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The Algebraist
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The Algebraist
The Algebraist is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, published in print in 2004. It was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2005.
It was his third science fiction novel not to be based or set in The Culture, the earlier two being Against a Dark Background and Feersum Endjinn.
The novel takes place in 4034. With the assistance of other species, humans have spread across the galaxy, which is primarily ruled by the Mercatoria, a complex feudal hierarchy with a religious zeal to rid the galaxy of artificial intelligences, which were blamed for a previous war.
The central character is the human Fassin Taak, a "Slow Seer" at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers. The Nasqueron's star system has been cut off from the rest of Mercatoria civilization because their portal (the only means of faster than light travel) was destroyed by the Beyonders. The Beyonders are a large fleet of space marauders originating from the galaxy's fringes. The local Mercatoria adherents await the delivery of a wormhole connection from a neighbouring system via sub-lightspeed travel.
The Nasqueron Dwellers are an advanced and ancient civilisation of non-humanoids who inhabit gas giants. They lead an almost anarchic existence based on kudos and occupy the majority of gas giant planets in the galaxy. They are the only major species outside the control of the Mercatoria, and they are rumoured to possess devastating defensive weaponry. Dweller societies try not to get involved with "Quick" species: those with sentient beings who experience life at around the speed human beings do. Dwellers are one of the "Slow" species who experience life at a much slower rate. Dweller individuals live for millions of years, and the species has existed for billions of years, long before the foundation of the Mercatoria. Slow Seers like Taak are a dynasty of researchers who attempt to glean information from the Dwellers' vast but disorganised knowledge libraries. They do it partly by artificially slowing their metabolisms to better communicate with the Dwellers.
Taak looks forward to a life of quiet scholarship when he is astonished to be drafted into one of the Mercatoria's religio-military orders. In a previous research expedition to the Dweller-inhabited gas giant Nasqueron, Taak inadvertently uncovered a book containing information about the legendary "Dweller List" of coordinates for their own private systems of wormholes. Since Dwellers are sufficiently long-lived to colonise the galaxy at sublight speed, the very existence of such a network was considered doubtful.
The Dweller List is only a list of star systems. Portals are relatively small and can be anywhere within a system so long as they are at a point of low gravitational gradient, such as a Lagrange point. The list is useless without a particular mathematical transform needed to give the exact location of the portals. Taak must go on a further expedition to Nasqueron to find the Transform.
The Archimandrite Luseferous is a tyrannical warlord of the Starveling Cult. He is in a loose alliance with the Beyonders. He sets out to invade the Ulubis system from the Cluster Epiphany Five Disconnect while also aiming to possess the secrets of the Dweller portals. A Mercatoria counter-attack fleet hurries to defend Ulubis against the Starveling Cult ships and their Beyonder allies. Both fleets are forced to travel at sublight speeds, leaving the inhabitants of the Ulubis system anxiously wondering which will arrive first.
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The Algebraist
The Algebraist is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, published in print in 2004. It was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2005.
It was his third science fiction novel not to be based or set in The Culture, the earlier two being Against a Dark Background and Feersum Endjinn.
The novel takes place in 4034. With the assistance of other species, humans have spread across the galaxy, which is primarily ruled by the Mercatoria, a complex feudal hierarchy with a religious zeal to rid the galaxy of artificial intelligences, which were blamed for a previous war.
The central character is the human Fassin Taak, a "Slow Seer" at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers. The Nasqueron's star system has been cut off from the rest of Mercatoria civilization because their portal (the only means of faster than light travel) was destroyed by the Beyonders. The Beyonders are a large fleet of space marauders originating from the galaxy's fringes. The local Mercatoria adherents await the delivery of a wormhole connection from a neighbouring system via sub-lightspeed travel.
The Nasqueron Dwellers are an advanced and ancient civilisation of non-humanoids who inhabit gas giants. They lead an almost anarchic existence based on kudos and occupy the majority of gas giant planets in the galaxy. They are the only major species outside the control of the Mercatoria, and they are rumoured to possess devastating defensive weaponry. Dweller societies try not to get involved with "Quick" species: those with sentient beings who experience life at around the speed human beings do. Dwellers are one of the "Slow" species who experience life at a much slower rate. Dweller individuals live for millions of years, and the species has existed for billions of years, long before the foundation of the Mercatoria. Slow Seers like Taak are a dynasty of researchers who attempt to glean information from the Dwellers' vast but disorganised knowledge libraries. They do it partly by artificially slowing their metabolisms to better communicate with the Dwellers.
Taak looks forward to a life of quiet scholarship when he is astonished to be drafted into one of the Mercatoria's religio-military orders. In a previous research expedition to the Dweller-inhabited gas giant Nasqueron, Taak inadvertently uncovered a book containing information about the legendary "Dweller List" of coordinates for their own private systems of wormholes. Since Dwellers are sufficiently long-lived to colonise the galaxy at sublight speed, the very existence of such a network was considered doubtful.
The Dweller List is only a list of star systems. Portals are relatively small and can be anywhere within a system so long as they are at a point of low gravitational gradient, such as a Lagrange point. The list is useless without a particular mathematical transform needed to give the exact location of the portals. Taak must go on a further expedition to Nasqueron to find the Transform.
The Archimandrite Luseferous is a tyrannical warlord of the Starveling Cult. He is in a loose alliance with the Beyonders. He sets out to invade the Ulubis system from the Cluster Epiphany Five Disconnect while also aiming to possess the secrets of the Dweller portals. A Mercatoria counter-attack fleet hurries to defend Ulubis against the Starveling Cult ships and their Beyonder allies. Both fleets are forced to travel at sublight speeds, leaving the inhabitants of the Ulubis system anxiously wondering which will arrive first.