- Hardcover: 416 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books; 1 edition (April 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312877218
- ISBN-13: 978-0312877217
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.8 x 3.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,944,939 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Memory
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Richly realized...A tale of self-discovery and courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds."
--"Booklist"
"Linda Nagata writes with a clear vision of humanity, science, and the future."
--Greg Bear, author of "Eon"
"An excellent read."
--"Analog"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--"Booklist"
"Linda Nagata writes with a clear vision of humanity, science, and the future."
--Greg Bear, author of "Eon"
"An excellent read."
--"Analog"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Acclaimed hard-SF author Linda Nagata introduces a new world, where the sky is bisected by an arch of light, and the mysterious "silver" rises from the ground each night to completely transform the landscape--and erase from existence anything it touches.
Young Jubilee is devastated when her brother Jolly is taken by the silver. But when a forbidding stranger with the power to control the silver comes seeking Jolly--and claiming that Jolly knows him--Jubilee flees. For she has learned an impossible secret: Jolly may still be alive!
Jubilee's flight will lead her to discoveries she could never have imagined, from the secret history of her civilization, to the awesome forgotten memories within her. And with these she will forever alter her world's future... unless the dark stranger, relentless in his pursuit, achieves his goal of destroying it.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Young Jubilee is devastated when her brother Jolly is taken by the silver. But when a forbidding stranger with the power to control the silver comes seeking Jolly--and claiming that Jolly knows him--Jubilee flees. For she has learned an impossible secret: Jolly may still be alive!
Jubilee's flight will lead her to discoveries she could never have imagined, from the secret history of her civilization, to the awesome forgotten memories within her. And with these she will forever alter her world's future... unless the dark stranger, relentless in his pursuit, achieves his goal of destroying it.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
When I was ten I had a blanket that was smooth and dark, with no light of its own until I moved and then its folds would glitter with thousands of tiny stars in all the colors of the stars in the night sky. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
When I was ten I had a blanket that was smooth and dark, with no light of its own until I moved and then its folds would glitter with thousands of tiny stars in all the colors of the stars in the night sky. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I came across this SF novel through a free Kindle collection ('Infinities'), and the short extract immediately caught my attention and my imagination.
Some science fiction reads like contemporary fiction with starships. The advanced technology seems to make little difference to the characters or to their culture. Such writing might still be good, but it doesn't make the best use of the genre.
'Memory' does not fall into that category. Linda Nagata has created a world and a people that is both very human and distinctively different. The characters do not merely exist against an unusual backdrop - they are part of it, moulded by it and in turn they mould it.
The story is told through the eyes of Jubilee, a young women growing up in a world that is racing towards a crisis. As she explores the mystery of her own world and its past, we are drawn into its depth, its beauty and its danger. It is at once strange, exotic, and solid.
For me, this is SF of the highest calibre. Brilliantly conceived, marvellously crafted, deeply fascinating. I'd certainly recommend this to anyone who likes SF with depth and intelligence - rather than just technology! - and I'll certainly want to read more by this author.
Some science fiction reads like contemporary fiction with starships. The advanced technology seems to make little difference to the characters or to their culture. Such writing might still be good, but it doesn't make the best use of the genre.
'Memory' does not fall into that category. Linda Nagata has created a world and a people that is both very human and distinctively different. The characters do not merely exist against an unusual backdrop - they are part of it, moulded by it and in turn they mould it.
The story is told through the eyes of Jubilee, a young women growing up in a world that is racing towards a crisis. As she explores the mystery of her own world and its past, we are drawn into its depth, its beauty and its danger. It is at once strange, exotic, and solid.
For me, this is SF of the highest calibre. Brilliantly conceived, marvellously crafted, deeply fascinating. I'd certainly recommend this to anyone who likes SF with depth and intelligence - rather than just technology! - and I'll certainly want to read more by this author.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
12 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Starts out well, but morphs to an interminable chase scene. 3.5 stars
25 Dec 2005
Format:Paperback
______________________________________________
Nagata's world-building here is pretty cool. The setting is a ringworld-orbital where things have gone Terribly Wrong. A long-ago war damaged the habitat, and the construction & maintenance nanoassembler-fogs (the silver), have become a menace to the players, their 'mechanics' (cool hi-tech machines) and their homes. The only safe places to live are temple-complexes around kobold wells -- the temple kobolds, small programmable mechanics, exude a sweet-smelling silver-repellent.
It's a pretty neat setup, an appealing combination of a half-understood high-tech background, a likeable heroine, a nasty villain, and a Quest... So I was having a good time until along about p.200 or so, I started realising that nothing much had happened for awhile, except that the Evil Villain (and/or his minions) was chasing the heroine (and/or her Faithful Friends, and always with her Cute Doggie) through varying landscapes, over and over again. I'm sorry to report that this is pretty much what happens in the rest of the book. The ending's pretty soggy, too.
I'd say Ms. Nagata needed a Stern Editor for this one, or else more inspiration.... Anyway, most everything else she's written is better than this. If you've never tried her (and you should), I'd start with LIMIT OF VISION, her best novel and a standalone. Or, for an appealing sample, her Nebula-award-winning novella "Goddesses", available online.
Happy reading--
Pete Tillman
Nagata's world-building here is pretty cool. The setting is a ringworld-orbital where things have gone Terribly Wrong. A long-ago war damaged the habitat, and the construction & maintenance nanoassembler-fogs (the silver), have become a menace to the players, their 'mechanics' (cool hi-tech machines) and their homes. The only safe places to live are temple-complexes around kobold wells -- the temple kobolds, small programmable mechanics, exude a sweet-smelling silver-repellent.
