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69th out of 255 books
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281 voters
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Sun of Suns (Virga #1)
It is the distant future. The world known as Virga is a fullerene balloon three thousand kilometers in diameter, filled with air, water, and aimlessly floating chunks of rock. The humans who live in this vast environment must build their own fusion suns and "towns" that are in the shape of enormous wood and rope wheels that are spun for gravity.
Young, fit, bitte...more
Young, fit, bitte...more
Hardcover, 318 pages
Published
October 3rd 2006
by Tor Books
(first published 2006)
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Belarius
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
People Who Enjoy Adventure, Blue Rogues
Recommended to Belarius by:
Malgas
Schroeder's Sun of Suns bears the trappings of hard science fiction, but in reality it belongs to a much older genre: "Adventure." Like great popular works of yestercentury (such as Treasure Island or Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea), Sun of Suns takes a compelling premise and applies continuous leverage to the plot. On the short side, I finished Sun of Suns in one sitting precisely because I couldn't put it down.
The story is set in an extremely unusual setting: a...more
The story is set in an extremely unusual setting: a...more
Ninja Sock Puppet
rated it
Recommends it for:
People who won't read Karl Schroeder because of Lady of Mazes
Shelves:
authors-i-ve-met,
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Though my goggles are still in the mail, I'm a huge fan of Steampunk. I'm currently reading an anthology ("The Definitive Steampunk Anthology") called 'Extraordinary Engines' and despite my rabid steamboy fandom I'm having a hard time of it. I realized that what I really like are books that do not call themselves 'Steampunk' because those ones try way too hard with the Lord Brittlebottoms and forsooths to replicate Victoriana and miss the point, which is adventure and twists on techn...more
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Interesting premise. The known world is actually the inside of a planet sized balloon, called Virga. (I love the word, virga.) From that setup, everything else obeys real science laws. Towns are built on the insides of centrifugal (centripetal?) wheels or cylinders that spin to provide gravity. Several wheels can be tied together to make larger a urban area. Heat to run the weather of Virga is produced by the "Sun of Suns," Candesce, at the core of the planet. But that produces a lot ...more
I finished it because it was reasonably short and I wanted to see if it would redeem itself with its ending, but rarely have I been so let down by such a well-reviewed and hyped new science fiction book ("Outrageously brilliant and not to be missed" says one magazine, with additional blurbs from Vernor Vinge, Larry Niven, and Cory Doctorow). Weak writing, hackneyed plot, uninteresting cardboard characters all the way through. The world-building is pretty cool(~steampunk-level tech in a...more
Lizzy
rated it
The Virga is a world like no other, a planet-sized, air-filled balloon in which man-made fusion suns provide power to the world’s many warring nation states. In Virga, gravity is a precious commodity, and whole cities are built in wheels of wood and rope that spin to generate this resource. On the outskirts of Virga, far from the light and heat of the main fusion sun, the Sun of Suns known as Candesce, the world falls into “winter”, a region of unrelenting cold and endless darkness, where pirate...more
<a href="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=ricktech-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0765354535&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr"Sun of Suns, by Karl Schroeder</a> is the first in the Virga Series.
I came into this book not knowing what to expect, not even having read a synopsis of the book and was at first disappointed, but eventually became quite interested.
My reason for disappointment is quite simpl...more
I came into this book not knowing what to expect, not even having read a synopsis of the book and was at first disappointed, but eventually became quite interested.
My reason for disappointment is quite simpl...more
This novel certainly has a very cool and well imagined setting. A hollow sphere the size of a small planet, filled with air. In the center is Candesce, a fusion powered artificial sun. Dotted around the place are lesser artificial suns. Around the suns low G human civilizations cluster for warmth, building giant wooden wheels to create their own gravity strongly tainted by coriolis force. Weather systems are logical extensions of the environment, with convective currents driving everything from ...more
Wow. Sun of Suns is the first in a new series by Karl Scroeder and it is a real winner.
Deft plotting and a swashbuckling tale of pirates, treasure hunts and rebellion makes for a very enjoyable narrative. Add a couple of interesting characters with solid motives and you have a really great novel. Thing is this book has even more to it.
The narrative is set in the most inventive and believable new world that ive read in any SF book in a very long time. The world of Virga is a planet sized balloon ...more
Deft plotting and a swashbuckling tale of pirates, treasure hunts and rebellion makes for a very enjoyable narrative. Add a couple of interesting characters with solid motives and you have a really great novel. Thing is this book has even more to it.
The narrative is set in the most inventive and believable new world that ive read in any SF book in a very long time. The world of Virga is a planet sized balloon ...more
Margaret Taylor
added it
You’ve just got to read more of a book that has this as its opening line:
Hayden Griffin was plucking a fish when the gravity bell rang.
