Schismatrix
In the far future, in a solar system colonized by a strange aggregation of human cultures, Abelard Lindsay, a rogue diplomat from the Mare Serenitatis Circumlunar Corporate Republic, struggles for survival amidst powerful, advanced societies warring to control the shape of human destiny. In the complex hi tech environment known as Schismatrix, cybernetic humans (Mechanists) contend for domination against the psychologically and genetically altered Shapers, and as today's high technologies take bizarre new forms, and explosive advances in science shatter mankind into warring camps. Schismatrix is a modern science fiction epic. Vast in scope, with dozens of characters, it covers 170 years of far future history in settings that span the solar system. In this world Sterling has built the grand tradition of SF adventure flowers again as Abelard Lindsay, exiled revolutionary, travels from world to world building and rebuilding an empire, always on the cutting edge of technological change and social ferment. He uses the Mech vs. Shaper conflict for his own ends, to rise to a unique position of power and authority in the Schismatrix. Shifting, changing, fast paced, and fascinating, Lindsay's adventures redefine classic idea of space adventure for our generation.
Stats for nerds
9recommend
21mentions
16people
2012–2026years
52% recommend48% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Here are some which, though perhaps not the best, haunt my memory through unique nostalgia.
Glory Season, David Brin. Ok, this is one of the best. A heartrending saga of epic scale.
Carve the Sky, Alexander Jablokov. Scifi feudalism.
All of an Instant, Richard Garfinkle.
Vita Nostra, Marina & Sergey Dyachenko. Though very different, it somehow reminds me of Roadside Picnic.
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson.
Schismatrix, Bruce Sterling.
Interstellar Pig, William Sleator.
The Carpet Makers, Andreas Eschbach
The Threshold series (Peter Clines) doesn't really belong in this list, but it is excellent and from what I gather, commonly overlooked by fans of Lovecraft.
I'd also throw in The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russel, if it wasn't so well known already.
In a different vein, if you seek good-old action-packed, kick-ass never-ending fun, pick anything by Larry Correia. Even if it appears fantasy, it might turn out to be scifi...
- Since this thread has a lot of chatter about all kinds of sci-fi adaptations, I'd like to endorse a show for Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling, which fuses cyberpunk setting and action, transhumanism and the evolution of the species, space colonization, and the rise and fall of human ideological empires based on all of the previous. A story that spans epochs and the entire Solar System.
- I'm wary of labels such as "must read" - but a couple of books I'm glad I read:
"Dahlgren" by Samuel Delaney (and most everything else I've read by him as well).
"Earthsea" by Ursula LeGuin - and "Powers".
"Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson.
"Holy Fire" by Bruce Sterling (I also enjoyed Islands in the Net, Zenith Angle and Schismatrix).
"Foundation" trilogy + prequel by Isaac Asimov.
"Brave New World", Aldous Huxley.
"Deepness in the Sky" / "Fire Upon the Deep" by Vernor Vinge.
"Something wicked this way comes" by Ray Bradbury.
And a couple of comics/visual novels:
"V for Vendetta" and "Watchmen" by Alan Moore (David Lloyd/ Tony Weare and Dave Gibbons / John Higgins).
Dave Sims: "Cerebus" (I don't think I've finished this yet, but the first ten volumes or so is.. Something else).
- I discovered a similar thought the first time in the amazing science fiction novel Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling:
"Lindsay glanced at one wall and was paralyzed at the sight of his own clan's founder, Malcolm Lindsay. As a child, the dead pioneer's face, leering in ancestral wisdom from the tops of dressers and bookshelves, had filled him with dread. Now he realized with a painful leap of insight how young the man had been. Dead at seventy. The whole habitat had been slammed up in frantic haste by people scarcely more than children. He began laughing hysterically.
'It's a joke!' he shouted. The laughter was melting his head, breaking up a logjam of thought in little stabbing pangs.
[...]
'It's a joke,' Lindsay said. His tongue was loose now and the words gushed free. 'This is unbelievable. These poor fools had no idea. How could they? They were dead before they had a chance to see! What's five years to us, what's ten, a hundred—' "
- Hey, thanks for the comment. I totally respect the authors for writing hard sci-fi space opera. It's just that... the bleak hopeless future theme is getting a bit long in the tooth, you know? If I want to feel depressed I can just turn on the daily news.
Incidentally, can anyone recommend some hopeful science fiction? "Schismatrix" is probably my favorite.
- I don't get the reference to your username, who is it?
Because I have read the other of your recommendations (you and the gp), and I agree with them, I want to add my two cents (in not special order):
"Recursion" by Tony Ballantine, "Counting Heads" by David Marusek, "In the mouth of the whale" by Paul McAuley, "House of Suns" by Alistair Reynolds, "Diaspora" by Greg Egan,"The Collapsium" by Will McCarthy, "Signal to noise" by Eric S. Nylund, "Stations of the tide" by Michael Swanwick, "Schismatrix" by Bruce Sterling
