Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Science Fantasy
Review: "Celestial Matters" is an interesting book. It is not really science fiction, but it is also not fantasy. I think of it as science fantasy.
The story is set in a world where the ancient Hellenic civilization never fell, and instead prospered to conquer the known world. Alexander was usurped, Roman remained a city state and the West as we know it never developed. This Hellenic empire expands until it is itself checked by an expanding ancient Chinese empire. The story is about Aias, a Greek scientist's efforts to develop a fusion bomb to use against the Chinese. It includes the technical challenges, intrigues, and moral implications concerning the health, care and feeding of atomic weapons.
All this is pretty standard stuff. Except, in addition to the historical twist the author redefines the laws of nature to operate according to ancient classical beliefs. There is no periodic table of the elements, there is only fire, water, earth, and air. The sun and planets revolve around the Earth. This universe does not operate according to Einstein, and Copernicus.
I found the story in "Celestial Matters" to be rather underwhelming. The author is competent. . One theme did he handle well was the divine inspiration characters regularly received from the pantheon of gods. However, he is not good enough to handle his "big idea" of a universe operating according to Aristotelian science. The scenery consistently upstaged the characters. In addition, I could have used a full appendix on Classical cosmology, including maps. How many planets did the ancient Greeks know of? In what order from the Earth did they orbit? What was the paper, scissors, rock relationship of the prime elements fire, water, earth and air? What is the modern name of the ancient Chinese capitol? Only very late in the story is a character introduced to explain some of these things.
"Celestial Matters" is an interesting book, but a strictly mediocre novel. In some ways, the book is like Robert Forward's novels. I only found it worth reading for the intellectual exercise of understanding the background physics.
Rating: 
Summary: So good it hurts.
Review: Brilliant, innovative. It's hard to find true originality in sci-fi or fantasy, yet here it is. Like "alternate history" stories but taken to a completly unprecedented level. It manages to be very alien yet very relevent at the same time. What else can I say, I don't know how you could not like this book.
Rating:
Summary: So good it hurts.
Review: Brilliant, innovative. It's hard to find true originality in sci-fi or fantasy, yet here it is. Like "alternate history" stories but taken to a completly unprecedented level. It manages to be very alien yet very relevent at the same time. What else can I say, I don't know how you could not like this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Travel in a straight line till you drop - and get this book!
Review: Every so often you come across an Alternate History book that kinda stretches the boundaries of
what you consider A.H. One such is Celestial Matters, by Richard Garfinkle. The basic split point
here is that Alexander went to study in Sparta, then formed an "alliance" as such with Aristotle to
create the weapons with which to run his campaigns. The "Delian League" has lasted for a thousand years. But while this is the historical split, there's a much greater physical one. For on this Earth,
Aristotelian science really is true. Planets really do move in crystal spheres about an unmoving
Earth beneath a vast shell of fixed stars, and they really are made out of different stuff from mere
"Earthly" matter. Projectiles actually do travel in straight lines until they stop, and you really can
cure someone by balancing his humors. It's a very strange world. Interesting, but strange. Every so often the characters say/do something
that is completely weird, yet makes sense within the world of Aristotelian physics. The basic story is interesting too. It's a good read, I reccommend it. ["Celestial Ships" are built of matter mined from the nearby planets -- Selena, Hermes &
Aphrodite -- which because it is celestial matter, continues to "orbit" above Earth. They were first
created just a few decades prior to counter the "Battle Kites" of the Middlers -- which "fly" the Xi
currents (Chinese science is Tao-istic). "Space" travel makes up much of this book, and is quite unusual. "Space" is filled with air
(though it gets "purer" as one goes higher -- which can cause problems), and navigation is a
matter of "flying" to a planet, slipping underneath the edge of the Crystal Sphere, and flying to
the next one. Planets are quite small in this universe. While not stated, I doubt that any of the
nearby ones are larger than a hundred miles across]
Rating:
Summary: Travel in a straight line till you drop - and get this book!
