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Books Read
Mar. 27th, 2019 09:14 am49. Grail, Elizabeth Bear.
A re-read from years ago, because I wanted to see if my reaction would change after Ancestral Night.
Yes, kinda.
Grail (and the rest of the Jacob's Ladder trilogy, of which it is book 3) is set in the same universe as Ancestral Night. There's at least one major history of technology difference (gravity control) that makes them not quite compatible.
But Grail is the wrapup to a trilogy about bitter infighting on a generation starship where advanced technology was kept and even developed. The starship finally reaches its destination only to discover that other humans with expensive FTL have already colonized it. The bitter infighting does not cease, especially when the Jacobeans discover that the local colony practices significant social control through direct, realtime manipulation of brain activity... and to this reader, at least, it seems to be a massive improvement over endless war.
Where Grail (and its whole trilogy) is rather depressing up until the denouement, Ancestral Night is fundamentally more positive about everything.
A re-read from years ago, because I wanted to see if my reaction would change after Ancestral Night.
Yes, kinda.
Grail (and the rest of the Jacob's Ladder trilogy, of which it is book 3) is set in the same universe as Ancestral Night. There's at least one major history of technology difference (gravity control) that makes them not quite compatible.
But Grail is the wrapup to a trilogy about bitter infighting on a generation starship where advanced technology was kept and even developed. The starship finally reaches its destination only to discover that other humans with expensive FTL have already colonized it. The bitter infighting does not cease, especially when the Jacobeans discover that the local colony practices significant social control through direct, realtime manipulation of brain activity... and to this reader, at least, it seems to be a massive improvement over endless war.
Where Grail (and its whole trilogy) is rather depressing up until the denouement, Ancestral Night is fundamentally more positive about everything.
