Cliometric Predictions as to the Plot in ARCHITECT OF AEONS
Few authors in days past could indulge in one of our favorite pasttimes, which is overhearing what readers think is going to happen next. A reader with the nautical yet leonine name of HMSLion offers what I consider a harsh but fair criticism, and, using the six-million variable calculus of predictive extrapolation, also called Psychohistory, is willing to share his Visualization of the Cosmic All, and guess what might come next in the next three volumes. The next words are his.
My comment: like a good scientist, he adds his accuracy assessment at point eight.
Anyone else care to venture a guess?
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
OK, I’ll play critic….
“Count to a Trillion”:
Brilliant conception, OK execution. You’ve already said you had mined “The Skylark of Space” for major character and plot ideas. That’s OK, it’s a rich vein and you didn’t come close to emptying it.
I’ll concede the economics of interstellar slaving and the whole business of dueling in armor with guided bullets as plot necessities. Ditto for Rania not telling her husband of her plan.
I found the Montrose backstory rather longer than necessary – and it did NOT include how Montrose got a reputation as a math expert.
Overall, I liked it a lot. An excellent book.
“The Hermetic Millennia” and “Judge of Ages”: Reviewed as one book, you had to split them for size reasons.
I liked these two less than “Count to a Trillion”. The two books appear to be a bridge between “Count to a Trillion” and the Showdown With the Hyades Armada. A mechanism to get Montrose and del Azarchel aboard a ship as allies…and outcasts from Earth.
Unfortunately, the reader is left trying to catch up with knowledge the characters already have. “Count to a Trillion” is part mystery, but Montrose knows no more than the reader. With these two books, the reader is left floundering.
The Tomb battle sequence gets rave reviews from others, I’m OK with it but found it long. The scene where they discover the Tomb of the Judge of Ages and find Rania’s picture is heartbreakingly beautiful. It really drives home how terribly much Montrose misses her.
Future predictions:
1. “Architect of Aeons” will be up to the standard of “Count to a Trillion”. The major plot movement will resume.
2. The Hyades have orders to get star-herding done. They don’t have an interest in ruling humanity otherwise. They can therefore be bought off.
3. The Authority in M3 is trying to create a hyper-intelligence. It’s not working, the fundamental problems are of character, not scale – and hence not solvable by scientific methods. Rania has figured this out. She may be coming back to Earth high up in the Authority power structure.
4. Montrose and the del Azarchel download running Jupiter will do battle.
5. Montrose’s patient and faithful waiting for his wife’s return will be decisive in determining the fate of humanity.
6. I’m not sure if del Azarchel abducts Rania in Book 5, but it would not surprise me.
7. It would not surprise me if Rania and Montrose had conceived a child on their wedding night. If so, del Azarchel will attempt to marry her… quite possibly after an abduction.
8. At least half these predictions will be wrong.