It's a pretty neat setup, an appealing combination of a half-understood high-tech background, a likeable heroine, a nasty villain, and a Quest... So I was having a good time until along about p.200 or so, I started realising that nothing much had happened for awhile, except that the Evil Villain (and/or his minions) was chasing the heroine (and/or her Faithful Friends, and always with her Cute Doggie) through varying landscapes, over and over again. I'm sorry to report that this is pretty much what happens in the rest of the book. The ending's pretty soggy, too.
I'd say Ms. Nagata needed a Stern Editor for this one, or else more inspiration.... Anyway, most everything else she's written is better than this. If you've never tried her (and you should), I'd start with LIMIT OF VISION, her best novel and a standalone. Or, for an appealing sample, her Nebula-award-winning novella "Goddesses", available online.
Happy reading--
Pete Tillman
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
A second reading helps quite a lot
4 Jan 2005
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I read this book when it first came out. It was good, but didn't make much of an impression. Just this week I read it again and I think it's really, really good.
The key to following the story might be this. Picture a story set in the far, far future, where people have godlike powers. Two people create a whole new planet and populate it with organisms. The organisms are very close to human; their bodies and personalities are initially patterned on the avatars of folks who are "playing" in this new "playground," but they are real biological (as opposed to mechanical) beings and they proceed to establish their own families, traditions, and civilization. Meanwhile, the "gods" who created this place have a furious argument, resulting in planet-wide ecological damage. Then they get bored and abandon their project!
BUT! -- "Memory" is not about these far-future "gods" -- it's about THEIR far future! -- the legacy of their creation as it plays out among the people living on their artificial-planet-project many tens of thousands of years later. For the people living there, the original genesis of their entire planet and its population have become mysterious ancient myths. Only IMPLICITLY is the book about "long-ago" era when the "gods" created their world and seeded it with life.
I hope this helps some of the readers who are having trouble. This is a beatifully written and truly thought-provoking book.
"Memory" is not as good as Nagata's earlier "Vast," which I would give five stars. For the uninitiated, however, "Vast" is even harder to follow than "Memory" -- MUCH harder, I would imagine.
The key to following the story might be this. Picture a story set in the far, far future, where people have godlike powers. Two people create a whole new planet and populate it with organisms. The organisms are very close to human; their bodies and personalities are initially patterned on the avatars of folks who are "playing" in this new "playground," but they are real biological (as opposed to mechanical) beings and they proceed to establish their own families, traditions, and civilization. Meanwhile, the "gods" who created this place have a furious argument, resulting in planet-wide ecological damage. Then they get bored and abandon their project!
BUT! -- "Memory" is not about these far-future "gods" -- it's about THEIR far future! -- the legacy of their creation as it plays out among the people living on their artificial-planet-project many tens of thousands of years later. For the people living there, the original genesis of their entire planet and its population have become mysterious ancient myths. Only IMPLICITLY is the book about "long-ago" era when the "gods" created their world and seeded it with life.
I hope this helps some of the readers who are having trouble. This is a beatifully written and truly thought-provoking book.
"Memory" is not as good as Nagata's earlier "Vast," which I would give five stars. For the uninitiated, however, "Vast" is even harder to follow than "Memory" -- MUCH harder, I would imagine.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
World Wide Multiplayer game gone wrong = Great Story.
6 Jun 2008
Format:Paperback
Story:
Jubilee and her younger brother Jolly live in a world that is constantly being changed due to a mysterious silver cloud that alters anything that is inanimate and kills anything that is flesh. One night when Jubilee is ten Jolly is lost to the silver in a freak accident... or so she thinks. Several years later rumors begin to circulate about a man that can come in and out of the mist without being affected. Disregarding the rumors as hopeful fantasy Jubilee tries to move on with her life until one day she comes face to face with the man, who wants her long lost brother. What follows is an adventure that will reunite brother and sister but in the process tear their idea of history and reality apart while they try to prevent a flood of silver that will drown the world once and for all.
-----some spoilers-----
This was a differnt kind of story and it was pretty good in looking at what might happen if a Massively Multiplayer Theme world was left to its own devices after a war of sorts killed one ceator and left the other brain damaged and incaple of repairing the world or doing anything besides keeping what was left running. Most of the back story is figurable out without the author trying to invent technical details and a chapter later in the book does spell out exactly what happened. I really liked this book. The author took a differnt idea and ran with it. Would recommned this to anyone who likes fantasy with a little scifi thrown in and also those who are interested in diffent takes on MMORPGs.
m.a.c
Jubilee and her younger brother Jolly live in a world that is constantly being changed due to a mysterious silver cloud that alters anything that is inanimate and kills anything that is flesh. One night when Jubilee is ten Jolly is lost to the silver in a freak accident... or so she thinks. Several years later rumors begin to circulate about a man that can come in and out of the mist without being affected. Disregarding the rumors as hopeful fantasy Jubilee tries to move on with her life until one day she comes face to face with the man, who wants her long lost brother. What follows is an adventure that will reunite brother and sister but in the process tear their idea of history and reality apart while they try to prevent a flood of silver that will drown the world once and for all.
-----some spoilers-----
This was a differnt kind of story and it was pretty good in looking at what might happen if a Massively Multiplayer Theme world was left to its own devices after a war of sorts killed one ceator and left the other brain damaged and incaple of repairing the world or doing anything besides keeping what was left running. Most of the back story is figurable out without the author trying to invent technical details and a chapter later in the book does spell out exactly what happened. I really liked this book. The author took a differnt idea and ran with it. Would recommned this to anyone who likes fantasy with a little scifi thrown in and also those who are interested in diffent takes on MMORPGs.
m.a.c
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