Review: Every so often you come across an Alternate History book that kinda stretches the boundaries ofwhat you consider A.H. One such is Celestial Matters, by Richard Garfinkle. The basic split pointhere is that Alexander went to study in Sparta, then formed an "alliance" as such with Aristotle to create the weapons with which to run his campaigns. The "Delian League" has lasted for a thousand years. But while this is the historical split, there's a much greater physical one. For on this Earth, Aristotelian science really is true. Planets really do move in crystal spheres about an unmoving Earth beneath a vast shell of fixed stars, and they really are made out of different stuff from mere "Earthly" matter. Projectiles actually do travel in straight lines until they stop, and you really can cure someone by balancing his humors. It's a very strange world. Interesting, but strange. Every so often the characters say/do something that is completely weird, yet makes sense within the world of Aristotelian physics. The basic story is interesting too. It's a good read, I reccommend it. ["Celestial Ships" are built of matter mined from the nearby planets -- Selena, Hermes & Aphrodite -- which because it is celestial matter, continues to "orbit" above Earth. They were first created just a few decades prior to counter the "Battle Kites" of the Middlers -- which "fly" the Xi currents (Chinese science is Tao-istic). "Space" travel makes up much of this book, and is quite unusual. "Space" is filled with air (though it gets "purer" as one goes higher -- which can cause problems), and navigation is a matter of "flying" to a planet, slipping underneath the edge of the Crystal Sphere, and flying to the next one. Planets are quite small in this universe. While not stated, I doubt that any of the nearby ones are larger than a hundred miles across]
Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal
Review: Exciting and ambitious, thought provoking and reflective, Richard Garfinkle has become one of my favorite authors after writing just two novels. By turning the world of science on its side he creates alternate worlds that are both stunning and believable. He is definitely worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal
Review: Exciting and ambitious, thought provoking and reflective, Richard Garfinkle has become one of my favorite authors after writing just two novels. By turning the world of science on its side he creates alternate worlds that are both stunning and believable. He is definitely worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Absolute Winner
Review: Fantastic story, with odd and unexpected plot twists. It was a real page turner. I highly recommend this.
Rating:
Summary: By Zeus, this book is good!
Review: Forget Newton and Copernicus -- their bizarre ideas about motion and astronomy are obviously totally ludicrous to an educated citizen of the Delian League. And over one hundred elements? Ridiculous. Of course all matter can be reduced to atoms of earth, air, fire, and water -- and they have the technology to prove it. Now if only they could figure out how those Taoist alchemists from the Middle Kingdom can routinely do the impossible...
Classical Aristotelian physics and Ptolemaic astronomy combine with imaginative, original storytelling and good characterization to produce a great novel blending action, mystery, and hardcore "alternate science". Richard Garfinkle's novel of a Greece that never was is a book that will continually surprise you with classical references and subtle comparisons between our modern worldview and two others from our history. I recommend it highly
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Cosmology
Review: Garfinkle attempts a cosmological reinterpretation of the universe which can be read on several different levels. Garfinkle creates an alternate history of the planet Earth where Aristotle developed technology and empirical science, where Athens, Sparta, and the Han Chinese dominated the modern world. The story also works as a universal journey where crash and survival have reinvented the world. Richard Garfinkle's novel Celestial Matters is set in a world which diverged from ours early on. It is set in the 900th year of the Delphic League (roughly AD 500). In this world, science, as envisioned by Aristotle, is the driving force behind the world. The Greeks' enemy for world empire are the Taoist inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom, whose science is based on Chinese understanding of the world. This concept is intriguing in and of itself. The story is of the first ship, made of Moon Rock, to travel to the Sun to steal solar matter. The Greeks intend to use Sun Fire in their nine-hundred year long war against the Middlers. Although Garfinkle's characterization may not be the strongest and his plot may not move particularly quickly, this book is high concept. The idea that Aristotelian science actually is the way the world works is extremely interesting and Garfinkle handles it extremely well. However, he also postulates that Chinese science works, never attempting to explain how two rival scientific ideologies can co-exist and work. On the other hand, both these forms of scientific thought co-existed in reality trying to explain natural phenomena, so there is no real reason why they can't complement each other in Garfinkle's world.
|
