The algebraist

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The Algebraist is a science fiction novel by the Scottish writer Iain Banks and was first published in 2004 under the English title The Algebraist . The German first edition appeared in November 2006. The text was translated by Irene Holicki. It is the third science fiction novel by Banks that is not set in the narrative space of culture .

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In addition to a prologue and an epilogue , the novel is divided into six chapters. It has 798 pages and takes place in 4034 AD. Supported by other species , humanity has spread across the entire galaxy . An empire that is largely administered by the so-called Mercatoria ; a complex, cross-species, feudal-bureaucratic hierarchy that pursues the seemingly religious goal of keeping the galaxy free of artificial intelligences (short: AI). In a previous war, mankind was almost defeated by these artificial constructs. That left a trauma.

The focus of the story is Fassin Taak , a person and a "slow seer" who researches the dweller population of the gas giant Nasqueron in the Ulubis system. A conversation between him and the head gardener of his family, in the prologue and in the epilogue, frames the story.

The Beyonder, a large fleet of galactic marauders fighting the dominance of the Mercatoria, isolated the Ulubis system from the rest of the Mercatoria 250 years ago by destroying the wormhole portal; the only way to travel faster than light. At present, the local Mercatoria representatives are awaiting the arrival of a construction group, which is to establish a new wormhole connection, arriving at the speed below light from the neighboring system .

The Dweller , an advanced and ancient civilization of non-humanoids, inhabit the majority of the gas giants in the galaxy. Their predominantly anarchistic social structure is not based on property or money, but on kudos , which can only be inadequately translated as fame or honor.

They are the only influential species not under the control of the Mercatoria, and rumors have spread that they have extremely powerful defensive weapons.

The Dweller Society largely avoids dealing with species that are categorized under "fast". Fast in this context means peoples with a short individual lifespan as opposed to slow ones like themselves. Dweller individuals live for millions of years and the species itself supposedly has existed for billions of years, long before the Mercatoria was founded.

"Slow seers" like Taak come from a dynasty of researchers who have made it their business to extract information from the vast but completely disorganized libraries of the Dwellers . With the help of self-sufficient gas boats configured for long-term survival in gas giants, the seers travel to the gas planets and hope for cooperation between the Dwellers . To allow better communication between themselves and their hosts, they slow down their metabolism .

Taak , who has prepared for a peaceful life as a scholar, is therefore astonished when he is forcibly recruited into the most mysterious military order of the Mercatoria. It turns out that during one of his previous expeditions on the Dweller-inhabited gas giant Nasqueron, he stumbled upon a book called "The Algebraist", which contained information about the legendary "Dweller List". This list supposedly contains the coordinates of a galaxy-spanning wormhole system accessible only to dwellers. Since the Dwellers, thanks to their longevity, were able to colonize the galaxy at sub-light speeds, the existence of such a network is questionable.

Anyway, the list itself is just a collection of star systems. Wormhole portals are quite small and can be hidden anywhere in a system where there is zero gravity, such as at a Lagrangian point . So the list is useless as long as you don't have a certain mathematical transformation formula with which the exact locations of the portals can be determined. Taak is now supposed to find this transformation formula on another expedition .

The rumor about the existence of the list also attracts other interested parties. A tyrannical warlord , the Archimandrite Lusiferus , in loose alliance with the Beyonders, sets an invasion fleet in motion in order to occupy the Ulubis system from the Epiphany 5 cluster and gain possession of the precious secret of the Dweller portals.

A Mercatoria relief fleet is also on its way to Ulubis to protect the system from Lusiferus and his Beyonder allies. Since both fleets are traveling at less than light speed, the residents of the Ulubis system remain in fearful uncertainty as to which of the two groups will arrive first.

Taak's hunt for transformation brings him into contact with aspects of the Dweller society that were previously completely unknown to him. On board the expedition ship Velpin , under the care of the twin-twin captains Quercer & Janath , he is sent on a bizarre journey across the galaxy. It only became clear to him very late that they were using the Dweller's wormhole system , as was the fact that Quercer & Janath are an artificial intelligence disguised as Dweller . As it turns out, the survivors of the AI ​​extermination campaign found refuge with the Dwellers centuries ago.

In a background story, the novel tells of the childhood friendship between Taak , Saluus , Ilen and Taince , and how Ilen's fatal accident ended this friendship. Saluus is now a wealthy industrialist who builds the Ulubis system spaceships. Taince has risen to be a senior officer in the Mercatoria's fleet. The three rarely encounter but the reader can follow how Taince , for some time, murder plans against Saluus cherishes. Because she knows that Ilen's death was not an accident. In this context, the reader also learns of Taak's secret sympathies for the Beyonder.

Meanwhile, the invasion fleet of the Archimandrite Lusiferus has arrived in the Ulubis system and has easily overpowered the local defense forces. However, it turns out that the Mercatoria fleet will arrive much faster and is much more powerful. There is not much time left to achieve the original goal.

In order to force the Dwellers to hand over Taak and its information, the archimandrite attacks the gas giant Nasqueron with antimatter bombs . Now the legendary super weapons of the Dwellers are used. A massive aegis wields a devastating blow on the attacker's fleet. Pursued by the Mercatoria forces, Lusiferus flees back to the Epiphany 5 cluster.

Upon returning home, Taak finds that the memory erasure that his journey and knowledge of the Dweller List should have erased is partially ineffective. He reconstructs that the Dwellers probably hid a wormhole portal in the center of every gas giant they settled. That's a million planets and a transformation of the list was never necessary. It remains unclear whether the Dwellers will be willing to work together to allow other species to use this network. In any case, they are discussing intensively to what extent an opening of the network - because of the galaxy-wide admiration of all other species - could lead to a general increase in the background kudos level for all dwellers. The novel ends with Taak joining the Beyond and prophesying, "One day we will all be free."

Important people, species, and Dweller ideas

  • Fassin Taak , slow seer, Dweller researcher
  • Y´sul Dweller Member of the voluntary guild of protectors / mentors, most important contact person for Fassin Taak
  • Quercer & Janath , an AI disguised as a Dweller double twin, captains of the expedition ship Velpin
  • Colonel Hathereince , officer of the Mercatoria, an Oerileithe, a species of younger small whelks
  • Saluus , childhood friend of Fassim Taak, rich industrialist in the Ulubis system
  • Taince , childhood friend of Fassim Taak, high officer in the relief fleet of the Mercatoria
  • Archimandrite Lusiferus , sadistic conqueror
  • Dweller , long-lived, extremely resilient inhabitants of gas planets. Individual individuals are cylindrical, with an average diameter of nine meters. They have a life expectancy of billions of years; the species itself has existed for billions of years. Dwellers are almost everywhere and almost from the start.
  • Oerileithe , younger species, also inhabiting gas planets, physically much smaller than Dweller and often referred to as small Dweller by them.
  • Voehn , eight-legged lizard species from which the current Merkatoria warrior elite are recruited.
  • Kudos , a value system based on action and thinking that cannot be compared with money. In a way, it actually means the complete opposite of that. For example, the harder it is earned, the less kudos is worth.

outlook

In a 2004 interview, Iain Banks said:

"There might be a trilogy, but right now it's a single novel."

Prizes and awards

The algebraist was nominated in 2005 for the "Hugo Award for Best Novel". In 2011 the novel was on the list of "NPR Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Titles".

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wayback Machine (archived June 15, 2011)