Ho he intentat però no puc amb ell. El trobo avorrit i encarcarat i, tot i que té algunes idees interesants (apuntades a l'entrada prèvia), El Legislador, de Miquel de Palol, queda arraconat fins a nou intent. En la meva decissió ha influït, no ho nego, la temptació en forma de nou llibre de'n Greg Egan, la novel·la Incandescence. Pel poc que porto llegit sembla que el senyor segueix la seva tendència cap a l'abstracció, que va pujar uns quants graons a la novel·la anterior, Schild's Ladder. Si mai us trobeu algun escrit que parla de hard science fiction i voleu saber que és això, agafeu un d'aquests dos llibres i ja veureu, ja. Si això us és igual però us agrada mínimament la ciencia ficció, no deixeu de llegir les seves novel·les Ciudad Permutación i Cuarentena, o els seus reculls de contes Axiomático o Luminous. Trobareu un dels escriptors de ciencia ficció més interesants dels darrers anys. Jo, entretant, aniré fent boca amb Incandescence fins a que play.com es digni a posar a la venda el nou recull de relats, Dark Integers.
(Oi que és una de les portades més lletges que heu vist mai? Aqui no es nota, però les estrelles són de purpurina. No us enganyo.)Text de la contraportada
A million years from now, the galaxy is divided between the vast, cooperative meta-civilisation known as the Amalgam, and the silent occupiers of the galactic core known as the Aloof. The Aloof have long rejected all attempts by the Amalgam to enter their territory, but have permitted travellers to take a perilous ride as unencrypted data in their communications network, providing a short-cut across the galaxy's central bulge. When Rakesh encounters a traveller, Lahl, who claims she was woken by the Aloof on such a journey and shown a meteor full of traces of DNA, he accepts her challenge to try to find the uncharted world deep in the Aloof's territory from which the meteor originated.“Almost everything about this world remains to be discovered,” Lahl said. “Until someone is willing to pursue the matter vigorously, the few scraps of information I'm carrying will mean very little.”
Rakesh was beginning to feel as if he was being prodded awake from a stupefying dream that had gone on so long he'd stopped believing it could ever end. He'd come to this node, this cross-roads, in the hope of encountering exactly this kind of traveller, but in ninety-six years he'd learnt nothing from the people passing through that he could not have heard on his home world. He'd made friends among the other node-dawdlers, and they passed the time together pleasantly enough, but his old, naive fantasy of colliding with a stranger bearing a surfeit of mysteries — a weary explorer announcing, “I've seen enough for one lifetime, but here, take this crumb from my pocket” — had been buried long ago.
Roi and Zak live inside the Splinter, a translucent world of rock that swims in a sea of light they call the Incandescence. Living on the margins of a rigidly organised society, they seek to decipher the subtle clues that can reveal the true nature of the Splinter. In fact, their world is in danger, and as the evidence accumulates Roi, Zak, and a growing band of recruits struggle to understand and take control of their fate.
Meanwhile, Rakesh and his travelling companion Parantham gradually uncover the history of the lost DNA world, a search which ultimately leads them to startling revelations that encompass both the Splinter, and the true nature and motives of the Aloof.
Entrades
