The Golden Age: Volume 1
John C. Wright
Apr 2003 · Tor Books
4.2star
19 reviews
Ebook
304
Pages
About this ebook
The Golden Age is Grand Space Opera, a large-scale SF adventure novel in the tradition of A. E. Van vogt and Roger Zelazny, with perhaps a bit of Cordwainer Smith enriching the style. It is an astounding story of super science, a thrilling wonder story that recaptures the excitements of SF's golden age writers.
The Golden Age takes place 10,000 years in the future in our solar system, an interplanetary utopian society filled with immortal humans. Within the frame of a traditional tale-the one rebel who is unhappy in utopia-Wright spins an elaborate plot web filled with suspense and passion.
Phaethon, of Radamanthus House, is attending a glorious party at his family mansion to celebrate the thousand-year anniversary of the High Transcendence. There he meets first an old man who accuses him of being an impostor and then a being from Neptune who claims to be an old friend. The Neptunian tells him that essential parts of his memory were removed and stored by the very government that Phaethon believes to be wholly honorable. It shakes his faith. He is an exile from himself.
And so Phaethon embarks upon a quest across the transformed solar system--Jupiter is now a second sun, Mars and Venus terraformed, humanity immortal--among humans, intelligent machines, and bizarre life forms that are partly both, to recover his memory, and to learn what crime he planned that warranted such preemptive punishment. His quest is to regain his true identity.
The Golden Age is one of the major, ambitious SF novels of the year and the international launch of an important new writer in the genre.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
The Golden Age takes place 10,000 years in the future in our solar system, an interplanetary utopian society filled with immortal humans. Within the frame of a traditional tale-the one rebel who is unhappy in utopia-Wright spins an elaborate plot web filled with suspense and passion.
Phaethon, of Radamanthus House, is attending a glorious party at his family mansion to celebrate the thousand-year anniversary of the High Transcendence. There he meets first an old man who accuses him of being an impostor and then a being from Neptune who claims to be an old friend. The Neptunian tells him that essential parts of his memory were removed and stored by the very government that Phaethon believes to be wholly honorable. It shakes his faith. He is an exile from himself.
And so Phaethon embarks upon a quest across the transformed solar system--Jupiter is now a second sun, Mars and Venus terraformed, humanity immortal--among humans, intelligent machines, and bizarre life forms that are partly both, to recover his memory, and to learn what crime he planned that warranted such preemptive punishment. His quest is to regain his true identity.
The Golden Age is one of the major, ambitious SF novels of the year and the international launch of an important new writer in the genre.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Ratings and reviews
4.2
19 reviews
Nate Gaylinn
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July 14, 2014
First, the good bits. The world Wright has imagined is breathtaking in its beauty and complexity. His writing is full of vivid, dreamlike imagery, which is the only way to describe such a fantastic world. He has lots of fun exploring different modes of thought and being that would hardly be described as "human" in the usual sense. If you like opening your mind up to new experiences, this is something really original! It's biggest flaw is that it repeatedly falls into the Sci-Fi trope of very clever people talking about very clever things using too many big words, many of which are totally made up. The plot moves slowly, and after ~400 pages the ending is just a setup for book 2 of 3. I'm sure this is a big turnoff for some people, so fair warning.
Shashi Subramanian
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November 13, 2014
Worlds, beings, colonisation, sentience - all taken into account in this trilogy. Highly recommend.
Wayne Lee
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July 28, 2016
The beginning is very strong and the end is nicely tied up. Definitely very imaginative
About the author
John C. Wright, a journalist and a lawyer turned SF and fantasy writer, lives with his wife and son in Centreville, Virginia.
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