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Ventus #1
Ventus
After terrifying and titanic struggles, a godlike artificial intelligence gone rogue has finally been destroyed. But not before it scattered seeds of itself throughout the galaxy.
On the terraformed planet Ventus, benign AIs -- the godlike Winds – which shaped and guarded its transformation, have fallen silent. Calandria May is sent down to the surface where she quickly finds that an extension of the rogue AI, a cyborg called Armiger, has planted a strange and powerful device in a young man named Jordan Mason. Jordan has visions. He is desperate to find their meaning and source -- desperate enough to risk awakening the Winds, perhaps invoking the power that can destroy technology to protect the environment they created.
Ventus is an epic journey across a fascinating planet with two big mysteries -- why have the Winds fallen silent? And is Armiger, or Jordan, carrying a Resurrection Seed?
On the terraformed planet Ventus, benign AIs -- the godlike Winds – which shaped and guarded its transformation, have fallen silent. Calandria May is sent down to the surface where she quickly finds that an extension of the rogue AI, a cyborg called Armiger, has planted a strange and powerful device in a young man named Jordan Mason. Jordan has visions. He is desperate to find their meaning and source -- desperate enough to risk awakening the Winds, perhaps invoking the power that can destroy technology to protect the environment they created.
Ventus is an epic journey across a fascinating planet with two big mysteries -- why have the Winds fallen silent? And is Armiger, or Jordan, carrying a Resurrection Seed?
672 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
About the author
Karl Schroeder
84 books367 followersKarl Schroeder is an award-winning Canadian science fiction author. His novels present far-future speculations on topics such as nanotechnology, terraforming, augmented reality and interstellar travel, and have a deeply philosophical streak. One of his concepts, known as thalience, has gained some currency in the artificial intelligence and computer networking communities.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 119 reviews
February 11, 2024
"And then?"
"And then the Winds came."
This is one of those “planet” novels, wherein the story takes place in the far future (post-diaspora), and wherein planets have been colonized and remarkable technologies exist, but where most of the story is limited to (or takes place on) a single one of these planets.
In true Science-Fantasy style, this particular world has regressed to medieval / pre-industrial state; typically, this kind of thing wouldn’t necessarily excite me, but I sure am glad I took the plunge.
And nothing should matter, nor disturb his rest. But his eyes had opened.
This is only the second Schroeder novel I’ve read, but he does seem to have certain issues or interests on his mind. Conceptually or thematically, I did seem to pick up on some parallels with Permanence, albeit it in a vastly different setting.
The night stars and the rounded hills reminded him now of permanence.
While the novel does read like an amalgam of high fantasy and science fiction, it at least represents highly competent versions of both genres. It also brings to mind the third law as postulated by Arthur C. Clarke, namely that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
The Winds were difficult entities to worship, because they had the annoying characteristic of possessing minds of their own. Gods, one philosophical wag had commented, should conveniently remain on the altar, rather than rampaging indiscriminately across the land.
I found Ventus to be a complex book, and to be fair, I am not even sure I have interpreted everything correctly. Nevertheless, it makes for interesting reading, combining philosophy and abstract ideas with cutting edge science.
If there is anything I wonder now, it is this: if we are our own creation, whence the Winds? I do not understand them, and they frighten me.
Of all things, they alone frighten me.
The big take home here is obviously the concept of “Thalience”, which touches on the “theory of forms” and is probably best illustrated by the following line from the novel ”Each and every object in the world knew its name; all, that is, save for the humans who lived here.”. It’s a bit of a mind-bender, and I am wary of spoilers, so I don’t want to go into it too much.
I have to say, I was somewhat disappointed by the lack of online resources or discussion regarding Ventus, it would have been interesting for me to get some more insight into this, or to read other people’s interpretations.
So please, I beg you, shut me down now.
I never wanted to have a soul.
Unsurprisingly, the best bit is the last quarter or so of the novel, where the mysteries are unraveled, and where you are left in no doubt that you are reading Science Fiction. Characterisation is not the book’s strongest suit, but with these novels of ideas that often seems like a minor qualm to me. While it wouldn’t be fair to compare Ventus to something like Dune or Hyperion, it’s a solid book. Worth noting that it is a debut novel (or at least the first one Schroeder wrote solo). It’s a rewarding read, but patience and perseverance is recommended.
"And then the Winds came."
This is one of those “planet” novels, wherein the story takes place in the far future (post-diaspora), and wherein planets have been colonized and remarkable technologies exist, but where most of the story is limited to (or takes place on) a single one of these planets.
In true Science-Fantasy style, this particular world has regressed to medieval / pre-industrial state; typically, this kind of thing wouldn’t necessarily excite me, but I sure am glad I took the plunge.
And nothing should matter, nor disturb his rest. But his eyes had opened.
This is only the second Schroeder novel I’ve read, but he does seem to have certain issues or interests on his mind. Conceptually or thematically, I did seem to pick up on some parallels with Permanence, albeit it in a vastly different setting.
The night stars and the rounded hills reminded him now of permanence.
While the novel does read like an amalgam of high fantasy and science fiction, it at least represents highly competent versions of both genres. It also brings to mind the third law as postulated by Arthur C. Clarke, namely that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
The Winds were difficult entities to worship, because they had the annoying characteristic of possessing minds of their own. Gods, one philosophical wag had commented, should conveniently remain on the altar, rather than rampaging indiscriminately across the land.
I found Ventus to be a complex book, and to be fair, I am not even sure I have interpreted everything correctly. Nevertheless, it makes for interesting reading, combining philosophy and abstract ideas with cutting edge science.
If there is anything I wonder now, it is this: if we are our own creation, whence the Winds? I do not understand them, and they frighten me.
Of all things, they alone frighten me.
The big take home here is obviously the concept of “Thalience”, which touches on the “theory of forms” and is probably best illustrated by the following line from the novel ”Each and every object in the world knew its name; all, that is, save for the humans who lived here.”. It’s a bit of a mind-bender, and I am wary of spoilers, so I don’t want to go into it too much.
