By: Karl Schroeder Publisher: Tor Science Fiction Average Rating: Binding: Mass Market Paperback Label: Tor Science Fiction Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 384 Publication Date: June 27, 2006 Release Date: June 27, 2006
Karl Schroeder is one of the new stars of hard SF. His novels, Ventus and Permanence, have established him as a new force in the field. Now he extends his reach into Larry Niven territory, returning to the same distant future in which Ventus was set, but employing a broader canvas. Lady of Mazes is the story of Teven Coronal, a ringworld with a huge multiplicity of human civilizations. It's the story of what happens when the delicate balance of coexisting worlds is completely destroyed, when the fabric of reality itself is torn.
Brilliant but troubled Livia Kodaly is Teven's only hope against invaders both human and superhuman who threaten the fragile ecologies and human diversity. Filled with action, ideas, and intellectual energy, Lady of Mazes is the hard SF novel of the year.
Too inwardly focused to be emotionally involving That Karl Schroeder built an intricate, well-thought out world is clear from page one. But the way he proceeds to involve the reader, to bring us into his world, is off-putting and confusing.
In a style echoing Gene Wolfe and other "the pleasure is in figuring out what we're talking about" sci-fi writers, Schroeder jumps from one "in the middle of" story to another, using a litany of Schroeder/Lady of Mazes-specific proper nouns, to describe what would otherwise be a fairly straightforward cyber/sci-fi plot.
If there's a cool idea in here, it was lost to me in the folds of weird terminology, purposely confusing descriptions (not evocative but just annoying), illogical character behavior, and unbelievable cultural constructions.
Which is a shame, because half of Lady of Mazes seemed almost to reach that transcendental plane of sci-fi that goes beyond sci-fi and says something new about life/society/whatever (a la Gene Wolfe, Susan Palwick, Connie Wills, PK Dick), but the other half is lamely entrenched in high-school computers'n'rockets genre fiction.
Karl Schroeder's best work This book is not for the casual sci-fi reader. Karl Schroeder has an extremely vivid imagination and he has set up a complex, difficult-to-comprehend world. It is a challenge read, but just be patient and you will get out of this book what you put into it.
Take time to contemplate the people and environments with which you're presented; not just what they look like, and how they work, but the values and culture they represent. If you put some thought into this book, you'll get a lot out of it.
What a mess! This is yet another example of a modern science-fiction author with a generally good (though narratively problematic) concept being unable to pull it off and resorting to superficially drawn characterization to propel the story.
The human story-line here is pitched at about a 4th-grade emotional level, while the plot conceit (though right in-step with modern SF perspectives toward the virtualization of human discourse) is insufficiently supported.
Don't waste your time.
Not Free SF Reader Hoo-boy. That is kind of how you feel when you get deeper into this. It starts off reminiscent of John C. Wright's Golden Age, and force-multiplies itself by way of Greg Egan, Charles Stross' Accelerando and things like this. Set in the same place, with the same 3340 entity as Ventus.
If you stop occasionally as small pieces of your mind melt, don't be surprised.
An exploration of the nature of reality with respect to being human, when posthumans, AIs and others run around being able to almost do whatever they like.
It starts with a girl's perceptions changed because of an accident, and she uncovers layer after layer and motivation after motivation of all the different powers in her world and those around it.
Living In A Post-Singularity Solar System... I'll start by listing a quote by Stephen Baxter on the cover of the current paperback, which is, "This is hard science fiction at its best". Well, mabe, but I have read an awful lot of good hard sci-fi already. As hard science fiction attempts to extrapolate the current level of science and technology into the future, in this case very far into the future, it has a place in our society to open our minds to future possibilities, and Karl Schroeder seems to do an excellent job here, and as usual in hard sci-fi, no fantasy please! This novel was very entertaining, entrancing at times, with a dynamic plot and great character development. At the very beginning of the novel you have to be patient as it takes a bit to liven up, but it is a possibly insightful peak into our transhuman and posthuman future that may someday become a classic read of it's genre.
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