Marrow

This complex and interesting novel may be to hard for some folks to understand, but the science is persuasive and the average SF reader should find it to be a lot of fun. It deserves a better rating than it has so far received.

This book is the best kind of science fiction. A vast galactic future. People rendered nearly immortal by science. Probing an ancient and dangerous mystery. Ultimately a study in character. Can people change, if they live long enough?

Marrow by Robert Reed is one of the best SF novels I've read all year. It is quintessential SF, full of brave ideas and bold speculations.A giant starship enters the Milky Way. Where did it come from? Projecting its trajectory backwards gives no indication at all of its origin. It is an old ship - some evidence suggests that it is billions of years old. It seems to have been constructed from a Jupiter type planet; there are many, many miles of corridors and chambers hewn out of the solid rock. And they are all cold, deserted and empty. It seems almost as though there has never been anyone on the ship in its long, cold, lonely journey across time and space. A crew of humans investigates and takes over the ship. Genetic engineering has assured them of near immortality and they determine to take the ship on a journey through the galaxy, picking up passengers as and when they wish (charging a suitable fee of course) for the ultimate sight seeing trip. For thousands of years all goes well, but as the main part of the story opens, a group of senior officers have vanished as they set out to explore an enigma - the planet they call Marrow which they have discovered isolated in the heart of the ship. Well mapped and explored though the ship is, it seems that it still has mysteries to be investigated. For more than five thousand years they are marooned on Marrow, forced to build a civilisation from scratch, forced to cope with dissension and mutiny, rebellion and heresy.After this time of trial and tribulation, they return to the ship that abandoned them to Marrow. They are lean and mean, hardened and tempered by their experiences, and the ship's somewhat decedent crew are easy prey to their ferocity. But the ship, and Marrow and even their own people still have surprises in store for them.The sheer scale of the canvas is awe-inspiring. The vastness of space and time has seldom been more evocatively invoked, and neither has the minutiae of domestic politics and power plays - the novel spans the whole spectrum of human endeavour. It is utterly gripping.

Marrow is like finding an oasis after 3 days in the desert. I love this book. I read it six months ago, but every so often, a piece of the plot swirls around the back of my head. That's saying a lot--most books I pick up, read, and put on my shelf, "One more dead soldier." A month later, I'll look at it and wonder if I've read it, until I pull it down and page through it. Not so, Marrow. It is vibrant. Its ideas live on, and so, too, its characters and story. If you like to be surprised when you read science fiction, you want to read Marrow.

Okay, I've read the other reviews...all bad and so I am in the unique position of offering an opinion at the opposite end of the spectrum. First why should you believe me over the masses??? Well I've read almost everything ever written by Niven, Bear, Brin, Benford, McDevitt, Card, Gibson, Stephenson, Herbert, Bova, Vinge...and so on. Thus I believe I know a good story when I read one. The idea of a large alien ship floating through space, with the builders long since vanished, has been tried before. I will say that this book is much better than the first Rama book, which at times read like an encyclopia. The last (3) books in the Rama series were great due in no small part I'm sure to input from Gentry Lee. Now back to Marrow. What I liked about the book was that it did include reference to aliens on the ship. The author does go into some detail about (2) of the species, the Remoras and the Harrum-Scarums. True the character development isn't anywhere near what David Brin does with his Uplift saga, but it's good enough to hold your interest. What I liked is that the plot was like an onion. On the outside you have this vast ship, then if you look deeper you find a planet inside called Marrow, and if you look deeper inside Marrow there's something else...and so on. The plot unravels just like this, and at no time does this book become predictable..something I'm sure the critics of this book would have to agree. When I rate a book I compare it to other books not only in writing styles and how the book flows, but does it put forth new ideas. The idea of a ship in space isn't new, but having 200 billion travellers from various races is unique. The idea that people can live forever and sustain incredible amounts of damage and still live (they grow new bodies for you), is new to me. The concept of Marrow itself is new as is the super strong material "Hyperflux" which holds the planet in place. Was the book great? No, but its certainly better than the last (3) bookes written by Jack McDevitt. I'd give this book 3.5 out of 5.0 stars and will certainly read more of Reed.