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Overview
Karl Schroeder is one of the new stars of hard SF. His novels, Ventus and Permanence, have established him as a new force in the field. Now he extends his reach into Larry Niven territory, returning to the same distant future in which Ventus was set, but employing a broader canvas, to tell the story of Teven Coronal, a ringworld with a huge multiplicity of human civilizations. Brilliant but troubled Livia Kodaly is Teven's only hope against invaders both human and superhuman who would destroy its fragile ecologies and human diversity. Filled with action, ideas, and intellectual energy, Lady of Mazes is the hard SF novel of the year.
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Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewImagine a world where the smallest whim could be granted with a mere thought, a self-indulgent unreality that conformed to its inhabitants' every desire. Karl Schroeder's Lady of Mazes is set in a seemingly utopian realm of augmented reality where the majority of the populace of has neural and sensory implants -- but what happens when the plug gets pulled?
Teven Coronal is a ringworld inhabited by numerous human civilizations, each living within its own manifold. Most inhabitants are so absorbed with their own versions of reality that they don't even care that other manifolds exist. Livia Kodaly lives in Westerhaven, a high-tech manifold where the populace creates extravagant unrealities. But when mysterious revolutionaries invade and destroy Teven Coronal's fragile way of life, Livia vows to free her conquered homeland and restore Westerhaven to its former glory. But the more Livia learns, the deeper the mystery becomes…
A prequel to Schroeder's critically acclaimed Ventus (2000), Lady of Mazes is a much broader, more ambitious novel that takes on a host of themes and topics including emergent systems, rogue artificial intelligences, nanotechnology, post-humanity, and the future incarnations of politics and religion. Schroeder creates an awe-inspiring future -- the worlds of the coronals -- so richly described, so intensely detailed, that readers will find themselves totally immersed in its brilliance. Schroeder has been compared to master world builders Arthur C. Clarke, Vernor Vinge, and Larry Niven for good reason: This labyrinthine novel will blow hard science fiction fans away. Paul Goat Allen
Publishers Weekly
Set in the same future universe as Ventus (2000), Canadian author Schroeder's challenging hard SF novel explores the vast potential of artificial intelligence for transforming human culture. On the remote ring world of Teven Coronal, Livia Kodaly and her family inhabit the beautiful Westerhaven manifold, surrounded by a richness of high tech and virtual conveniences. Due to a childhood tragedy, Livia enjoys different consensual realities. The mysterious Book 3340 breaks down the barriers between manifolds, destroying her world, so that she must travel, with a few accomplices, out of Teven Coronal into the Archipelago, where she encounters several models for a perfect human society and examines her own. Her task is to choose among them, but ultimately to ensure that choices are possible by sacrificing herself to prevent the total subjugation of humanity. The interrelationship between technology and philosophy that informs her choice gives depth and breadth to a book that many will want to reread to get all the nuances. Agent, Donald Maass. (July) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.Library Journal
The vast ringworld of Teven Coronal holds numerous human civilizations within its structure. Here, humans and their virtual selves, or animas, pass their time dabbling in politics, duels, and gaining or losing authority. When a series of mysterious invasions rocks Coronal, destroying cultures and threatening the fabric of the world's reality, Livia Kodaly, one of Coronal's most brilliant and eccentric individuals, becomes the best hope for defeating the invaders and saving her world. Schroeder (Ventus; Permanence) specializes in far future, hard sf. His lively writing style and cutting-edge visions combine to deliver a topnotch story that emphasizes the human will to persevere even when reality is falling apart. A good choice for most sf collections. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.Kirkus Reviews
Far-future yarn about competitive multiple realities, godlike posthumans and rogue artificial intelligences, set in the same universe as Ventus (2000). Teven Coronal is one of many ring-shaped habitats orbiting Earth; within it exist multiple realities, or "manifolds," separated only by people's ability to perceive them via their neural implants and the "tech locks" that keep the system functioning. Most people perceive one or perhaps two manifolds, but Livia Kodaly, from technically advanced Westerhaven, can cross into any of them. People from Westerhaven can visit neighboring Raven with its low-tech, Aztec-like "inscape" but few choose to do so, until Livia learns that outsiders have appeared there. She teams up with Raven chieftain Qiingi to study the newcomers, who bring high-tech devices and claim to be "ancestors." Having already invaded other manifolds, the ancestors are now using the forces of Oceanus to destroy Westerhaven. Livia, Qiingi and Livia's scientist friend Aaron flee and eventually make their way to Earth's main civilization, the Archipelago-Teven, they find, is an isolated backwater-with its arbitrary realities, godlike posthumans, strange artificial-intelligence anecliptics, even weirder government and electoral system and individual lives based on interactive "narratives"-including the Good Book with its constantly shifting roles and relationships. Despite their best efforts, the three from Teven can find no clue who the ancestors are, or why they have chosen to invade Teven. Bulging with complex ideas and extrapolations-often as difficult to follow as they are to describe; again, if you disregard the ideas and keep reading, the paucity of the underlying narrativebecomes exposed. Often amazing, but it's a tough slog nonetheless.SFsite
"Karl Schroeder's new novel is the real thing—head-snappingly cool SF.scifi.com
"A brilliant performance, a novel of high ambition executed with the talent and imagination to match.From the Publisher
Praise for Lady of Mazes:"With Lady of Mazes, Schroeder gives us another novel of marvelous insight — brightest glimpses of where our technology of communication and computation may be taking us."—Vernor Vinge"A complete original. . . it's the most thought-provoking and interesting work of hard SF that I've read in the past year, and it deserves to be recognized as belonging to the cutting edge of the new far future in SF."—Charles Stross
"Lady of Mazes is Clarke's The City And The Stars re-imagined for a new century. This is hard SF at its best. . . Schroeder belongs to a dynasty that includes Benford, Vinge and Egan. Read this book and reboot your dreams — and your nightmares."—Stephen Baxter
"An astonishing saga. One helluva read!"—Charles Harness
"Karl Schroeder has always had a knack for intelligent and provocative thought experiments, disguised as space opera. Now he ups the ante with a fascinating riff on consensual (and conflicting) realities. Lady of Mazes contains more cool ideas than Ventus and Permanence combined."—Peter Watts