I have to say, I was somewhat disappointed by the lack of online resources or discussion regarding Ventus, it would have been interesting for me to get some more insight into this, or to read other people’s interpretations.
So please, I beg you, shut me down now.
I never wanted to have a soul.
Unsurprisingly, the best bit is the last quarter or so of the novel, where the mysteries are unraveled, and where you are left in no doubt that you are reading Science Fiction. Characterisation is not the book’s strongest suit, but with these novels of ideas that often seems like a minor qualm to me. While it wouldn’t be fair to compare Ventus to something like Dune or Hyperion, it’s a solid book. Worth noting that it is a debut novel (or at least the first one Schroeder wrote solo). It’s a rewarding read, but patience and perseverance is recommended.
January 19, 2019
Ventus is the biggest surprise so far this year for me: a page-turner that I devoured in a week, even though it's a whopping 660+ pages. It doesn't even start like something I'm usually interested in: in a European-style medieval-esque world, a young man is kidnapped by an outsider because he's important. Cliche, yeah?
But even the summary on the back gives it away: this is the planet Ventus, a terraformed human colony that's ruled by rogue AIs now called Winds. The outsider kidnaps this young man because another off-planet outsider implanted a device in him that will lead her to her enemy.
So it's still kind of cliche - a lovely fantasy world is more than it seems, and technology might be magic and vise-versa - but wow, that execution! The places it goes! I'd never thought about nanotechnology on a massive scale like this before.
It starts a little slow - our protagonist being a fish out of water as he's slowly taught about what AIs are, and what this outsider is after - but at roughly a hundred pages in, the plot kicked into gear and never stopped. There was no middle of the book slump, and whenever the plot slowed down the characters kept me invested as the emotional moments really worked.
The slowly widening scale of the book helped, too - it stayed focused on Ventus, but the scale went from Jordan's personal concerns to planet-spanning things, and it never felt forced.
Details:
- The book is split into three major sections, almost a trilogy except they'd be tiny books if they were published that way. Each section has a strong arc and finale, with the third being the biggest as it wraps the whole novel up.
- Jordan, our protagonist, gives way for large chunks of the book to other POV characters and other protagonists. This is an ensemble piece, with over five major POV characters. They're all a delight to read, thankfully!
- The major sci-fi question driving the plot is, why did the terraforming AI on Ventus go rogue? This digs into the question of thalience (i.e. can a sapient being created by humans truly be non-human), how nanotechnology would work on a massive scale, and what it means to be sapient (as well as human!)
- The balance between sci-fi and fantasy is really well done, as not all characters are told what's going on and so on. People working with incomplete information is really interesting. Also the fantasy-level plot is just - it was solid and felt like a working society just as much as the sci-fi one did.
- Probably my favorite thing about the book: lots of ladies in this book! I don't expect dude-written sci-fi (especially older sci-fi) to have women in it, but no, this book defies that. At least half of the protagonists are ladies, and boy do they influence the plot.
You should read this book. It really got me on all levels: emotional, intellectual, aesthetic even. The way some of the AIs manifest themselves are just beautiful, not to mention the architecture and so on. I wish I could erase my memory and read it again, just for the ride.
But even the summary on the back gives it away: this is the planet Ventus, a terraformed human colony that's ruled by rogue AIs now called Winds. The outsider kidnaps this young man because another off-planet outsider implanted a device in him that will lead her to her enemy.
So it's still kind of cliche - a lovely fantasy world is more than it seems, and technology might be magic and vise-versa - but wow, that execution! The places it goes! I'd never thought about nanotechnology on a massive scale like this before.
It starts a little slow - our protagonist being a fish out of water as he's slowly taught about what AIs are, and what this outsider is after - but at roughly a hundred pages in, the plot kicked into gear and never stopped. There was no middle of the book slump, and whenever the plot slowed down the characters kept me invested as the emotional moments really worked.
The slowly widening scale of the book helped, too - it stayed focused on Ventus, but the scale went from Jordan's personal concerns to planet-spanning things, and it never felt forced.
Details:
- The book is split into three major sections, almost a trilogy except they'd be tiny books if they were published that way. Each section has a strong arc and finale, with the third being the biggest as it wraps the whole novel up.
- Jordan, our protagonist, gives way for large chunks of the book to other POV characters and other protagonists. This is an ensemble piece, with over five major POV characters. They're all a delight to read, thankfully!
- The major sci-fi question driving the plot is, why did the terraforming AI on Ventus go rogue? This digs into the question of thalience (i.e. can a sapient being created by humans truly be non-human), how nanotechnology would work on a massive scale, and what it means to be sapient (as well as human!)
- The balance between sci-fi and fantasy is really well done, as not all characters are told what's going on and so on. People working with incomplete information is really interesting. Also the fantasy-level plot is just - it was solid and felt like a working society just as much as the sci-fi one did.
- Probably my favorite thing about the book: lots of ladies in this book! I don't expect dude-written sci-fi (especially older sci-fi) to have women in it, but no, this book defies that. At least half of the protagonists are ladies, and boy do they influence the plot.
You should read this book. It really got me on all levels: emotional, intellectual, aesthetic even. The way some of the AIs manifest themselves are just beautiful, not to mention the architecture and so on. I wish I could erase my memory and read it again, just for the ride.
November 22, 2021
There's a fun idea in Ventus, namely Gaia realised through nanotechnology; however, Shroeder's execution leaves something to be desired.
First off, it struggles to rise from what seems to be a fairly standard Fantasy background, the first three hundred pages getting bogged down in bickering and honour grudges between rival factions and Kingdoms. Then there's a definite air of being made up as it goes along, with the sudden introduction of characters of vital plot importance, necessitating long back-story info-dumping instead of more gradual revelations spread out over preceding pages; there are sudden insights and gained abilities without which -again- the plot couldn't progress (at least where the lead characters are concerned). And the 'science' is very vague, with little in the way of even pseudo-explanation for how things might actually work.
