Greg Egan became the hottest new science-fiction author of the 1990s and won the Hugo and John W. Campbell Memorial awards by extrapolating cutting-edge quantum physics and consciousness theory to create rigorous and radical new visions of the posthuman future. Schild's Ladder affirms Mr. Egan's place, with Olaf Stapledon and Poul Anderson, among the giants of cosmic-scale SF.
In Schild's Ladder, humanity has transcended both death and Earth, and discovered its home world is nearly unique as a cradle of life. As it spreads throughout the galaxy, humanity enjoys an almost utopian existence--until a scientist accidentally creates an impenetrable, steadily expanding vacuum that devours star systems and threatens the entire universe with destruction.
Tchicaya is a Yielder, member of the faction that believes this "novo-vacuum" deserves study. The opposing Preservationists--among them Mariama, his first love--seek to save worlds and destroy the novo-vacuum. Discord heats to terrorist violence; then enmities and alliances are turned upside-down by a discovery that may mean the novo-vacuum is, instead, a new and very different universe--and one which may contain life. --Cynthia Ward
From Publishers Weekly
Australian Egan (Teranesia) writes some of the hardest SF around in terms both of difficulty and cutting-edge scientific content, as shown in his latest challenging novel, set some 20,000 years in the future. Though superhuman by our standards, Egan's characters often disembodied intelligences who prefer to live as programs in virtual reality or in still stranger, high-tech media are still capable of making mistakes. At the start, an experiment in quantum physics goes badly astray, creating another universe with physical laws that differ from our own. Its border expanding at half the speed of light, this new universe swallows planetary systems whole. Fortunately, humanity is so highly developed that entire populations can be quickly evacuated with little if any loss of life. Soon the scientific community divides into two groups, those who would destroy the new universe, and those who would study it. The debate becomes even more tense when evidence of life is found behind the rapidly expanding border. Characters invariably speak the language of quantum physics fluently, and the author makes little effort to bring their discussion down to the layman's level. Not until the end, when scientists begin to explore the new universe, does Egan make any real attempt to engage the reader's senses or emotions. The pleasures of this impressive novel, although considerable, are almost entirely intellectual. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
About 20,000 years into the future, an evolved human race has mastered the secret of effortless space travel only to discover no other intelligent life in the galaxy. When an experiment in quantum physics creates a mysterious vacuum that quickly begins expanding, threatening everything in its path, rival factions pursue opposing tactics. One group wishes to destroy the threat, while the other group desires to explore the phenomenon, which seems to be creating new life forms. Sf veteran Egan (Terenesia) focuses on the wonders of quantum physics, bringing a complex topic to life in a story of risk and dedication at the far end of time and space. A good choice for libraries with a demand for science-heavy sf adventure. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Some 23 centuries from now, the laws of quantum physics are pretty much settled, but one researcher bends time and space in a blindingly quick experiment. She inadvertently creates a "nono-vacuum" that expands at half the speed of light, eating up the familiar vacuum of space. Over several thousand years, humanity leapfrogs from planet to planet in order to survive. Meanwhile, parked in a ship just ahead of the nono-vacuum, two contingents of scientists poke at the nono-vacuum's border and field a hypothesis: the unknown universe may be as complex as the known. But is it breachable? Tchicaya--the hero, if this tale could be said to have characters at all--postulates Schild's Ladder, a geometric theory that suggests it is. Thereafter, he finds the marooned researcher who unraveled the universe in the first place--and a great deal more. Very much in the manner of Hal Clement, Egan writes rather forbidding novels, always grounded in real science and imbued with serious scientific speculations. This is his most uncompromising book to date. John Mort
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
The Age of Death ended countless millennia ago. No longer burdened by limited lifespans, the immortal humans who populate inhabited space now have the luxury to travel vast distances effortlessly and to tinker with the intricate mechanics of spacetime. But one such experiment in quantum physics has had a catastrophic and unanticipated result, creating an enormous, rapidly expanding vacuum -- a region of new physics -- with the frightening potential to devour countless inhabited solar systems.Tchicaya abandoned his homeworld four thousand years ago to travel the universe, freely choosing, as have others of his bent, to endure the hardships of distance and loneliness for the sake of knowledge and experience. Aboard the Rindler, a starship trawling the border of the allconsuming novo-vacuum, he feels his endless life has new purpose. For the Rindler is the center for the scientific study the phenomenon -- a common ground for Preservationists and Yielders alike, those working to halt and destroy the encroaching worlds-eater ... and those determinedto investigate its marvels while allowing its growth to continue unchecked. Tchicaya has allied himself firmly with the latter camp.The passing decades -- and inevitable expansion of the void -- widen the great rift between the two factions, intensifying what was once simply ideological differences into something more angry, explosive, and dangerous. And the arrival of Tchicaya's fiery first love, Mariama, and her immediate embracing of the Preservationist cause, intensifies an inner turmoil he has been struggling with since his distant childhood.But everything onboard the Rindler -- and, ultimately, in the inhabited universe itself-is on the cusp of further cataclysmic change, as the Yielders' explorations threaten to transform discord into violent action and potential xenocide. For new evidence suggests that something unthinkable is developing at an astounding rate deep within the mysterious, 600-light-years-wide void -- something neither Tchicaya and his compatriots nor Mariama and hers could ever have imagined possible: life.
