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Galactic Center #3
Great Sky River
After the events of Across the Sea of Suns, small groups of humans have settled on other star systems. However, there is a constant threat from the Mechs, a civilization of machines left over from other civilizations and evolved to see all biological civilization as unstable and dangerous.
Great Sky River tells the story of the Bishop family, who fight for their very existence on the planet Snowglade, which has been taken over by the Mechs. The Bishops are one of a number of families on Snowglade, all named for chess pieces. These "families" are more like clans or tribes. All use cybernetic implants and mechanical aids to enhance their perceptions and physical abilities. Personalities of dead members of the Family can be stored in memory tabs and accessed by plugging them into ports implanted in the neck. Bodily functions, such as the sexual drive, can be turned off to remove distractions. The Families seem to be equipped for long conflicts and periods of privation, continually migrating to avoid the Mechs.
Great Sky River tells the story of the Bishop family, who fight for their very existence on the planet Snowglade, which has been taken over by the Mechs. The Bishops are one of a number of families on Snowglade, all named for chess pieces. These "families" are more like clans or tribes. All use cybernetic implants and mechanical aids to enhance their perceptions and physical abilities. Personalities of dead members of the Family can be stored in memory tabs and accessed by plugging them into ports implanted in the neck. Bodily functions, such as the sexual drive, can be turned off to remove distractions. The Families seem to be equipped for long conflicts and periods of privation, continually migrating to avoid the Mechs.
464 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 1987
About the author
Gregory Benford
553 books588 followersGregory Benford is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine.
As a science fiction author, Benford is best known for the Galactic Center Saga novels, beginning with In the Ocean of Night (1977). This series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient mechanical life.
As a science fiction author, Benford is best known for the Galactic Center Saga novels, beginning with In the Ocean of Night (1977). This series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient mechanical life.
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March 23, 2024
The Family was thus diminished more than through the loss of three or even four to the ordinary death. Centuries had piled upon them this injunction: that while the shuddering final gasp of the body was a tragedy to the person, it need not hurt so deeply those who loved the vanquished soul.
This third novel in the Galactic Centre series takes place at least seventy thousand years in the future and follows a tribe of augmented humans who have been forced into a nomadic life after the destruction of their civilization (and indeed, their ecosphere) by Mechs.
It is a departure in style from both its predecessors, at least for the most part.
The globe that swam in the view-wall was a dried husk. Not the ample fruit which the Aspects remembered and spoke of recovering. Snowglade was the pit of that fruit, now eaten. The mechs had buried its ice, cooled its plains, smothered its brimming life in dust and desecration.
Mechworks dotted the night side of Snowglade with their pale, blue glow. Traceries looped and cut the night with amber, ruby, burnt yellow. It was their world now.
I loved the setting on display here; all wasteland and desert, with colossal factories and mechanical scrap. Against this intimidating backdrop the last semblance of humanity (on this particular world) scavenge and survive against indifferent odds.
They stumbled out into a vault so large he could not see either the walls or the ceiling. Buildings dwindled away in the distance. Complex machinery festooned each surface of the humming factories. Mechs zoomed high in the air below a canopy of gray fog. Amber blades of luminescence shot through rising bubbles of greenish vapor.
To me this was a much stronger novel than Across the Sea of Suns – it certainly feels more “immediate” and emotionally charged.
There is a fair amount of action and suspense but interspersed with some more thoughtful bits.
You are the dreaming vertebrates. A curious subphylum, to be precise. And of course now quite rare. Some of my portions, which are themselves old almost beyond measure, can remember when there were many such as you.
The author also does a good job of exploring, at least to some extent, the Mech worldview and motivations, as alien as that may be.
This book goes to unexpected places and there are secrets to be uncovered here. Not everything is what it seems.
The Mantis, you see, is an artist.
I especially liked the future-historic lore that this fictional universe is steeped in. The characters refer to events and locations that are at the same time enigmatic and familiar, and one can’t help but wonder how much of this will be revealed and explored as the series continues.
For him the sky was suddenly a vast bowl of unimaginable depths. Those were other suns. His whole life—of earnest childhood, of love and labor and lost hopes of ravaged retreats—he now saw as abruptly dwarfed, as tiny motions on a bare scratched plain, beneath a night filled with eyes.
This third novel in the Galactic Centre series takes place at least seventy thousand years in the future and follows a tribe of augmented humans who have been forced into a nomadic life after the destruction of their civilization (and indeed, their ecosphere) by Mechs.
It is a departure in style from both its predecessors, at least for the most part.
The globe that swam in the view-wall was a dried husk. Not the ample fruit which the Aspects remembered and spoke of recovering. Snowglade was the pit of that fruit, now eaten. The mechs had buried its ice, cooled its plains, smothered its brimming life in dust and desecration.
Mechworks dotted the night side of Snowglade with their pale, blue glow. Traceries looped and cut the night with amber, ruby, burnt yellow. It was their world now.
I loved the setting on display here; all wasteland and desert, with colossal factories and mechanical scrap. Against this intimidating backdrop the last semblance of humanity (on this particular world) scavenge and survive against indifferent odds.
