Customer Reviews

Superluminal

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Superluminal is a strong continuation of Metaplanetary. Other reviewers' comments regarding the quality of characters, plot, and writing are spot on. If you enjoy classic space opera (as we all should), you'll be grateful for Superluminal. Be aware, however, that this volume does not provide a conclusion to the story begun in Metaplanetary, merely a continuation. I wish that the publisher had been honest enough to flag clearly that this is an open-ended series, each ending in a cliffhanger rather than a climax. There's nothing wrong with that approach, either from a literary or a commercial point of view -- I just wish that publishers would note which books are self-contained and which are installments in a series.

Update, 22 Feb 2007: Sadly, there is still no word regarding the next (and, I would hope, concluding) book in this series. The first two books (Metaplanetary and Superluminal) succeeded in creating a fascinating future world, with intriguing characters and a captivating storyline. I want to know how it ends! Make no mistake, it's well worth reading these two books, even if the third never takes form. However, like many other readers, I seriously hope the author and publisher eventually get around to concluding the series and closing the story arc. I'm ready to pre-order!

This novel is as good as all the other reviewers say it is -- each chapter really does have enough new ideas to sustain an entire book!

My issue is with the publisher. They're pulling the same shoddy trick they tried with the first volume of the series, Metaplanetary. Just as that book was ruined for many readers because nowhere on the cover did it state that it was the first novel in a series, anyone who hasn't read the first book could pick up this second volume with the expectation that they're starting a stand-alone novel. The only place the true nature of Superluminal is mentioned is in the author's bio on the inside back cover.

This is clearly intentional on the publisher's part, but you have to wonder why are they doing it? Why are they positioning these two novels as stand-alones, rather than as parts of a series? Guess they just don't believe in the power of the entire trilogy to sell itself. This is just stupid!

After finishing Superluminal I was dissapointed to find out that plans for a third book are on hold for the foreseeable future. While Superluminal was not as good as Metaplanetary it is still an enjoyable read with interesting SF elements. It does have a strong case of middlebookitis in that plot elements are not fully resolved and the ending is a cliffhanger.

On the positive side, Tony Daniel succeeds in making Director Ames a truly creepy entity and his characterization of a semisentient jeep was well done. On the other hand, several of the other characters are not as well fleshed out. Also, in juggling many plot lines at once, the author tends to focus on just a few and leaves the rest too bare. Considering that there were around a hundred pages worth of appendices that space would have been better utilized on the minor characters and their storylines.

Hopefully, the author's next project will be successful enough so that he can revisit this universe and provide a proper conclusion.

I went looking for this book after reading Metaplanetary. I ended up so wrapped up in that book that I had to know how it all turned out. Like some of the other reviewers, I had no idea when I picked up Superluminal that it was the middle book of a more extended series, not the conclusion I had sought. It was clear by the time I was half way through the book, though, that there was far too much complexity and far too many quantum-entangled plot lines for it all to be resolved in one book. Despite my dashed expectations (Thanks, EOS), I very much enjoyed this book. It features technology that's advanced in very believable ways, a society that appears to have evolved naturally from this technology, complex and evolving characters, a grand sweep and vision, wonderful inventiveness, intelligent writing and on and on. It's everything a really good space opera can and should be.

My only criticism, and it's a weak one, is that the complexity and the presentation might make it difficult to keep track of all of those interweaving threads if the book were read over an extended period. I doubt that "extended" will be an issue for most readers. In any case, there are convenient appendices in the back to refresh one's memory on the characters and locations as needed.

So imagine my dismay when I went looking for information on the sequel and discovered that there wasn't one planned! Thanks, EOS (Or did I already say that?). I sincerely hope that the author finds an outlet for the last book. It's a story that deserves to be told. Oh - this is not a warning against purchasing the book. It's worth it even without a conclusion. There's more than enough intriguing material here to serve as a good start for imagining your own.

Daniel's continues the story he started in Metaplanetary. The Department of Immunity Enforcement Division (DIED) forces have been building up their fleet in preparation for an all-out attack on the fremden (basically rebels) Triton. Also, Aubry has finally found her free-convert mother and is set to make an attempt to rescue her.

These events, along with Director Ames's further scheming to co-opt all of humanity, make Superluminal an easy page-turner. Unfortunately, Daniel's character development is hit and miss. He does a wonderful job delving into the burgeoning romance of a free-convert (all 1's and 0's) and aspect (flesh and blood)...but then lacks development of characters on other fronts...like Aubry and Jill...their lives as partisans fighting against Ames were skipped over almost completely.

What it all boils down to is a fun read...unfortunately, the depth Daniel's does show in his characters is hardly enough to sate readers but on the most cursory of levels. This being said, I do look forward to a continuation? ending? to Daniel's story.

