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Product Description
Sometimes the greatest sin is survival.
The generation ship Jacob’s Ladder has barely survived cataclysms from without and within. Now, riding the shock wave of a nova blast toward an uncertain destiny, the damaged ship—the only world its inhabitants have ever known—remains a war zone. Even as Perceval, the new captain, struggles to come to terms with the traumas of her recent past, the remnants of rebellion aboard the ship still threaten the crew’s survival.
Yet as Perceval’s relatives Tristen and Benedick play a deadly game of cat and mouse in pursuit of a traitor through a vast ship that is renewing itself in strange and dangerous ways, an even more insidious threat is building in a place no one ever thought to look. And this implacable enemy could change the face of the ship forever if a ragtag band of heroes cannot stop it.
The generation ship Jacob’s Ladder has barely survived cataclysms from without and within. Now, riding the shock wave of a nova blast toward an uncertain destiny, the damaged ship—the only world its inhabitants have ever known—remains a war zone. Even as Perceval, the new captain, struggles to come to terms with the traumas of her recent past, the remnants of rebellion aboard the ship still threaten the crew’s survival.
Yet as Perceval’s relatives Tristen and Benedick play a deadly game of cat and mouse in pursuit of a traitor through a vast ship that is renewing itself in strange and dangerous ways, an even more insidious threat is building in a place no one ever thought to look. And this implacable enemy could change the face of the ship forever if a ragtag band of heroes cannot stop it.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This novel takes no prisoners. Like the characters, the reader is continually searching for explanations and meaning. Something bad has happened to the generation starship the story takes place in. It was launched from Earth ages ago and was designed to spur the evolution and adaptation of its crew and ecosystems during its journey out. It uses an eclectic mix of technologies, both digital and biological. But where is the starship going and why?
The original ship crew were frozen after the cataclysmic events in its precursor Dust and in this book are restored in new bodies. The ship restoration is not complete as there are blind areas, that the new captain, Perceval, and her Angel Nova (an artificial intelligence) cannot penetrate. Even more worrying, the dark areas start to spread.
Perceval is a Conn, a member of the family that run things. The ex-head of the family, Alasdair Conn, instilled into his family a brutal disregard for anything except remaining in power. The fratricidal strife that drove the plot in Dust resurfaces in this novel. Tristen Conn is awakened to become the new First Mate. Along with Mallory the mage and his faithful, sentient power tool, Gavin, he is sent into the dark areas, where is it feared a secretly awakened Arianrhod Conn and her Angel Asrafil are en route to find a secret weapon hidden by the dead sorceress Cynric Conn. Benedick Conn, the father of Perceval and Tristen's brother, along with Chelsea Conn, are also awakened, as a second team questing after Arianrhod, as backup in case the first fails.
The Conns are not the only people on the ship: there are Means who acts as servants for the Conns, and small colonies of Go Backs, people who want off of the starship. But the fueding Conns are the focus and the main source of emotional trauma, plot twists and exotic locations visited in their two quests. My favourite location was an abandoned departure lounge used by a race of mobile carnivorous plants to learn about humanity by watching ancient television programmes that recycle every few years.
All in all, this novel is a really individual take on space opera, laced with the sort of characters and plots that are normally rooted in fantasy quests. It is a demanding read but worth it.
The original ship crew were frozen after the cataclysmic events in its precursor Dust and in this book are restored in new bodies. The ship restoration is not complete as there are blind areas, that the new captain, Perceval, and her Angel Nova (an artificial intelligence) cannot penetrate. Even more worrying, the dark areas start to spread.
Perceval is a Conn, a member of the family that run things. The ex-head of the family, Alasdair Conn, instilled into his family a brutal disregard for anything except remaining in power. The fratricidal strife that drove the plot in Dust resurfaces in this novel. Tristen Conn is awakened to become the new First Mate. Along with Mallory the mage and his faithful, sentient power tool, Gavin, he is sent into the dark areas, where is it feared a secretly awakened Arianrhod Conn and her Angel Asrafil are en route to find a secret weapon hidden by the dead sorceress Cynric Conn. Benedick Conn, the father of Perceval and Tristen's brother, along with Chelsea Conn, are also awakened, as a second team questing after Arianrhod, as backup in case the first fails.
