What do you think?
Rate this book
Virga #1-2
Virga: Cities of the Air
It is the distant future. The world known as Virga is a fullerene balloon three thousand kilometers in diameter, filled with air, water, and floating chunks of rock. The humans who live in this vast environment must build their own fusion suns and “towns” —enormous wood and rope wheels that are spun for centripetal gravity.
This complex and fascinating world is the setting for the novels of Virga, Karl Schroeder’s interstellar far-future space habitat sealed off from contamination by the rest of the inhabited universe. These books have set a high standard for hard SF adventure in the last decade, and now the first two novels, Sun of Suns and Queen of Candesce, are brought out for the first time in one trade paper omnibus.
This complex and fascinating world is the setting for the novels of Virga, Karl Schroeder’s interstellar far-future space habitat sealed off from contamination by the rest of the inhabited universe. These books have set a high standard for hard SF adventure in the last decade, and now the first two novels, Sun of Suns and Queen of Candesce, are brought out for the first time in one trade paper omnibus.
590 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
19 people are currently reading
246 people want to read
About the author
Karl Schroeder
95 books384 followersKarl Schroeder is an award-winning Canadian science fiction author. His novels present far-future speculations on topics such as nanotechnology, terraforming, augmented reality and interstellar travel, and have a deeply philosophical streak. One of his concepts, known as thalience, has gained some currency in the artificial intelligence and computer networking communities.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 14, 2013
Cities of the Air is an omnibus of the first two novels in Karl Schroeder's Virga series.
I literally had no idea what to expect going into this. I was at work looking for a quick read and noticed that the title of the book was "Cities of the Air", a concept which has always been a favourite of mine, so I grabbed it. Schroeder is an amazing worldbuilder, that is for damn sure. The setting for these novels is so unique that it defies belief.
The first novel doesn't really concentrate on any one location in Virga, the massive balloon the series is set in. The second novel, however, is centered entirely on one of the nations of Virga, which was neat.
This is also the reason both novels irked me a bit. In the first, you are introduced to all these cool and unique environments and they are never explored. In the second, you are confined to a single environment. This isn't even really a criticism because both are awesome, but its something to consider.
I am definitely going to check out the following novels in the series. The second was nothing like what I was expecting it to be, so I am very interested to see what is to come.
I literally had no idea what to expect going into this. I was at work looking for a quick read and noticed that the title of the book was "Cities of the Air", a concept which has always been a favourite of mine, so I grabbed it. Schroeder is an amazing worldbuilder, that is for damn sure. The setting for these novels is so unique that it defies belief.
The first novel doesn't really concentrate on any one location in Virga, the massive balloon the series is set in. The second novel, however, is centered entirely on one of the nations of Virga, which was neat.
This is also the reason both novels irked me a bit. In the first, you are introduced to all these cool and unique environments and they are never explored. In the second, you are confined to a single environment. This isn't even really a criticism because both are awesome, but its something to consider.
I am definitely going to check out the following novels in the series. The second was nothing like what I was expecting it to be, so I am very interested to see what is to come.
October 2, 2013
This steampunk space-opera had one of the strongest starts I've ever seen: well paced, beautiful creation of new worlds to stoke the imagination, and intriguing ideas of new ways to live. This edition is a compilation of the first 2 books of a trilogy. I found the first to be a lot of fun, but by the middle of the 2nd book it was too repetitive: lots of swashbuckling action and adventure, but frankly too much of it without any new ideas or creativity. That is not really a criticism, since it was still well-written and the action was interesting, but personally I need more pure invention and imagination in my sci-fi. After the rush of Schroeder's new world wore off, this lost all elements of sci-fi and was purely an action/adventure novel.
Still, if you know someone into the steampunk aesthetic, this is a fun story within a gorgeous world, and you couldn't possibly guess what is going to happen on the next page.
Still, if you know someone into the steampunk aesthetic, this is a fun story within a gorgeous world, and you couldn't possibly guess what is going to happen on the next page.
July 6, 2012
A light read. Mostly this seems like an exercise in world building for Schroeder.
A bit to steam punky for me on a few occasions but it soon leaves that behind.
The prose is not pretty but it is workable and the imagery is certainly lovely in it's own way.
