The people are impulsive, changeable, and very real. "It's a rare writer who produces a novel this good…I can't think of a book that offers a more lived-in future. McHugh's achievement recalls the best work of Delany and Robinson without being in the least derivative."-The New York Times "A first novel this good gives every reader a chance to share in the pleasure of discovery to my mind, Ms. These aren't the usual tropes of science fiction, and they aren't written in the usual way. ![]() It's set in a 22nd century dominated by Communist China and the protagonist is a gay man. When talking about this book you have to list the awards it's won-the Hugo, the Tiptree, the Lambda, the Locus, a Nebula nomination-after that you can skip the effusive praise from the New York Times and get to the heart of things: This is a book about a future many don't agree with. The interSphere fleet of starships has forms analogous to the Tarot suits of Disks, Cups, Wands and Swords. The themes of Tarot and of various myths of Sphere Sol (in this case that of Perseus and Andromeda) play a big part this novel. The mysterious Ancients are present again in the form of their artifacts and sites. Melody, hosted in the young and beautiful body of Yael of Dragon, must, like her progenitor Flint, find a way to defeat the Andromedan threat and save the galaxy. She is pressed into service to “possess” and interrogate a captured Andromedan transferee. Melody of Mintaka, a direct descendant of Flint of Outworld and his Andromedan nemesis, has a Kirlian aura of well over 200. Andromeda has secretly infiltrated the highest levels of government in Sphere Sol and its allies and resurrect its plot to steal the energy of the Milky Way. The book opens with the discovery that Andromeda, the enemy galaxy of the first novel, has discovered the secret of involuntary hosting: a Kirlian aura that is sufficiently stronger than that of an individual can take possession of that individual. Melody must survive in worlds unknown and alien to her and she does that where others fail when her aura augments her skills and abilities. Melody, a product of Flint and the Andromedan’s mating in CLUSTER, must save the Milky Way Galaxy and create a place where creatures can transfer without limitations. His mission is complicated, however, by the fact that he is pursued everywhere by a very high Kirlian female Andromedan agent and, somehow, the Andromedans are able to detect and trace Kirlian transfers.ĬHAINING THE LADY is the second CLUSTER book. He has extraordinary intelligence, and is highly adaptable. Sol’s highest-Kirlian individual is Flint, a green-skinned native of Outworld, who has a Kirlian aura of 200, an eidetic memory (useful for memorizing the complex equations of Kirlian transfer that he will need to communicate to other spheres). Knyfh offers the secret of aura transfer on the understanding that Sphere Sol will spread the technology to help create a galactic coalition to find and defeat agents of Andromeda. Through transfer, a refinement of mattermission technology, the mind and personality of individuals with high aura can be sent to animate a body physically distant but a hosted aura fades at the rate of about 1 unit per Earth day and higher-Kirlian individuals last longer and thus have more freedom of movement.Īs CLUSTER opens, the alien envoy Pnotl of Sphere Knyfh seeks help from Sphere Sol in a shared galactic-level crisis: Galaxy Andromeda has discovered the secret of energy transfer and intends to use it to steal the basic energy of the Milky Way Galaxy. Every living thing has a Kirlian aura that can be measured. Colonists know about the interstellar empire and the home worlds mattermit government and security personnel to all colony worlds. Outworld, Sphere Sol’s farthest colony, is populated by paleolithic tribes who hunt with flint spears and make fire. Social organizations regress backward to historical periods of the home planet’s past. ![]() Colonization is accomplished by: instantaneous teleportation, called matter transmission or mattermission (very expensive) “freezer” ships in which colonists are sent in cryonic preservation at very high speeds (much decay and average 50% loss of colonists occurs during the voyages) and lifeships, slower, safer multigenerational vessels with voyages that run to centuries (during which the travelers regress in technical sophistication.) Because of the difficulty of colonization and the smaller population bases, all spheres suffer spherical regression - the greater the distance from source star to colony, the lower the level of technology that survives. Surrounding this sphere are other, similar spheres each centered on another star such as Polaris or Canopus. Sphere Sol is about 100 light years in diameter, centered on the Earth’s sun. The CLUSTER series of SF adventures is set in a future focused on colonization of distant planets.
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