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Hegemony, or Space Fighters in Spaaaace!
Aug. 19th, 2013 09:32 amOver the weekend, I read and enjoyed Mark Kalina's debut novel Hegemony. I wrote a formal review on POD People, but here I want to focus more on Kalina's world-building.
I think all serious fans of SF have seen TV or movies (*cough* Star Wars *cough*) wherein small single-seat spacecraft fly rings around large, ponderous ships, yet pack enough firepower to be a threat to said larger ships. This is great for plot, allowing for a number of photogenic actors to look heroic, but lousy on physics. Here on Earth, aircraft move in a different medium than ships, and are (at least) 10 times faster. In space, none of the above applies - in fact the small ships would have less speed due to less fuel.
Well, Kalina solves this problem by having his interceptors use lasers-boosting from the mother ship. The interceptors (and in fact all Hegemon-military ships) also are crewed entirely by humans uploaded into computers. Said humans can only be in one place at one time (no "restore from backup") and need to download into humanoid avatars to stay sane, but when uploaded G-forces are not an issue. Kalina also doesn't cheat with "inertial dampeners" or whatever - Gees are Gees.
Things are even cooler. I think I've expressed my disbelief that space fleets would take wet-navy ship types and ranks and import them verbatim. Apparently Kalina agrees - his ship types and ranks are unique. Going back to the "uploaded human" thing - although the Hegemony is ruled by aristocratic uploaded beings (who for some reason use Greek names for their hierarchy), even some Hegemon citizens think the uploaded are "missile guidance systems with delusions of humanity." Lastly, the "big bad" in this book, the Coalition, although afflicted with political officers, are mostly upset at the Hegemony because of this uploaded aristocracy thing.
In short, I found Hegemony a really good read.
I think all serious fans of SF have seen TV or movies (*cough* Star Wars *cough*) wherein small single-seat spacecraft fly rings around large, ponderous ships, yet pack enough firepower to be a threat to said larger ships. This is great for plot, allowing for a number of photogenic actors to look heroic, but lousy on physics. Here on Earth, aircraft move in a different medium than ships, and are (at least) 10 times faster. In space, none of the above applies - in fact the small ships would have less speed due to less fuel.
Well, Kalina solves this problem by having his interceptors use lasers-boosting from the mother ship. The interceptors (and in fact all Hegemon-military ships) also are crewed entirely by humans uploaded into computers. Said humans can only be in one place at one time (no "restore from backup") and need to download into humanoid avatars to stay sane, but when uploaded G-forces are not an issue. Kalina also doesn't cheat with "inertial dampeners" or whatever - Gees are Gees.
Things are even cooler. I think I've expressed my disbelief that space fleets would take wet-navy ship types and ranks and import them verbatim. Apparently Kalina agrees - his ship types and ranks are unique. Going back to the "uploaded human" thing - although the Hegemony is ruled by aristocratic uploaded beings (who for some reason use Greek names for their hierarchy), even some Hegemon citizens think the uploaded are "missile guidance systems with delusions of humanity." Lastly, the "big bad" in this book, the Coalition, although afflicted with political officers, are mostly upset at the Hegemony because of this uploaded aristocracy thing.
In short, I found Hegemony a really good read.
