Deception Well

There's a fine story here, but the plot-outline I read put me off, so I'll start with the backstory: 3,000 yrs have passed since "Bohr Maker" (her 1st novel). Humanity has spread thru much of the galaxy, but interstellar contact is limited to sublight ships. There are dreadful Chenzeme war machines loose, still fighting the war which destroyed that species long ago. Much of humanity lives in the Hallowed Vasties - huge Dyson-spheres. Nanotechnology permeates everyday life, and permits people to live for centuries. The novel is set on Silk, a sealed habitat atop a space elevator on the strange & isolated world of Deception Well. Silk was resettled by refugees from Heyertori, a world sterilized by a rogue Chenzeme swan burster. The city was deserted when they arrived, but full of human bones. The refugees thought the Old Silken were killed by a plague from the planet. They sealed off the beanstalk and live in comfort, but supplies are running low & they have no way to leave - they were dumped after a contract dispute with their sentient greatship.Silk is attacked by followers of the prophet Jupiter, who believe they can attain ecstatic Communion on the planet's surface. Many of the cultists are killed, apparently including Jupiter. His son Lot survives, and the surface of the novel is Lot's struggle to accept his father's legacy, and to discover the true nature of the Deception Well.The novel is a fine combination of top-notch tech-speculation and traditional storytelling. It has a couple of sags that could have been cut, but I'm nitpicking. If you haven't yet tried Linda Nagata, "Deception Well" would be an excellent place to start. Nagata's website at www.maui.net/~nagatais also worth checking out. IIRC it has a sample chapter of "DW".Happy reading!Pete Tillman

I really liked this book. It had action right from the start but the plot took a long time to become clear and there are multiple clashes going on simultaneously. A planet that assimilates everything and a sattelite city up in the clouds where millions live and have problems of their own. And mammoth ships and weapons of destruction which are sentient beings. I thought it was Nagata's best book yet.

Deception Well is the most entertaining SciFi novel I have read in the last year. The characters are well developed, and the central idea is unusual and timely.I perfer "hard science" novels written by authors with some training in physics, etc, but am frequently appalled by the lack of character development.Linda Nagata is an excellent technician and I plan to read more of her work

This was an excellent book, the third by the author in the last two years, detailing the life of a young man, the son of a self-appointed messiah who failed. The son is forced to come to grips with his father and the destiny he bequeathed to him through genetics and through the failure of the father to achive his goal. The book draws the personal conflict of the boy in with the greater conflict of the station he lives in and the possible destruction of humanity in the galaxy in the long run