Book 3 of the Jacob's Ladder trilogy
Perceval as Captain, and Nova as her AI "Angel" have squashed all known remnant AI's and led the Jacob's Ladder through a 50 year time of relative peace. We open with the ship making contact with a human settlement on a planet (called Grail). With the intent of making landfall, Perceval must negotiate the political waters of what landfall would mean, both for the current inhabitants and for her own citizens. An ideological consensus does not exist on Jacob's Ladder or on Grail about whether landfall should be allowed or attempted. Amidst the continued AI/corporeal tensions and power struggles, we are treated to fun discussions of humanity's role in evolution in the universe and arguments about whether activist evolution is moral, or simply inevitable. Bear does a great job of teasing out some of the themes she set up in the first two books and setting up a tension that is easily translatable to 21st century earth. One of my favorite pieces is her referral to all ruling governments in 21st and 22nd century earth as Kleptocracies, including a reference to capitalism as one of the the religions of the time. As a forward looking piece of literature, we may in hindsight find these identifications prescient.
This is an excellent sci-fi series.
No comments:
Post a Comment