Sun of Suns

Originally posted at Fantasy Literature.

Hayden Griffin is out for revenge. When he was a boy, the nation of Slipstream attacked his little home world of Aerie. Hayden???s parents had just managed to build a sun for Aerie so their world could be independent of Slipstream, but the more powerful nation attacked before Aerie could escape. Both of Hayden???s parents were killed. Years later, Hayden knows it was Admiral Chaison Fanning, the Admiral of Slipstream???s space fleet, who ordered the massacre, so Hayden plans to insinuate himself into the admiral???s household so he can get close enough to kill him. What he doesn???t know is how ruthless Venera Fanning, the Admiral???s wife, can be. When Venera discovers another nation???s plot against Slipstream, Hayden gets caught in the middle.

Sun of Suns, a ???hard??? SF novel, is the first book in Karl Schroeder???s VIRGA series. By far the best thing about Sun of Suns is the world-building. Virga is a marvelous creation ??? a huge balloon in space where humans have created their own suns and planets that float around inside. Anyone who has the knowledge and ability to create a sun can start his own civilization, but he???ll need to have a lot of resources and know some physics because there is no natural gravitational force in Virga ??? it has to be created by spinning the cities with centrifuges. Gravity is inconsistent, then, and on some worlds it may be denied to the lower classes. Civilizations can also be carved into lakes of water or attached to the inside wall of the balloon.

People and spaceships fly through the air of Virga, trying to avoid the rafts of junk that accumulate, and the cold dark areas called ???Winter??? where icebergs float and no sun shines for hundreds of miles. The people of Virga are unaware of anything outside of their balloon, though we get hints from another character about what is beyond ??? a universe of artificial engines that rule over humans who don???t remember their own science and technology. Candesce, Virga???s Sun (the sun of suns) disrupts artificial nature, so if the engines ever plan to rule Virga, they???ll have to take out its sun.

The characterization in Sun of Suns suffers a bit compared to the world-building. The female characters are especially shallow, but I???m sure that wasn???t Schroeder???s intention. I think he meant for them to be strong, but instead they come across as unlikely and unlikeable. He does better with Hayden and Chaison, though both men make some really stupid decisions. The plot is mostly exciting, but sometimes obscured by confusing action sequences or implausible occurrences, though I found myself willing to suspend disbelief because I liked Virga so much.

I listened to MacMillan Audio???s version of Sun of Suns, which I got free at Audible during one of their promotions. Joyce Irvine reads it competently, but I was puzzled at MacMillan Audio???s choice of an older-sounding female to narrate a book whose main protagonist is a young man. This bothered me some, but not enough to keep me from reading the next book, if I do, in audio format. Other readers may feel differently and should probably listen to the sample of Sun of Suns at Amazon or Audible before choosing the audio version.

I liked Sun of Suns well enough that I will try the second book, Queen of Candesce, if I find it on sale at Audible. I would have been more eager to read book two if featured Hayden as the main character, but judging from the description, it features Venera Fanning (which may be why a female narrator was chosen) and, though I look forward to spending more time in Virga, I don???t really want to hang out with her.

Great world building along with character growth and fast pacing delivery make a great story in Karl Schroeder's Sun of Suns.

It's been a long time since science fiction has captivated me the way that Sun of Suns has done. Usually I go to the fantasy realm to get good world building, but this book pulled me in from the beginning. The entire book I kept wondering if the world that this was set in actually followed Newtonian physics or not. The way the natural sciences of the world were introduced was easy to follow and given out in digestible chunks. It was done in such a wonder way as to make the natural science's feel like another character that drove the plot, just like the protagonists.

The character's in the book were all well described and showed growth throughout the book. Obviously the main character has his motivations and struggles with them, but so do all the side characters. There really are very few totally bad guys in this book, just like there really isn't any absolutely good guys. Every character has their yin and yang moments in the book. Every character is sympathetic at one point or another just like every character is very callous at times.

Mixed in with everything that typically slows down a good story is an extremely fast pace of action. The story moves from scene to scene, fight to fight with enough detail that you actually visualize the fights and world around everyone. I'm reminded of the great space opera fight scenes in Star Wars with all the speeders zooming in and around the large ships using speed and mobility to their advantage, while the large ships fight it out, while boarding parties fight in inside the ships.

The ending, while not unpredictable, left me wanting more. Wanting to see how the world itself develops. Wanting to know who get's what they strove for. Wanting to know what the future holds.

This is as close to a call-back to the best works of Robert Heinlein and Larry Niven. We have a fantastic, novel setting inside of an air-filled “fullerene” balloon that has a 5,000 mile diameter. This balloon constitutes the “planet” of Virga. There is no gravity inside Virga and very little “ground.” The people of Virga live in a weightless environment where they can fly for thousands of miles. They live in settlements that produce gravity by centrifugal effects. All light in Virga is created by artificial “suns” that illuminate only scant territories of this enormous domain.

In the best tradition of Larry Niven, this is a lot to take in.

Clustered around individual “suns” are nations. Hayden Griffin belongs to the nation of Aerie which was conquered by the nomadic nation of Slipstream. His parents are part of the Aerie resistance with plans to light up a new sun and declare independence. Things go wrong and Hayden is left with a mission of vengeance.

Flash forward 15 years and Hayden is infiltrating into Slipstream society. Suddenly, he is called out to travel with his enemy to the outer darkness in search of a device that will allow Slipstream to fight its enemies.

We get the Cook's tour of Virga. We see the vast cloud banks, the pirates, and the outer darkness. We get a glimpse of Virga's history and society. Sword fights and battles between airships.

It's all good fun and quite exciting.