Random thoughts on Salvation

After two days to read Salvation and another to mull it over, some miscellaneous neural firings:

• As usual with Hamilton these days, there are more ideas by page 30 than most authors have in an entire series. And not just random stuff thrown at the wall, either; an early mention of life-extension technologies, for instance, sketches out a whole hierarchy of prejudices about the different options available.


• The real technological star of the show, though, is portals that, constructed in pairs, allow you to pass from one point to another instantaneously. In fact, this book might as well have been called 101 Fun Things To Do With Portals Once You Can Manufacture Them At Scale.


• Speaking of prejudices, capitalism vs. techno-utopian socialism have a running argument throughout the book. The author doesn't seem very excited about either of them.


• Also as usual with Hamilton, characters may wander away from the main plotline for the duration of entire novellas. This is one of the things I love about his work. (This is also one of the things many people hate about his work.)


• Yay, non-binary people! Not so yay, a society which decides to synthesize binary soldiers because they're "better". Although we do get a hint here and there that these are not exactly the genders we know ("Now that the girls had molted...") so I'll wait and see.


• The book concludes with the revelation of a grand plan that cannot possibly work as stated. I will just say it made me think of a famous quote from classic Doctor Who: "The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views." Yes, that's an awfully big fact that needs altering, but given enough time and sufficiently advanced technology...