Tranquility and Lalonde

[slowfox]

So I'm mid-re-read of The Reality Dysfunction, and have just got to the bit where the alien entity is intrigued by Quinn's devil worship sacrifice as he executes Powel Manani, and all hell is about to break loose (almost literally).

I still love Tranquility - I would willingly live there (although I'd pass on Lalonde). I'd forgotten that Laton was hiding out on Lalonde, remembering him as being based on Pernik, I thought. Perhaps I'm mis-remembering on that one.

I do like the physics references that are laced throughout all mention of interstellar travel, and especially the differences between the Adamist starships (which are spherical because of the strictures of the ZTT drives) and the organic bitek Voidhawks and Blackhawks.

Joshua is smarmy as hell, but I think he's supposed to be - I do like his 'confrontation' with Syrinx when he's smuggling the antimatter, and Oenone is tracking the Lady Mac. Quite how Joshua gets out of that one is explained slightly more fully later on; if memory serves, Syrinx and Joshua meet up again on Norfolk, both trying to procure some Norfolk Tears (which gets references quite a bit through the various parties). One reference, so far, to Joshua's mother - plenty of references, of course, to his dad, but his mum doesn't get much of a look-in through the tale, and I was almost surprised to see her mentioned at all {she married some plutocrat banker, which is why Joshua is part of the party-set on Tranquility}.

I really like how Hamilton takes the long term view of colonisation - that the planets are established as purely capitalist ventures by management consortiums, with the expectation that dividends won't be rolling in for a century or more. And when you think through the consequences of colonising a planet from scratch, you wonder if it would indeed even be possible to go about the process any other way.

There are also hints of the various power structures at play in the Universe - the Kulu Empire, the Confederate Navy and so on, which, if memory serves get developed as we move on through the tale...

Comments

[carolanne5]

I found the first ten chapters of TRD a little irritating, simply because every chapter was introducing a new scenario and not developing introduced characters. I was much happier once we started looping back around to the characters (althought I spent ages wondering what had happened to Dr. Mzu after the attack.

Tranquility, Ione and the voidhawks rock.

The birthing of Oenone seemed to me to be heavy in portent and forshadowing, however this never seems to be developed later. With the possible exception that Oenone has a greater than average jump capacity.

I think where Hamilton excels is in the creation of believeable universe structures. The interaction of the governmental factions, multitudes of planet types, species and technology. It links together so well.

Joshua is particularly good at absolutely everything; however the only thing that jarred a little for me was his special ability.

[slowfox]

The birthing of Oenone seemed to me to be heavy in portent and forshadowing, however this never seems to be developed later.

Absolutely! Syrinx and Oenone are set up to be this epic pair and yet... they really don't get to do much (apart from meet the Kiint, is it?) later on. Was looking forward to having Syrinx and Oenone do some wicked flying through the series.

And I think it's not so much that Oenone can perform long swallows so much as it (she?) can do them consecutively, which is beyond even most voidhawks.

Joshua's speshul ability grates, a little, but is an excuse for getting him out of some situations, and into others, and given how silly some of the other conceits in the story are, it's bearable.

Note how there are little hints seeded throughout even this instalment that Tranquility is not just your average bitek habitat construct; I remember picking up, on the first read, something about Tranquility not needing to bother with proximity detectors because 'it had its own alternative means of detection', and figured that that meant it could swallow - confirmation of this doesn't happen until the end of book II, though, right?

I do agree that there's a lot of characters to follow from the outset, but it all starts to make sense once we start looping back round and stuff as the tale progresses.

Anyway, at the moment, things have just kicked off on Lalonde, and the story's about to kick into gear proper :-)