What do you get when you mix global warming, an artificial intelligence named Gea (instead of Gaia), German idealist Friedrich Schelling, Catholic mystic Teilhard de Chardin, Russian Orthodox mystic philosopher Nikolai Federov, and a guilt-ridden far-future post-human networked mind in need of atonement? Apparently, you get reams of turgid telling-not-showing exposition followed by soporific sermons about how humans can transcend themselves to become gods (or, as in the case of the net-mind Transcendence, a sort of Godnet 2.0).
The soul of Stephen Baxter’s latest sci-fi novel, Transcendent, is the Catholic Priest character, Rosa (of course the Vatican has lightened up on that male Priest thing), who tells us Federov drew on “Marxist historical determinism, socialist utopianism, and deeper wells of Slavic theology and nationalism to come up with a ‘Cosmism,’ which preached an ultimate unity between man and the universe.” As you can see, Rosa has the soul of a GRE question writer on a bender at the Burning Man festival.
I love a rip-roaring space opera. I also love mind-bending far-future speculation. Unfortunately, this book is neither rip-roaring nor mind-bending. Take a pass.
2 replies on “Book Review — Transcendent”
re: rip roaring space opera. I recently discovered Neal Asher. He writes space opera with nasty carnivorous aliens, eeevil human villains, AI who are neither godlike nor bent on destruction, and mind bending alien ecosystems. Lots of fun if you don’t mind gore. His first published novel was Gridlinked, but IMO The Skinner is the most fun and doesn’t require that you have read his earlier novels.
a review: http://trashotron.com/agony/reviews/asher-the_skinner.htm
Nick — cool, thanks.