Spherical Harmonic

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Spherical Harmonic
Spherical-harmonic-novel-in-the-saga-of-the-skolian-empire-by-catherine-asaro-1429970480.jpg
Author Catherine Asaro
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Series Saga of the Skolian Empire
Genre Science fiction
Publisher Tor Books
Publication date
December 2001
Media typeHardcover
Pages512
ISBN 978-0-312-89063-6
Preceded by The Quantum Rose  
Followed by The Moon's Shadow  

Spherical Harmonic is a science fiction novel from the Saga of the Skolian Empire by Catherine Asaro. It tells the story of Dyhianna Selei (Dehya), the Ruby Pharaoh of the Skolian Imperialate, as she strives to reform her government and reunite her family in the aftermath of a devastating interstellar war. [1]

Contents

Plot summary

Spherical Harmonic is a first person narrative told from the viewpoint of Dyhianna Selei. Although an elected Assembly governs the Imperialate, in ages past the Ruby Pharaoh ruled as absolute sovereign. Selei is the descendant of the ancient pharaohs, and is considered the titular ruler of modern Skolia. Spherical Harmonic takes place following the Radiance War, a conflict fought between the Imperialate and the Eubian Concord, an empire ruled by a rigid caste of narcissists called Aristos. The Eubian economy is based on slave trade, which the Aristos seek to expand to the Imperialate.

Just prior to the opening scene of Spherical Harmonic, Dyhianna Selei escapes a Eubian military force by stepping into a Lock, a singularity that defines the boundary between two universes. In mathematical terms, she has entered an alternate dimension defined by the functions known as spherical harmonics. As the book opens, she is "coalescing" on a moon called Opalite. She reforms in partial waves that transfer her from one universe to the other. Some prose in the book is written in the shape of the sinusoidal functions found in the spherical harmonics. [2] [3]

As Selei fades in and out of existence, in danger of disappearing, she slowly recovers her memories about her identity and history. She manages to activate an emergency protocol secretly established on the moon for her protection. As a result she is found by Jon Casestar, an admiral in the Skolian Fleet, and Commander Vaz Majda, an elite fighter pilot who is also her sister-in-law. Once aboard an ISC battle cruiser, Selei strives to reunite the Ruby Dynasty and find out what has happened to her people. The book follows her attempts to resurrect the Skolian military and government. [4]

Selei also struggles to discover what has happened to her son Taquinil and her husband Eldrinson. Her plan to go to Earth and free members of the Ruby Dynasty being held captive there, including Roca, her sister and heir, meets little enthusiasm among her top officers, as it can be seen as an act of war. Unable to trust anyone, Selei ends up seeking to overthrow the elected government of her own empire so she can rebuild it from the ashes of the war.

Context

In one sense, Spherical Harmonic is a space adventure about the recovery of a civilization from a war that had no winner. On another level, it is about the emotional toll that war exacts on those who survive it, a theme Asaro often explores in the Saga of the Skolian Empire, as exemplified by the subplot in Spherical Harmonic involving the attempts of Selei and her husband to come to terms with his shattering experiences during the war. Both acclaimed and criticized for the complexity of her plotting, world building, and character development, Asaro focuses as much on the human condition as the adventure aspects of the story. [5] [6] [7]

Asaro is also known for the use of mathematics in her novels. Spherical Harmonic involves an imagined universe based on the Hilbert space described by the angular wave functions that solve the Laplace Equation. The spherical harmonics are an orthonormal set of eigenfunctions used in many areas of math and physics, including quantum mechanics and electromagnetics. A theoretical physicist by training, Asaro uses the concepts of the Hilbert space described by the harmonics to create the universe called Kyle space. [8] By directly applying the rules that define Hilbert spaces, the author invents a universe where "location" is based on quantum wave functions rather than position and time, and where a psion's thoughts determined their location in Kyle space. [9] As described in an essay at the end of the book, the properties of that universe and the abstract forms of human interaction there are fictional extrapolations of the mathematical theory.

The novel Spherical Harmonic overlaps with Ascendant Sun which tells the events after the Radiance War from the point of view of new Skolian Imperator Kelric. It also overlaps with the book The Moon's Shadow which centers on Eubian Emperor Jaibriol III and his efforts to initiate peace talks with Skolians after the war.

Related Research Articles

Harmonic analysis is a branch of mathematics concerned with investigating the connections between a function and its representation in frequency. The frequency representation is found by using the Fourier transform for functions on the real line, or by Fourier series for periodic functions. Generalizing these transforms to other domains is generally called Fourier analysis, although the term is sometimes used interchangeably with harmonic analysis. Harmonic Analysis has become a vast subject with applications in areas as diverse as number theory, representation theory, signal processing, quantum mechanics, tidal analysis and neuroscience.

