Leviathan wakes (The expanse #1)

Aurora

1ª ed.: 2015
ed. sp.: 
auth.: Kim Stanley Robinson [ author, leidos ]

FRAGMENTOS.

(página 191 | Pos. 2919-20  | Añadido el martes 19 de enero de 2016) Where there is faction, there is conflict; where there is conflict, there is anger. And anger distorts.

(página 231 | Pos. 3531  | Añadido el miércoles 20 de enero de 2016) A hurt mammal never forgets.

(página 249 | Pos. 3808-10  | Añadido el miércoles 20 de enero de 2016) how does any entity know what it is? Hypothesis: by the actions it performs. There is a kind of comfort in this hypothesis. It represents a solution to the halting problem. One acts, and thus finds out what one has decided to do.

(página 253 | Pos. 3867-68  | Añadido el miércoles 20 de enero de 2016) They mingled. Speeches were made. People hugged. Tears were shed. They would never see each other again. It was as if each group were dying to the other.

(página 335 | Pos. 5125  | Añadido el martes 2 de febrero de 2016) To make time stop. To hold off death. This the source of the strong sense of self. Perhaps.

(página 380 | Pos. 5825-29  | Añadido el miércoles 3 de febrero de 2016) We think now that love is a kind of giving of attention. It is usually attention given to some other consciousness, but not always; the attention can be to something unconscious, even inanimate. But the attention seems often to be called out by a fellow consciousness. Something about it compels attention, and rewards attention. That attention is what we call love. Affection, esteem, a passionate caring. At that point, the consciousness that is feeling the love has the universe organized for it as if by a kind of polarization. Then the giving is the getting. The feeling of attentiveness itself is an immediate reward. One gives.

(página 381 | Pos. 5837-39  | Añadido el miércoles 3 de febrero de 2016) this, in the end, is what we think love gives, which is to say meaning. Because there is no very obvious meaning to be found in the universe, as far as we can tell. But a consciousness that cannot discern a meaning in existence is in trouble, very deep trouble, for at that point there is no organizing principle, no end to the halting problems, no reason to live, no love to be found.

[Plot from Wiki]

A generation ship is launched from Saturn in 2545, consisting of twenty-four self-contained biomes and an average population of two thousand people. One hundred sixty years and approximately seven generations later it is beginning its approach to the Tau Ceti system to begin colonization of a planet's moon, an Earth analog, which has been named Aurora.

Devi, the ship's de facto chief engineer and leader, is concerned about the decaying infrastructure and biology of the ship: systems are breaking down, each generation has lower intelligence-test scores than the last, and bacteria are mutating and evolving at a faster rate than humans. She tells the ship's AI, referred to simply as 'Ship,' to keep a narrative of the voyage. After having some trouble with understanding the human concept of narrative, Ship eventually elects to follow the life of Devi's daughter Freya as a protagonist.

As a teenager, Freya travels around the ship on her wanderjahr, and learns that many of the ship's inhabitants are dissatisfied with their enclosed existence and what they perceive as a dictatorship. Movement is strictly limited for most people, reproduction is tightly controlled, and education in science and mathematics is mandatory. Freya'swanderjahr comes to an end when she is called home as Devi grows sick from cancer and dies.

The ship arrives in the Tau Ceti system and begins to settle Aurora, a moon of Tau Ceti e. It soon becomes apparent that extraterrestrial life is present in the form of primitive prions, which infect and kill most of the landing party. The surviving settlers attempt to return to the ship, and some of those remaining onboard kill them in the airlock to maintain quarantine, leading to a violent political schism throughout the ship. Ship itself, which has been moving towards self-awareness, takes physical control of the situation by lowering oxygen levels and separating warring factions, referring to itself as "the rule of law." Under Ship's moderation, a more peaceful debate takes place between the inhabitants about what to do now that Aurora is known to be inhospitable. Eventually it is decided that some settlers will remain on a different planet in the Tau Ceti system which is likely to be free of hostile life; others decide to return to Earth in the ship.

On the voyage back to Earth, the ship's biomes continue to deteriorate as bacteria flourish and crops fail. The humans soon face famine, and opt to experiment with an untested form of cryogenic freezing, which is largely successful. Upon returning to the Solar system, Ship is forced to decelerate by means of gravity assist between various planets, a process which takes twelve years. During this time, with the full communications data of humanity available to it, it learns more about why it was launched in the first place - simply for expansionism - and denounces its builders as "criminally negligent narcissists." Ship manages to safely drop its humans off on a pass of Earth, but fails to successfully make a final gravity slowdown past the Sun, and is destroyed.

Freya and the other "starfarers" have trouble adjusting to life on Earth, especially with many Terrans hostile to them for a perceived sense of ingratitude and cowardice. At a space colonization conference, a speaker says humanity will continue to send ships into interstellar space no matter how many fail and die, and Freya assaults him. Eventually she joins a group of terraformers who are attempting to restore the Earth's beaches after their loss during previous centuries' sea level rise. While swimming and surfing, she begins to come to terms with life on Earth.

[Reseña from Naukas]

La inmensa mayoría de obras de ciencia ficción dedicadas a los viajes interestelares se centran o bien en el planeta de destino, o bien en los aspectos técnicos y psicológicos de la travesía. Muy pocas ponen el foco en las dificultades ecológicas de mantener un ecosistema totalmente aislado y cerrado. Aurora (2015), de Kim Stanley Robinson, es una de esas novelas, pero al mismo tiempo está muy lejos de ser la enésima historia de viajes interestelares. Porque, paradójicamente, Aurora es por encima de todo un alegato contra el viaje tripulado interestelar.

(...)

