Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
Tor (New York, 2017). 1st edition, 1st printing. 368 pages. $26.99.
Description
It is a world in which near-instantaneous travel from continent to continent is free to all. In which automation now provides for everybody's basic needs. In which nobody living can remember an actual war. In which it is illegal for three or more people to gather for the practice of religion--but ecumenical "sensayers" minister in private, one-on-one. In which gendered language is archaic, and to dress as strongly male or female is, if not exactly illegal, deeply taboo. In which nationality is a fading memory, and most people identify instead with their choice of the seven global Hives, distinguished from one another by their different approaches to the big questions of life. And it is a world in which, unknown to most, the entire social order is teetering on the edge of collapse. Because even in utopia, humans will conspire. And also because something new has arisen: Bridger, the child who can bring inanimate objects to conscious life.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member antao
Alongside the Dune Cycle and Hyperion Cantos, I can only claim this series by Ada Palmer as the latest peak performance of political-philosophical-metaphysical SF. Terra Ignota’s novels depict a 25th century utopia in crisis in light of the ideas of the 18th century Enlightenment.
In this world,
Under the surface, however, conspiracies flourish. The top leaders of the seven regions unite in a secret alliance to preserve their own power. A clan of assassins monitors the world’s computer networks and, through tricky accidents, knocks out people who create tension. And a team of historians will prove that the longer a golden age lasts, the more devastating the collapse will eventually be. “The Seven Surrenders” revolve around these questions: which is more important, the present or the future? And how far can you go to maintain peace?
The metaphysical aspect of the story is provided by the appearance of two children with seemingly divine power: one with infinite wisdom and the other with potentially infinite power, if we can believe our cheekily unreliable narrator, who always puts his opinion first, the well-travelled serial killer Mycroft. The existence of these two children causes the future, which is abundant with these philosophers classifying religion as a taboo subject, in order to re-evaluate the image of reality as well. But of course the political status quo is also turned upside down because of them.
In a nutshell and after the first volume, Ada Palmer has once again put a prime, diverse, and high-quality work on the table that could become an instant classic for SF Lovers that go for more abstract yet action-packed and original stuff.
SF = Speculative Fiction.
In this world,
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the almost complete freedom of the individual has been realized. Seven great systems of philosophical ideas dominate the Earth, which have no boundaries drawn on a map, members of communities live side by side, more than once in the same household as “other” citizens. The automated aircraft system will fly anyone anywhere in a matter of hours, Humanists who love individual and persona values, Mitsubishi in the corporate system, Empire-building Freemasons following Roman traditions, Europeans who maintain traditional democracy, citizens outgrown by voluntary aid organizations mapping with the human mind, and Utopia seeking to conquer outer space in the peaceful golden age of three hundred years. Need I need to say more?Under the surface, however, conspiracies flourish. The top leaders of the seven regions unite in a secret alliance to preserve their own power. A clan of assassins monitors the world’s computer networks and, through tricky accidents, knocks out people who create tension. And a team of historians will prove that the longer a golden age lasts, the more devastating the collapse will eventually be. “The Seven Surrenders” revolve around these questions: which is more important, the present or the future? And how far can you go to maintain peace?
The metaphysical aspect of the story is provided by the appearance of two children with seemingly divine power: one with infinite wisdom and the other with potentially infinite power, if we can believe our cheekily unreliable narrator, who always puts his opinion first, the well-travelled serial killer Mycroft. The existence of these two children causes the future, which is abundant with these philosophers classifying religion as a taboo subject, in order to re-evaluate the image of reality as well. But of course the political status quo is also turned upside down because of them.
In a nutshell and after the first volume, Ada Palmer has once again put a prime, diverse, and high-quality work on the table that could become an instant classic for SF Lovers that go for more abstract yet action-packed and original stuff.
SF = Speculative Fiction.
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LibraryThing member RobertDay
In this second part of Ada Palmer's 'Terra Ignota', we are plunged directly back into her 25th Century Enlightenment society (this is certainly NOT a stand-alone novel). We get more of the deeply philosophical exploration of Palmer's future world as the various factions and individuals manoeuvre
Along the way, we engage in discourse over the nature of God or Gods (like any Enlightenment treatise worth its salt, the role of God in human affairs is taken as given, though at the same time that same subject is definitely on the table for discussion) and also the question of the extent to which the Ends justify the Means - even if the End is something extremely noble that Humankind has claimed to be questing for almost all its existence - the quest for peace. A major conspiracy to preserve peace at almost any cost was uncovered at the end of the first novel; this book begins to explore that, especially in looking at the motives of its central character, reformed mass murderer Mycroft Canner. But then the stakes are ratcheted up as other characters begin to contemplate returning War to the world, for a range of reasons ranging from "because we can", via "it is in our nature to do this" to "because it may be a Good Thing in the long run". I'm rather disquieted by the ease with which Palmer embraces this debate because this is usually a view that puts me off many a more overtly militaristic book (a lot of "military sf" is like this, embracing war with all the enthusiasm of early 20th Century General Staffs who saw war as inevitable and were always planning for the next war). But Palmer is a historian and history lecturer, and so this coldly analytical approach should be expected. There is also a veiled warning that because (in the novel) there has been more than 300 years of peace, war when it comes will be all the more terrible because we will be such amateurs at it. By extension, the argument runs that it is therefore better to have regular small wars, so people don't forget how awful it is. I'm not certain I find that easy to stomach.
Despite the density of the writing, I found this a quick and compelling read, though. At tines I was reminded of Shakespeare's histories; at other times, I was thinking more of Michael Moorcock's 'Dancers at the End of Time'. Palmer puts rather more wide-screen set-pieces into this book than book 1; and there are surprises. Not all the surprises were in the plotting, though; although the author makes a big thing of having used an Eighteenth Century style for the novel, there are some surprising infelicities of phrase and one complete failure to follow her own rules for reported speech in a different language at one point. And some naughty impulse made me suddenly switch one character whose English was especially formal, with lots of "thees" and "thous", into a broad Yorkshire accent, which oddly enough worked. Only UK readers are likely to have this problem.
Nonetheless, I thought this novel was better than 'Too Like the Lightning' and I shall move on to Book 3 very soon.
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and plot against each other and sometimes even themselves.Along the way, we engage in discourse over the nature of God or Gods (like any Enlightenment treatise worth its salt, the role of God in human affairs is taken as given, though at the same time that same subject is definitely on the table for discussion) and also the question of the extent to which the Ends justify the Means - even if the End is something extremely noble that Humankind has claimed to be questing for almost all its existence - the quest for peace. A major conspiracy to preserve peace at almost any cost was uncovered at the end of the first novel; this book begins to explore that, especially in looking at the motives of its central character, reformed mass murderer Mycroft Canner. But then the stakes are ratcheted up as other characters begin to contemplate returning War to the world, for a range of reasons ranging from "because we can", via "it is in our nature to do this" to "because it may be a Good Thing in the long run". I'm rather disquieted by the ease with which Palmer embraces this debate because this is usually a view that puts me off many a more overtly militaristic book (a lot of "military sf" is like this, embracing war with all the enthusiasm of early 20th Century General Staffs who saw war as inevitable and were always planning for the next war). But Palmer is a historian and history lecturer, and so this coldly analytical approach should be expected. There is also a veiled warning that because (in the novel) there has been more than 300 years of peace, war when it comes will be all the more terrible because we will be such amateurs at it. By extension, the argument runs that it is therefore better to have regular small wars, so people don't forget how awful it is. I'm not certain I find that easy to stomach.
Despite the density of the writing, I found this a quick and compelling read, though. At tines I was reminded of Shakespeare's histories; at other times, I was thinking more of Michael Moorcock's 'Dancers at the End of Time'. Palmer puts rather more wide-screen set-pieces into this book than book 1; and there are surprises. Not all the surprises were in the plotting, though; although the author makes a big thing of having used an Eighteenth Century style for the novel, there are some surprising infelicities of phrase and one complete failure to follow her own rules for reported speech in a different language at one point. And some naughty impulse made me suddenly switch one character whose English was especially formal, with lots of "thees" and "thous", into a broad Yorkshire accent, which oddly enough worked. Only UK readers are likely to have this problem.
Nonetheless, I thought this novel was better than 'Too Like the Lightning' and I shall move on to Book 3 very soon.
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LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
In Ada Palmer's "Author's Note and Acknowledgments" appended to Seven Surrenders she mentions such earlier science fiction writers as Alfred Bester, Jo Walton, Gene Wolfe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Voltaire, Yevgeney Zamiatin, and Yoshiyuki Tomino, among others. She does not mention Frank Herbert, but
In the midst of the story, Palmer uses a metafictional device to reflect on the ambitions of science fiction: "Apollo didn't really think the war over Mars in two hundred and fifty years would be fought with giant robots, it was just the only way they could describe a war that would be meaningful, conscionable, with space for human dignity" (249-50). I wonder which aspects of Palmer's own sometimes extravagantly-imagined future she finds least likely, but it is clearly not a prognostication. It is an engaging, immersive way to describe in high relief the tensions and vulnerabilities provoked by secularism, feminism, humanism, and other species of thought that have emerged from the Enlightenment with consequences yet to be determined in our present world. It also seems to be trying to sound the humanity that we share with Hellenic antiquity, in order to understand what of us can be maintained and/or transformed in centuries to come.
