Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Noumenon Infinity by Marina J. Lostetter Noumenon Infinity by Marina J. Lostetter. [Warning: if you have not read Noumenon, which this novel is a sequel to, there will be spoilers here] At the end of Marina J. Lostetter’s brilliant debut novel Noumenon, Convoy Seven returned to an earth several millennia removed from the society and culture that launched its original mission to investigate the seemingly unnatural behavior of the variable star designated LQ Pyx. To their dismay, the people of Earth have far different priorities and lack interest in exploring the stars. No longer under obligation to the descendants of their forebears, Convoy Seven set back out to discover who started the unfinished structure around LQ Pyx, and if possible, to complete it themselves. Noumenon was a spirited and ambitious work of golden-to-silver age sci-fi redux, re-purposing and combining popular science fictional elements like the Generation Ship (Orphans of the Sky, The Enemy Stars), the psychological effects of time dilation (The Forever War, Tau Zero), and the Big Dumb Object (Rendezvous with Rama, Ringworld). It was also a perfect balance of hard sci-fi’s emphasis on scientific detail and heroic problem solving, and social sci-fi’s speculations about human behavior. While Noumenon left us in the dark regarding the convoy’s discovery of the mega-structure at LQ Pyx, the promise of convoy seven’s return trip made the prospect of a sequel enticing. Fully aware of the state of anticipation she left us in, Lostetter wisely opts for delayed gratification. Noumenon Infinity doesn’t kick off with convoy seven’s journey back to LQ Pyx, instead taking us back in time to the early years of the Planet United Consortium to follow the story of Convoy Twelve. Convoy Twelve vanished while experimenting with sub-dimensional travel, assumed lost or destroyed. In fact, the experiment jettisoned them to a place and time so far away from the 22nd century Earth they departed it’s a wonder they don’t lose all hope. An alien craft discovers and intercepts them. Faced with the aliens’ superior technology and relentless pursuit, they have no choice but to make first contact. The aliens are terrifying and powerful, but seem well meaning, if also somewhat aloof. And they know something about the convoy they’re not willing to share. From there the novel’s chapters alternate between the narratives of convoys twelve and seven. While the linear progress of convoy twelve’s plight remains immediate, the trajectory of convoy seven’s narrative follows the pattern established in Noumenon. Convoy Seven’s story takes huge leaps forward in time, each chapter picking up the story generations removed from the previous chapter. Differing interpretations of seven’s mission leads to a schism among the convoy, between those who want to follow the map retrieved from the Nest—which they believe will lead them to the builders of the LQ Pyx mega-structure—and those who believe their sole purpose is to return to LQ Pyx and complete the original goal of their mission. After some conflict and deliberation, the convoy separates into two groups, hoping the splinter group of map followers will one day, many generations down the line, rejoin their sister ships at LQ Pyx. To reveal much more of what happens in Noumenon Infinity would be a betrayal. Lostetter’s ability to innovate and astonish appears inexhaustible, and I hate ruining surprises. The above plot descriptions, busy as they might seem, are a woefully inadequate representation of what happens in the novel, which outpaces Noumenon in scope and scale by several degrees. One of the common, and most cynical, tropes of generation ship stories is how the passage of time obscures the origins of its society, often to the point of delusion and ignorance. Taken together, Noumenon and Noumenon Infinity acknowledge how the practical concerns that give birth to social groups can become mythologized over time, but that those societies develop, organize, and evolve according to their necessities, which can change frequently. Myths of origin, however idealistic or arcane they may seem, are just as likely to have material value to an ever-changing culture, to be a unifying and energizing presence and not always reducible to fundamentalist zeal. Noumenon was my favorite science fiction novel of 2017 and the encore is even more thrilling and satisfying. Noumenon Infinity weaves in and out of the lives of these disparate human civilizations, discovering the shocking but strangely understandable ways in which they emerge from strife and conflict and imperative to adjust to their conditions in ingenious ways; it’s a relentlessly exciting, wondrous, unnerving, and ultimately sublime work of science