Oecumenes will be disappointed and should avoid this novel. It is the case, though, that Daphne provides a levity lacking in the first novel that was introduced in the second and comes to full flower here in the third. Yet in the end, when the last page is turned, this novel is somehow more like a classical symphony or a poem and those looking for something besides poetry and music should seek elsewhere.

READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW AT INCHOATUS.COM

After a fast start with "The Golden Age", Wright faltered with "The Phoenix Exultant". He's back on track with "The Golden Transcendence".

This is the third book chronicling the adventures of Phaethon in his journey from a society with a computer-integrated mind to the stars. But this is not a book for someone looking for quick action. Instead this book will appeal to readers who can enjoy almost endless debates about the best way to use a virus to attack a self-deluding computer, or the objectivity of morality, or the inevitability of the ultimate entropy. Wright masterfully describes these arguments but one must enjoy logical disputation in a computerized world to stay with the material.

On the other hand the first one hundred pages includes an exciting confrontation that proceeds microsecond by microsecond.

As in previous volumes, the author brings us long lists of things and activities like the heroine's description of the hero as "a clod who does not have the sense to see what's right in front of his nose, who keeps running off, getting in trouble, getting lost, getting shot at, losing and finding bits and pieces of his memory he cannot keep straight, ruining parties, building starships, starting wars, upsetting everybody, and keeps saying I'm not his wife whenever he's losing any arguments with me, which he does all the time." Apparently Wright's word processor can't identify run-on sentences.

It's clear that the author believes that even though computers will be smarter than men in the future, men will benefit from the association. Less clear is whether Wright has libertarian political views that are buried within the novel.

Also intriguing and irritating are the throwaway ideas, hidden in techno-bable. For example one character wonders how differing engineering system philosophies can result in different outcomes to end events. Maybe this idea is old hat to engineers, but it stopped me in my tracks and made me wish there was more discussion of this point.

Like the previous books, nothing is what it seems at first, and the plot has as many twists, turns, red herrings and surprises as any mystery. And like the previous books the hero seems as much of a naïve prig as before.

Yet, even with all these complaints, the Golden Transcendence is a fitting close to the Golden Age trilogy.

Those that try to pidgeonhole Wright by claiming that his work follows in the footsteps of whining intellectual infants like Ayn Rand or Robert Heinlein do this author a great disservice. Unlike Rand, who claims that all philosophies other than her own are innately evil, Wright draws from philosophical works throughout history in creating this masterpiece. The viewpoint of his main character and the hyperintelligent Sophotechs is about as far removed from Rand's Objectivism as it is possible to be. The fact that many of the characters have Greek names and the presence of a reconstruction of Socrates should give the reader a clue as to what Wright considers his philosophical roots.

While they initially appear similar, the philosophy Wright's characters espouse demonizes neither the spiritual nor the compassionate. Individual freedom is the word of the day, as is small government, but his ideal society is decidedly socialistic - none of its members are left wanting as it's overabundant resources are shared so that none are left wanting, save through crime or their own willful negligence. He does advocate market forces, but in his writing, they work out only through the benevolent intervention of the godlike Sophotechs, who are able to direct the market towards both efficiency and fairness while allowing humans to do their own thing. In many ways, it is, in fact, an argument against laisez-faire capitalism which, as shown by the demise of the Silent Ocumene, Wright believes to be a destructive force rather than a constructive one in the presence of plentiful wealth.

Make no mistake, however. Despite the liberal use of philosophy, this is space opera on its grandest scale, wrapped in the trappings of hard sci-fi. Whether you're looking for a simple adventure or a philosophical discourse and examination of mankind's future, the Golden Age books are just what the Sophotech ordered.

I think the "Golden Age" books are a tremendous work, and I am eager to see what this author produces next. In some ways the conclusion to the series was not nearly as good as the lead up in books 1 and 2 were, but he ties it up nicely in the end.

In general the actual "bad guys" were a bit of a let down, and in true Captain Kirk style the main character nearly talks it to death. It proves the old axiom that any intelligent space faring species can be annoyed and bored to the point where it would rather die than let you go on.