The four books of the series are evidently divided into two pairs, and this second concludes the opening arc concerning the "Days of Transformation" that bring to its end an existing world order. While curiosity does drive the reader toward "the Crisis still unfolding" in the next two books, this one (unlike the first) does offer some sense of a plot climaxed and concluded.
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the book that I was most reminded of in my reading of this second of four books in the Terra Ignota series was Dune Messiah in the ways it expanded on the inventive world-building of its predecessor volume and in the incredible pitch of political and personal intrigue. The scale of Terra Ignota is smaller than the vast interstellar empire of Herbert's Arrakis, but a global terrestrial society of the 25th century seems big enough for serious work.In the midst of the story, Palmer uses a metafictional device to reflect on the ambitions of science fiction: "Apollo didn't really think the war over Mars in two hundred and fifty years would be fought with giant robots, it was just the only way they could describe a war that would be meaningful, conscionable, with space for human dignity" (249-50). I wonder which aspects of Palmer's own sometimes extravagantly-imagined future she finds least likely, but it is clearly not a prognostication. It is an engaging, immersive way to describe in high relief the tensions and vulnerabilities provoked by secularism, feminism, humanism, and other species of thought that have emerged from the Enlightenment with consequences yet to be determined in our present world. It also seems to be trying to sound the humanity that we share with Hellenic antiquity, in order to understand what of us can be maintained and/or transformed in centuries to come.
The four books of the series are evidently divided into two pairs, and this second concludes the opening arc concerning the "Days of Transformation" that bring to its end an existing world order. While curiosity does drive the reader toward "the Crisis still unfolding" in the next two books, this one (unlike the first) does offer some sense of a plot climaxed and concluded.
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LibraryThing member JudyGibson
How on earth can I give a book five stars and at the same time say I didn't enjoy reading it? Well, here goes. I am just not interested in philosophy or theology, and that's what this book is about and spends pages and pages and chapters and chapters talking about.
And yet I was completely hooked by
And yet I was completely hooked by
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the society which had achieved 300 years of peace by renouncing nationality, gendered language and expression, and religion (sort of). The story takes place at the moment when the whole system is coming unraveled as people discover that their happy life was based on a complex mix of deception, murder, and politics. The large cast of characters shifted continually in their identities and relationships, not to mention horrible crimes and apparent supernatural powers. It did keep me reading, but I'm fairly certain I can't do two more books. Show Less
LibraryThing member Strider66
Pros: brilliantly plotted, amazing world-building, excellent pacing, thought provoking
Cons: fundamentally disagreed with some of the philosophy, ending left me disappointed
Picking up immediately where Too Like the Lightning left off, Seven Surrenders details more of the actions of the heads of the
I loved all of the politics, manipulation, and unclear morality of this book. This book has a LOT of political maneuvering and backroom dealings. It made me think about a lot of issues, even if my conclusions were different from those the book came to.
Mycroft remains an unreliable narrator at times, not always telling the truth and keeping certain things hidden until later. this helps with the pacing of the book, which I thought was great. The revelations come fast and hard, but enough is saved for the end to keep the reader guessing and turning pages quickly.
If the mix of sensual language and politics from the first book disturbed you, there are a few uncomfortable scenes in this book as well, mostly at the beginning.
One character is gendered as ‘it’, which may upset readers. We are told the character chose that pronoun, but in addition to being a gender neutral term, it’s also a term that reduces the person’s humanity. Given the nature of the character, both of those may have been intentional repercussions of that choice.
There’s a speech towards the end of the novel about gender that kind of irritated me. While I agreed with the ultimate point (or, at least understood where the character was going with the discussion), I’d understood this future to have done away with gendered pronouns as well as gendered clothing and expectations. And yet, this speech implied that children were still raised with the ideas that boys were more aggressive and girls more caring, etc, something I didn’t get from the books themselves. But what annoyed me was the assertion that some traits code ‘female’ and others ‘male’ and if you get rid of those terms, it just makes everyone more ‘masculine’ as if men aren’t inherently capable of being kind or considerate despite the book’s clear proof to the contrary (Carlyle, Bridger, etc. are men who obviously care about humanity, notwithstanding their being male).
