Metaplanetary
by Tony Daniel
Eos, HarperCollins (USA & Canada), hc, April 2001
from the SciFiSite.com best book's of 2001 (rated #7):
My Hangar blurb,David Soyka, in his review, describes this novel as "Heinlein meets Gibson and Stephenson, with a dash of Tom Robbins." The concept of Metaplanetary is that people throughout the solar system are in touch with each other via a web of bioengineered material that permits not only communication but also instantaneous replication of physical objects.
David says: "The grist is accessed by a human's convert portion -- a computing function hard wired into the personality -- permitting interaction in a virtuality with, among other things, purely artificial software constructs that enables not only relationships but procreation!
"And that's not even the weird part. What really makes Daniel's world-building unique is his conception of 'The Met' -- a system of spider web-like cables in space that connect the planets orbiting the Sun within the ring of the asteroid belt. These cables provide a means of transportation that bypasses the need for vehicular space travel. Don't laugh, because Daniel comes up with explanations rooted in quantum physics for this infrastructure that for all I know can actually be taken seriously
I'm about 200 pages in2 Metaplanetary by Tony Daniel and it's got me by the cojones! Knowing my unrequited love 4 Neverness and Req. for Homo Sapiens u understand my passion 4 Sci-Fis in the far-far future. So far Metaplanetary has not disappointed. Like Zindell there is alot of mathematical and quantum theory being knocked around here, but also like Zindell Daniel has the ability 2 break it down easily 4 the layman 2 understand. Sometimes Daniel's own personal quantum theories r a little difficult 2 see, but when u do-WOW-it's like entering a neat new little dimension.
Like Zindell's "fenestering" and Walter Jon William's "plasm" (in Metropolitian & City on Fire) Daniel's concept of "grist" may require u 2 suspend ur imagination 4 at least the first 100 pages. However, like Zindell and Williams, grist will grow (inside pun!) on u and later the thesis of Raphael Merced goes on 2 explain how it came about. Grist is basically tiny nanotech combined w/time fluxtuation and gravition encoding--one of the best ways of illustrating it is Star Trek the Next Generation:
remember when Capt. Picard asks 4 his Earl Grey tea from the "convenience" and it simply builds itelf? Well u get the idea....
Actually Daniel is borrowing from alot of great Sci-Fi masters: The "Met" is sort of a combination of Clarke's space ladders and Simmons' WorldWeb. U can also feel touches of Heinlien, Bradbury, Aldiss, Herbert and Brin here and there. In fact he makes fun references 2 some great Sci-Fi writters in interesting places. His originally and intelligence is what establishes him--Daniel is a very young man but he is outrageously intelligent. His characters aren't totally human but they r immediately engaging and in no way does he belittle the reader's intelligence. In fact, like Zindell, he seems so exicted about creating his completely new future that u can't help being caught up in that.
Intense virtual worlds and crossovers 2! I'd say more bout this but I'd really b spoiling...
I didn't know if I wanted 2 read this book or not, there is so much pap on the new Sci-Fi selves it's almost a crap-shoot nowadays, but after reading glowing recommendations from Gardner Dozois, Greg Bear, Lucious Shepard AND Roger Zelazny (who helped discover Daniel b4 his passing) I just had to. Daniel has also written: Earthling, Warpath and is now working on the sequel to Metaplanetary.
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