They stumbled out into a vault so large he could not see either the walls or the ceiling. Buildings dwindled away in the distance. Complex machinery festooned each surface of the humming factories. Mechs zoomed high in the air below a canopy of gray fog. Amber blades of luminescence shot through rising bubbles of greenish vapor.
To me this was a much stronger novel than Across the Sea of Suns – it certainly feels more “immediate” and emotionally charged.
There is a fair amount of action and suspense but interspersed with some more thoughtful bits.
You are the dreaming vertebrates. A curious subphylum, to be precise. And of course now quite rare. Some of my portions, which are themselves old almost beyond measure, can remember when there were many such as you.
The author also does a good job of exploring, at least to some extent, the Mech worldview and motivations, as alien as that may be.
This book goes to unexpected places and there are secrets to be uncovered here. Not everything is what it seems.
The Mantis, you see, is an artist.
I especially liked the future-historic lore that this fictional universe is steeped in. The characters refer to events and locations that are at the same time enigmatic and familiar, and one can’t help but wonder how much of this will be revealed and explored as the series continues.
For him the sky was suddenly a vast bowl of unimaginable depths. Those were other suns. His whole life—of earnest childhood, of love and labor and lost hopes of ravaged retreats—he now saw as abruptly dwarfed, as tiny motions on a bare scratched plain, beneath a night filled with eyes.
November 7, 2013
Benford is one of the SF greats and Great Sky River one of his great books. As an act of imagination it's a triumph, as a piece of storytelling and writing it is by turns soaring, lyrical, and poetic. And sometimes it falls a bit flat on its face. That's OK because in the main Great Sky River works very well and the failings are because Benford seems to be pushing his considerable talents as a writer to the limit - and those sorts of failings you can easily forgive.
So sometimes he over-indulges himself with explanation, and sometimes he doesn't quite break free of the preconceptions of his own era. As a result the narrative can meander or jerk in a few places. On the other hand his views of machine intelligence, its struggle and failure to understand organic life and the catastrophic consequences that result, all told through the story and characters of this bold novel, are as thoughtful and profound as anything you'll find in fiction.
It's his gifts as a writer, his empathy with the human condition and universe-building that make me think of him as a kind of Ian Banks of his era. Except in Benford's universe humanity lives in no perfect culture. The glory days have long gone, mankind is flat on its face and struggling to rise again. Still bold and brave, still striving to understand, broken, bloody, and in its beaten and bested way still magnificent.
So sometimes he over-indulges himself with explanation, and sometimes he doesn't quite break free of the preconceptions of his own era. As a result the narrative can meander or jerk in a few places. On the other hand his views of machine intelligence, its struggle and failure to understand organic life and the catastrophic consequences that result, all told through the story and characters of this bold novel, are as thoughtful and profound as anything you'll find in fiction.
It's his gifts as a writer, his empathy with the human condition and universe-building that make me think of him as a kind of Ian Banks of his era. Except in Benford's universe humanity lives in no perfect culture. The glory days have long gone, mankind is flat on its face and struggling to rise again. Still bold and brave, still striving to understand, broken, bloody, and in its beaten and bested way still magnificent.
January 17, 2016
Warfare between man and machine has become something of a trope in science fiction, from the future apocalypses of the original Terminator (which scared me to death as a kid) to the more recent, sexy and subtle conflicts of Ex Machina. Often these man-vs-machine dystopias play out against the ruins of our own civilization, with landmarks or blasted-yet-familiar vistas driving home the fact that our own creations have destroyed what we had previously built. Gregory Benford’s classic science fiction novel Great Sky River takes these tropes but adds a layer with an exotic locale and far-future setting that manages to be an even more effective backdrop to the conflict than the near-future alone.
On a world called Snowglade near the center of the galaxy, the remnants of a thriving human civilization eke out a desperate existence in the shadow of a mechanical civilization that has displaced and now disinterestedly hunts them. The machines are not, as in the Terminator and many other incarnations of this story, consciously seeking humans out for extermination. Rather, human cities have been destroyed as one would destroy the infestation of a pest, and the survivors are haphazardly hunted like you would a few remaining cockroaches. Over the course of the novel though something begins to change, and the remaining bands of humans realize a new mech is beginning to take a special interest, herding and harvesting the remaining human population. (You might get glimmers of The Matrix here, though you wouldn’t be quite right.)
What makes this work especially fascinating and haunting is that we learn the history of the human rise and fall on Snowglade along with the main character, Killeen, through memories and legends. The knowledge is as foreign to us as it is to him, who grew up when humans were confined to a few remaining Citadels and is now on the run after the last human strongholds have fallen. It means we start to see the wonder of this far-future, now-fallen civilization through his own eyes as he, for instance, gets his first glimpse of the now-abandoned orbital space stations humans occupied when they first came to the planet centuries ago. And the vistas glimpsed here are immense: humans voyaging across tens of thousands of light years to settle these new worlds near the galactic core, a legacy only now remembered in a few lingering cultural artifacts.
It’s atmospheric elements like this (apart from a gripping plot) that make this novel work. Another example is the lexicon Benford develops for his characters. It’s a language atrophied in some ways, and it fits with a band of desperate warriors who have been struggling to survive against a mech encroachment for generations. It also contrasts nicely with the voices in the main character’s head: digitalized Aspects of humans of past generations who live on in embedded electronics and serve as sources of information regarding Snowglade’s past.