The ending left me feeling unsatisfied. Yes, there are more books in the series which may overturn this, but with so many revelations I was expecting more resolution.
Cons: fundamentally disagreed with some of the philosophy, ending left me disappointed
Picking up immediately where Too Like the Lightning left off, Seven Surrenders details more of the actions of the heads of the
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seven hives, reveals the thief behind the seven-ten list, deals with the fall-out of the revelations that ended the first book, and paves the way for potential war.I loved all of the politics, manipulation, and unclear morality of this book. This book has a LOT of political maneuvering and backroom dealings. It made me think about a lot of issues, even if my conclusions were different from those the book came to.
Mycroft remains an unreliable narrator at times, not always telling the truth and keeping certain things hidden until later. this helps with the pacing of the book, which I thought was great. The revelations come fast and hard, but enough is saved for the end to keep the reader guessing and turning pages quickly.
If the mix of sensual language and politics from the first book disturbed you, there are a few uncomfortable scenes in this book as well, mostly at the beginning.
One character is gendered as ‘it’, which may upset readers. We are told the character chose that pronoun, but in addition to being a gender neutral term, it’s also a term that reduces the person’s humanity. Given the nature of the character, both of those may have been intentional repercussions of that choice.
There’s a speech towards the end of the novel about gender that kind of irritated me. While I agreed with the ultimate point (or, at least understood where the character was going with the discussion), I’d understood this future to have done away with gendered pronouns as well as gendered clothing and expectations. And yet, this speech implied that children were still raised with the ideas that boys were more aggressive and girls more caring, etc, something I didn’t get from the books themselves. But what annoyed me was the assertion that some traits code ‘female’ and others ‘male’ and if you get rid of those terms, it just makes everyone more ‘masculine’ as if men aren’t inherently capable of being kind or considerate despite the book’s clear proof to the contrary (Carlyle, Bridger, etc. are men who obviously care about humanity, notwithstanding their being male).
The ending left me feeling unsatisfied. Yes, there are more books in the series which may overturn this, but with so many revelations I was expecting more resolution.
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LibraryThing member ohernaes
Too Like the Lightning: Terra Ignota, Book 1 (2016) and Seven Surrenders (2017) by Ada Palmer. Reading these was occasioned by the CrookedTimber book event on them. One of the participants there describe them as weird. I agree. The novels are set in the year 2454, but refer mainly to ideas and
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writers from the (18th century) Enlightenment, and are also written in an archaic style. The plot contains implausibilities such as a tiny group of strange and sophisticated leaders largely controlling the world and religious elements. Perhaps these are just part of getting various ideas across, which seems like the goal of the novels, but readers like me are somewhat put off. The books are getting rave reviews, e.g. in the aforementioned book event, but do noe appeal strongly to me. Probably recommended for some, but I do not know who. Show Less
LibraryThing member quondame
Another venture into the world of Bash and Hive and obscured gender. It gets really messy. Twists work better when they are based on confounding expectations, but in such a wildly different social system expectations grow only the shallowest roots.
LibraryThing member RossWhippo
Knowing the world established in part one made part two all the more enjoyable. An exciting, canny, and often humorous view of the future.
LibraryThing member piemouth
I'm treating them as one book since they're the first two of a four volume series. In a world where every destination is no more than an hour away, nations are now determined by affinity rather than borders. Religion and gender are no more, with everyone referred to as "they". Though as the story
One big problem is that I like stories of the fantastic or the future best when they have rules that the characters have to work with and against. In this, there are characters who can literally raise the dead and seem to have no limitations, which makes the whole thing less interesting.
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moves on, both of these tenets are revealed to be false. It's very weird and confusing - I was taking notes - and most of the plot is about political intrigue among world leaders. The future world is interesting and I was interested in what was going to happen to most of the characters. The second book was more of the same, and things got weirder and weirder, with some big helpings of Rand-like political holding forth, and I quit. I went on Wikipedia and read the summaries of the rest of the book and the following one (4th isn't out yet) and am at peace with quitting, though it was fun for a while.One big problem is that I like stories of the fantastic or the future best when they have rules that the characters have to work with and against. In this, there are characters who can literally raise the dead and seem to have no limitations, which makes the whole thing less interesting.