The Conns are not the only people on the ship: there are Means who acts as servants for the Conns, and small colonies of Go Backs, people who want off of the starship. But the fueding Conns are the focus and the main source of emotional trauma, plot twists and exotic locations visited in their two quests. My favourite location was an abandoned departure lounge used by a race of mobile carnivorous plants to learn about humanity by watching ancient television programmes that recycle every few years.
All in all, this novel is a really individual take on space opera, laced with the sort of characters and plots that are normally rooted in fantasy quests. It is a demanding read but worth it.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This book follows on from Dust- Elizabeth Bear's most interesting novel combining machine technology and the concept of angels. I really enjoyed Dust- as an audio book- proper science fiction after reading mostly fantasy for years and equally enjoyed Dust. As is often the case, my only criticism is that the books are too short! So I am hoping for a third book soon to develop the concepts further.
Sheri Tepper's The Companions is another proper science fiction novel - for those who liked Dust and Chill
Sheri Tepper's The Companions is another proper science fiction novel - for those who liked Dust and Chill
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Dust Revisted
24 April 2010
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I greatly enjoyed the first book in this series, Dust. Highly imaginative, well-written, nicely paced--a great read. You have a couple of heroines, Rien and Perceval, struggling through the derelict generation ship, attempting to combine the various broken computer programs governing all of the ship's systems--known as Angels--into one mega Angel. All the separate Angels are not too keen on this idea, however, as whichever Angel becomes the Angel in Chief will subsume all the other Angels, in essence killing their identities. It is an epic Angel fight to the death, where one Angel emerges victorious, the stars then nova, blasting the moribund space ship on a new journey. The book ends, along comes Chill, and...
Oddly enough, instead of an entirely new story, we have Dust Revisited. Instead of Angels, we now have Angel Fragments that roam the ship. Instead of Angels vs Angels, we have the Mother of All Angels vs the Assorted Angel Fragments. It was a great romp the first time, but I'm afraid to say it's a dreary rehash the second time around. After about half the book, I was so bored I switched reading to a biography of Hirohito.
Elizabeth Bear is a terrific writer with an equally terrific imagination. It's time to travel to strange new worlds and new civilizations, to boldly go where no Angel has gone before...
Oddly enough, instead of an entirely new story, we have Dust Revisited. Instead of Angels, we now have Angel Fragments that roam the ship. Instead of Angels vs Angels, we have the Mother of All Angels vs the Assorted Angel Fragments. It was a great romp the first time, but I'm afraid to say it's a dreary rehash the second time around. After about half the book, I was so bored I switched reading to a biography of Hirohito.
Elizabeth Bear is a terrific writer with an equally terrific imagination. It's time to travel to strange new worlds and new civilizations, to boldly go where no Angel has gone before...
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
The problems with the middle
12 April 2011
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
In a series you suffer from the same issues as the middle of a novel. You know the start already and it can't really end since there will be another novel after it. The action continues the characters deal with events that happened at the end of the 1st novel and mope for quite a few pages. Events start to pace and the chase is on again and then key event to the series to get things headed again finally happens. Then you are off to the third and final novel. I would recommend the series for those who are a bit open on their science fiction to add in elements traditionally found in fantasy.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
She did it again!
29 Jun 2010
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I think I may have liked it more than Dust. Only a bit.
I love everything about the world, the family, the technology, the prose, the plot, the shiny, the damage, the emotional states... Yeah, that. Everything.
I want to live there - which may sound idiotic - but dude!
ETA: The way some authors stay doggedly with a story in sequels, refusing to change, shackled to some imaginary framework of how to manage a *series* oft times bores me. This author is not afraid to change things as the story dictates - and if that means that a beloved character - is changed into a nearly unrecognizable other character - she is not afraid to do it. I just wished she'd be rewarded for it more often by readers who appreciate her fearlessness as a story teller.
I love everything about the world, the family, the technology, the prose, the plot, the shiny, the damage, the emotional states... Yeah, that. Everything.
I want to live there - which may sound idiotic - but dude!
ETA: The way some authors stay doggedly with a story in sequels, refusing to change, shackled to some imaginary framework of how to manage a *series* oft times bores me. This author is not afraid to change things as the story dictates - and if that means that a beloved character - is changed into a nearly unrecognizable other character - she is not afraid to do it. I just wished she'd be rewarded for it more often by readers who appreciate her fearlessness as a story teller.
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