But there is fun to be had, though mainly in the latter half when matters tilt more toward SF than Fantasy. Shroeder's readable -if slightly bland- style allows for moments of nice description and interesting, even spectacular, set-pieces. The characters are interesting enough. And everything ends in a mainly satisfying fashion.
On the cover, the author is compared to Verner Vinge (who has also supplied his own carefully worded recommendation). This raises expectation to an unfair level for Ventus, but that's not saying it doesn't have its moments.
First off, it struggles to rise from what seems to be a fairly standard Fantasy background, the first three hundred pages getting bogged down in bickering and honour grudges between rival factions and Kingdoms. Then there's a definite air of being made up as it goes along, with the sudden introduction of characters of vital plot importance, necessitating long back-story info-dumping instead of more gradual revelations spread out over preceding pages; there are sudden insights and gained abilities without which -again- the plot couldn't progress (at least where the lead characters are concerned). And the 'science' is very vague, with little in the way of even pseudo-explanation for how things might actually work.
But there is fun to be had, though mainly in the latter half when matters tilt more toward SF than Fantasy. Shroeder's readable -if slightly bland- style allows for moments of nice description and interesting, even spectacular, set-pieces. The characters are interesting enough. And everything ends in a mainly satisfying fashion.
On the cover, the author is compared to Verner Vinge (who has also supplied his own carefully worded recommendation). This raises expectation to an unfair level for Ventus, but that's not saying it doesn't have its moments.
Read
April 25, 2016Schroeder has a talent for making sweeping hard science fiction epics be about the most human emotions and characters, and doesn't disappoint here. Even the “monsters” are compelling, with their alien monstrosity giving way to various degrees of sympathy as their stories unfold.
January 21, 2015
On the planet Ventus, where humans are prohibited from all but the most limited pieces of technology, Jordan Mason lives what he believes is an ordinary life, expecting to eventually inherit his father's stoneworking business. But that all changes when he begins having visions of a distant warrior named Armiger whose army is destroyed for defying the powerful Winds that control and moderate the planet's ground, seas, and atmosphere. Soon, Jordan learns he's also key to finding Armiger, who is the agent of a malevolent and nearly godlike entity known as 3340, recently defeated in a centuries-long war against the galaxy-spanning human civilization Jordan has never heard of. Worse Armiger may not simply be an agent, he may be a means for 3340 to recreate itself from scratch and take over all of Ventus and the rest of the galaxy.
This book was the first novel of, and my first experience with, Karl Schroeder, who has since gone on to become one of my absolute favorites. He excels at really inventive speculations not just on possible technologies, but how they may influence our lives and societies and our quests for meaning, all while wrapping it up in a compelling plot. This book is no exception, tying in some intriguing thoughts on artificial intelligence with a storyline that could be a fantasy novel. That is a fairly old technique among writers, but Karl Schroeder pulls it off well, and in my favorite way. Instead of using it solely as an excuse to tell a fantasy story, with magic just briefly explained as being the product of some higher technology, Schroeder does it in a way where all of the fantastic elements make perfect sense given the technological underpinnings, which he explains well. Nor does he shy away from the outright SF element... although most of the story is set on the quasi-medieval world of Ventus, we also visit far-future Earth and living starships and meet robots and people with technological enhancements to their body. In this way, the story can serve as an ideal bridge for a fantasy reader who is interested in trying out hard SF, as the main viewpoint character is a man who doesn't know much about SF concepts that a person in a fantasy world wouldn't, and it's explained to him as others. And even if you are very familiar with these tropes, it never feels condescending.
Usually with a first novel, I give the author some leeway and am more forgiving of its flaws, but this didn't need much. Sure, flaws exist... the plot meanders a little and the ending juggles too many plot threads at once and has to end them quickly, for starters, as well as some minor incidents of head-hopping. And you could argue that the main character is a somewhat cliche "young male hero who gets wish-fulfillment abilities", with a romance subplot that's pretty by-the-numbers... but enough cliches are averted in other angles that it's easy to forgive this one. And even though Jordan and Armiger are the main characters, they're far from the only ones, there are several characters, including a number of strong female characters who could be argued are the heroes of the piece except that they don't get enough page time. There's Calandria May the advanced agent of technological humanity, who was responsible for bringing down 3340 in the first place, there's Queen Galas who is not content to rule in comfort and privilege like so many others but tries experiments to recreate society under different lines, and even Marya Mounce, Ventus expert and anthropologist.
One of the things I've come to really appreciate about Karl Schroeder is his resistance to easy villains. Aside from a few minor characters, and 3340 who is mostly off-stage, most of the conflict in the book comes from people who are legitimately trying to do what they see as the right thing, in difficult situations or with inadequate information. That opens the door to conflicts being resolved not just through battle but for coming to new understandings, which might sound boring to some, but I really appreciate in SF. Even Armiger, who in many books would be the "big bad" type character, is humanized and complex and at times you (warily) root for him.
I think this is my third or fourth reread, and, although it's not my favorite of Schroeder's books (that honor belongs to Lady of Mazes, which is set in the same universe but centuries earlier and far from the planet of Ventus), but I'm sure I'll be rereading it many times over the years.
This book was the first novel of, and my first experience with, Karl Schroeder, who has since gone on to become one of my absolute favorites. He excels at really inventive speculations not just on possible technologies, but how they may influence our lives and societies and our quests for meaning, all while wrapping it up in a compelling plot. This book is no exception, tying in some intriguing thoughts on artificial intelligence with a storyline that could be a fantasy novel. That is a fairly old technique among writers, but Karl Schroeder pulls it off well, and in my favorite way. Instead of using it solely as an excuse to tell a fantasy story, with magic just briefly explained as being the product of some higher technology, Schroeder does it in a way where all of the fantastic elements make perfect sense given the technological underpinnings, which he explains well. Nor does he shy away from the outright SF element... although most of the story is set on the quasi-medieval world of Ventus, we also visit far-future Earth and living starships and meet robots and people with technological enhancements to their body. In this way, the story can serve as an ideal bridge for a fantasy reader who is interested in trying out hard SF, as the main viewpoint character is a man who doesn't know much about SF concepts that a person in a fantasy world wouldn't, and it's explained to him as others. And even if you are very familiar with these tropes, it never feels condescending.