The mathematical formulations of quantum mechanics are those mathematical formalisms that permit a rigorous description of quantum mechanics. This mathematical formalism uses mainly a part of functional analysis, especially Hilbert spaces, which are a kind of linear space. Such are distinguished from mathematical formalisms for physics theories developed prior to the early 1900s by the use of abstract mathematical structures, such as infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces, and operators on these spaces. In brief, values of physical observables such as energy and momentum were no longer considered as values of functions on phase space, but as eigenvalues; more precisely as spectral values of linear operators in Hilbert space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quantum mechanics</span> Description of physics at the atomic scale

Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schrödinger equation</span> Description of a quantum-mechanical system

The Schrödinger equation is a linear partial differential equation that governs the wave function of a quantum-mechanical system. It is a key result in quantum mechanics, and its discovery was a significant landmark in the development of the subject. The equation is named after Erwin Schrödinger, who postulated the equation in 1925, and published it in 1926, forming the basis for the work that resulted in his Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spherical harmonics</span> Special mathematical functions defined on the surface of a sphere

In mathematics and physical science, spherical harmonics are special functions defined on the surface of a sphere. They are often employed in solving partial differential equations in many scientific fields.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine Asaro</span> American science-fiction writer, singer and teacher

Catherine Ann Asaro is an American science fiction and fantasy author, singer and teacher. She is best known for her books about the Ruby Dynasty, called the Saga of the Skolian Empire.

<i>Catch the Lightning</i>

Catch the Lightning is a novel by Catherine Asaro in the Saga of the Skolian Empire, also known as Tales of the Ruby Dynasty. The novel won the 1998 Sapphire Award for Best Science Fiction Romance and the UTC Readers Choice Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

<i>Schism</i> (novel) 2004 novel by Catherine Asaro

Schism is a novel in the Saga of the Skolian Empire, a series of science fiction books by Catherine Asaro. It was first published in 2004.

<i>Skyfall</i> (novel) 2003 novel by Catherine Asaro

Skyfall is a 2003 novel by Catherine Asaro which tells the story of how Roca met her husband Eldrinson, Bard of Dalvador, ruler of a province on Skyfall.

<i>The Moons Shadow</i>

The Moon's Shadow is a novel from the Saga of the Skolian Empire by Catherine Asaro which tells the story of Jaibriol Qox III—how he became emperor of Eube after the interstellar Radiance War, and founded peace talks between his people, the Eubians, and those of the Skolian Imperialate.

<i>Ascendant Sun</i>

Ascendant Sun is a novel which tells the story of how Kelric made it back to Earth, to become Imperator of the Skolian Empire and lead his people towards peace with the Eubians in the Saga of the Skolian Empire series by Catherine Asaro.

The Eubians refers to the fictional people of the Eubian Concord in the Saga of the Skolian Empire by Catherine Asaro. They are often portrayed as antagonists in those novels, enemy to the rivaling Skolian Empire.

The Saga of the Skolian Empire, informally called the Skolian Saga or Tales of the Ruby Dynasty, is a series of science fiction novels, novellas and novelettes by Catherine Asaro, revolving around characters from an interstellar empire known as the Skolian Empire and their power struggle with the rival Eubian Concord. The plot of the book unfolds over several generations of characters and revolves around political intrigues, but also contains subplots regarding physics, bio-enhancements, virtual computer networks, romance, mathematics, and military conflict as it is affected by superluminal space travel.

<i>The Quantum Rose</i> 2000 novel by Catherine Asaro

The Quantum Rose is a science fiction novel by Catherine Asaro which tells the story of Kamoj Argali and Skolian Prince Havyrl Valdoria. The book is set in her Saga of the Skolian Empire. It won the 2001 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 2001 Affaire de Coeur Award for Best Science Fiction. The first third of the novel appeared as a three-part serialization in Analog magazine in the 1999 May, June and July/August issues. Tor Books published the full novel in 2000.

Rhon psions, also known as Ruby psions are a fictional group of extremely powerful psionics in the Saga of the Skolian Empire by Catherine Asaro.

<i>Primary Inversion</i> 1995 science fiction novel by Catherine Asaro

Primary Inversion is a science fiction novel in the Saga of the Skolian Empire by Catherine Asaro. As Asaro's debut novel, it first appeared as a hardcover in 1995. It was nominated for the 1996 Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Memorial Award and placed tenth on the list for the Locus Award for Best First Novel.

<i>The Final Key</i>

The Final Key is a science fiction novel in the Saga of the Skolian Empire, a series of books by American writer Catherine Asaro. As the direct sequel to Schism, it tells the story of a major Eubian assault against the Skolian government and Eldrinson's rise from a rustic farmer to a member of the powerful imperial Triad.

<i>The Radiant Seas</i>

The Radiant Seas is a novel from the Saga of the Skolian Empire series of books by Catherine Asaro. The book continues where Primary Inversion ended and centers on the story of the devastating interstellar Radiance War. It won the HOMer Award for Best Novel of 2000 from the SF and Fantasy forum on CompuServe.

This is the bibliography of American space opera and hard science fiction author Catherine Asaro.

References

  1. "Spherical Harmonic". Powells.com. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  2. Text with sinusoidal prose poems
  3. Asaro describes the mathematics of spherical harmonics in an essay at the end of the novel.
  4. Review by Science Fiction critic Cynthia Ward
  5. Publishers Weekly Nov 12, 2001
  6. Library Journal 2001
  7. Review by Diana Tixier Herald in Booklist 2001, American Library Association (the Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist reviews are also available online at Amazon)
  8. Article about Asaro's work at Physics Central, an online publication of the American Physical Society.
  9. Asaro, Catherine (September 2017). The Bronze Skies (First ed.). Riverdale, NY: Baen Books. p. 12. ISBN   978-1-4814-8258-5 . Retrieved 2019-06-06.