If you went out of your way to read more into it all of the stories of Virga are about different types of closed societies dealing with change.
A bit to steam punky for me on a few occasions but it soon leaves that behind.
The prose is not pretty but it is workable and the imagery is certainly lovely in it's own way.
If you went out of your way to read more into it all of the stories of Virga are about different types of closed societies dealing with change.
June 6, 2020
Two books, I think! Pretty good sci-fi with interesting world-building in a scene that I've never been introduced to before. I read this in jail. I used the inside of the back cover to write my journal before I could buy a notepad from commissary.
September 11, 2018
Great story telling and world building, character development was pretty good too. But it was slow to start, and the second book focused on a better character than the first.
November 28, 2025
Don't waste your money or time
June 16, 2023
the COOLEST sci-fi concept I've read in a while - I can't wait to re read these. The unique characters, the setting, the JOURNEY?! my god - 10000/10
June 11, 2012
This is a high-energy tale of swashbuckling naval adventure, pirates, treasure, and swordplay.
Except it takes place in the far future, inside a giant balloon that's been sealed to cut out the outside world. Inside, there's very little gravity, so cities are built like wheels, and have to spin to create centripetal force. The ships float in the air, and are like baroque, steampunk airships, but there are also fast motorcycle-type vehicles that use the force of air to power them.
There is a central mechanical "sun"--a fusion reactor--called Candesce, and some smaller suns have popped up. Cities are built around these suns, and wars are fought over taking over resources and creating new suns.
Places where suns don't reach--the vast majority of the "planet"--are known as Winter. Winter is harsh.
It starts as a simple tale of revenge, but gets turned on its head by revelations and retrospect and the threat of war.
My biggest complaint is that the protagonist doesn't seem as interesting as any of the people he's surrounded by. He's Luke Skywalker in that way, I suppose.
I quite liked it, and I'm anxious to read the rest of the series.
Except it takes place in the far future, inside a giant balloon that's been sealed to cut out the outside world. Inside, there's very little gravity, so cities are built like wheels, and have to spin to create centripetal force. The ships float in the air, and are like baroque, steampunk airships, but there are also fast motorcycle-type vehicles that use the force of air to power them.
There is a central mechanical "sun"--a fusion reactor--called Candesce, and some smaller suns have popped up. Cities are built around these suns, and wars are fought over taking over resources and creating new suns.
Places where suns don't reach--the vast majority of the "planet"--are known as Winter. Winter is harsh.
It starts as a simple tale of revenge, but gets turned on its head by revelations and retrospect and the threat of war.
My biggest complaint is that the protagonist doesn't seem as interesting as any of the people he's surrounded by. He's Luke Skywalker in that way, I suppose.
I quite liked it, and I'm anxious to read the rest of the series.
December 16, 2010
3.5 stars - Virga is an almost impossibly unique world. The action-adventure plot is compelling. Characterization falters slightly and the book is somewhat bloated but otherwise the world and unique events taking place allow readers to overlook any potential faults.
Read my full review here:
http://bookwormblues.blogspot.com/201...
Read my full review here:
http://bookwormblues.blogspot.com/201...
Read
June 12, 2016Liked this.... The combination of what's essentially a victorian society trapped in a very high-tech "world" indeed.... Very promising.
The battle scenes, mixing sailing-ship derring-do with high-tech science; pretty clever.
The battle scenes, mixing sailing-ship derring-do with high-tech science; pretty clever.
Read
September 9, 2016Steampunk-like far future world in a hollow-sphere setting (AKA Ringworld on steroids). Local politics intersect with an attempted takeover by the rest of the galaxy. I’m still trying to figure out how the natural resource economy works, especially for things like minerals.
July 24, 2011
Loved the first book (Sun of Suns), the second (Queen of Candesce), not so much.
Want to read
February 13, 2012****Received as a prize from a contest from Tor.com****
October 5, 2014
Great sequel to a fantastic story. More crazy worlds, interesting way to continue from the first book, can't wait to see what's going on in the third one...
October 13, 2015
I designate this "schtumpunk"
Not my cup of tea I guess, happy reading to you who enjoy it !
Not my cup of tea I guess, happy reading to you who enjoy it !
Read
August 4, 2016Third of the way through the first book and loving it so far!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews