| Title | : | Proxima Rising (Proxima Trilogy, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 376 |
| Publication | : | First published July 23, 2017 |
Proxima Rising (Proxima Trilogy, #1) Reviews
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I was initially hooked by the author’s claim that he pens “hard science fiction.” His bio as a physicist and space specialist convinced me to take a leap of faith and buy the series. I chose poorly. If hard sf is what you are looking for, this isn’t that series. There are hints and nuggets of hard sf to be found, but they were overburdened by plot holes that were too frequently filled by the magical appearance of the perfect solution at the perfect time without the narrative having done anything to earn the solution.
I liked the premise of the book: The ship, which is self aware, begins its journey as a tiny needle ship. Over a very long time the ship utilizes nanotechnology to grow and build both itself and a two-person crew using cosmic dust and debris that it collects during an interstellar voyage. The way it does this, and the thoughts behind the mission itself, were in my opinion the most well written portions of the series.
Unfortunately the plot issues throughout the series reduced what I had hoped would be a 5-star read to a generous 2 stars. -
4.9| Dieses Buch von Brandon Q. Morris (Matthias Matting) ist m.E. der bisherige Höhepunkt seines Schaffens, ein Hard Science Thriller der Extraklasse. Sein Roman, der in seinem Zyklus angesiedelt ist, von dem die Eismond-Trilogie (Enceladus, Titan, Io) der Anfang war, bietet eine neue Idee für eine interstellare Reise zum nächsten bekannten Extrasolaren Planeten mit einer atemberaubenden Technologie, die ich in dieser Form in der SF noch nie gelesen habe.
Da ich hier nicht spoilern will, kann ich dem Autor hier nur gratulieren zu der Idee, wie er von den heutigen technischen Möglichkeiten eine phantastische interstellare Reise extrapoliert, die Idee wurde zwar bereit in Charles Stross "Accelerando" skizziert, aber Matting machte daraus einen großen Roman. Die Beschreibung von Proxima Centauri b ist atemberaubend und nach den technischen Daten her einigermaße gut extrapoliert, ich denke es ist hier auch wie bei jedem Roman von Matting, dass man beim Lesen stetig auf dem Fundus des aktuellen Wissens fährt.
Der Anhang ist also wie immer aktuell und wahnsinnig aufhellend.
Die Handlung nach der Landung ist für mich aber noch ausbaufähig, weshalb ich keine volle 5 Sterne vergeben konnte. Ich hätte mir gewünscht, etwas mehr über die Hintergründe des 2. Marchenko zu erfahren, auch sind mir die Ziele der Expedition noch etwas unklar, warum sollten sich auch Adam und Eva auf ein miserables Leben auf einer lebensfeindlichen Welt freuen, da muss doch noch mehr dahinterstecken.
Immerhin ist klar, dass die Vorgeschichte der Expedion im Eismond-Roman Nr. 4 erzählt wird, die Fortsetzung der Abenteuer von Adam, Eva und Marchenko werden im 2. Teil der Alpha Centauri-Reihe beschrieben; ich kann es kaum erwarten... -
Another great book from Brandon Q. Morris. Starting with the Ice Moon series, I've been gradually working through his entire works and I have to say I think he's my new favourite sci-fi author. I love the grounding in actual science combined with inherently feasible yet currently just out-of-reach technology to spin amazing stories that dove-tail neatly from one series to the next.
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Ich habe gezielt diese Trilogie ausgewählt, weil ich wieder Zeit mit Marchenko verbringen wollte. BQMs künstliche Intelligenzen, Cyborgs etc sind immer noch meine liebsten Charaktere im Morrisversum. Darum musste ich auch wissen, wohin es den armen Machenko verschlagen hat.
Adam und Evas Kinderstube kam etwas zu kurz fand ich und auch schlecht umgesetzt. So pragmatisch kann man nicht einmal Hundewelpen großziehen, ohne dass die psychische Schäden davontragen.