Which brings me to the technology: Killeen and his band belong in a well-crafted first-person video game. They’re more or less cyborgs themselves, unthinkingly using exoskeletons, downloaded personas who ride in their minds, enhanced vision, and implanted radio transmissions. This is all blended seamlessly into the narration of Killeen’s experience, making it feel as natural to us as it does to him, a society that has lived with such modifications for centuries but is running out of the knowledge to keep it functioning. It feels like the gritty technology of weaponry and heads-up displays that would translate well into a first-person shooter or rather that the creators of games like Halo had Benford’s descriptions in mind.
Benford also brings his expertise as a professional astronomer to the fore in describing the celestial backdrop upon which this all plays out: a world orbiting a star that orbits the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center. Like Snowglade’s history, this isn’t spelled out explicitly: it comes in pieces through Killeen’s observations of what for him is a standard sky by day and night. Benford uses this exotic stellar locale for a far-flung deus ex machine that I can only trust will be explained (and probably very scientifically and rigorously) in a later volume.
I was gripped from the first chapter. The gritty, desperate situation in which we find the characters, coupled with the unfamiliarity of a far-future dystopia simply worked. I was hooked the entire time and couldn’t stop reading. (He uses the tried-and-true method Cormac McCarthy uses in The Road, another gripping dystopia, of a man’s overriding concern for his son in this dark future.)
That said, I didn’t like the way Benford’s book ended. It wasn’t the parabolic ending that disappointed me. You could see it coming for quite some time, and it flung our heroes into even wider and broader vistas that Benford certainly explores with success in the later volumes.
No, what disappointed me and seemed to sap much of the urgency of the survivor’s plight was the ghost in the machine that was revealed as their ultimate antagonist. Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that after spending the first half of the book constructing a scenario in which the mech civilization was utterly non-human and obliviously hostile, it felt strange and somehow deflating (and also just sort of weird) in the way the primary antagonist was eventually revealed. Part of what made the book compelling was how un-anthropocentric it was: even though it followed the story of these humans, we were seeing them in a world that didn’t care at all about them and had almost unthinkingly wiped them out. But of course, it turns out that humans are actually quite special and central. (Who would have thought?)
In all, Benford is definitely worth keeping on my “too read” list, and I’m eager to dig into the rest of his novels set in this universe and answer the riddles of humanity’s fate at the center of the galaxy.
On a world called Snowglade near the center of the galaxy, the remnants of a thriving human civilization eke out a desperate existence in the shadow of a mechanical civilization that has displaced and now disinterestedly hunts them. The machines are not, as in the Terminator and many other incarnations of this story, consciously seeking humans out for extermination. Rather, human cities have been destroyed as one would destroy the infestation of a pest, and the survivors are haphazardly hunted like you would a few remaining cockroaches. Over the course of the novel though something begins to change, and the remaining bands of humans realize a new mech is beginning to take a special interest, herding and harvesting the remaining human population. (You might get glimmers of The Matrix here, though you wouldn’t be quite right.)
What makes this work especially fascinating and haunting is that we learn the history of the human rise and fall on Snowglade along with the main character, Killeen, through memories and legends. The knowledge is as foreign to us as it is to him, who grew up when humans were confined to a few remaining Citadels and is now on the run after the last human strongholds have fallen. It means we start to see the wonder of this far-future, now-fallen civilization through his own eyes as he, for instance, gets his first glimpse of the now-abandoned orbital space stations humans occupied when they first came to the planet centuries ago. And the vistas glimpsed here are immense: humans voyaging across tens of thousands of light years to settle these new worlds near the galactic core, a legacy only now remembered in a few lingering cultural artifacts.
It’s atmospheric elements like this (apart from a gripping plot) that make this novel work. Another example is the lexicon Benford develops for his characters. It’s a language atrophied in some ways, and it fits with a band of desperate warriors who have been struggling to survive against a mech encroachment for generations. It also contrasts nicely with the voices in the main character’s head: digitalized Aspects of humans of past generations who live on in embedded electronics and serve as sources of information regarding Snowglade’s past.
Which brings me to the technology: Killeen and his band belong in a well-crafted first-person video game. They’re more or less cyborgs themselves, unthinkingly using exoskeletons, downloaded personas who ride in their minds, enhanced vision, and implanted radio transmissions. This is all blended seamlessly into the narration of Killeen’s experience, making it feel as natural to us as it does to him, a society that has lived with such modifications for centuries but is running out of the knowledge to keep it functioning. It feels like the gritty technology of weaponry and heads-up displays that would translate well into a first-person shooter or rather that the creators of games like Halo had Benford’s descriptions in mind.
Benford also brings his expertise as a professional astronomer to the fore in describing the celestial backdrop upon which this all plays out: a world orbiting a star that orbits the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center. Like Snowglade’s history, this isn’t spelled out explicitly: it comes in pieces through Killeen’s observations of what for him is a standard sky by day and night. Benford uses this exotic stellar locale for a far-flung deus ex machine that I can only trust will be explained (and probably very scientifically and rigorously) in a later volume.
I was gripped from the first chapter. The gritty, desperate situation in which we find the characters, coupled with the unfamiliarity of a far-future dystopia simply worked. I was hooked the entire time and couldn’t stop reading. (He uses the tried-and-true method Cormac McCarthy uses in The Road, another gripping dystopia, of a man’s overriding concern for his son in this dark future.)
That said, I didn’t like the way Benford’s book ended. It wasn’t the parabolic ending that disappointed me. You could see it coming for quite some time, and it flung our heroes into even wider and broader vistas that Benford certainly explores with success in the later volumes.
No, what disappointed me and seemed to sap much of the urgency of the survivor’s plight was the ghost in the machine that was revealed as their ultimate antagonist. Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that after spending the first half of the book constructing a scenario in which the mech civilization was utterly non-human and obliviously hostile, it felt strange and somehow deflating (and also just sort of weird) in the way the primary antagonist was eventually revealed. Part of what made the book compelling was how un-anthropocentric it was: even though it followed the story of these humans, we were seeing them in a world that didn’t care at all about them and had almost unthinkingly wiped them out. But of course, it turns out that humans are actually quite special and central. (Who would have thought?)
In all, Benford is definitely worth keeping on my “too read” list, and I’m eager to dig into the rest of his novels set in this universe and answer the riddles of humanity’s fate at the center of the galaxy.
November 27, 2014
While entertaining the initial part of the book was a rather straight-forward tale of a fallen human civilizations losing struggle against an encroaching machine civilization on a single world near the galactic center. A group containing the leadership of the last humans seemingly gets tracked down and captured by the feared "Mantis" and it seems all is over but then the plot twists in an unexpected fashion and suddenly the scale and stakes of the story take on galactic proportions and the story took off in my opinion in a much more interesting fashion to me and became very exciting and how I like my Space Opera, it became epic and makes me look forward to the next book in the Galactic center series. Kind of neat how Benford shifted things there. Anyway, after starting to think this book wasn't going to be as good as the last one in the series I think now it's the best one yet. Quite good and Benford has stopped by now with some style and human relationship elements he tried to tack on in earlier volumes in this series that didn't really add much, at least for me. Recommended.
June 21, 2012
I just finished a re-read of GREAT SKY RIVER, the third book of Gregory Benford's GALACTIC CENTER novels. This is my favorite Benford series and my personal favorite of that series. I last read it when it was a new hardcover; now I am listening to it on an audiobook. The reader's performance is only so-so but I can't fault the story at all. It really holds up well, an action story that muses on human existence. And giant killer robots. And a Great Escape plot.. why the hell don't they ever make *intelligent* summer genre movies out of material like Great Sky River? It would blow the socks off of the yawner comic book and horror movie pablum we are normally subjected to.
In case you are unfamiliar with Galactic Center, it is a story of humanity's contact with a mechanical civilization located near Galactic Center. The first two books of the series set up the confrontation with Mech Culture; this novel moves time forward hundreds of years to a planet called Snowglade, which had been settled by humanity as a haven against the Mechs. Mech Culture hardly even acknowledges the existence of humans, considering them annoying pests when the higher order mechanical beings even think about them at all-- but they have virtually wiped out humanity on Snowglade anyway. Great Sky River takes place years after the final bastions of the Human Clans (named after chess pieces, a nice touch) have fallen to mech assualt.
The POV character is Killeen, a leader of House Bishop, who are on the run away from the Mechs. This is a very different humanity than what we would recognize-- as the Mech threat has grown, so has humanity's need to adapt themselves to counter mech encroachment. So we now see great tall humans who can run ceaselessly with their mechanized boots and consult digital personality chips called Aspects which ride on their own personal network interface and sensor suite called a Sensorium. For most of the story Killeen and the rest of the Bishop Clan are on the run from a disturbing new kind of mech called The Mantis, which seems to have an agenda beyond Mechanoid pest control.
Benford invests a lot of effort and creativity into this series; one gets a sense of the different kinds of mechanoids- from the lower order Navvies to the middlin' threat Crafters to the higher order Mantis Marauder class. Mechanoids are not homogenous, they fight amongst themselves and rebel against the higher order mech minds all the time. One gets a sense of history from the dialogue, a glum feeling of loss and regret as mankind muses on its impending extinction and fall from great heights.
I enjoy this series tremendously and find it worthy, fast read. Highly recommended.
In case you are unfamiliar with Galactic Center, it is a story of humanity's contact with a mechanical civilization located near Galactic Center. The first two books of the series set up the confrontation with Mech Culture; this novel moves time forward hundreds of years to a planet called Snowglade, which had been settled by humanity as a haven against the Mechs. Mech Culture hardly even acknowledges the existence of humans, considering them annoying pests when the higher order mechanical beings even think about them at all-- but they have virtually wiped out humanity on Snowglade anyway. Great Sky River takes place years after the final bastions of the Human Clans (named after chess pieces, a nice touch) have fallen to mech assualt.
The POV character is Killeen, a leader of House Bishop, who are on the run away from the Mechs. This is a very different humanity than what we would recognize-- as the Mech threat has grown, so has humanity's need to adapt themselves to counter mech encroachment. So we now see great tall humans who can run ceaselessly with their mechanized boots and consult digital personality chips called Aspects which ride on their own personal network interface and sensor suite called a Sensorium. For most of the story Killeen and the rest of the Bishop Clan are on the run from a disturbing new kind of mech called The Mantis, which seems to have an agenda beyond Mechanoid pest control.