Tony Daniel is one of the more entertaining of the modern space opera writers. And the first volume in this series propelled the story forward with little fat and loads of intriguing projections of the earlier ideas about generalized nanotech of other writers (as in Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age). However this second volume falls into the (all too understandable) trap that so many SF writers currently find themselves in: writing a second volume so that they can write a trilogy.

So, although this volume has its read-in-the-airport-terminal value, the narrative stalls to get the reader to pony up for 3rd volume to see how the various threads end up being tied. So be prepared for a lot of battle scenes detailed in several layers to give us the sense of war-is-still-hell in the nanotech future. But don't expect the blossoming of ideas or the character development of the first volume.

Here's hoping for a better 3rd (and final?) volume.

"Superluminal" is the second volume of Tony Daniel's still-in-progress trilogy about an interplanetary war several centuries in the future. This book sustains the far-out ideas, interesting characters and tongue-in-cheek humor of the first book. But the action is spread among so many characters and locales that there really isn't a main storyline to pull the reader along. In some ways the book resembles a collection of vignettes that give different views of the same events. Some of the minor characters only make one appearance, and serve mainly to flesh out details of the war that lies at the center of the story.

To be sure, there are main characters, both new ones as well as familiar ones from the first volume. But in many cases their story-threads end abruptly, leaving us to assume that all will be resolved in the upcoming third book. In that regard, "Superluminal" perhaps suffers the fate common to many middle books in trilogies -- serving mainly as a bridge between setting up conflicts and resolving them.

That said, "Superluminal" is immensely enjoyable. Daniel peppers the book with Neal Stephenson-esque side passages delving into quantum cryptography and the characteristics and applications of military-grade nanotech. Daniel's fertile imagination is still in high gear as he develops on inventions like his interplanetary rail system, artificial intelligences known as free converts, and the quantum-based nanotech called "grist", which pervades everything from human organs to planetary surfaces. Fans who love the "sci" in sci-fi will have plenty to gnaw on here.

In short, although "Superluminal" isn't a breakout tale in its own right, it does a fine job of immersing up deeper in Daniel's future and providing an entertaining read.

Superluminal is the sequel to the wonderful Metaplanetary, and it rocks as well! Set in an interconnected solar sytem in the far future, it tells of the war which will determine the form (or forms) humans will wear when they reach out to the stars...intelligent space opera with lot of heart... :)

Over a millennium into the future, the Met sentient super cables interweave the inner planets while the grist nanotechnology facilitates communication throughout this segment of the solar system. Within the Met, some humans including dictatorial Director Ames have become many Large Array of Personalities better known as LAPs. Freedoms already curtailed are becoming even fewer as Ames increases his tyrannical powers through his Department of Immunity that controls the Met.

The outer planets continue to serve as frontiers where freedom blossoms due to the Free Converts, the Cloudships, and other like souls. Ames wants control of the outer planets and if that is impossible their destruction. He deploys his military.

Though large numbers especially of dead become statistics, war remains personal. In the outer planetary orbs, Colonel Roger Sherman leads the defense, but his son Leo joins the invaders. However, the outcome may lie with physicist Li whose research may give Ames the boost he needs as she is closing in on faster-than-light travel. To ensure her loyalty he has absorbed her lover and addicted her to electronic Glory.

SUPERLUMINAL is extremely complex military and social science fiction that extrapolates much of current day physics theories into a future solar system as he has also done in the terrific first book (see METAPLANETARY). However, the story line contains the mid book syndrome as nothing is resolved though new subplots like that of Li's has begun. Still the insightful look at a future in which totalitarianism vs. freedom (place World War II in outer space 1000 years into the future) displays Tony Daniel's clever nightmarish vision of what is to come though this book is filler waiting for the confrontations to occur.

Harriet Klausner

Tony Daniel's follow-up to Metaplanetary is a fun ride. With a full-scale inter-planetary civil war in swing the action takes us from the bright cities of Mercury to the cold nano-slag-dominated Chiron and Pluto... and beyond into the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud. In a solar system that is on the verge of being dominated by a megalomaniac we encounter fun characters who are interacting with a universe that is bizarrely alien yet familiar in so many ways.

The Met is an excellent creation that rivals Niven's Ringworld. With a mix of quantum science, nano-engineering and virtual reality we take part in the lives of various people (and types of people) who are caught up in the war. Tony Daniels has some fun ideas and new approaches to science fiction and space opera.

I consider Tony Daniel to be in league with some of the recent stars that we've seen in sci-fi, including Peter Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds and China Mieville. This group (and several others) have been quietly overturning some of the cliches of science fiction and I've been highly impressed with the results.

For those who have read this, I would like to encourage you to spread the word about this book. Based on what I've read, it sounds as if the publishers have not been happy with seemingly lackluster sales of this book. I honestly consider Superluminal and it's prequel - Metaplanetary - to be among the best sci-fi I've read in the last ten years. I hope that it can become a sleeper hit that can lead to a third volume in this series. Spread the good word.