Permanence

This book is a top notch sci-fi read, blending new ideas with a classic feel, and has immediately catapulted Karl Schroeder into my favorite authors list. This book falls into the category of hard sci-fi, but with interesting characters, a well thought out story, and some philosophy thrown in for good measure.

The scientific concepts that are integrated into the setting offer a look at some of the more recent ideas about what exists between solar systems, from Kuiper Belt objects to Brown Dwarfs and their possible planetary systems, referred to in the book as the Halo worlds. The setting implies the frequency of these objects is higher than what we know of today, making these dark worlds reachable with a pre-Faster-Than-Light technology. Humans have discovered FTL drives as well, but they seem to require the deep gravity wells of normal stars to work.

The aliens of this universe are few and far between as well, and none of them are anything like humans, so much so that humanity still feels very alone in the universe. I love authors who pull off unique aliens as that is what I expect such an alternative evolutionary track would do, and it helps to make it feel like it could be real.

The book includes some philosophical & religious exploration as well, centered mostly on what it takes to build a sustainable galactic type civilization that could encompass many different intelligent species. The religion of many people in the current universe is called Permanence. This religion is based on the methodology and technology required for maintaining the current human civilization and also on expanding it. The religion still maintains it's following among the Halo worlds, but is repressed on the worlds around stars, where FTL can be used. From a philosophical side, the book explores the implications of FTL vs. non-FTL travel between worlds, and it's affects on the sustainability of a civilization spread across the stars.

There's plenty of politics here as well, with the repressive like Right Economy which nano tags everything with a value and ownership, allowing the enforcement of payment on all uses of information and items owned by others. Ultimately this appears as a libertarian dystopia, exposing the flaws in extreme economic libertarianism. There's also some repression of freedom of religion as well, but there is not much else discussed to expose what other types of rights might also be repressed.

As my initial introduction to Karl Schroeder, I found the book highly enjoyable and look forward to reading many more novels by him. In fact, I think he has managed to claim a spot in my short list of all-time favorite authors.