Permanence

___________________________________________Permanence is set in the 25th century, when humanity has settled dozens of extrasolar planets -- the so-called "lit worlds" -- and thousands of brown-dwarf colonies -- the halo worlds. All the colonies were linked by big, NAFAL [note 1] starships, each travelling a fixed circuit of worlds -- the cyclers [note 2]. The cyclers never stop, as the energy cost to boost them to relativistic speeds is, well, astronomical. Ultralight shuttles transfer passengers, crew and cargo at each port. Permanence is a quasi-religious order set up to support the great starships, and to preserve human civilization for the indefinitely long future. It's a noble and admirable organization, which has been seriously disrupted by the recent discovery of FTL travel -- which, it turns out, will only work near a full-size star. FTL travel is *much* cheaper than the sublightspeed cyclers, so the halo worlds' economies, and the Cycler Compact, are near collapse. It gets worse -- the lit worlds are joining the new Earth-based Rights Economy, an aggressively-centralized property-rights setup that forbids any non-commercial transactions. Hmm -- could this be socially-conscious Canada vs. the great, grasping Colossus of the South? (The halo worlds are cold, too...)Meadow-Rue Rosebud Cassells lit out from Allemagne station when her bullying brother got to be too much. Enroute to Erythrion, Rue discovers, and files a claim on, a new comet. [Minor *SPOILER* warning -- but no more than is on the dust-jacket.] Her claim is denied -- her 'comet' is really a spaceship -- but then reinstated: it's not a *human* spaceship, and it doesn't answer calls, though the drive is still working. Rue must take physical control of the ghost ship to make good her claim, but Powerful Forces want the ship for themselves...The framework of the novel is Rue's growth from scared kid to respected starship captain. I like bildungsromans, and this is a good one. But the real power of Permanence is the good old sense-of-wonder techstuff: "[The colonies] swarmed like insects around incandescent filaments hundreds of kilometers in length. Each filament was a fullerene cable that harvested electricity from Erythrion's magnetic field... The power running through the cables made them glow in exactly the same way that tungsten had glowed in light bulbs... on twentieth-century Earth." I love this stuff. And it's even plausible -- see Schroeder's neat website, kschroeder.comAt times Permanence may remind you of Ken Macleod's political SF, though Schroeder is much less in your face (which I prefer). You'll see nods to Pohl's Gateway, Norton's Forerunners, Brin's and Pellegrino's hostile-universe Fermi-paradox ideas... Schroeder's still looking for a distinctive voice, which is pretty standard for a writer's early books, and anyway he s/t/e/a/l/s *borrows* from the best...Schroeder's very good at delivering the short, sharp shock: Rue's poor, then she's rich! Oops, bad cla

This novel is absolutely incredible. The author has taken and made an STL civilization, and created a fantastic Space Opera with it. For all those that thought that SF with large, grand scales, a fast pace, and absolutely gripping writing required FTL travel...you are wrong. Yes, there is some FTL travel in this book, but very little is time is spent in that civilization, instead most of the book takes place in the Cycler Compact, a region of space where STL dominates, and a cooperative society is needed for any interstellar travel. This novel incorporates some elements from Ventus, such as the concept of Inscape and the use of nanotech, but is otherwise completely seperate from it. It also, I think, vastly outdoes Ventus as well. This novel has so many plot twists, and many different but interconnected plots, that it can't help but draw you in. There are conspiracies around every corner, massive intrigue, espionage, sabotage, and ultimately a race to save or destroy civilizations. It's simply fabulous! Although if you are not a fan of large, epic works of fiction....it's probably not for you.

Man has arrived at the stars, but in two stages. First, he played hopscotch across a sea of brown dwarfs, almost-stars that fill the galaxy and provide energy through gravity. Second, through the discovery of faster-than-light (FTL) flight. Unfortunately for those who colonized the planets surrounding the brown dwarfs, FTL only operates near major gravity wells--true stars. Now, the lit stars have broken the compound that bound them to their weaker brothers and are leaving the billions behind as they expand.When Rue Cassels discovers an alien sublight spaceship, she dreams of using it to restore the compact, to bring space travel back to the abandoned planets. A team of scientists thinks only of the scientific benefits--the ship was built for multiple types of aliens while humans have never found a species that will even talk to them. Finally, an admiral from the lit stars can only think of the military implications. It is legally Rue's ship, but accidents have been known to happen. She will have to use every trick in the book to hold onto her property--and prevent a genocidal war.Author Karl Schroeder does a fine job creating a believable future society--and the inventions that tear it apart. The 'Rights Economy,' of the lit stars is a logical extrapolation of one of today's hot issues. Fortunately, Schroeder integrates this theme deeply into the story--I never felt like I was being preached to.With her history of abuse and willingness to fight anyone, Rue makes a sympathetic character. It is Schroeder's world-building, however, complete with warring economic systems, alien technologies and ecological niches, and religious/philosophical richness, that makes PERMANENCE the powerful and exciting book that it is. Highly recommended--this one has meat, and will stick with you.

Karl Schroeder's first book, Ventus, was a New York Times Notable Book. I discovered him when that book came out in paperback. Now he has finally written his second.Permanence is set in a multispecies universe operated under something called the Rights Economy. Much like in Spider Robinson's classic, Melancholy Elephants, in The Rights Economy, copyright controls everything. The political and philosophical issues that Schroeder raises surrounding the Rights Economy are enough to sell this book as a speculative look at what might happen when copyright law goes too far. But there is much more to Permanence than just philosophical explorations of ownership and rights. There is also a rebel attack on an established power, and a young, female protagonist who finds herself thrown into the middle of a battle for the fate of her world. She is an excellent female character and, I confess, it is difficult not to think of her as a feminist role model kind of character.With a fully-realized world, thoughtful speculation and excellent pacing, Karl Schroeder has done what I thought he would not be able to do. He outdid himself. I hope he continues to do so. Permanence is an excellent read for fans of space combat or complex philosophy. A real winner!!