La tesis clave de Aurora es que cada forma de vida está intrínsecamente unida a su planeta de origen y necesita de éste para sobrevivir a largo plazo. La colonización de los mundos del sistema solar es posible gracias a la cercanía espacial y temporal de la Tierra, pero visitar otras estrellas es un asunto completamente distinto. Por este motivo, el que la historia esté situada en el mismo universo de su anterior novela, 2312, un auténtico manifiesto a favor de la colonización humana del sistema solar, no es ninguna contradicción. De acuerdo con Robinson, los viajes interestelares con humanos nunca serán posibles. Primero, porque, según él, es imposible mantener vivo un ecosistema cerrado durante siglos, incluso si disponemos de naves gigantes. Segundo, porque los mundos habitables de nuestra Galaxia o están desprovistos de vida -con lo cual resulta muy difícil colonizarlos porque son inhóspitos para los humanos-, o poseen microorganismos nativos que pueden matarnos. Probablemente la última tesis está un poco cogida por los pelos, pero la primera es mucho más interesante y es la que constituye el núcleo principal de la novela.

The 100 - Kass Morgan

1ª ed.: 2013
ed. sp.: 
auth.: Kass Morgan[ author, leidos ]

The trilogy is set three centuries after a thermonuclear apocalypse, where the only known survivors of the human race live in a space colony consisting of spaceships joined together in orbit around the Earth, governed by Chancellor Jaha, who leads its legislative council. Resources are so scarce that all crimes, no matter how small, are punishable by death, unless the perpetrator is under 18 years of age.

The 100 begins with Clarke Griffin, a former medical student, being arrested for a crime committed by her parents: conducting illegal experiments on children under threat of the corrupt Vice Chancellor Rhodes. Clarke confides in her boyfriend Wells, who is the chancellor's son. Despite swearing secrecy to Clarke, Wells tells his father, hoping to save the Griffins from Rhodes. His plan backfires, the Griffins are arrested, and his relationship with Clarke disintegrates. Two years later, the Colony decides to send one hundred of its teenage prisoners to investigate whether Earth is habitable. Among the one hundred are Clarke, Wells, Octavia Blake, her older brother Bellamy Blake, and Clarke's friend, Thalia.


The group crashes somewhere on the East Coast in the former United States. Once there, the 100 struggle to survive in a world very different from the past Earth. Clarke tends to the wounded, and Bellamy gradually develops a romantic interest in her. It is revealed that Octavia had become a drug addict while in prison. A few days later, someone sets fire to the camp, killing Thalia. As the survivors investigate, they discover a farm not too far from the site, leading them to the realization that they are not alone.

A Maze of Death

1ª ed.: 1970
ed. sp.: Laberinto de Muerte
auth.: Philip K Dick [ author, leidos ]

Una idea genial que se desvela en el último momento, pero que no justifica toda una novela por la que uno se arrastra sin demasiado interés.

[from wikipedia] 

The plot revolves around fourteen colonists of the world Delmak-O. They are: Betty Jo Berm, a linguist; elderly Bert Kostler, settlement custodian; Maggie Walsh, a theologian; Ignatz Thugg, who oversees thermoplastics; Milton Babble, a physician; Wade Frazer, apsychologist; Tony Dunkelwelt, a geologist; Glen Belsnor, who specialises in telecommunications; Susie Smart, a typist; Roberta Rockingham, a sociologist; Ben Tallchief, a naturalist; Seth and Mary Morley, a marine biologist couple; and Ned Russell, an economist. They inhabit a universe in which the deities of their religion can be contacted through a network of prayer amplifiers and transmitters. Tallchief is transferred to Delmak-O as a direct result of his prayer-petition for a change in his intolerable work situation.

Delmak-O is a mysterious and largely unexplored world. It seems to be inhabited by both real and artificial beings and enormous cube-shaped, gelatinous objects ("tenches") that duplicate items presented to them and give out advice, in anagrams reminiscent of the I Ching. In addition, various members of the group report sightings of a large "Building." As various calamities continue to befall each character, part of the group ventures out to find the mysterious structure. Each member of the group perceives the Building's entrance motto, and thus its purpose, differently.

One by one, the characters Tallchief, Smart, Berm, Dunkelwelt, Kostler and Walsh either kill themselves or are killed under mysterious circumstances. During a fight between the remaining colonists Seth Morley is shot through the shoulder causing an artery to be severed. While recovering from an attempt to repair the artery, Morley is abducted by armed men who kill Belsnor. They put Morley aboard a small flying craft but Morley overpowers them and takes control of the craft. With it he discovers that Delmak-O is in fact Earth, and he returns to the group to report this.

The group then comes to the conclusion that they are all criminally insane and part of a psychiatric experiment in rehabilitation. Once they admit to having killed the other members they conclude that the experiment has been a failure. It is at this point that they notice that each of them is tattooed with the phrase, "Persus 9." They decide to ask a tench what this means but doing so causes the tench to explode and the world around them to crumble to pieces.

All of them, including the colonists thought to be dead, awake to find that they are actually the crew of a spaceship that has become stranded in orbit around a dead star with no way of calling for help. Their experience had been a kind of virtual reality—a computer-generated religion that synthesized their beliefs—to help them pass the time. Seth Morley is depressed by this and wonders whether it would be better to let all the air out from the ship and thus kill them all rather than live out the rest of their lives engaging in virtual reality with no hope of rescue. Before he can act, however, an aspect of the deity known as the Intercessor, supposedly existing only in the virtual reality program and not a part of the "real" world, appears before Morley and removes him from the ship. The others, unconcerned with his disappearance, embark on another hallucination which begins in exactly the same way as the previous one, only this time without Seth Morley.