book review
Dec. 8th, 2004 17:41![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
piranhawil mccarthy -- the fall of sirius.
this is a sequel to aggressor six, but can be read stand-alone. apparently not everyone on sirius died when the waister armada from orion blew through; some humans survived in cryostasis. they find themselves, 2000 years later, awoken by a group of humans (the gateans) who have "gone waister", starting from the "aggressor six" experience and adding much genetic modification to that. instead of getting some time to find their bearings, the survivors are confronted with the return of the waister armada.
this book is considerably more complex in its character explorations -- the protagonist was a police officer, and carries quite a bit of baggage from her father; within the group of survivors there are other interests struggling with hers, and as it turns out, gatean society is also a pile of competing factions. who didn't know just what they got when they woke up this group of survivors; there are some surprises in store for everyone.
and we get to learn more about the waisters! instead of immediately destroying everyone, this time they've come to talk (first?).
there's lots of nifty little ideas -- i especially liked the "congress", a gathering of artificial personalities based on real, once famous/important people, with whom one can communicate to get their opinions and advice while only nanoseconds pass in the real world. one of those AIs is ken jonson, the man from the "aggressor six" unit who had encountered actual waisters on the ship the humans captured.
i liked this book overall better than aggressor six, though it still doesn't do as much with everything it sets up as it could. but there's more about the aliens, there's more character development (though what's done with one character really pissed me off), and i definitely like the idea that some humans have become waister-like and have developed factions among themselves.
i have the feeling from the epilogue that this isn't the last we'll see of this universe, which is fine by me.
this is a sequel to aggressor six, but can be read stand-alone. apparently not everyone on sirius died when the waister armada from orion blew through; some humans survived in cryostasis. they find themselves, 2000 years later, awoken by a group of humans (the gateans) who have "gone waister", starting from the "aggressor six" experience and adding much genetic modification to that. instead of getting some time to find their bearings, the survivors are confronted with the return of the waister armada.
this book is considerably more complex in its character explorations -- the protagonist was a police officer, and carries quite a bit of baggage from her father; within the group of survivors there are other interests struggling with hers, and as it turns out, gatean society is also a pile of competing factions. who didn't know just what they got when they woke up this group of survivors; there are some surprises in store for everyone.
and we get to learn more about the waisters! instead of immediately destroying everyone, this time they've come to talk (first?).
there's lots of nifty little ideas -- i especially liked the "congress", a gathering of artificial personalities based on real, once famous/important people, with whom one can communicate to get their opinions and advice while only nanoseconds pass in the real world. one of those AIs is ken jonson, the man from the "aggressor six" unit who had encountered actual waisters on the ship the humans captured.
i liked this book overall better than aggressor six, though it still doesn't do as much with everything it sets up as it could. but there's more about the aliens, there's more character development (though what's done with one character really pissed me off), and i definitely like the idea that some humans have become waister-like and have developed factions among themselves.
i have the feeling from the epilogue that this isn't the last we'll see of this universe, which is fine by me.