Benford invests a lot of effort and creativity into this series; one gets a sense of the different kinds of mechanoids- from the lower order Navvies to the middlin' threat Crafters to the higher order Mantis Marauder class. Mechanoids are not homogenous, they fight amongst themselves and rebel against the higher order mech minds all the time. One gets a sense of history from the dialogue, a glum feeling of loss and regret as mankind muses on its impending extinction and fall from great heights.
I enjoy this series tremendously and find it worthy, fast read. Highly recommended.
May 13, 2019
7/10. Media de los 8 libros leídos del autor: 6/10.
Su aclamada saga del “Centro Galáctico” está bien (solo bien, para mí. Los mejores este 3 y el 4)
Su aclamada saga del “Centro Galáctico” está bien (solo bien, para mí. Los mejores este 3 y el 4)
August 31, 2010
Book Three in the Galactic Centre Series starts some 70 000 years or so after the end of Across the Sea of Suns. Being far future fiction, it doesn't suffer some of the problems that Across… and it feels much less dated. This, however, does not mean that it is entirely free of problems.
Benford's style is, as always, clear, concise and capable of painting the landscape of the novel in the reader's mind. In Great Sky River Benford shows what makes him an award winning author. His use of diction is wonderfully evocative, and he works hard developing a slang that could pass as the degenerate future of English. His plotting is tight and rarely melodramatic.
These high points aside, the novel does have some issues. The future humans, now beaten, scattered nomads in powered suits, spend all of their time running. It is a wonderful conceit and works well; great and mighty man capable of crossing tens of thousands of light years now reduced to the same basic existance as the Cro-Magnons. They have fallen so far that they can no longer even repair the exoskeletons they wear. It's a wonderful idea that sadly necessitates a great bit of deus ex machina (quite literally in one case). This is always jarring and at one point groan inducing.
In lesser hands this would have been a deal breaker, but Benford pulls it off. Along the way he contemplates the meaning of humanity, human dignity and human resilience in the face of terrible odds. His commentary is delivered well and is never directed from author to reader.
If you have invested the time in the first two books, In the Ocean of Night and Across the Sea of Suns you won't go wrong continuing the series even if it is quite a jolt with such a span of time between the action of the first two books and this one. On the upside, it is not at all necessary to read the preceding novels; once can jump right into the story with Great Sky River without missing anything.
A solid, if not inspiring, novel.
Benford's style is, as always, clear, concise and capable of painting the landscape of the novel in the reader's mind. In Great Sky River Benford shows what makes him an award winning author. His use of diction is wonderfully evocative, and he works hard developing a slang that could pass as the degenerate future of English. His plotting is tight and rarely melodramatic.
These high points aside, the novel does have some issues. The future humans, now beaten, scattered nomads in powered suits, spend all of their time running. It is a wonderful conceit and works well; great and mighty man capable of crossing tens of thousands of light years now reduced to the same basic existance as the Cro-Magnons. They have fallen so far that they can no longer even repair the exoskeletons they wear. It's a wonderful idea that sadly necessitates a great bit of deus ex machina (quite literally in one case). This is always jarring and at one point groan inducing.
In lesser hands this would have been a deal breaker, but Benford pulls it off. Along the way he contemplates the meaning of humanity, human dignity and human resilience in the face of terrible odds. His commentary is delivered well and is never directed from author to reader.
If you have invested the time in the first two books, In the Ocean of Night and Across the Sea of Suns you won't go wrong continuing the series even if it is quite a jolt with such a span of time between the action of the first two books and this one. On the upside, it is not at all necessary to read the preceding novels; once can jump right into the story with Great Sky River without missing anything.
A solid, if not inspiring, novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 28, 2014
Well, now I'm hooked. This is the third book in Benford's "Galactic Center" series, but the first one set this far in the future. I liked it. I will have to see what happens in the next book, too.
The author has created a rich world of the future where mankind is on the run from intelligent machines that dominate his world. Centuries of human advancement have seemingly been lost in the years of war. The story is about the struggle of a last few hundred on one planet.
Mr. Benford heightens the interest by allowing the characters to speak in a language that is both familiar and different. The world they inhabit is alien to both them and the reader and the author's descriptions keep it that way, without getting burdensome.
This is one of the most satisfying SF novels I've read in a while.
The author has created a rich world of the future where mankind is on the run from intelligent machines that dominate his world. Centuries of human advancement have seemingly been lost in the years of war. The story is about the struggle of a last few hundred on one planet.
Mr. Benford heightens the interest by allowing the characters to speak in a language that is both familiar and different. The world they inhabit is alien to both them and the reader and the author's descriptions keep it that way, without getting burdensome.
This is one of the most satisfying SF novels I've read in a while.
September 21, 2015
The setting is a planet named Snowglade near the galactic core. Small groups of humans, the remnants of a once great spacefaring civilization are now forced to live a life on the run. They are hunted by an advanced civilization of mechanized beings who have taken over their planet. The humans steal what they can from the mechs and the mechs in turn seek to exterminate humans like the pests they have become. Things look bleak indeed until a being of magnetic force, finds Killeen and tells him to seek the Argo….