Usually with a first novel, I give the author some leeway and am more forgiving of its flaws, but this didn't need much. Sure, flaws exist... the plot meanders a little and the ending juggles too many plot threads at once and has to end them quickly, for starters, as well as some minor incidents of head-hopping. And you could argue that the main character is a somewhat cliche "young male hero who gets wish-fulfillment abilities", with a romance subplot that's pretty by-the-numbers... but enough cliches are averted in other angles that it's easy to forgive this one. And even though Jordan and Armiger are the main characters, they're far from the only ones, there are several characters, including a number of strong female characters who could be argued are the heroes of the piece except that they don't get enough page time. There's Calandria May the advanced agent of technological humanity, who was responsible for bringing down 3340 in the first place, there's Queen Galas who is not content to rule in comfort and privilege like so many others but tries experiments to recreate society under different lines, and even Marya Mounce, Ventus expert and anthropologist.
One of the things I've come to really appreciate about Karl Schroeder is his resistance to easy villains. Aside from a few minor characters, and 3340 who is mostly off-stage, most of the conflict in the book comes from people who are legitimately trying to do what they see as the right thing, in difficult situations or with inadequate information. That opens the door to conflicts being resolved not just through battle but for coming to new understandings, which might sound boring to some, but I really appreciate in SF. Even Armiger, who in many books would be the "big bad" type character, is humanized and complex and at times you (warily) root for him.
I think this is my third or fourth reread, and, although it's not my favorite of Schroeder's books (that honor belongs to Lady of Mazes, which is set in the same universe but centuries earlier and far from the planet of Ventus), but I'm sure I'll be rereading it many times over the years.
January 19, 2013
I got this book on the recommendation of Charles Stross, and although I downloaded the free ebook to my smartphone I wasn't expecting to get to it any time soon. It was only because I finished my paper book while on holiday sooner than I expected that I turned to this. And I was gripped within the first chapter. It starts off very much as a typical fantasy story where the young protagonist is stolen away and ends up on a quest to discover himself, but as the world widens, we discover a very hard SF story.
The world of Ventus was seeded about a thousand years ago by a nanotech seed pod to terraform it. Powerful AIs called Winds oversee this process, but when the settlers finally arrive, they find the Winds refusing to communicate with them. Worse, seeing them as a threat to their ecosystem, they wipe out their technology, reducing them to a pre-industrial civilisation. Fast-forward to the present day, and young Jordan Mason finds himself kidnapped by off-worlders because in his head is a remote sensor placed there by a former slave of the destroyed evil AI "3340" who wants to take control of the Winds and recreate his former master.
The scope of the world building is tremendous, from the Archipelago of human worlds to the immensely intricate world of Ventus itself. The idea of a completely artificial world, where nanotechnology is in everything but where everything could also be out to get you is a powerful one. Jordan is a good everyman character through whose eyes it's fascinating to see the world, and to see him grow as the story progresses.
The other really interesting character for me, is Queen Galas - a monarch with remarkably progressive views, who tries to make radical changes in her nation, thus sparking off a civil war with the establishment. Her experimentation and struggle in such a staid civilisation felt remarkably fresh, if somewhat doomed to failure.
There's also a strong philosophical thread running through a lot of the book about intelligence and narcissism which I enjoyed. There's an awful lot to like in this book. It's grounded and has an almost space-opera feel to it which is unusual but which I sometimes see in Iain M. Banks' work (definitely a compliment, I love Banks' Culture novels).
Although an option to buy the book (through PayPal) is available on the author's website, I didn't pay for it at the time since I didn't know if I'd like it or not. As soon as I finished it, I went back and left a donation via the PayPal button. This is definitely an author I'd encourage to keep writing, and this is my little way of doing that. I'll definitely look out for more of his work in future.
The world of Ventus was seeded about a thousand years ago by a nanotech seed pod to terraform it. Powerful AIs called Winds oversee this process, but when the settlers finally arrive, they find the Winds refusing to communicate with them. Worse, seeing them as a threat to their ecosystem, they wipe out their technology, reducing them to a pre-industrial civilisation. Fast-forward to the present day, and young Jordan Mason finds himself kidnapped by off-worlders because in his head is a remote sensor placed there by a former slave of the destroyed evil AI "3340" who wants to take control of the Winds and recreate his former master.
The scope of the world building is tremendous, from the Archipelago of human worlds to the immensely intricate world of Ventus itself. The idea of a completely artificial world, where nanotechnology is in everything but where everything could also be out to get you is a powerful one. Jordan is a good everyman character through whose eyes it's fascinating to see the world, and to see him grow as the story progresses.
The other really interesting character for me, is Queen Galas - a monarch with remarkably progressive views, who tries to make radical changes in her nation, thus sparking off a civil war with the establishment. Her experimentation and struggle in such a staid civilisation felt remarkably fresh, if somewhat doomed to failure.
There's also a strong philosophical thread running through a lot of the book about intelligence and narcissism which I enjoyed. There's an awful lot to like in this book. It's grounded and has an almost space-opera feel to it which is unusual but which I sometimes see in Iain M. Banks' work (definitely a compliment, I love Banks' Culture novels).
Although an option to buy the book (through PayPal) is available on the author's website, I didn't pay for it at the time since I didn't know if I'd like it or not. As soon as I finished it, I went back and left a donation via the PayPal button. This is definitely an author I'd encourage to keep writing, and this is my little way of doing that. I'll definitely look out for more of his work in future.
October 10, 2022
Вентус должен был стать раем для земных колонистов — полностью искусственная биосфера, где каждая травинка, каждый камешек, каждая капля дождя полны умных наноботов, готовых исполнить любые желания. Но когда поселенцы наконец прибыли в терраформированный рай, оказалось, что наниты по неизвестной причине не реагируют на них и занимаются своими делами, а заодно отслеживают и уничтожают любые технологии сложнее парового двигателя.
