Medusa Uploaded

Medusa Uploaded by Emily Devenport

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

Are you familiar with those Russian dolls? You open one and there's a smaller one inside. Once more you open it and there's one still smaller. You keep going until you come to a tiny one in the center. Imagine you are living in the center doll and somehow you break out only to discover a larger one surrounding you, so you break out of that one as well and on and on. That's the feeling the protagonist of this novel, and by extension, the reader has. Just as it seems she's discovered what's going on, she learns of another factor influencing her life and those around her.

The setting is a galaxy class spaceship. and it's HUGE. We never quite get numbers with respect to the total size but from one airlock to another we're told is about two miles. This is a generation ship headed towards a new home world. It's been traveling for a hundred years when the story opens. We're told it will travel for another hundred.

Initially the story follows a well-known theme. An upper, authoritarian class holds absolute power over a lower one - sort of a space age feudal society - and our heroine comes equipped with magic (super technology) which gives her power over her adversaries and provides a means whereby she can alter the society along more democratic lines. Then, just as she's making progress she learns of something new, a factor influencing society's structure she'd never even dreamed existed. Then, as she starts to understand that, there is yet another twist.

I loved this book and it kept me spellbound wondering what our heroine would discover next. I highly recommend it although I felt the ending was a bit of a letdown and I really didn't care for the epilogue. Still, the latter is only about a page and a half so it didn't matter much to my overall enjoyment. If you like sci-fi with lots of complexities I think you'll enjoy this one.

One small technical detail. This is a galaxy ship. The author accepts the limitation imposed by the speed of light. I got the impression this ship was driven by chemical rockets. As a result, I doubt they could manage more than 80% the speed of light (if that). Therefore, in 200 years they'd travel around 160 light years (at most). I think the nearest galaxy to Earth (assuming that's where they originated and the author seems to suggest it might not be) is the Andromeda Galaxy. It's 2.54 million light years away so they wouldn't get anywhere near it in 200 years.



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