 | |
| Author | Paul J. McAuley |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Quiet War #2 |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Gollancz |
Publication date | 19 November 2009 |
| Media type | Print, e-book |
| Pages | 439 |
| ISBN | 978-0575079366 |
| Preceded by | The Quiet War |
| Followed by | In the Mouth of the Whale |
Gardens of the Sun is a 2009 science fiction novel by Paul J. McAuley. It was initially published by Gollancz on November 19, 2009, as a sequel to the 2008 novel The Quiet War . [1]
Although The Quiet War and Gardens of the Sun can be read as standalone novels, taken together they form the two halves of the story of the "Quiet War" of the title. The primary conflict is between the radical environmentalism of the inner system, led by the new superpower governments (such as Greater Brazil) and the posthumanism of the Outers. Having narrowly avoided the destruction of Earth's ecosystems, the feudal Greater Brazil attempted to return most of the planet to a "natural" state, to the extent that most of Earth's population inhabits a few megacities. The Outers, by contrast, survive by terraforming the moons of Jupiter and the other outer planets and practicing genetic engineering, which caused ideological tension with Greater Brazil, ultimately flaring into a full-scale conflict called the "Quiet War".
By the time of Gardens of the Sun, the war is over. The surviving Outers have been forced to Uranus, Neptune and Pluto as the superpowers of Earth raid the moons of Jupiter and Saturn for Outer knowledge. However, Greater Brazil's policies are starting to come apart under the strain of their inflexible opposition to change and democracy. The novel follows the major characters from The Quiet War in the aftermath, including the clone assassin Dave #8, ecologist Macy Minnot, Greater Brazilian diplomat Loc Ifrahim, and genetic engineer Sri Hong-Owen as they adjust to the new order of the solar system.
Parts of the novel are modified versions of elements from the earlier short stories "The Gardens of Saturn", "The Assassination of Faustino Malarte", "The Passenger" and "Dead Man Walking".
In his review for the SF Site, Rich Horton recommended The Quiet War and Gardens of the Sun as "among the best hard SF novels of recent years," giving particular praise to McAuley's construction of the setting and politics. [2] Adam Roberts found the ending of the novel to be its weakest aspect and excessively "neat" as well as noting that the books should be combined as an omnibus but concluded that the diptych "is a very major work of contemporary science fiction, amongst the great genre achievements of the noughties, a long novel that will still be being read and remembered fifty years from now." [3]
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Paul J. McAuley is a British botanist and science fiction author. A biologist by training, McAuley writes mostly hard science fiction. His novels dealing with themes such as biotechnology, alternative history/alternative reality, and space travel.
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The Sands of Mars is a science fiction novel by English writer Arthur C. Clarke. While he was already popular as a short story writer and as a magazine contributor, The Sands of Mars was also a prelude to Clarke's becoming one of the world's foremost writers of science fiction novels. The story was published in 1951, before humans had achieved space flight. It is set principally on the planet Mars, which has been settled by humans and is used essentially as a research establishment. The story setting is that Mars has been surveyed but not fully explored on the ground. The Sands of Mars was Clarke's first published novel.
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The Grand Tour is a series of novels written by American science fiction author Ben Bova.
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The fictional portrayal of the Solar System has often included planets, moons, and other celestial objects which do not actually exist in reality. Some of these objects were, at one time, seriously considered as hypothetical planets which were either thought to have been observed, or were hypothesized to be orbiting the Sun in order to explain certain celestial phenomena. Often such objects continued to be used in literature long after the hypotheses upon which they were based had been abandoned.
Pantropy is a hypothetical process of space habitation or space colonization in which, rather than terraforming other planets or building space habitats suitable for human habitation, humans are modified to be able to thrive in the existing environment. The term was coined by science fiction author James Blish, who wrote a series of short stories based on the idea.
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The Quiet War is a 2008 science fiction novel written by Paul McAuley. It was initially published by Gollancz on 16 October 2008. The novel was an Arthur C. Clarke Award Nominee in 2009.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Solar System:
In the Mouth of the Whale is a 2012 science fiction novel by Paul J. McAuley, the third in his Quiet War sequence.
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