fiction. Noumenon Infinity by Marina J. Lostetter. From and To can't be the same language. That page is already in . Something went wrong. Check the webpage URL and try again. Sorry, that page did not respond in a timely manner. Sorry, that page doesn't exist or is preventing translations. Sorry, that page doesn't exist or is preventing translations. Sorry, that page doesn't exist or is preventing translations. Something went wrong, please try again. Try using the Translator for the Microsoft Edge extension instead. Noumenon Infinity by Marina J. Lostetter. From and To can't be the same language. That page is already in . Something went wrong. Check the webpage URL and try again. Sorry, that page did not respond in a timely manner. Sorry, that page doesn't exist or is preventing translations. Sorry, that page doesn't exist or is preventing translations. Sorry, that page doesn't exist or is preventing translations. Something went wrong, please try again. Try using the Translator for the Microsoft Edge extension instead. ISBN 13: 9780062497864. Travel to the remotest reaches of deep space in this wondrous follow-up to the acclaimed Noumenon —a tale of exploration, adventure, science, and humanity with the sweep and intelligence of the works of Arthur C. Clarke, Neal Stephenson, and Octavia Butler. Generations ago, Convoy Seven and I.C.C. left Earth on a mission that would take them far beyond the solar system. Launched by the Planet United Consortium, a global group formed to pursue cooperative Earth-wide interests in deep space, nine ships headed into the unknown to explore a distant star called LQ Pyx. Eons later, the convoy has returned to LQ Pyx to begin work on the Web, the alien megastructure that covers the star. Is it a Dyson Sphere, designed to power a civilization as everyone believes—or something far more sinister? Meanwhile, Planet United’s littlest convoy, long thought to be lost, reemerges in a different sector of deep space. What they discover holds the answers to unlocking the Web’s greater purpose. Each convoy possesses a piece of the Web’s puzzle . but they may not be able to bring those pieces together and uncover the structure’s true nature before it’s too late. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. Generations ago, Convoy Seven and the AI known as I.C.C. left Earth on a mission that would take them far beyond our solar system. The Planet United Consortium, a global group formed to pursue cooperative Earth-wide interests in deep space, launched these nine ships into the unknown to explore a distant star called LQ Pyx. Eons later, the convoy has returned to LQ Pyx to begin work on the Web, the alien megastructure that covers the star. Is it a Dyson Sphere, designed to power a civilization as everyone believes—or something far more sinister? Meanwhile, Planet United’s smallest convoy, long thought to be lost, reemerges in a different sector of deep space. What they discover holds the answers to unlocking the Web’s greater purpose. Each convoy possesses a piece of the Web’s puzzle . but they may not be able to bring those pieces together and uncover the structure’s true nature before it’s too late. About the Author : Marina J. Lostetter’s original short fiction has appeared in Lightspeed’s Women Destroy Science Fiction! and InterGalactic Medicine Show , among other publications. Originally from Oregon, the former winner of the Writers of the Future Award now lives in Arkansas with her husband, Alex, and enjoys globe-trotting, board games, and all things art-related. Noumenon Infinity. Travel to the remotest reaches of deep space in this wondrous follow-up to the acclaimed Noumenon—a tale of exploration, adventure, science, and humanity with the sweep and intelligence of the works of Arthur C. Clarke, Neal Stephenson, and Octavia Butler. Generations ago, Convoy Seven and I.C.C. left Earth on a mission that would take them far beyond the solar system. Launched by the Planet United Consortium, a global group formed to pursue cooperative Earth-wide interests in deep space, nine ships headed into the unknown to explore a distant star called LQ Pyx. Eons later, the convoy has returned to LQ Pyx to begin work on the Web, the alien megastructure that covers the star. Is it a Dyson Sphere, designed to power a civilization as everyone believes—or something far more sinister? Meanwhile, Planet United’s littlest convoy, long thought to be lost, reemerges in a different sector of deep space. What they discover holds the answers to unlocking the Web’s greater purpose. Each convoy possesses a piece of the Web’s puzzle . but they may not be able to bring those pieces together and uncover the structure’s true nature before it’s too late. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY JUN 18, 2018.