The rest of Karl Schroeder’s Sun of Suns lives up to the promise delivered in the first line, at least in the setting department. Hayden Griffin’s world is a giant bag of gas with a fusion reactor at the center to give light. Cities are wheels that spin for local gravity so that people’s bones don’t degenerate. People hunt for flying fi...more
Hayden Griffin was plucking a fish when the gravity bell rang.
The rest of Karl Schroeder’s Sun of Suns lives up to the promise delivered in the first line, at least in the setting department. Hayden Griffin’s world is a giant bag of gas with a fusion reactor at the center to give light. Cities are wheels that spin for local gravity so that people’s bones don’t degenerate. People hunt for flying fi...more
I read this book already having decided to pick it for our new science fiction book club on the strength of its sequel, "Queen of Candesce". Reading this book just affirmed to me that I'd made a good decision. I think Karl Schroeder is one of the most brilliant world builders since Larry Niven, and he is sadly overlooked.
This book has a steampunk flavor to it, with its geared cities and jet bikes, but you can tell that Schroeder has really thought about this world and there's...more
This book has a steampunk flavor to it, with its geared cities and jet bikes, but you can tell that Schroeder has really thought about this world and there's...more
An interesting story in a new universe, and reasonably worth the read.
One of the things I liked best was that the author didn't start off with huge amounts of expository writing to settle you into this new universe. Instead you just read about space ships using speaking tubes inside and semaphores to communicate with other ships, and people standing on the outside of the ships (i.e. not in a space suit). Only when it made sense in the story to say it did we come to understand that th...more
One of the things I liked best was that the author didn't start off with huge amounts of expository writing to settle you into this new universe. Instead you just read about space ships using speaking tubes inside and semaphores to communicate with other ships, and people standing on the outside of the ships (i.e. not in a space suit). Only when it made sense in the story to say it did we come to understand that th...more
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 w...more
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 w...more
Imagine a world in which there is no gravity and yet there is still air. How would such a world come into existence? This book is set in the distant future in which a giant bag of air has been built in space, with an artificial sun in the middle. Nations are built on wheels that are spun to create gravity. As a boy, Hayden Griffin, witnesses his mother's death at the hands of an enemy nation. He vows to kill his mother's killer, but as he attempts to get close, he is swept along onto a military ...more
Ecco un altro autore di ottima fantascienza ignorato dagli editori italiani. Se Ian McDonald considerato "troppo letterario" (cosa voglia poi dire io non lo so, forse che i lettori di SF italiana sono rimasti a Van Vogt?), non capisco proprio cosa non vada in autori come Schroeder, Scalzi, Roberts, Flint, Watts ... e la lista potrebbe continuare: forse scrivere solide storie di fantascienza con ambientazioni credibili o comunque coerenti, senza troppe menate e in grado di intrattenere...more
I really dug it. Does it have some faults? Yes. But the setting is just so novel an so thoroughly wrought that I can forgive some weak characters and a sort of non-ending. I hesitate to call it steam-punk but it does gave some elements of the genre. The action takes place in the interior of a sort of Dyson Shell ( however one that encloses multiple artificial suns). The endless possibilities of a gravity free existence are fodder for Schroeder's scientific and creative mind. For example, thing...more
Justin
rated it
Recommends it for:
Anyone remotely interested in fantastic worlds, amazing characters, fast-paced action.
Shelves:
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This book is beyond awesome--it's the best SF I've read since Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. Amazing world building and super creative imagery. Quick and to the point action packed space opera that only gets faster and more detailed as the story winds it's way into a supernova finale. I can't wait for the sequal.
This is why I don't like sci-fi. I have to spend so much mental energy envisioning the fantastical technical workings or each complicated elaborate apparatus in the universe that I don't have time to concentrate on the plot, which is important to me. Towns that float in space that are wheels connected to rocks? Paying for gravity to work?
No, give me a nice Regency romance, a conflicted vampire, a racy thriller, mystics or midwives, a weepy memoir, teens with angst or eating disorder...more
No, give me a nice Regency romance, a conflicted vampire, a racy thriller, mystics or midwives, a weepy memoir, teens with angst or eating disorder...more
Cool world...huge enclosed bubble of air without fixed landmasses, people can float or fly, cities are elaborate spinning constructions heated by fusion 'suns', lots of extrapolated biology. But, the characters just weren't appealing to me; the story didn't grab me.
Got tired of trying to read it put it down early. Like all steam punk, it's pretty with great ideas, but not much substance.
