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Ventus (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "THE MANOR HOUSE of Salt Inspector Castor lay across the top of the hill like a sleeping cat..." (more)
Key Phrases: vagabond moon, steam cannons, experimental towns, Calandria May, Jordan Mason, Queen Galas (more...)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although Aurora Award-winner Schroeder is probably best known for his fantasy fiction, this novel, his first large-scale SF work, should greatly expand his reputation. A thousand years ago, highly advanced artificial intelligences (AIs) called Winds terraformed the planet Ventus into a comfortable world for human settlementDbut something went wrong, and the Winds never relinquished control. Now they rule as gods, using their "mecha" creatures to squelch anythingDor anyoneDwho creates imbalance in their perfectly groomed environment. Enter young Jordan Mason, whose visions show him dreamlike images of far-distant events that are somehow linked to the Winds. But Jordan only begins to realize the truth after he meets two off-worlders, the assassin Calandria and her partner, Axel. Jordan's visions link him to Armiger, a spy created by a megalomaniac AI called 3340. Though Calandria "destroyed" 3340, she fears Armiger carries the seeds to resurrect the entity. Jordan's link offers the only hope of finding Armiger, but there are other forces at work as well. Civil war fomented by the Winds threatens to overthrow mad Queen Galas, the most egalitarian ruler in Ventus's history. And in a distant system called the Archipelago, Calandria's boss, a rival AI, is sending warships to decimate Ventus and insure 3340's demiseDpermanently. Canadian Schroeder handles his large cast of characters with impressive dexterity. Fans of the high-tech foundation and grand world-building of Iain M. Banks and Ken MacLeod will feel right at home here, as will anyone else who appreciates a challenging, original story. (Dec. 18)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


From Booklist

Jordan Mason of the planet Ventus comes from a long line of stoneworkers, and he has a clear understanding of his place in his world. He is subservient to the aristocracy, who in turn bow to the Winds, who control the weather, plant and animal life, and human undertakings. Lately, Jordan has had troubling visions, in which his immediate surroundings are blotted out by a different sky and a different forest, and he sees through another man's eyes. One night, searching in the forest for his sister, Jordan meets captivating Calandria May, who says she can explain his visions if he will help track Armiger, through whose eyes he has gazed. Armiger is a rogue artificial intelligence (AI), sent to Ventus to co-opt the Winds, which are also AIs, into enslaving humans and creating a powerful, ruthless world-mind. Through Armiger's eyes, Jordan sees how his interactions with an independent, tender peasant woman and a fierce, lonely queen are changing the AI's cold objectives. As Jordan and Calandria close in on Armiger, they see that the Winds are divided into pro-human and antihuman camps. Wondering whether he is on the right side, Jordan uses his visionary power to speak directly to the Winds. A final battle for Ventus brings human generals, intelligent moons, and a roving off-planet archaeologist onstage. Although strictly hard sf, full of technology, Schroeder's novel is so rich in character and emotion that it feels like classic fantasy. Roberta Johnson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Product Details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 672 pages
  • Publisher: Tor Science Fiction; 1st edition (November 19, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0812576357
  • ISBN-13: 978-0812576351
  • Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #683,887 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Karl Schroeder
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Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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First Sentence:
THE MANOR HOUSE of Salt Inspector Castor lay across the top of the hill like a sleeping cat. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
vagabond moon, steam cannons, experimental towns, resurrection seed, survival bag, stone mother, laser pistol, white wind
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Calandria May, Jordan Mason, Queen Galas, Desert Voice, Brendan Sheia, Axel Chan, Marya Mounce, General Lavin, Sir Chan, August Ostler, Old Town
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Customer Reviews

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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Well plotted and rich in ideas, November 4, 2003
By Cynthia S. Froning "astrocyn" (Longmont, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
I almost didn't read Ventus because I was disappointed in my first Schroeder novel, Permanence. I'm glad I gave it a try. Ventus suffers from some of the same problems present in Permanence: Schroeder's writing style is undeveloped, as are his characters. Indeed, he suffers from the classic characterization flaw of telling rather than showing (we basically have to take the narrator's word for it that Calandria May is unhappy with life, for example). Nevertheless, Ventus is overall a success. Schroeder keeps the plot moving and deftly handles the large cast of characters. The real centerpiece here is the planet, Ventus, and as we slowly learn more about its history and purpose, it becomes the most interesting character in the book. Although Schroeder doesn't develop them as far as he might, his ideas concerning the uses of nanotechnology, the nature of humanity and sentience, and far-future lifestyles and ethics are original and thought-provoking. Ventus is good SF.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A marvellous new voice in science fiction, January 14, 2001
This review is from: Ventus (Hardcover)
The planet Ventus is a marvel of the terraformer's art. Rather than shoving around great loads of soil, gasses and liquids to make the world hospitable, Ventus' designers deployed a mere 70 kilos of intelligent nanotechnology. When the nanos landed, they used the world's fabric to copy themselves, absorbing the world's foundations as a sponge absorbs a bucketful of water, until the very planet was intelligent -- or rather, intelligences, a collection of autonomous gods and demigods and sprites and spirits, collectively called the Winds.

Ventus sings. The ocean sings, "I am an ocean," and the waves sing, "I am a wave." The Winds sing their songs as they negotiate among themselves for the preparation of the world for the human masters to come. The clouds negotiate with the crops to provide water, the earthmovers negotiate with the sod over mineral allocation. Ventus is a Garden, a jewel of a world in a universe populated with innumerable humans and post-humans, and machine-human intelligences that embody as entire planets.