About the Author
Greg Egan is the author of the acclaimed SF novels Diaspora, Axiomatic, Quarantine, Permutation City, and Teranesia. A winner of the Hugo Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, Mr. Egan lives in Australia.
Schild's Ladder FROM THE PUBLISHER
"The Age of Death ended countless millennia ago. No longer burdened by limited lifespans, the immortal humans who populate inhabited space now have the luxury to travel vast distances effortlessly and to tinker with the intricate mechanics of spacetime. But one such experiment in quantum physics has had a catastrophic and unanticipated result, creating an enormous, rapidly expanding vacuum - a region of new physics - with the frightening potential to devour countless inhabited solar systems." "Tchicaya abandoned his homeworld four thousand years ago to travel the universe, freely choosing, as have others of his bent, to endure the hardships of distance and loneliness for the sake of knowledge and experience. Aboard the Rindler, a starship trawling the border of the all-consuming novo-vacuum, he feels his endless life has new purpose. For the Rindler is the center for scientific study of the phenomenon - a common ground for Preservationists and Yielders alike, those working to halt and destroy the encroaching worlds-eater ... and those determined to investigate its marvels while allowing its growth to continue unchecked. Tchicaya has allied himself firmly with the latter camp." But everything onboard the Rindler - and, ultimately, in the inhabited universe itself - is on the cusp of further cataclysmic change, as the Yielders' explorations threaten to transform discord into violent action and potential xenocide. For new evidence suggests that something unthinkable is developing at an astounding rate deep within the mysterious, 600-light-years-wide void - something neither Tchicaya and his compatriots could ever have imagined possible: life.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Australian Egan (Teranesia) writes some of the hardest SF around in terms both of difficulty and cutting-edge scientific content, as shown in his latest challenging novel, set some 20,000 years in the future. Though superhuman by our standards, Egan's characters often disembodied intelligences who prefer to live as programs in virtual reality or in still stranger, high-tech media are still capable of making mistakes. At the start, an experiment in quantum physics goes badly astray, creating another universe with physical laws that differ from our own. Its border expanding at half the speed of light, this new universe swallows planetary systems whole. Fortunately, humanity is so highly developed that entire populations can be quickly evacuated with little if any loss of life. Soon the scientific community divides into two groups, those who would destroy the new universe, and those who would study it. The debate becomes even more tense when evidence of life is found behind the rapidly expanding border. Characters invariably speak the language of quantum physics fluently, and the author makes little effort to bring their discussion down to the layman's level. Not until the end, when scientists begin to explore the new universe, does Egan make any real attempt to engage the reader's senses or emotions. The pleasures of this impressive novel, although considerable, are almost entirely intellectual. (May 8) Forecast: Winner of a Hugo and a John W. Campbell award, Egan tried to counteract his reputation for leaving out emotion and sense impressions by developing appealing characters and place in his last novel, Teranesia. But his return to "coolness" may limit his appeal largely to quantum physicists who read SF. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
About 20,000 years into the future, an evolved human race has mastered the secret of effortless space travel only to discover no other intelligent life in the galaxy. When an experiment in quantum physics creates a mysterious vacuum that quickly begins expanding, threatening everything in its path, rival factions pursue opposing tactics. One group wishes to destroy the threat, while the other group desires to explore the phenomenon, which seems to be creating new life forms. Sf veteran Egan (Terenesia) focuses on the wonders of quantum physics, bringing a complex topic to life in a story of risk and dedication at the far end of time and space. A good choice for libraries with a demand for science-heavy sf adventure. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Another mind-boggling vision from the author of the demanding but immensely rewarding Diaspora (1998). Twenty millennia from now, matter and space can be shaped to order by "quantum graph" techniques deriving from the Sarumpaet rules; only the speed of light remains inviolate, so space travelers eventually become estranged from their origins. Murder is unknown; people are immortal and, until stirred by physical attraction, asexual, when they rapidly develop the requisite organs. But no other intelligent life exists and, lacking challenges, human society has grown vegetative. Physicist Cass's experimental "novo-vacuum," expected to endure only for an instant, instead expands at half the speed of light, swallowing solar systems as it goes. Six hundred years later, investigators aboard a ship coasting just in front of the expanding boundary are split into two mutually hostile factions: Tchicaya and the Yielders wish simply to study the phenomenon; Mariama, Tchicaya's former lover and rival, and the other Preservationists intend to destroy the novo-vacuum using space-chewing constructs called Planck worms. The novo-vacuum, however, composed of Planck-scale "vendeks," appears to be alive! Even more astonishing, somebody within seems to be signaling! The factions quickly agree on a moratorium. But the Preservationists have been infiltrated by "anachronauts," refugees from the 23rd century who regard modern society as psychotic and are determined to destroy the novo-vacuum with its competing life-forms-and they launch virulent Planck worms before the Yielders can react. Still mutually suspicious, Tchicaya and Mariama join forces and enter the novo-vacuum, hoping to find intelligent beings andfind a way to defeat the Planck worms from within. No writer takes ideas as far or presents them so convincingly, from a spellbinding dramatization of a physical and ethical clash in a society that knows little of either up to an utterly brain-blasting exploration-explication of physics-as-biology.
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