Sadly, this book gets only two stars. And despite that fact i'd happily read the sequel, because the concepts here show so much promise in and of themselves they're kind of addictive. But as a story Sun of Suns read like a book for teenaged boys, character development following cliched paths, and the storyline had the rythm of a television series. Indeed, on more than one occasion i thought how easy it would be to adapt the book to a saturday-morning superhero cartoon.
But concepts, a...more
But concepts, a...more
Touted as a high-concept high action sf thriller, I for one was not a fan of Schroeder's book. Certainly the world building is well done, but it wasn't a world I particularly cared for. Most "big dumb object" sf novels tend to be huge, ponderous tomes and this one isn't. In fact, that was a refreshing difference that led me to choose to read the book in the first place.
But in the end, I didn't care for the world, didn't care for the plot, and did't care for the characters....more
But in the end, I didn't care for the world, didn't care for the plot, and did't care for the characters....more
A few years ago, Tor made some of their back catalog available for download as .pdf files.I don't recall how many I got before they stopped, but it was a good list. The problem has always been that I really don't like reading on the computer, so they have sat in a folder. I got a Kindle for Christmas this past year, so I have finally got around to reading some of these. Sun of Suns is one of these downloads. It is also the first book I've read that can be classed as steampunk.
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Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder starts out flat out hard to understand. Not the writing, or the language, or even the plot (though it does take a while to fully unfold). It's the world itself that took me way too long to comprehend. The setting is a sort of blend of science fiction and steampunk and takes place on a planet called Virga. Maybe 'planet' is the wrong word. The description on Amazon defines Virga as a "planet-sized balloon", which is about right now that I think about it. Bu...more
I noticed that Luke Burrage had put this on his to-read shelf (his podcast the Science Fiction Book Review is great) and thought I recognized the author. Had I read something by Schroeder? It turns out it was this book. I don't think I finished it. Sorry to be vague, though I rarely just abandon books, maybe I'm getting more efficient as I age.
It's an interesting experiment Luke is conducting, taking recommendations from his listeners. I doubt I would ever recommend a book to some...more
It's an interesting experiment Luke is conducting, taking recommendations from his listeners. I doubt I would ever recommend a book to some...more
Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder starts the Virga series. Had I not read and loved The Sunless Countries (Virga #4) I probably would have passed on the rest of the series. The series has a slow start as it introduces characters and the unusual manmade world of Virga.
In Virga whoever controls the suns has political and economic sway over all the nations dependent on the light. As these are manmade suns the technology and resources to build new ones is heavily guarded. A splinter group fr...more
In Virga whoever controls the suns has political and economic sway over all the nations dependent on the light. As these are manmade suns the technology and resources to build new ones is heavily guarded. A splinter group fr...more
Imagine a balloon circling a distant star.
Imagine this balloon is thousands of miles in diameter.
Imagine that within this balloon there are societies clustered around fusion-powered miniature suns, all floating in the atmosphere within this balloon. Societies, polities, nations existing in low gravity who sail the skies on ships and bicycles of a mostly steampunk level of technology. A world of action, adventure, and swashbuckling goodness.
Welcome to Virga...more
Imagine this balloon is thousands of miles in diameter.
Imagine that within this balloon there are societies clustered around fusion-powered miniature suns, all floating in the atmosphere within this balloon. Societies, polities, nations existing in low gravity who sail the skies on ships and bicycles of a mostly steampunk level of technology. A world of action, adventure, and swashbuckling goodness.
Welcome to Virga...more
Ben Babcock
rated it
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This was a good read. I liked the story and the characters. The interesting storyline and weird setting also kept me coming back to it.
Setting: The book is set in some place in the universe that is like a big balloon with lots of other things inside, including artificial suns. There were all sorts of scientific reasons for why things were the way they were and why they spun or moved how they did. Most of this kind of went over my head, but it was still fun to read. It kind of has a p...more
Setting: The book is set in some place in the universe that is like a big balloon with lots of other things inside, including artificial suns. There were all sorts of scientific reasons for why things were the way they were and why they spun or moved how they did. Most of this kind of went over my head, but it was still fun to read. It kind of has a p...more
Joel Neff
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who proclaims to not like science fiction.
Recommended to Joel by:
Cory Doctorow
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Excellent sci-fi action/adventure. Very well paced, with almost non-stop action while still letting me feel like I knew the characters. The non-earth setting was extremely interesting and understandable without the sort of technical explanations I tend to gloss over.
When I picture a movie being made of the story it looks like Flash Gordon, which may not sound like a compliment (if you've seen the 80's movie), but it has exactly the sort of swashbuckling space heroics that would per...more
When I picture a movie being made of the story it looks like Flash Gordon, which may not sound like a compliment (if you've seen the 80's movie), but it has exactly the sort of swashbuckling space heroics that would per...more
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