Шредер написал блистательную планетарную НФ про колонию, вынужденно отброшенную из 31 века в средневековье, и населил этот мир множеством ярких персонажей: политики, генералы, мыслители, глубоко законспирированные земные разведчики, агенты постсингулярных ИИ из ядра Галактики...
Здесь достаточно и подковерных интриг, и батальных сцен, и путешествий, и погонь, и передовых научных идей с философским уклоном. Существенная часть романа строится вокруг рассуждений о том, что будет, если дать нанитам зачатки самосознания на уровне «я снежинка», «я песчинка», «я капля воды», а дальше не нагружать их привычной человеческой семантикой, «группа песчинок = песчаная дюна, группа дюн = пустыня», а позволить им формировать такие логические структуры самостоятельно. Ясно, что в скором времени наниты выработают свою семантику и свои принципы мышления, не имеющие ничего общего с человеческими... но какие именно?
Что касается литературного влияния, то «Вентус» очевидно вырос из винджевских «Зон мысли» и бэнксовской «Культуры», причем ничуть не посрамил духовных родителей, а кое в чем и превзошел.
9/10
Шредер написал блистательную планетарную НФ про колонию, вынужденно отброшенную из 31 века в средневековье, и населил этот мир множеством ярких персонажей: политики, генералы, мыслители, глубоко законспирированные земные разведчики, агенты постсингулярных ИИ из ядра Галактики...
Здесь достаточно и подковерных интриг, и батальных сцен, и путешествий, и погонь, и передовых научных идей с философским уклоном. Существенная часть романа строится вокруг рассуждений о том, что будет, если дать нанитам зачатки самосознания на уровне «я снежинка», «я песчинка», «я капля воды», а дальше не нагружать их привычной человеческой семантикой, «группа песчинок = песчаная дюна, группа дюн = пустыня», а позволить им формировать такие логические структуры самостоятельно. Ясно, что в скором времени наниты выработают свою семантику и свои принципы мышления, не имеющие ничего общего с человеческими... но какие именно?
Что касается литературного влияния, то «Вентус» очевидно вырос из винджевских «Зон мысли» и бэнксовской «Культуры», причем ничуть не посрамил духовных родителей, а кое в чем и превзошел.
9/10
June 13, 2009
Inventive, original, and thoughtful, this is one of the better science fiction books I've read in quite a while. An unusual combination of hard science in the trappings of the kind of adventure fantasy that has largely displaced science fiction from the shelves, it explores a world of sentient nanotechnology that has gone awry.
It was the perfect way to while away a day where I seem to have a touch of flu or something wrong with my inner ear. Highly recommended to anyone who likes a good science fiction/fantasy read with interesting characters, and a good plot that evolves unexpectedly but inevitably from a rich texture of underlying concepts and assumptions.
Schroeder also understands the benefits of deep backstory - Hemingway's fabulous observation that "you can leave anything out as long as you know what it is." This novel are rich in details that are glimpsed in the background, so that you feel that there is so much more to the world and the history than is shown in the story.
It was the perfect way to while away a day where I seem to have a touch of flu or something wrong with my inner ear. Highly recommended to anyone who likes a good science fiction/fantasy read with interesting characters, and a good plot that evolves unexpectedly but inevitably from a rich texture of underlying concepts and assumptions.
Schroeder also understands the benefits of deep backstory - Hemingway's fabulous observation that "you can leave anything out as long as you know what it is." This novel are rich in details that are glimpsed in the background, so that you feel that there is so much more to the world and the history than is shown in the story.
Shelved as 'xx-dnf-skim-reference'
June 9, 2022Definitely a slow start, but GR friends have said it's worth the wait, so I'll persevere.
---
June 2022
p.117 of an edition that has 477 pp. Iow, more than 20%. And much more than I, personally, think it deserves. Too many tropes. Too much political intrigue, and too medievalish of a world. The cover is either bad (though it vaguely resembles what Axel just told Jordon), or I'll get to a point where it makes sense and at that point the book will be even more lame. In my opinion. Cutting my losses.
One more thing: I despise epics and doorstoppers pretty much on principle. So, I do admit to a prejudice against this. You might like it better if you like hefty tomes and like what reviewers who praised it like.
---
June 2022
p.117 of an edition that has 477 pp. Iow, more than 20%. And much more than I, personally, think it deserves. Too many tropes. Too much political intrigue, and too medievalish of a world. The cover is either bad (though it vaguely resembles what Axel just told Jordon), or I'll get to a point where it makes sense and at that point the book will be even more lame. In my opinion. Cutting my losses.
One more thing: I despise epics and doorstoppers pretty much on principle. So, I do admit to a prejudice against this. You might like it better if you like hefty tomes and like what reviewers who praised it like.
April 23, 2007
This was a slower read than some of his others, but once it builds up it has an awesome premise. It's hard to really describe, but it has to do with the idea of "thalience", a concept of things and beings existing together in a kind of harmony where they all know what they are and what their purpose is.
Humans first started with magic and superstition, then moved on the religion, then to science, and each of these eventually took over and calcified, becoming more of a hindrance than a help. So, "thalience" is the next wave of thinking about how to explain the world.
I said it was hard to describe. Oh well.
Humans first started with magic and superstition, then moved on the religion, then to science, and each of these eventually took over and calcified, becoming more of a hindrance than a help. So, "thalience" is the next wave of thinking about how to explain the world.
I said it was hard to describe. Oh well.
September 22, 2019
A neat book. The setting is fantasy-like enough that it scratches my fantasy itch and the story and ideas are sci-fi to satisfy those desires.
