Del lives in a world of many skies: by passing through the Hoops embedded in the ground, her people can walk freely between land that lies beneath a new set of constellations for every circuit they make around the edge of a Hoop.
When archaeologists find a copy of the famed Book of All Skies, Del takes delivery of the manuscript in her role as conservator at the Museum of Apasa, hoping it will shed light on the fate of the Tolleans, the ancient civilisation that produced it. But when the book is stolen, the theft sets in motion a series of events that will see her travelling farther than she had ever imagined possible, and her understanding of her world and its history irrevocably transformed.
Rather bummed out that Egan's physics writeup on his site about this book is focused on how gravity works, which I was perfectly willing to take at face value; what I'm more interested in is the geography of the lands beyond the hoops. I think I have an okay idea in my head of how they work, but I'm not 100% sure. And like specifically, I want to know what's through the other side of the hoops at the nubs. More nubs? More void? Do you always have to go that far out to find a nub, or are there some that are a lot closer to Jierra? which I'm imagining as the center of this web of lands.
Also was rather annoyed by-- there's an implication that one character was a trans man, which fascinated me because I wasn't expecting that, and what does it say about the world he lives in? But before that could get followed up, or confirmed or denied, or even addressed by the character in question himself, both he and the character who made the implication die off-page. I'm not saying "don't kill queer characters", but for one thing, I'm also fascinated by the fact that Del was just like "oh, okay", her only concern being why he would obfuscate his past achievements; is transness widely accepted in this world, or is that a quirk of Del's? WE'LL NEVER KNOW.
The book also ends rather abruptly, when I wanted to see more of the aftermath, but I guess that just wasn't in the cards.
An interesting journey of discovery through a world of many skies
3 stars
An interesting story about a journey of discovery though a world of many skies. Del, the main character, becomes custodian of a book discovered during an archaeological dig: "The Book of All Skies". But it is immediately stolen. We then get an introduction to the world that Del lives in.
'Hoops' are found in Del's world and when you pass through them, you are still on the world, but transported to a region that features a different sky, implying that the Hoops are a way to connect different regions of the universe together. But Del's world is restricted: an impassable mountain blocks the path through the Hoops in one direction and in the other, the world 'ends' and the Hoops lead to an empty sky with no ground.
In the past, some people from Del's land somehow made it through the mountains to a place called the 'Bountiful Lands' and …
An interesting story about a journey of discovery though a world of many skies. Del, the main character, becomes custodian of a book discovered during an archaeological dig: "The Book of All Skies". But it is immediately stolen. We then get an introduction to the world that Del lives in.
'Hoops' are found in Del's world and when you pass through them, you are still on the world, but transported to a region that features a different sky, implying that the Hoops are a way to connect different regions of the universe together. But Del's world is restricted: an impassable mountain blocks the path through the Hoops in one direction and in the other, the world 'ends' and the Hoops lead to an empty sky with no ground.
In the past, some people from Del's land somehow made it through the mountains to a place called the 'Bountiful Lands' and people have been trying to find the path through again. But Del gets involved in an audacious scheme to bypass the mountains in another way: a journey that would eventually succeed but would be filled with dangers.
As we follow Del's journey, we learn more about the world of the Hoops, including how it may have come about. Through a copy of "The Book of All Skies", we would learn about the hubris of Del's people in the past who though they could control the Hoops and how the world that Del knows came about. And we also learn about people who would reject any change to their way of life and would do anything, including killing, to keep the world the way it is.
I liked it! The plot flies straight as an arrow with no side-plots that only become relevant 1,000 pages later. I really needed a book like this after some other recent reading!
I 100% agree with Zach's review about the shortcomings. Some basic questions about the Hoops are never explained. For example, each Hoop has two sides. With two Hoops on each world, that's four portals. But the worlds seem to be organized along a string, just one after the other. (Based on the cover and the single points of Sadema and Celema.) So I guess either both sides of a Hoop go to the same world, or both Hoops have one side for each of the next/previous worlds. There are scenes contradicting both possibilities. They definitely travel from Hoop to Hoop, as in Jierra. But they also travel a lot going round and round on the "ring road" around …
I liked it! The plot flies straight as an arrow with no side-plots that only become relevant 1,000 pages later. I really needed a book like this after some other recent reading!
I 100% agree with Zach's review about the shortcomings. Some basic questions about the Hoops are never explained. For example, each Hoop has two sides. With two Hoops on each world, that's four portals. But the worlds seem to be organized along a string, just one after the other. (Based on the cover and the single points of Sadema and Celema.) So I guess either both sides of a Hoop go to the same world, or both Hoops have one side for each of the next/previous worlds. There are scenes contradicting both possibilities. They definitely travel from Hoop to Hoop, as in Jierra. But they also travel a lot going round and round on the "ring road" around "the hill". They can even walk from world to world, so it sounds like using the same Hoop? (No idea how big the worlds are, but there are cities in them.)
If the ring road just loops around the same Hoop, why do you have to walk the long ring road around it? Why not circle it closer to the edge in two minutes? On the long way to Celema we have this conversation:
"If we stayed at this edge, and just circled it until we hit the nub ... ?" she joked.
"We could try the same measurements," Montano conceded. "And see if the gap was small enough to bridge. But that would be a lot of work, for no reward."
How is that a joke? I was wondering the same thing! And how is that an answer?
Greg Egan's web page with extra explanations doesn't help me on this either. The very first simple example is "if we ignore one of the Hoops and just consider the effects of a single one." It seems to describe pretty much what's in the novel. What does the other Hoop do?
Okay, enough complaining! I liked the characters. They are not very complex, but each of them is an individual and their personalities have interesting chemistry. There are a few evil-for-no-reason characters, but the people we get to know are all really smart and nice. We see a utopistic society in the vein of [b:News from Nowhere|189746|News from Nowhere|William Morris|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1172550120l/189746.SY75.jpg|13352231]. It also raises a lot of questions that are not answered, but I guess we're here to do topology, not sociology. (I wouldn't have minded.)
The plot has a number of awesome parts that I don't want to spoil. Like suddenly being stranded in an alien land. The ending is indeed abrupt. I kept trying to turn the page. There's not even a "The End" leaf at the end. I don't mind that too much. It's nearly impossible to make an ending satisfying.
PS: I actually figured it all out. It's not well explained in the book, but the worlds are not along a string. They are organized in a cobweb with four neighbors to each world. Hence navigation is pretty challenging. There are many nubs, but Celema is unique. It lies in a "straight line" from Sadema, which they correctly assume would lead them in a loop. Question on Stack Exchange
