- Hardcover: 416 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz (20 May 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0575085339
- ISBN-13: 978-0575085336
- Product Dimensions: 15.3 x 3.4 x 23.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 439,644 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Absorption: Ragnarok v. 1
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Product Description
Book Description
The universe is dark. And it is alive. Hard SF Space Opera to rival Peter F. Hamilton.
Product Description
600 years from now on the world of Fulgor Roger Blackstone, son of two Pilots (long-time alien spies, masquerading as ordinary humans) aches to see the mythical Pilot's city of Labyrinth, in the fractal ur-continuum of mu-space. In 8th century Norseland, a young carl called Wulf kills a man, watched by a mysterious warrior who bears the mark of Loki the Trickster God. In 1920s Zurich, Gavriela Silberstein enters the long, baroque central hallway of the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule where Einstein so recently studied. And on a nameless world, not knowing his human heritage, a silver-skinned youth tries to snatch back an Idea - but it floats away on gentle magnetic currents. There are others across the ages, all with three things in common: they glimpse shards of darkness moving at the edge of their vision; they hear echoes of a dark, disturbing musical chord; and they will dream of joining a group called the Ragnarok Council. ABSORPTION is the first novel of RAGNAROK, a new space opera trilogy of high-tech space warfare, unitary intelligences made up of millions of minds, the bizarre physics of dark energy, quantum mechanics and a mindblowing rationale for Norse mythology.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
As I've mentioned in other reviews I'm seriously fond of space opera, the more grandiose in scale and complexity the better and this 1st novel in a planned trilogy is frankly brilliant. It delivers on every level with tight plotting, efficient characterisation and compelling world building. The use of a multi threaded narrative, set in multiple time periods delivers a great deal of tension and pace and unusually doesn't get too confusing to follow. Following three primary characters from the dark ages, early 20th century and from 600 years from now, their stories are intertwined with a host of other characters from various time periods around the three main hubs.
The tension and pace ramp up through the book with hints as to the shape of the coming conflict and glimpses of both hidden capabilities and subtle conspiracies. I found myself genuinely gripped with the fates of various characters and found some of the plot twists both totally unexpected and quite moving.
I don't think I can recommend this highly enough. It's the best opener to a space opera trilogy since The Reality Dysfunction. Bravo!
The tension and pace ramp up through the book with hints as to the shape of the coming conflict and glimpses of both hidden capabilities and subtle conspiracies. I found myself genuinely gripped with the fates of various characters and found some of the plot twists both totally unexpected and quite moving.
I don't think I can recommend this highly enough. It's the best opener to a space opera trilogy since The Reality Dysfunction. Bravo!
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I think this is the best novel John Meaney has written to date. It resonates with echoes of some of his earlier novels and short fiction, but while the reader's experience of this book might benefit from having read To Hold Infinity, Paradox, Context, and Resolution, I'm certain that won't be necessary to enjoy it. And if you like science fiction with fascinating characters, exotic yet believable settings, excellent writing, and lots of layers of meaning and action, you will enjoy it a great deal.
Absorption is a richly interwoven narrative that navigates time and space with as much ease and style as one of Meaney's legendary Pilots. It immerses you in elegant complexities of character and story and scene, uniting the lives and destinies of beings from far-flung localities in a cause that leaves the familiar limitations of space and time behind, because the enemies of life are not bound by them. Meaney's villains are powerful, mysterious, well-conceived and downright scary in their ability to infiltrate and twist any reality, including our own.
The overall story is necessarily incomplete until the final volume, but Meaney manages to pause each thread in a satisfying place, while also spinning up new ones to whet the reader's appetite for what's to come. And if what's to come is as good as the first book, it's going to be worth waiting for.
Absorption is a richly interwoven narrative that navigates time and space with as much ease and style as one of Meaney's legendary Pilots. It immerses you in elegant complexities of character and story and scene, uniting the lives and destinies of beings from far-flung localities in a cause that leaves the familiar limitations of space and time behind, because the enemies of life are not bound by them. Meaney's villains are powerful, mysterious, well-conceived and downright scary in their ability to infiltrate and twist any reality, including our own.
The overall story is necessarily incomplete until the final volume, but Meaney manages to pause each thread in a satisfying place, while also spinning up new ones to whet the reader's appetite for what's to come. And if what's to come is as good as the first book, it's going to be worth waiting for.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Proper Science Fiction with an epic scale. This is the real deal...a book that takes modern technologic trends and extrapolates not just one level of future technology but at least four! covering 770AD all the way to 500 million AD. The enemy is a darkness itself, rather like Vernor Vinge's 'A Darkness upon the sky'... the enemy is in the background for this book, behind the scenes vast and malign.
We see Aliens for whom scent and taste are the primary senses, another race that appear to have four active personas at any time, a utopian city who's homes can be reshaped by a thought, sentient stealth ships, an ultra advanced internet and cyber criminals who can hack minds.
John even leads us to consider particle physics - "A Photon, light itself, travels at the speed of light. As things approach lightspeed time slows to nothing... what does this mean? It means photons are timeless, fragments of the initial universe-state untouched and untouchable" (roughly quoted from memory).
Absorbtion makes the Borg look like a prayer meeting and makes the Deathstar look as technological as a viking longboat.
We see Aliens for whom scent and taste are the primary senses, another race that appear to have four active personas at any time, a utopian city who's homes can be reshaped by a thought, sentient stealth ships, an ultra advanced internet and cyber criminals who can hack minds.
John even leads us to consider particle physics - "A Photon, light itself, travels at the speed of light. As things approach lightspeed time slows to nothing... what does this mean? It means photons are timeless, fragments of the initial universe-state untouched and untouchable" (roughly quoted from memory).
Absorbtion makes the Borg look like a prayer meeting and makes the Deathstar look as technological as a viking longboat.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Difficult to read
I stuck with this book for a quarter of the way through before giving up. Some of the other reviewers have commented on its complexity or accessibility. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Robert
Complex, diverse and satisfying
Firstly, I have to admit being a fan of the big space opera and bought this book after reading the other reviews (which by the way is a much better guide than relying upon 'author... Read more
Published 5 months ago by I. E. Pownall
A toughie but a goodie
This book is confusing [cross time and other dimensions] but it knits together well, producing a 'well worth it' read. Book 2, here I come. Like the 'War and Peace' of SF.
Published 7 months ago by Mr. A. Healy
A discovery, the like of which is far to rare.
I did not like chapter one and found chapter two even more off putting. However by the end of chapter three I realised I was in the presence of greatness. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Dung
Absorption
It took me a while to get my head around some of the concepts used and the vast array of characters. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Cazza
An uneven start to the series
This book is effectively a sequel to To Hold Infinity set 100 years past the end of that book for part of it's story. Read more
Published 12 months ago by K. Maxwell
Truly Superb
This was truly very very good, and I have to agree with the other reviews, it could be the best start to a series since The Reality Dysfunction, the ending went widescreen, and was... Read more
Published 15 months ago by J. P. Devine
Good but not accessible to all.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed Absorption, the pacing is good, the variety of characters and their development is very satisfy
too read about and have unfold and slowly become... Read more
too read about and have unfold and slowly become... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Mr. Steven Williamson
Vampire code...
This is a seriously good start to a trilogy.
All over the universe, both past and future, on earth and on planets not yet discovered, a darkness becomes visible - to... Read more
All over the universe, both past and future, on earth and on planets not yet discovered, a darkness becomes visible - to... Read more
Published 23 months ago by D. Harris
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