May 31, 2011
Somewhere inside of Ventus is a great story waiting for the patient reader to tear it out. But I wasn't that patient reader. Early on, I thought to myself: meh, this is too much like A Fire Upon the Deep... Only it's really not like A Fire Upon the Deep at all (which is a good thing). But it does read too much like a fantasy novel to be "good science fiction". This always grates on me [1] -- it happened with Dune, too -- all that weak quasi-medieval pageantry etc. There is some cool stuff going on in Ventus with the whole terraforming-gone-mad angle... but it takes 300 pages to get there. And as I mentioned, I just wasn't patient enough to sink in and enjoy it.
Maybe that was because it you're going to subscribe to that whole "show don't tell" strategy with your storytelling, maybe also realize that I need only be shown once or twice.
----
[1] And maybe we're right back to A Fire Upon the Deep again but... that novel could get away with it because it was the alien species that was (shall we say?) mired with that aspect.
----
See also:
• Cory Doctorow's review from Mindjack.com
Maybe that was because it you're going to subscribe to that whole "show don't tell" strategy with your storytelling, maybe also realize that I need only be shown once or twice.
----
[1] And maybe we're right back to A Fire Upon the Deep again but... that novel could get away with it because it was the alien species that was (shall we say?) mired with that aspect.
----
See also:
• Cory Doctorow's review from Mindjack.com
August 14, 2021
Tries to be too many things. Starting out I thought it was going to be a kind of steampunk book, and then it wasn't ... throw in some conventional science fiction elements and move on, with too many lengthy infodumps, most of which can be determined from context. Eventually, and it's an overly long eventually, we get the extremely expected diabolus ex machina (I just made that up, don't know if it's a real thing) followed by a deus ex machina and then nearly everyone lives happily ever after and decide to become philosophers. Steel yourself to the existence of a LOTR-type travelogue as our assortment of characters wander around through most of the book trying to get the gang together.
Add to this that I am an extraordinarily fast reader and I've been struggling with this thing for ten days which is unheard of. The last time I took ten days to finish a book, it was in a foreign language. I read Cryptonomicon in five days, people. But to be fair, Cryptonomicon had a compelling and interesting plot.
Add to this that I am an extraordinarily fast reader and I've been struggling with this thing for ten days which is unheard of. The last time I took ten days to finish a book, it was in a foreign language. I read Cryptonomicon in five days, people. But to be fair, Cryptonomicon had a compelling and interesting plot.
March 3, 2013
This book is available as a free download from the author's website! http://www.kschroeder.com/
from his site:
Ventus is a novel of information apocalypse set in the far future. For a thousand years the sovereign Winds have maintained the delicate ecological balance of the terraformed planet Ventus. Now an alien force threatens to wrest control of the terraforming system away from the Winds...
Jordan Mason, a young tradesman, is thrust into the midst of an ancient galactic conflict when he becomes the only human on Ventus who can locate the source of the alien threat. But will he side with the Winds, who have brutally suppressed technological development among the human colonists of Ventus? Or will he throw in his lot with an entity that may be planning to remake Ventus in its own, deathly image? Ventus incorporates ideas about nanotechnology, terraforming, and information theory in an epic tale of war, tragic love, betrayal and transcendence.
from his site:
Ventus is a novel of information apocalypse set in the far future. For a thousand years the sovereign Winds have maintained the delicate ecological balance of the terraformed planet Ventus. Now an alien force threatens to wrest control of the terraforming system away from the Winds...
Jordan Mason, a young tradesman, is thrust into the midst of an ancient galactic conflict when he becomes the only human on Ventus who can locate the source of the alien threat. But will he side with the Winds, who have brutally suppressed technological development among the human colonists of Ventus? Or will he throw in his lot with an entity that may be planning to remake Ventus in its own, deathly image? Ventus incorporates ideas about nanotechnology, terraforming, and information theory in an epic tale of war, tragic love, betrayal and transcendence.
July 24, 2008
This book has so much awesome between the covers it's hard to rate. It starts off feeling like a fantasy novel, and then suddenly you realize it's hard sci-fi with a whole new way to gauge whether something is artificially intelligent, and it does all this against a backdrop of an interstellar war between two AIs. Schroeder gracefully manages the balancing act of epic-scale science fiction and a more personal tale of self-discovery. Exactly the sort of expectation-shattering stuff that turned me on to sci-fi in the first place.
February 12, 2016
No one writes awesome space adventure the way Schroeder does. This book is surprising, well-written, and well-plotted. It's set in a startlingly vivid and well-thought-out world peopled by three-dimensional non-cookie-cutter characters. It's an adventure in the best sense of the word, highly enjoyable, and a book I strongly recommend.
November 15, 2021
Did not finish . . . Twice I picked this novel up with the intention of reading it and somewhere around half-way I just yearn to read something else. I ended up giving this novel away, convinced I will never finish it, but I did enjoy it, per se. No real complaints. Cool mixture of fantasy and sci-fi.
January 28, 2008
A traditional fantasy quest (Campbellian) novel with the magic replaced by nano-tech, and a little space opera thrown in for salt. It was a credible addition to either genre, and I found the book enjoyable light reading.
March 31, 2019
Good fun, with some mind-stretching ideas. Long but maintains pretty good pace throughout. Best free ebook of the year so far!
May 17, 2021
2.5 really.
Few ideas worth remembering - how we often deal with trauma by ignoring our emotions. If we try to supress our rage and other emotions. It will act through us without our knowledge so it's important to feel the emotions. Don't be a coward.
The idea of humans being narcissistic really resonated with me. We make everything in our image. Well this makes sense, we wouldn't want to create powerful beings we cannot control, understand or communicate with right?
But to some extent we might need to allow that to happen, his idea of thalience is the art of choosing the most human compatible true model. It could even be individual compatible.
I think most people will agree with his intuition there are many possible models that are functionally equivalent in the predictive sense. We may only know one of them now but it should be possible to know more. So AI could be set on the task of finding these models by exploring the space of possible metaphysics.
Unrestrained by the condition it needs to always stay close enough to our mode of consciousness that we can communicate. Karl is optimistic enough to imagine they would be able to or even want to communicate with us later. A bridge can be built.