Benford has written a fast paced work of hard science fiction that will keep the reader looking forward to the next page and wanting more when the last page has been turned. GREAT SKY RIVER should please any fan of the genre.
Benford has written a fast paced work of hard science fiction that will keep the reader looking forward to the next page and wanting more when the last page has been turned. GREAT SKY RIVER should please any fan of the genre.
November 1, 2016
The third novel in Bedford's Galactic Center series takes place some 35,000 years in the future. It follows the life of a human, Killeen, who is one of the relatively small number of humans surviving on a distant world. Their civilization has been all but destroyed by the mechanical civilization and they fight to survive.
This is better than the first two, mostly because the main character is far less irritating. It focuses on what humans have had to become to survive and how alien the mechanical civilization is from our own. Overall it is an interesting, though not really spectacular read.
This is better than the first two, mostly because the main character is far less irritating. It focuses on what humans have had to become to survive and how alien the mechanical civilization is from our own. Overall it is an interesting, though not really spectacular read.
February 25, 2008
I could not finish this book.
March 25, 2020
According to the timeline in the back of my copy of the book, 35,000 years have passed since the events in
Across the Sea of Suns
. The survivors of that book were joined by expeditions from Earth in the central region of the Milky Way. Humanity enjoyed a second Renaissance that lasted thousands of years, but it ultimately caught the attention of the Mechanicals, who proceeded to methodically fight a war of attrition against them. Six years ago on the planet Snowglade, where this story takes place, the Mechanicals overwhelmed the Citadels and forced the survivors into a nomadic lifestyle, feeding off the scraps of the fringes of Mechanicals' civilization.
The humans on Snowglade are augmented, their bodies implanted with and connected to so many cybernetic parts that they're vulnerable to electromagnetic attacks and computer virus infections. To compound the problem, the humans on Snowglade have been regressing over the centuries. They've become so dependent on their technology to do everything for them that they no longer possess the knowledge to create anything new. Sure, they can fix some things, but they typically don't seem to be much more than cybernetic cavemen. They can't even understand the information that appears in their HUDs. Distant dead ancestors were digitized, and its every adult survivor's responsibility to carry their share of these personalities around with them in their personal computer memory. But rather than make the most of the knowledge that these digital ancestors still retain, they're often brushed aside because they're annoying.
The story is told from the POV of Killeen, a member of the Bishop family (tribe). His father and wife died when their citadel was destroyed. His son, Toby, is all he cares about now. We witness the raids on Mechanicals' manufacturing outposts and attacks on the family by Marauder machines through his eyes. He comes to realize that the nature of the attacks is changing. There's a machine out there that possesses a cunning, ruthless intelligence that is unlike any Marauder. He names it the Mantis.
The Mantis has taken a perverse interest in humanity, and it is up to Killeen and his tribe to figure out its motives.
Benford has made some dramatic improvements in this series. First off, the arrogant protagonist of the first two novels, Nigel Walmsley, has been pushed into the historical record. Secondly, but no less important, female characters are finally treated as equals. Fanny is the captain of the Bishop tribe at the onset of the story, and Killeen greatly respects her leadership. Shibo is a survivor from another tribe who impresses Killeen with her knowledge and skill. No damsel in distress here.
The dialogue took some getting used to. Benford grants the Snowglade denizens a dialect that comprises several slang words and new terms ("yeasay", "suredead", "mechtalk", etc.) and modifies their grammar to help craft an image of them as hillbillies. That's not meant to be an insult.
There are some scenes in the lair of the Mantis that appear to be inspired by H.R. Giger. In many of his works, Giger blended humans and animals with machines to create disturbing biomechanoid images (the creature in the movie Alien being his most famous work). Benford puts his own spin on the concept. Whether or not the descriptions will disturb the reader is up to said reader's ability to visualize what Benford writes. I give him points for the effort.
While not a reboot of the series, Benford in effect wipes the proverbial slate clean. With a new protagonist and solid supporting cast of characters, the Galactic Center saga takes on a fresh new look.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4 because there was enough improvement in Benford's style and characterization to be rewarded for it.
The humans on Snowglade are augmented, their bodies implanted with and connected to so many cybernetic parts that they're vulnerable to electromagnetic attacks and computer virus infections. To compound the problem, the humans on Snowglade have been regressing over the centuries. They've become so dependent on their technology to do everything for them that they no longer possess the knowledge to create anything new. Sure, they can fix some things, but they typically don't seem to be much more than cybernetic cavemen. They can't even understand the information that appears in their HUDs. Distant dead ancestors were digitized, and its every adult survivor's responsibility to carry their share of these personalities around with them in their personal computer memory. But rather than make the most of the knowledge that these digital ancestors still retain, they're often brushed aside because they're annoying.
The story is told from the POV of Killeen, a member of the Bishop family (tribe). His father and wife died when their citadel was destroyed. His son, Toby, is all he cares about now. We witness the raids on Mechanicals' manufacturing outposts and attacks on the family by Marauder machines through his eyes. He comes to realize that the nature of the attacks is changing. There's a machine out there that possesses a cunning, ruthless intelligence that is unlike any Marauder. He names it the Mantis.