Ventus is a garden, fallen. A thousand years after the terraforming project, the Winds have forgotten their human masters. Now the Winds barely tolerate the fallen inhabitants of the garden world, capriciously manifesting as avenging angels that smash overly technological artifacts and their makers; manifesting as sinister morphs that maintain ecological balance by tearing bears apart to make gophers; manifesting as the attenuated, magnetic celestials whose Heaven hooks crush masonry and rend bone as they seek to expunge infectious humanity.

Jordan Mason, the boy-hero of the story, has been unwittingly implanted with off-world technology that turns him into a spy for Armiger, the avatar of the fallen God/world 3340. It's this very technology that makes him a target of the ruling machines, who come to perceive him a foreign technology that must be eliminated by the world's all-powerful immune system. Aided by the bounty-hunters Caladria May and Axel Chan, Jordan learns to control his technology and finds that the world itself is alive, shouting and singing in a billion variegated voices. Gradually, the boy comes to communicate with the planet itself, and to discover the internecine battles that have turned Ventus from Heaven to Hell.

Schroeder's a voracious autodidact, and he weaves his multifarious backgrounds into the storyline, burying clues to Ventus's mysteries in avant-garde linguistics, in pervasive computing theory, in cryptography, and in the theology of his apostate Mennonite forefathers. The book is as epic in scope as The Lord of the Rings, but more nuanced; it's as technologically daring as Snow Crash, but better controlled, with a narrative that makes its many pages fly past. Schroeder's created a startling, thought-provoking marvel of a book, a voice to equal any of the new guard that the Commonwealth has materialized of late: Scotsmen Ken MacLeod and Iain Banks and Aussie Greg Egan have a new contemporary.

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars I wish I had written it..., August 15, 2003
By Nicq MacDonald (Sioux Falls, SD United States) - See all my reviews
A few years ago, back around 1999, I was throwing together ideas for a novel. It was going to be a fantasy that wasn't a fantasy, a hard sci-fi novel about agents of a transhuman "god" trying to bring down another such entity on a backwards planet impregnated with nanotechnology that seemed like magic to it's primitive inhabitants.

Karl Schroeder beat me to it.

This book is, to say the least, fantastic. Schroeder blends Vinge-esque transhuman themes and nanotechological "fantasy realism" with a coming-of-age quest reminiscient of Robert Jordan's "Eye of the World". (I have a suspicion that it's more than just coincidence that the main character's name is Jordan) Thrown into the plot are interesting characters- transhuman assassins, a cyborg demigod, noblemen and royalty who can communicate telepathically with nanotech devices, a sentient starship, a cosmopolitan anthropologist, and more, thrown together in a mission that could decide the fate of the galaxy. Schroeder's intense, fast pace writing style echoes the best cyberpunk, while never succumbing to that genre's attitude. Best of all, the last section of the book explores an interesting philosophical discussion of the relationship between man, science, and nature, one that will hopefully provoke dialogue between environmentalists and transhumanists alike.

All in all, a fantastic book, and a worthwhile read for science fiction and fantasy fans alike.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Full of ideas I wish I had though of ...
This book combines the best elements of sci-fi, fantasy, and historical fiction into one. It's set in the far future where most of human civilization wants for nothing, but sent... Read more
Published 20 months ago by I C booklover

3.0 out of 5 stars Free SF Reader
Ventus is the story of a conflict between artificial intelligences with different aims. Some want to do what they like with planets. Read more
Published on September 3, 2007 by Blue Tyson

4.0 out of 5 stars Underrated, I think
A good story in which all the many dangling threads are resolved, but without seeming overly tidy about it. Read more
Published on January 9, 2007 by Swift 36

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't let the first 150 pages fool you
This is a science fiction novel even though it starts out sounding like a feudal fantasy. Stay with it and the plot runs the gamut of big idea SF. Read more
Published on January 3, 2007 by M. Mix

5.0 out of 5 stars Epic scope, human scale
Two things I'd add to the customer reviews already posted:

Although it's an epic, it's told on a human scale. Read more
Published on July 14, 2004 by Steve Stanley

2.0 out of 5 stars Good start, bad ending
Ventus starts out very promising - good prose, good characters, good setting, great science - but halfway through it seems the author decides his characters aren't important, or... Read more
Published on March 18, 2004

3.0 out of 5 stars New Skin for the Old Science Fiction Story
In 'Ventus' Karl Schroeder creates a science fiction premise that is well established - a fallen colony, with technology equivalent to the middle ages. Read more
Published on July 24, 2003 by Omer Belsky

5.0 out of 5 stars Romantic and Philosophical
Or maybe Philosophical and Romantic.

When you start dipping into Karl Schroeder's _Ventus_ you'll probably think you've seen this kind of novel times before, but it's so... Read more

Published on December 25, 2002 by lb136

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!
What I really like about this book is not so much the planet Ventus itself, although this is interesting, but the glimpses we get of the universe beyond it. Read more
Published on September 12, 2002 by Ben

1.0 out of 5 stars An Unsynchronized Mixup
It would appear that Mr. Schroeder could not decide what sort of book to write: fantasy or science fiction. In the end, it is like most compromises, neither fish nor fowl. Read more
Published on September 11, 2002 by Michael W. Jones

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