My low score is mainly due to how easily he deals with these questions. It seems like a strawman to not really wrestle with the issues he demonizes. He talks about people spending their lives in mental masturbation. He talked about the utopia that is the archipelago and how everything is controlled and there is no freedom.
It is as if every sane person would naturally agree with him that this is not what humanity represents, that the tradeoffs aren't worth it. What alternative does he propose? I think for anyone to seriously challenge an idea, they should first understand it enough to earn a bit of grudging respect.
I wish he would have shown the other side and how alluring that future is. The gods are also too human for my taste. It is hard to write characters smarter than us so it is understandable when he fails to a certain degree. Future AI won't be "robotic" anymore than computers are now large and heavy. The storyline itself was too conventional for my taste.
Coming to the novel itself, our main character Jordan's development had the right pace in the starting but after he parted ways with May, I feel the pacing shifted too fast. The book itself could be larger. May deserved more words. I liked the romance between some of the characters but it was mostly tragedy and it did not leave me fulfilled.
I'd not recommend this book unless you are in the mood for a sappy sci fi book.
Few ideas worth remembering - how we often deal with trauma by ignoring our emotions. If we try to supress our rage and other emotions. It will act through us without our knowledge so it's important to feel the emotions. Don't be a coward.
The idea of humans being narcissistic really resonated with me. We make everything in our image. Well this makes sense, we wouldn't want to create powerful beings we cannot control, understand or communicate with right?
But to some extent we might need to allow that to happen, his idea of thalience is the art of choosing the most human compatible true model. It could even be individual compatible.
I think most people will agree with his intuition there are many possible models that are functionally equivalent in the predictive sense. We may only know one of them now but it should be possible to know more. So AI could be set on the task of finding these models by exploring the space of possible metaphysics.
Unrestrained by the condition it needs to always stay close enough to our mode of consciousness that we can communicate. Karl is optimistic enough to imagine they would be able to or even want to communicate with us later. A bridge can be built.
My low score is mainly due to how easily he deals with these questions. It seems like a strawman to not really wrestle with the issues he demonizes. He talks about people spending their lives in mental masturbation. He talked about the utopia that is the archipelago and how everything is controlled and there is no freedom.
It is as if every sane person would naturally agree with him that this is not what humanity represents, that the tradeoffs aren't worth it. What alternative does he propose? I think for anyone to seriously challenge an idea, they should first understand it enough to earn a bit of grudging respect.
I wish he would have shown the other side and how alluring that future is. The gods are also too human for my taste. It is hard to write characters smarter than us so it is understandable when he fails to a certain degree. Future AI won't be "robotic" anymore than computers are now large and heavy. The storyline itself was too conventional for my taste.
Coming to the novel itself, our main character Jordan's development had the right pace in the starting but after he parted ways with May, I feel the pacing shifted too fast. The book itself could be larger. May deserved more words. I liked the romance between some of the characters but it was mostly tragedy and it did not leave me fulfilled.
I'd not recommend this book unless you are in the mood for a sappy sci fi book.
November 9, 2023
This book was a very cool surprise.
I read Schroeder's Virga series (enclosed hard-SF atmosphere with artificial suns, a steampunk-type storytelling) and was very impressed with the concepts, so I decided to go back to his earlier works. I didn't expect it to be quite AS ambitious as it turned out to be.
Indeed, from its humble fantasy-like start, with strange nano mecha taking part of a whole planet, with strange godlike AI visitors limiting themselves to explore Ventus, the planet, I was fairly hooked from the start. I didn't quite know how immense and epic it would become.
This is fantastic hard SF, ya'll. Rich, detailed worldbuilding, never skimping on history or the SFnal rules or the implications, I'm reminded very fondly of C. S. Friedman's Black Sun Rising, Neverness. Indeed, I had the impression of some Peter Hamilton as if written by Valente in The Habitation of the Blessed, King John's kingdom as told by AIs.
*loving this*
So, let me just point out this little fact: most SF doesn't go all out, getting progressively more creative and conceptually larger as it goes, but when it does, it should be noted. Clearly. And here's your notice. Prepare for some jaw-dropping. :)
I read Schroeder's Virga series (enclosed hard-SF atmosphere with artificial suns, a steampunk-type storytelling) and was very impressed with the concepts, so I decided to go back to his earlier works. I didn't expect it to be quite AS ambitious as it turned out to be.
Indeed, from its humble fantasy-like start, with strange nano mecha taking part of a whole planet, with strange godlike AI visitors limiting themselves to explore Ventus, the planet, I was fairly hooked from the start. I didn't quite know how immense and epic it would become.
This is fantastic hard SF, ya'll. Rich, detailed worldbuilding, never skimping on history or the SFnal rules or the implications, I'm reminded very fondly of C. S. Friedman's Black Sun Rising, Neverness. Indeed, I had the impression of some Peter Hamilton as if written by Valente in The Habitation of the Blessed, King John's kingdom as told by AIs.
*loving this*
So, let me just point out this little fact: most SF doesn't go all out, getting progressively more creative and conceptually larger as it goes, but when it does, it should be noted. Clearly. And here's your notice. Prepare for some jaw-dropping. :)
May 19, 2024
This is fine, but for some reason I can't entirely pinpoint, I had a hard time getting into it. It's not a good sign when you finish a reading session and think about how much more you have to get through, rather than about how little is left. Part of why this doesn't fully work for me is its conformity to Clarke's Law that any science sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. Here, we have the planet Ventus, terraformed in the far future and run by super-sophisticated AI that the inhabitants think of as gods but that have deviated from their intended function, leading to the freezing of the planet's culture at a more or less medieval level. So, basically, we have what on one level reads like a typical quasi-medieval fantasy, but with scientific rationales (e.g. nanotech) for what looks like magic. Schroeder does do some interesting things with the formula, but the formula of the promising young man with unseen/unknown depths going on a quest holds true--and I didn't find said young man (Justin Mason--the name is of course resonant) all that interesting. It also seems to me to be overlong; ten to twenty precent could probably have been cut without material damage to the plot. Even so, there seem to me to be some loose ends. The medieval folk also seem all too quick to come to believe in the super-sophisticated tech (admittedly, they already believe in the "magic" they think it is). I would have liked to see a tad more culture shock. OTOH, Schroeder shows himself willing to kill off fairly important characters and to leave them dead--no guarantee of that in this sort of super-tech world. A worthwhile read, but uneven, for me anyway.