The Mantis has taken a perverse interest in humanity, and it is up to Killeen and his tribe to figure out its motives.
Benford has made some dramatic improvements in this series. First off, the arrogant protagonist of the first two novels, Nigel Walmsley, has been pushed into the historical record. Secondly, but no less important, female characters are finally treated as equals. Fanny is the captain of the Bishop tribe at the onset of the story, and Killeen greatly respects her leadership. Shibo is a survivor from another tribe who impresses Killeen with her knowledge and skill. No damsel in distress here.
The dialogue took some getting used to. Benford grants the Snowglade denizens a dialect that comprises several slang words and new terms ("yeasay", "suredead", "mechtalk", etc.) and modifies their grammar to help craft an image of them as hillbillies. That's not meant to be an insult.
There are some scenes in the lair of the Mantis that appear to be inspired by H.R. Giger. In many of his works, Giger blended humans and animals with machines to create disturbing biomechanoid images (the creature in the movie Alien being his most famous work). Benford puts his own spin on the concept. Whether or not the descriptions will disturb the reader is up to said reader's ability to visualize what Benford writes. I give him points for the effort.
While not a reboot of the series, Benford in effect wipes the proverbial slate clean. With a new protagonist and solid supporting cast of characters, the Galactic Center saga takes on a fresh new look.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4 because there was enough improvement in Benford's style and characterization to be rewarded for it.
June 11, 2016
First of all, this says it is book three in a series and I haven't read the first two, but that did not diminish my enjoyment of this book. So, for all readers who have not read the other two, don't let that keep you from reading this one.
I ran across this book and realized that I had not read this one before. While I grew up reading science fiction, hard science fiction was never one of my favorites, as I leaned more towards fantasy. That being said, this book is a fabulous read. It took me a chapter or two to get into in, but by then, I was hooked. Humans are struggling to survive, constantly on the run from mechs, in this classic struggle for humans to overcome and survive. The characters are complex, and this is a great read. The blend of science and character is well done and engaging. There is enough going on behind the scenes that really makes for a compelling read, as things are not always what they seem in this book. I won't say more because spoilers....
A must read for science fiction fans - even if hard science fiction isn't your cup of tea, if you like the genre, you will like this book. I didn't want to put it down. It really outlined the struggle of the human element vs each other and vs the mechs.
I ran across this book and realized that I had not read this one before. While I grew up reading science fiction, hard science fiction was never one of my favorites, as I leaned more towards fantasy. That being said, this book is a fabulous read. It took me a chapter or two to get into in, but by then, I was hooked. Humans are struggling to survive, constantly on the run from mechs, in this classic struggle for humans to overcome and survive. The characters are complex, and this is a great read. The blend of science and character is well done and engaging. There is enough going on behind the scenes that really makes for a compelling read, as things are not always what they seem in this book. I won't say more because spoilers....
A must read for science fiction fans - even if hard science fiction isn't your cup of tea, if you like the genre, you will like this book. I didn't want to put it down. It really outlined the struggle of the human element vs each other and vs the mechs.
April 12, 2013
When you get to the end of this book, especially after the accelerated pace of the last quarter of it or so, you realize how much of the beginning of it was intended to be savored. This is an astounding piece of work — futuristic, apocalyptic, prescient bordering on clairvoyant, cautionary, sympathetic, and more. How this book remains little more than a cult classic — and how Gregory Benford remains largely unknown — is astounding. Among many other things, the man is a highly literate and very talented visionary.
May 2, 2011
Well, after reading all the other reviews I see I am in a minority here but I didn't find this book that great. I love real sci-fi books and find it hard to come across good ones but this just wasn't it for me. I found the bastardized language used by the humans annoying and I find that I have no sympathy with the tribe like families on the run. I found no character or group worth rooting for or the bad guys worth hating so this was just a so so book for me.
January 23, 2023
General
Nice call to David Brin in the beginning.
Less than a page in and already,
“Beyond, lofty spires had been cut to blunt stubs. Their stumps radiated gorgons of structured steel."
Just had to stop and appreciate that description. This is gonna be a good book.
New word
Gravid - pregnant, carrying eggs or young
-full of meaning or a specified quality
Writing out a word really helps remember it, and notice when it’s used. Benford used this shit like ten times and I noticed every one of em.
Pg. 74
Ranking sounds like every day in the kitchen. My favorite one in this book is, “Your dad, he so ugly, when he cries tears run down his back.”
https://giphy.com/gifs/regular-show-c...
Ranking also sounds like social evolution. What situation could have happened to have caused ranking to become commonplace? I’m thinking the sort-of-being-hunted has had something to do with it. But this also seems like just an intelligent version of animal venting. Even though humans infighting as a species is way too often deadly, I think the honesty would do us some good.
“The family could not afford unaired anger.”
This human family can’t either. Damn and that reminds me of the book I just finished, Manifold Time by Stephen Baxter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsda...
Pg. 77
What is the purpose of a family’s legacy? Is the modern notion of it helping or hindering us? What is the modern notion? Maybe it keeps us motivated for progress (or just more changes and discoveries if you don’t call this progress) based, at least as a species, on seeing what has been discovered. But maybe it also hinders us by narrowing our view of the possibilities. How long have humans had the capacity for ancestor worship?