Vielleicht funktioniert das im Kopf eines Autors aber überzeugend muss es auf dem Papier. -
PROXIMA RISING takes place an unspecified number of years after the events in the ICE MOON series, but still in the 21st century. Unlike all the other Brandon Q. Morris novels that I have read, the initial premise of this first of a trilogy is a bit fuzzy and some of the SF seems a bit magical. A signal is received from an exoplanet of Proxima Centauri that appears to be some sort of plea for help. There is no FTL and so the 4 light years to the star and neighboring Alpha Centauri binary system is a very long way. Too long for a normal crew and mission (decades at least, so why bother at all really? Much to late to help?), so a very advanced, tiny light sail powered vessel containing Marchenko, a once human astronaut in the ICE MOON series who is now a computer AI, plus biologically stored human DNA is sent to Proxima b.
The tech seems incredibly far advanced compared to previous entries in the same universe by the author, principally by the addition of self-replicating nano-fabricators that are essentially magic. They can take almost any substance as input and deconstruct it at an atomic level to make new molecules and assemble them into anything from food to an entire spaceship. So while there is still a good bit of hard SF here, the nano-fabricators (which seem at least a few centuries advanced from the tech in the mid-21st century featured in Morris' previous novels) are like get-out-of-jail-free cards for almost any jam. En route to Proxima b, Marchenko has the nano fabricators greatly enlarge the spaceship including an artificial womb and a robot body, and creates two human fetuses that grow up into Adam and Eve. By the time they land on Proxima b, the kids are 16 or so and the hunt for the source of the alien signal commences.
Regardless, the read is still fun. I am now reading the second book and still enjoying it, while still questioning why all of this is happening in then first place. I guess you can blame it all on the crazy Russian Billionaire who footed the bill for the whole thing.
JM Tepper -
I really enjoyed this novel. It is hard Sci-Fi, though some reviewers see magic in the science. Not enough modern science knowledge? Not enough imagination? I found nothing in this novel that seemed 'magic', ie, outside the realm of possibility. Nanotechnology and genetic manipulation are carried far beyond present capabilities, but one hopes are future possibilities. In any case I consider it hard Sci-Fi.
8 of 10 stars for similar works -
Good science at a very slow pace. I was missing a story line that would pull me in to invest in the main characters Adam and Eve. The third main, an AI, describing the science behind the self developing spaceship, was numbing. I didn’t get the passive evolution of the ship streaming through space on momentum. The last 1/4 of the book started to grab my attention, once the the three mains landed on Proxima.
I will say the final four chapters were intriguing enough to perk my interest to read the next installment. -
Los viajes más rápidos que la luz, y los agujeros de gusano, las velocidades warp siguen estando en el rango de la fantasía.
Sin nada de eso ¿cómo se podía intentar colonizar otro sistema solar?
El acelerar una nave a grandes velocidades y requiere mucha energía. Pero podemos usar naves minúsculas, de sólo unos centímetros, con energía externa enviada desde las horas desde los satélites exteriores del sistema solar..
El lugar enviarás astronautas podemos enviar el código genético hermoso ir a los seres humanos..tofo bajo la dirección de una inteligencia en la nave.
La novela es una exploración de este concepto.
Esta es la primera de una trilogía de novelas, qué ocurre después de los sucesos de la serie de" luna helada". Pero puede leerse de una manera independiente.
En un futuro tal vez no muy lejano la tierra recibe una señal de radio de próxima centauri. Al lograr descifrar la se averigua qué es una llamada de auxilio.
Aunque es imposible qué los seres humanos viajen hasta allá, se decide enviar alguien para investigar. Por supuesto es un viaje sin retorno. Humanos modificados creados para una misión.
Esta es una fascinante novela que aborda un concepto no menos fascinante. -
I like the concept of hearing the story from the AI/downloaded consciousness's perspective, as well as the microscopic ship building itself up from it's singular atom weilding builders, to constructing the gestation chamber, to full on living quarters. I would image that two kids growing up in a confined space ship with no other human contact (beyond said AI) would either have serious social issues or would go without the negative psychology of modern teenagers/kids. Unfortunately for this rather dumb AI, they were allowed to watch Earth television. Naturally, the boy grew up to be an incredibly petulant and short-sighted teen. Realistic, sure; but, made for an annoying experience every time he spoke.