January 25, 2022
Several metric tonnes of great ideas. A blending of advanced science and technology (that borders on the magical) against a world descended from that magical tech, but also only at, say, a late 18th century level of its own technological development. This creates a sci-fi/fantasy tension that I liked and found interesting. [While writing this, I remembered Jay Lake's "Green" Trilogy, for the 18th/19th c. level of technology with fantastical, magical things integrated throughout, that are somehow similar to "Ventus."][come to think of it, Schroeder very successfully combined as steampunk-like aesthetic to some very hard SF in the Virga books, too...]
Schroeder has a lot of things going on it this ambitious book, but by the later chapters, I felt like he recognized that he needed to bottle the end, and shifted into a higher gear than he perhaps wanted to. It's a long book, and it would have been a lot longer if the third and final part had spun out in the best way, but it wasn't sustained. What's here is marvelous, don't get me wrong, it just doesn't quite come together in a completely satisfying way.
Props for giving the reader some things we'd expect from these genres, without foregrounding their development (e.g. couple formation), while also denying us some closure for major players. Perhaps that was because of the accelerated ending, perhaps it was always his intention. Either way, it was a good change from the norm.
[I note there's a prequel book, which I'm now very much keen to read. There's also plenty fertile ground to cultivate a sequel to Ventus, too!]
Schroeder has a lot of things going on it this ambitious book, but by the later chapters, I felt like he recognized that he needed to bottle the end, and shifted into a higher gear than he perhaps wanted to. It's a long book, and it would have been a lot longer if the third and final part had spun out in the best way, but it wasn't sustained. What's here is marvelous, don't get me wrong, it just doesn't quite come together in a completely satisfying way.
Props for giving the reader some things we'd expect from these genres, without foregrounding their development (e.g. couple formation), while also denying us some closure for major players. Perhaps that was because of the accelerated ending, perhaps it was always his intention. Either way, it was a good change from the norm.
[I note there's a prequel book, which I'm now very much keen to read. There's also plenty fertile ground to cultivate a sequel to Ventus, too!]
November 24, 2018
I decided to check out a novel by Karl Schroeder after reading his Metatropolis novella. I was put off by the cheesy cover of "Ventus" and the cheesy fantasy name of one of the main characters, but I got pulled into the plot quite quickly. It's set on the world Ventus, which was supposed to be terraformed by nanotechnology and ready to welcome settlers. but when the settlers arrive, the nanotech demigods, called "Winds" in the book, don't recognize the settlers as their masters and keep the settlers at a stone age level of development. Outside in the the rest of the universe, humanity has gone to war with a malevolent artificial intelligence and has defeated it, but they're afraid a "resurrection seed" has been planted on Ventus, so they go to find and kill it and also stumble across the secret of what went wrong with the nanotech on Ventus.
A lot of times, I find that the label "hard science fiction" is an excuse to explore technology and science philosophy at the expense of good characterization, but that's not the case here. I really found the characters sympathetic and interesting, and the main characters all go through pretty big changes over the course of the book.
A lot of times, I find that the label "hard science fiction" is an excuse to explore technology and science philosophy at the expense of good characterization, but that's not the case here. I really found the characters sympathetic and interesting, and the main characters all go through pretty big changes over the course of the book.
May 20, 2019
I've been a huge fan of Karl Schroeder for a long time but for some reason this one just didn't grab me. I wasn't too invested in the characters and it seemed to swerve around with no rhyme or reason. Characters kept introduced later and later in the book to the point where I wasn't sure if things were still just beginning even though I was halfway through. Characters' motivations were change in ways that I found confusing and a little unbelievable. I don't know. Again, I'm not saying it was bad. But for some reason, it just kept losing me. I'm always down for more Karl Schroeder. A very imaginative and inventive writer. I'll keep an eye our for more.
October 28, 2017
Good book and all got going towards the end but Christ almighty does it drag for the middle 80% where it's just Jordan watching Armiger and slowly sloooowly making his way to him. Two months to read, and I've had it waiting in my collection for about 17 years. Definitely felt like the latter.
Also characters are pretty unceremoniously killed off or have their arcs tied up. It'd be like "and then he died", end of chapter, or "by the way this guy died in the fight last chapter. So anyway..."
Also characters are pretty unceremoniously killed off or have their arcs tied up. It'd be like "and then he died", end of chapter, or "by the way this guy died in the fight last chapter. So anyway..."
November 13, 2018
Summary: Sort of a medieval setup in a far future setting, really enjoyed this book, massive premise, huge plot and lots of puzzles for the reader to try and sort out. Highly recommended
Plotline: Huge plot, nothing is straight forward and interaction with the complex premise is masterful
Premise: Astounding, at times incomprehensible, but the logic finally gets there.
Writing: Simple descriptive, flowing
Ending: Oh yes. Somehow a good ending
Pace: Never a dull moment!
Plotline: Huge plot, nothing is straight forward and interaction with the complex premise is masterful
Premise: Astounding, at times incomprehensible, but the logic finally gets there.
Writing: Simple descriptive, flowing
Ending: Oh yes. Somehow a good ending
Pace: Never a dull moment!
Shelved as 'abandoned'
January 31, 2023I really want to find out more about the world and the story got me intrigued, I just cannot handle the writing. It feels so stilted and cramped.
This is the 4th book by Schroeder that I have dropped, and I think it is safe to say he is just not my writer.
This is the 4th book by Schroeder that I have dropped, and I think it is safe to say he is just not my writer.
July 12, 2018
Quite liked this entire series.
October 30, 2018
Strong fantasy elements in a futuristic sci-fi world setting.
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