This was awesome!

I have read some books I loved lately, and I felt completely sated. I just finished the excellent [book:The Quantum Thief|7562764] trilogy. I totally did not want to read yet another excellent sci-fi. [book:Call the Midwife|21288872] was great and I felt no need for another story rich in history and characters.

But what can you do when you are facing an overseas trip with connecting flights and nights alone in a hotel?

Right as I started reading I realized this was not like any other book. I do not think it is possible to be so bored with books that you would find nothing new in Too Like The Lightning. The writing is crazy. The characters are crazy. The story has elements that do not fit in a reasonable story.

As this is the first book of a trilogy, nothing is explained at the end, but there is so much information, that my mind is racing to find solutions that explain everything. I love this feeling, and I mostly associate it with Lost, the TV series, which was very good food for a mind that wants to piece things together. Even if the pieces did not convincingly fit together in the end in Lost.

This is of course a risk here as well. But we have a first-person narrator (Mycroft Canner), who is not just relating a factual story, but has imaginary conversations with the reader. The narrator is an extremely mysterious person and a master of gaining the trust of people. How far should I believe what I read?

To make this worse, the book is not as it was originally written "by" Mycroft. In a chapter written by another character they mention going back to previous chapters to change something. This book is a logic puzzle adventure!

Besides the genius literary devices, what have we here? There is sci-fi, set in the 25th century. It is good sci-fi, with very reasonable tech (no laser space ships). The focus is on social structure, politics, and philosophy. These details are well thought out and quite thought provoking. But there is so much intrigue, so many characters, so much plot, that I did not have much brain power left to contemplate the philosophical themes.

Do avoid spoilers carefully! I read a review on another site just now that had a huge spoiler in its headline... So, like, try not to click here by accident:



The huge spoiler is the nature of Mycroft's crimes. You read his humble writing and his selfless personality throughout the book, and you think his big crime must have been like killing someone in self-defense, freeing some lab-rats, or stealing money through a clever hack.

You learn the truth half-way through the book. It's shocking. You feel disgusted to even continue reading. Like the words do not taste the same anymore. You are betrayed! Fantastic that a book can do that, shame on anyone spoiling this.

So what do you think is going on here? Did Martin really figure out the truth? It's probably part of the truth, and an interesting, if well-known philosophical question. Small-scale senseless murder to prevent large-scale chaos.

Did the Mardi's not train exactly for this? "What is something you would sacrifice anything for?" and all that? They had the breaking-point numbers. They discovered them! And already the world was super close to breaking point. If you are 1% away from total collapse of civilization, you cannot just hope nothing pushes you over: you must get further away.

Which way did Mycroft's rampage push things? He could even be redeemed later if we find that all that was in service of a greater good. But he seems to genuinely hate the Mardi's. Maybe the Mardi's were in the wrong? Mycroft also lost his bash' and a lot of his body. Were the Mardi's responsible? Was his bash' taken out to support the greater good?

Or maybe Mycroft was really a maniac killer. A freak of nature. But J.E.D.D. Mason put him right, and hence he's really reformed, and this is why everyone trusts him. What is J.E.D.D.'s magic? Seems to be able to say the right things to induce major changes in minds. Let's say just total mind reading and mind control. How does that correspond to him belonging to a different universe in some sense? What is that universe? His mind spends time there. But there is no time there, is there? Maybe I'm overthinking it...

Masons are fine with torture. I would not be surprised if the Masons were already in command of Mycroft at the time of the murders. Although again, he seems to have really hated the Mardi's and still does.



Aah, there is so much more to speculate on! Utopians, Anonymous (could be Ockham Saneer?), what's Carlyle's role... I have not even mentioned Saladin and BRIDGER!!!




A big theme in the book is decadence of a small ruling elite. The history of the Humanist hive shows that this was not always the case in the 25th century and before. But right now a lot of power is focused in just "7-10" individuals. They are a very closely knit bunch with intermarriages and other romances binding them together. They even go so far as to exclude and laugh at a democratically elected leader (Casimir Perry).

Seeing history as the result of a small group of actors is sort of natural in fictional novels. (If the hero convinces the king to have a change of heart, it is a gripping story. If the hero gets the parliament to vote for his proposal, it is boring. No human element. Nothing to understand.) But I think this cannot be accidental in Too Like The Lightning. This was in large part the cause of the French revolutions, so it is too strongly related thematically.


Please read it and let us speculate until the next book comes!

UPDATE: I have read the second book, [book:Seven Surrenders|28220647]. Five stars as well.