Permanence [French] [Paperback]

"Permanence" is both the name of a space-age religion and the desire of a space-faring humanity, in a universe where no civilization is truly permanent. The protagonist is a young girl, Rue, who escapes from her abusive brother, discovers an alien spaceship, and goes on to have world-shaking adventures involving the ship and its alien technology. The author's use of high technology in his stories is easy and natural, for example, shared virtual reality (inscapes) and nanotechnology are seamlessly integrated into the way of life for Rue and her contemporaries.

The plot of "Permanence" revolves around a clash between the Cycler Compact (worlds united by spaceships capable only of slower-than light travel) and the Rights Economy (worlds united by faster-than light spaceship travel). The scope of the plot spans numerous planets and living environments, with aliens and alien cultures and concepts. The plot involves a clash of cultures, economies, politics, philosophies, and religions. The book is chock full of new ideas and concepts.

I read "Permanence" straight through from start to finish. It was a thoroughly engaging read with a satisfying ending. The only reason I am giving this book 4 stars and not 5 is that the author's characterization still needs a bit of work, as the emotions and thoughts of some of the characters are slightly juvenile. Nonetheless, it was a very enjoyable read, and I hope the author continues to put out excellent hard Science Fiction, well into the future.

The tale is jagged, confusing, jumbled. Its characters do what they do because Mr. Schroeder wants them to, not from any sort of internal motivation--at least none discernible to me. The science is dippy: tool-making species, intones Michael's boss, Professor Herat, in a plot stopping interlude, are doomed because their tool making is a compensation for their failure to adopt to their environment (duh). There's FTL, but it doesn't work everywhere and not everybody has it (but they all want it), but everybody bops around free of the problems of time dilation, etc. etc. (eh?).

There's a villain, of course, Admiral Crisler, who used to be a scientist (oh please!) and he does everything but twirl his cape and go bwaa haa haa. (Anyone? Anyone? Whiplash? Whiplash?)

You'll probably stay till the end; there's some good space opera here and the final invasion of Crisler's domain is well-done. But maybe you'll feel exhausted rather than elated when you reach the final page.

This book is so unfocused (especially compared with the author's debut novel) that you may wonder how it came to be. I have an idea. I think that Mr. Schroeder's editor asked him if he had anything else in the pipeline post-"Ventus." Voila! Mr. Schroeder pulled this out of his drawer (or out of his computer?) and the editor set to work trying to make something coherent of it. But there was just no way.

Ah well, maybe next time Mr. Schroeder will deliver a winner. For sure he's capable of it.

Permanence is a quasi-religious order set up to support the great
starships, and to preserve human civilization for the indefinitely long
future. It's a noble and admirable organization, which has been
seriously disrupted by the recent discovery of FTL travel -- which, it
turns out, will only work near a full-size star. FTL travel is *much*
cheaper than the sublightspeed cyclers, so the halo worlds' economies,
and the Cycler Compact, are near collapse. It gets worse -- the lit worlds
are joining the new Earth-based Rights Economy, an aggressively-
centralized property-rights setup that forbids any non-commercial
transactions. Hmm -- could this be socially-conscious Canada vs. the
great, grasping Colossus of the South? (The halo worlds are cold, too...)

Meadow-Rue Rosebud Cassells lit out from Allemagne station when
her bullying brother got to be too much. Enroute to Erythrion, Rue
discovers, and files a claim on, a new comet. [Minor *SPOILER*
warning -- but no more than is on the dust-jacket.] Her claim is denied
-- her 'comet' is really a spaceship -- but then reinstated: it's not
a *human* spaceship, and it doesn't answer calls, though the drive is
still working. Rue must take physical control of the ghost ship to make
good her claim, but Powerful Forces want the ship for themselves...

The framework of the novel is Rue's growth from scared kid to
respected starship captain. I like bildungsromans, and this is a good
one. But the real power of Permanence is the good old sense-of-
wonder techstuff: "[The colonies] swarmed like insects around
incandescent filaments hundreds of kilometers in length. Each
filament was a fullerene cable that harvested electricity from
Erythrion's magnetic field... The power running through the cables
made them glow in exactly the same way that tungsten had glowed in
light bulbs... on twentieth-century Earth." I love this stuff. And it's
even plausible -- see Schroeder's neat website, kschroeder.com

At times Permanence may remind you of Ken Macleod's political SF,
though Schroeder is much less in your face (which I prefer). You'll
see nods to Pohl's Gateway, Norton's Forerunners, Brin's and
Pellegrino's hostile-universe Fermi-paradox ideas... Schroeder's still
looking for a distinctive voice, which is pretty standard for a
writer's early books, and anyway he s/t/e/a/l/s *borrows* from the
best...

Schroeder's very good at delivering the short, sharp shock: Rue's
poor, then she's rich! Oops, bad claim, poor again. Wait, she's rich
after all! This 'Perils of Pauline' plot structure works pretty well for
most of the book, but was wearing thin towards the end. Again,
these are sophomore-book teething problems, easily forgiveable
within the terrific story (and backstory!) that Schroeder's got to tell.
Which is: classic, wide-screen space-opera with a sharp hard-sf edge
-- my favorite kind of SF! Folks, this is the good hard stuff, which is
never in oversupply. So if you haven't yet tried Schroeder's brand of
thinking-being's hard-sf adventure stories, Permanence is an
excellent place to start. Then you can go back and pick up on last
year's Ventus, which might even be better. They're both terrific
books. Happy reading!
_____________
Note 1.) Not as Fast as Light, an Ursula K. LeGuin coinage. Or is it
Nearly as Fast? And did you know that her ansibles are an anagram
of lesbians?

2.) The cyclers are the neatest part of the backstory -- see
Schroeder's website for the
details, which are interesting of themselves (for spaceflight buffs like
me, anyway) and spoiler-free. I was a bit disappointed that the cyclers
had become obsolete by Permanence time -- well, sort of -- and I hope
that Schroeder returns to earlier times in the future history of the
Cycler Compact. And I wouldn't be surprised if Ventus turned out to be
in Permanence's future...

Review copyright 2002 by Peter D. Tillman