The most enjoyable aspects were the activities of Atkins, the resolution of the "crazy old man at the beginning of the book" bit (very well done!) and the penultimate ending sequence. Again I would have rather had the might engineering guy driving the starship have to be a lot more inventive when facing a technologically superior enemy (thinking on his feet) than what happened, but the author did a great job of wrapping this up.

It's a bit of a sin that this book hasn't been nominated while a book like Singularity Sky is, but the Golden Transcendence series really should get wider exposure. It is a truly original series with very memorable characters (especially Atkins, the one-man military force of the Golden Oecumene) and some truly funny scenes, yet also manages to have a sense of grandeur and scope by this, the last volume of the series, My only complaint about the series is that it is obvious in hindsight that it was meant to be two books, as The Phoenix Exultant was a little longer than necessary and felt too drawn out.

The hyper-libertarian future portrayed in these books is an interesting contrast to the quasi-socialist futures seen in books by Ken MacLeod or Charles Stross, quite a cultural commentary on American writers like Wright versus UK writers.

John C. Wright emerges from obscurity with this, his first trilogy, as one of my favorite contemporary Science Fiction writers. But it's not the "Enders Game" kind of Sci-Fi that many (myself included) enjoy. This work is the "harder core" in its genre, not describing 50, 100, or even 1000 years into the future, but rather 10's of thousands of years. It paints a picture of a nearly different species.

So, after having my thinking about "man and meaning of life" routinely intellectually molested and stretched to the point of furrowed-brow-frustration (only to "get it" and dive into his work again), that cycle maintained my appetite to have it to the end.

It was when I realized in the fourth to last paragraph of a 500 pg. (each) trilogy, the insanity of what was going on: these books were written for one reason only, to make one single, simple, but intensely important and powerful truth so totally clear that it could not be denied!

Well, that was my temporary undoing. I just sat there in bed with my mouth ajar for no less than 20 minutes. What kind of man has that patience; that kind of commitment to the truth and reverence for knowing even one truth so totally.

What's the "the truth?" Really, not to be a snob, but it just literally wouldn't make sense or have one ten-thousandth the weight in meaning were I to write it right now! However, consider getting this masterpiece for yourself, I have yet to meet one person who's read it and I'm dying to discuss!!!

Enjoy,
Christian Hunter
Austin "

You are in danger of having your head hurt if you don't like the tech overload sort of thing, for the first 60-70 page. It even had me scratching my head for a bit. Then Wright skewers that, literally, as near the end of that confrontation, out come the samurai swords! He does slip in a few Golden Age references and jokes here and there, of course. For example, in the last part of the novel, when the conflict between the Silent and Golden Oecumenae has been going and going : "Emphyrio took out a tablet from his garb, and held it up. ââ,¬Å"Here is my prophecy: This New College, at least for a time, is dominated by Dark-Grays and Invariants. A warlike spirit grows. ââ,¬Å"The Bellipotent Composition forms again. Other war heroes, Banbeck and Carter and Kinnison, Vidar the Silent and Valdemar the Slayer, are recompiled out of archives, or constructed, or born." Then, a lighter style prevails as before, while the machine intelligence infiltration situtation is sorted out. Conversely, the last part, post conflict with the Nothing Sophotect might seem to drag a little bit, but it is worth getting to the end part. A handy appendix, too, explaining all the mental structure, stuff.

"Things are not as they seem." With that assertion seemingly in mind, John C. Wright plunges the reader into the final volume of his "Golden Age" trilogy. His flowery but captivating prose is back once again, which to editor David G. Hartwell's credit is fairly easy to lose spelling errors in. Half a dozen misspellings per book seem to be typical for this series, e.g., "Helion" is misspelled as "Heloin." But Wright's three-dimensional characters and the story's pacing kept me turning pages to the very end.

While cyberpunk novels were all the rage 15 years ago, they simply left me feeling... creepy. In direct contrast, Wright manages to keep the reader wondering what *else* his characters will have to go through, but ties up the loose ends and brings the "Golden Age" trilogy to an inspiring denouement on a note of hope -- which is a rare commodity in science fiction of late.

Despite a slight lag in Volume 2, "The Golden Age" trilogy is worth the investment to get to "The End"... which in itself proves to be "Just the Beginning" for its characters. A satisfying read, in the end.