I thought highly of the first two books in Karl Schroeder’s Virga series. Unfortunately, my pleasure reading those books did not carry through the third, Pirate Sun. Schroeder’s created an amazing physical place and an interesting political world in Virga. For example, there’s an epic weightless battle in part two that would be heaven to see on the big screen. However, the plotting and characterization are all over the map in the last book of the series. The aforementioned space battle is superfluous to the plot, serving only to illustrate how one might fight a weightless battle.
Let’s catch up. Virga is a 5,000 mile diameter balloon floating around the star Vega. It’s filled with air and people. One central fusion sun (Candesce) and numerous smaller fusion devices provide light and power for all the living things inside. Nations are small conglomerations of towns floating in three dimensions. They are numerous near Candesce, but towards the edges one can go hundreds of miles between them. Some towns build giant wheels which they spin to provide gravity.
On of Pirate Sun‘s two main characters is Chaison Fanning, former head of the Slipstream navy, now imprisoned in Falcon Formation. Fanning had thwarted Falcon Formation’s attack on slipstream, but was captured in the process. The other is a new character Antaea Argyre, a member of the home guard, dedicated to protecting Virga from what lies outside the balloon. Her sister is hostage; she must find the key to Candesce last known to be in the possession of Chaison’s wife Venera. Antaea engineers Chaison’s escape from prison, and they begin a long trek back, trying to elude Falcon Formation along the way. Only back to what? Chaison wants to go back to Slipstream, but Antaea has her own goals.
The zero gravity battle highlights both what’s good about Pirate Sun and what’s bad. Skip to the next paragraph if you’d rather not know. After Chaison’s escape, he’s pursued by the Falcon Formation secret police, only to be saved by the timely intervention of a flood. In this case, a flood engineered by another neighboring nation, Gretel. Basically, stick a sun near a weightless glob of water of immense proportions, funnel the water vapor in the direction of Falcon Formation, and profit! See, the water vapor will coalesce into a moving column of water and knock towns and dwellings silly. Good distraction for someone on the run too. Interesting physics, and fun to think about.
Following that, Gretel attacks Falcon Formation. Plot-wise, this just doesn’t hang together. The highly militarized government of Falcon Formation just runs away, leaving the population defenseless. Why they don’t think they can hack it is never explained. Taking charge of the defense of the nation is a circus strongman Corbus, and Chaison Fanning and Altaea Argyre! The battle scenes inspire! Sharpened logs as nearly invisible weapons. Martial arts for women with boots as deadly weapons in zero gravity! Forcing populations to fight by pushing their floating dwellings together.
But why did the leaders disappear without a fight? Why would anyone really listen to a circus strongman, even if he is a natural speaker? And why does Chaison Fanning feel honor bound to lead the military fight for a nation that imprisoned him, and which is doomed to lose? The answer seems to be simply that there’s a lot of cool physics involved in a war, so we need to engineer one so the coolness can be exposited.
The ultimate confrontation between Chaison, Antaea, her handlers, the forces outside Virga, the defenders of Virga, the pilot of Slipstream, the admiralty of Slipstream, the people of subjugated Virga, and another shadowy unknown group is also needlessly complicated. I stopped counting swerves after five. We find out why Artificial Nature wants Virga but it makes no sense. The pilot needlessly showboats. Some of the swerves don’t make much sense. Why would Antaea’s handlers turn Chaison over to the pilot when it just puts them in danger? And couldn’t the precipice moth have found plenty of opportunities prior to the end to challenge the agent of Artificial Nature?
Sadly, the character and plot fails quite overwhelm the fun uses for zero gravity. Put this one on the not recommended list.
Other blogged reviews:
Title: Pirate Sun
Author: Karl Schroeder
Cover creator: Stephan Martiniere (artist)
Series: Virga; 3
Imprint / publisher: Tor / Macmillan
Format: Hardcover
Length: 318 p.
Publication date: August 2008
ISBN-10: 0-7653-1545-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-7653-1545-8
LC classification: PR9199.3.S269 P57 2008
