In which three get with the program.
I mentioned the way the team had split up last time, but I only just now realised that it’s reflected in the chapter titles: they’re called “One”, “Two”, and “Three”, not just because they’re the first three chapters of the book, but also because that’s how many of the Six are in each chapter.
We learn that the first device for creating a Commander of Agents appeared fully-formed, its past a mystery, instead of being something the Department created after deciding on its own necessities. That’s ominous. Also ominous, though by this point not entirely a surprise, is its offer of self-improvement, which we have seen before as a hallmark of those devices sent by the Great Enemy to subvert people to their cause.
The idea of the call-back phrase has a sibling in Carpe Diem, when Priscilla goes astral wandering in search of Val Con, and gives Lina a phrase to say if something goes wrong, that will call her back to herself from however far she’s journeyed.
I’m a bit worried by the detail that when Claidyne closes the metaphorical door on the Commander program, the door doesn’t lock.
I sorta glanced right over two of the important points you’ve made, Paul . . . until I read it this time. But it’s the fourth time through for me! š
First, although I noted the similarity in the offer not merely for improvement but for perfection, it wasn’t until I connected that with the other “little” fact we’re given—that this transfer point, although listed as the fourth, Claidyne supposes to be the first—that the two pieces clicked together suddenly in my brain and I realized that this might be one of those machines originally devised by the sheriekas. Even if it had been rebuilt from some plan of theirs that had been found and followed blindly—as was done by Verita in the story of the Rosa Ring—there would have been some kind of history. But according to Claidyne’s thoughts, this first download point arrived in mystery [and was] discovered by who knew what arts or accident. In some ways, one can hope it wasn’t discovered by pure accident, since it’s a trap. But perhaps more likely, its existence and location was dug out of the library, as Verita had done, by one who was already bent on domination.
Regarding that lock that didn’t engage . . . any horror story will tell you the danger in that kind of negligence!
yes, implications of a sheriekas brain-washing machine, promising perfection as Cantra heard in Crystal Soldier. But I hope we learn more. Iād like details on the origins of DoI. Who first found the device? And who first used it to set up the Department? We know its history goes back decades, possibly longer.
My other thought regarding the idea (above) that the plans for this transfer point were dug out of the Ligonier Library mentioned in the “Excerpts from Two Lives” . . . where and what it this library? Is it possibly under the auspices of the Lyre Institute?
I don’t see any connection between Ligionier Library and Lyre Institute. If Lyre had access to that kind of knowledge Uncle would be far more afraid of them.
No, I believe it more likely that the library was looted in the old universe by the ancestors of those people that were mentioned in Excerpts. I had the defined impression that the Library itself had already been lost to them.
Continuing this discussion:
In the narrator’s description of Kiland and Verita’s past—and their decision together to split their labors—it says: She, drawn to research, joined the efforts to extract the most dangerous secrets of the Ligonier Library. I took this to mean that the library was still in existence during this time. But then later, we’re told: Verita was supported by the work she’d done since graduate school, fed by secrets pilfered in the great war more than a century gone by, when Implacable’s weapons led the attack on Quadraterra’s defenses and stood guard over the looting of the Ligonier Library. It was from this looted knowledge that Verita had extracted the sheriekas instructions for building pseudolife. The last mention of the library says: Scientists at the Ligonier Library had plotted their control of the new universe, using the tools that had won the old.
Maybe Paul and/or Othin could help me make better sense of all that, but at the least it seems to be saying that Kiland’s ship was the one that stood guard over the looting, and that happened in the New Universe. The Old Universe is mentioned, yes, but it sounds as if the Library existed in the new universe, still containing the secrets the sheriekas had planted there.
I finally found what was nagging me about those 3 “prolog chapters”. I don’t know if anyone else fell into this, or if I’m the only one. But I finally realized how big a time gap has to be between those 3 chapters and the 4th. They happen a few month or several weeks earlier. Only with the 4th chapter the book takes up where Neogenesis left of.
Yes, it was rather disorienting to me as I read it for the first time.