I would have liked to continue the series, but I just can't take his attitude any more. -
Proxima b trip!
An speculative description of our closest exoplanet with some unnecessary alien warfare, and flawed in its conception since these tree warriors rather fight their regular foe and ignore the fact that one of their own has been slain and taken apart by aliens to the planet and used as construction materials. The science was good enough to keep my interest to finish this installment of what I now know is a trilogy, but the decision to let the other AI walk Scott free to take its time and exact revenge on who now are his enemies which makes the next book or the one after the next predictable. Four stars because of the author's following on the footsteps of other writers always making Artificial Intelligence going psychotic. -
This is OK...
An initially interesting concept develops, initially, into an interesting story.
However, eventually, because the concept is never developed, the story become linear; predictable; simplistic.
A bit like an never ending game of snakes and ladders where the the good and bad consequences repeat themselves as similarly structured threats and successes.
And there’s some interesting ideas. Gills! But they are under developed - unlike the gills - especially the associated technical matters such as the hydrological consequences of deep sea diving which are mentioned, but not explained. -
The author definitely knows his field and put his work in researching and making the sci-fi more science than fiction—i mean it kinda helps when you're already a physicist, right?
But there's some parts of the book that bothered me:
-No Rosetta Stone but could read the alien scripts?
-They could print an entire ass submarine but not a type of vehicle to run on the ice sheet? Make it make sense man...
-almost got murdered but let the perpetrator walk free? I'm sorry what 😩
Overall I enjoyed the book though 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ -
Excellent Hard SF With Both Heart & Soul
Q steps up to the interstellar plate and tags a high fast one for a solid three-bagger, of which this is just first base. In looking over Morris' list of books I found I've read five or six of his novels and enjoyed them all--it is hard to keep all the books and author's I read straight but Morris is now officially on my top five list and should probably be on yours too. -
Hmmmm.... It meandered a lot and the characters seemed to take really odd choices during their explorations. I was let down as the ending only wanted the reader to buy the next book. I will not be buying the next book nor shall I buy anything from this author again. Although the writing and grammar is very good it just seems the author is writing a lot of words and stringing the reader along.
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This was a pleasant surprise! I think I expected less because of some reviews I read but I really enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to the other books in the series. I enjoy science fiction that has a good amount of science and I felt this hit the mark. Adam though - he was getting on my nerves. I hope he’s more pleasant in the next books. The little twist at the end needed more time. It felt pretty rushed.
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This is a story that is not told in such a way that everyone will appreciate. Narrated expertly by Eduardo Ballerini, it is somewhat monotone because the main character is an AI. It is heavy on the science. And yet, I've come to be invested in the mission and the characters. Go figure.
I debated about continuing with the series, but I'm too interested to not read the next 2 books. It'll be interesting to see what I think at the end of the third book. -
Morris does a good job of integrating occasional science and knowledge of space and Proxima in with the plot. I love space opera SciFi but less so the emo AI extracted from the character of a human from a previous book. The AI tells the story in first person, with two teenage kids the only other characters for much of the story. Intriguing imagination of possible life and geology on an alien planet and a plot to keep you guessing.
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I struggled at the start as I thought it was quite boring. It seemed very scientific (I know, sci-fi). However, along came Adam and Eve and it just got better. It became almost a fantasy style book with all the weird and wonderful scenery and creatures. On top of that the imagery made me want to draw the weird and wonderful things described. Can’t wait to read the next one!
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The premise was interesting, for sure. However, as the characters grew older, there was a lot of…interesting choices in expressing their maturation and ideas around sex and intimacy. It just felt icky. Especially when you consider they were siblings. Anyway. Probably gonna pass on the rest of the series.
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An interesting and thought provoking read
I love this hard sci fi and wonder if some of the technologies presented in this book will ever become reality. It sure would be nice to get a close-up look at another star system.