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LibraryThing member Stevil2001
I really loved book I of Terra Ignota, Too Like the Lightning, and ranked it first on my ballot for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel. Had Seven Surrenders landed on the ballot for 2018, though, I don't think I would have ranked it so high. The joy of Too Like the Lightning was in the world it
The answers to the mysteries set up in TLTL are mostly interesting and satisfying, and the book's end promises an interesting set-up for book III. I will read The Will to Battle, but hopefully it's more in tune with what I enjoyed about book I.
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built, but the way Seven Surrenders develops swerves away from that aspect of TLTL. Palmer's semi-utopian future has "Hives" instead of nations as we understand them, voluntary associations, because in an era of instantaneous global transportation, who can enforce the borders of a traditional nation-state? But instead of focusing on the societies, Seven Surrenders doubles down on the people. A lot of the novel revolves around the political, sexual, and political/sexual intrigues of the Hive leaders... and I just really don't care about this at all. I kept losing track of who did what to whom, and I wasn't incentivized to spend the time to care. I feel like Palmer is creating a commentary here-- our societal aspirations will founder on the personal desires of the powerful-- but though the focus on personal lives might be justified, that doesn't make it interesting.The answers to the mysteries set up in TLTL are mostly interesting and satisfying, and the book's end promises an interesting set-up for book III. I will read The Will to Battle, but hopefully it's more in tune with what I enjoyed about book I.
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LibraryThing member elenaj
In the end, there is a lot to like in this series - fascinating worldbuilding, some great characters, and intriguing philosophical questions. But it's not for me. I don't like secret societies, I don't like books without sympathetic characters, and something about the actual plot of the first two
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novels feels too much like a building horror show to me to give me any pleasure. (It perhaps doesn't help that that building horror show sometimes too closely mirrors the actual politic climate of the moment.) Show Less
LibraryThing member capewood
2021 book #69. 2017. 500 or so years from now the world has been at peace for over 250 years. The peace is starting to unravel as people begin to understand what lengths their leaders have gone to to keep that peace. 2nd of a great series.
LibraryThing member macha
Book 2 is better written than Book 1. but i'm gonna stop now. although the characterization of all these concepts is... interesting, the novels that result from her presentation in the Terra Ignota series so far are pretty didactic and preachy. and to tell the truth, i'm not on board. she seems to
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favour in her debates a stagnant and/or repressive world, authoritarian by intention and design, and that bias makes me uneasy about where she's going with all this. Show Less
LibraryThing member renbedell
The sequel in the Terra Ignota series continues were the first book left off. This book is much more storyline and plot. The storyline is much more contained with the characters really shining. The plot is very interesting with its very own thought experiments. There is a lot of action, emotion,
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philosophy, and mystery. It ends in a satisfying way that also sets up what book 3 will likely follow. If you enjoyed the first book, then you will likely enjoy this one even more. Show Less
LibraryThing member dcunning11235
I continue to enjoy this series and will read the third book. But. With this second book the style really began to wear on me. The faux-seventeenth century style --the page-long paragraphs of description of motives and emotion, all constantly fraught and fragile, the
Holes in the ideas presented begin to grow massive (the whole world really banished gender? religion? and only a building of people in Paris are subverting this? Even after the 'Church Wars' this seems impossible to believe. That and 20 murders a year, worldwide, brings the entire system to its knees? Even in this future utopia that seems a stretch. And where are e.g. South America and Africa in this? And, for that matter and despite the nod to them, Asia and South Asia?)
But, complaints aside, in this are a lot of interesting ideas and questions, propositions even, continuing the first book. Weaknesses and warts, I still like this.
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world-falling-apart-while-everything-of-consequence-takes-place-in-breathless-exchanges-in-a-boudoir, taking the Enlightenment idea of ideas mattering more than anything...-- this all begins to wear.Holes in the ideas presented begin to grow massive (the whole world really banished gender? religion? and only a building of people in Paris are subverting this? Even after the 'Church Wars' this seems impossible to believe. That and 20 murders a year, worldwide, brings the entire system to its knees? Even in this future utopia that seems a stretch. And where are e.g. South America and Africa in this? And, for that matter and despite the nod to them, Asia and South Asia?)
But, complaints aside, in this are a lot of interesting ideas and questions, propositions even, continuing the first book. Weaknesses and warts, I still like this.
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Awards
Locus Award (Finalist — Science Fiction Novel — 2018)
Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire (Shortlist — 2023)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2017-02
Physical description
368 p.; 6.4 inches
ISBN
9780765378026
Local notes
Inscribed (San Jose, August 2018).