There’s actually a cool idea about this on pg. 321.
Pg. 105
Marauders are the type of machine that is most associated with fatalities among the protagonists. At some point they realize that there is a new type of enemy.
“Only the narrow sense of human category had lumped it together with Marauders….”
Yeah categorizing sucks. The impulse and actual need to categorize makes me wonder how much stuff we miss just because we misplace it in our minds. What’s kind of fun and interesting is to take something and apply your own category, either made up or already existing, see how it works. For a practical example, I now categorize the toothbrush and toothpaste as kitchen items. I don’t shit where I eat. Categorizing people is also incredibly easy to do. Like, “oh you’re a cat person” or “you’re a so-and-so person.” But cut that shit out, or at least notice when you apply a category and actually check if it applies. I’ve been trying to be more conscious of myself doing it, to other people especially. Could also get more metaphysical with it too. How much would the same categories apply to different peoples’ perspectives? Or how flimsy are our notions of categories at all? How easily could they change? How biological are categories and how psychological are they? Noticing categories in real-time is almost like noticing the brain in your head. It’s trippy.
General
The far future setting of Great Sky River is wonderfully introduced and reinforced by weaving the new problems, vulnerabilities, and strengths the people on this planet possess throughout the entire narrative with little hand-holding. The modes of motion, thinking, and customs are just a part of the story, almost giving the reader a trial as the people in the book have. I like how I learned about the characters and world by seeing how the characters interacted with their world.
Pg. 146
I think adapting the traditions of older generations is fun to an extent, but creating your own traditions is incredibly satisfying. And to accept them unquestionably, never.
Why do I type so differently than I talk….
Pg. 181
The pioneers of the 3 dimensionality of space often overshadow the pioneers of time. The “frontier generation” is becoming more focused on the future because of this wall that we seem to have hit regarding space travel. Of course there is more to our world to explore, but realistically there will never again be such undiscovered countries on this planet.
Pg. 321
This survival strategy of a species to hedge most of its resources (including population) on conservitive means is a great means of coming to an understanding and tolerance between the different types of people. The pioneers and conservative types need each other, yet so often it seems like they only want to fight each other. It’s kind of interesting to think of why, or what aspects cause, the need for each other arises.
Pg. 325
The whole “Thing about aliens is, they’re alien” line repeated is about an extreme example in this book. It also applies to acknowledging a lack of understanding between people. We are so alien to each other, it’s important to remember that every once in a while.
Nice call to David Brin in the beginning.
Less than a page in and already,
“Beyond, lofty spires had been cut to blunt stubs. Their stumps radiated gorgons of structured steel."
Just had to stop and appreciate that description. This is gonna be a good book.
New word
Gravid - pregnant, carrying eggs or young
-full of meaning or a specified quality
Writing out a word really helps remember it, and notice when it’s used. Benford used this shit like ten times and I noticed every one of em.
Pg. 74
Ranking sounds like every day in the kitchen. My favorite one in this book is, “Your dad, he so ugly, when he cries tears run down his back.”
https://giphy.com/gifs/regular-show-c...
Ranking also sounds like social evolution. What situation could have happened to have caused ranking to become commonplace? I’m thinking the sort-of-being-hunted has had something to do with it. But this also seems like just an intelligent version of animal venting. Even though humans infighting as a species is way too often deadly, I think the honesty would do us some good.
“The family could not afford unaired anger.”
This human family can’t either. Damn and that reminds me of the book I just finished, Manifold Time by Stephen Baxter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsda...
Pg. 77
What is the purpose of a family’s legacy? Is the modern notion of it helping or hindering us? What is the modern notion? Maybe it keeps us motivated for progress (or just more changes and discoveries if you don’t call this progress) based, at least as a species, on seeing what has been discovered. But maybe it also hinders us by narrowing our view of the possibilities. How long have humans had the capacity for ancestor worship?
There’s actually a cool idea about this on pg. 321.
Pg. 105
Marauders are the type of machine that is most associated with fatalities among the protagonists. At some point they realize that there is a new type of enemy.
“Only the narrow sense of human category had lumped it together with Marauders….”
Yeah categorizing sucks. The impulse and actual need to categorize makes me wonder how much stuff we miss just because we misplace it in our minds. What’s kind of fun and interesting is to take something and apply your own category, either made up or already existing, see how it works. For a practical example, I now categorize the toothbrush and toothpaste as kitchen items. I don’t shit where I eat. Categorizing people is also incredibly easy to do. Like, “oh you’re a cat person” or “you’re a so-and-so person.” But cut that shit out, or at least notice when you apply a category and actually check if it applies. I’ve been trying to be more conscious of myself doing it, to other people especially. Could also get more metaphysical with it too. How much would the same categories apply to different peoples’ perspectives? Or how flimsy are our notions of categories at all? How easily could they change? How biological are categories and how psychological are they? Noticing categories in real-time is almost like noticing the brain in your head. It’s trippy.
General
The far future setting of Great Sky River is wonderfully introduced and reinforced by weaving the new problems, vulnerabilities, and strengths the people on this planet possess throughout the entire narrative with little hand-holding. The modes of motion, thinking, and customs are just a part of the story, almost giving the reader a trial as the people in the book have. I like how I learned about the characters and world by seeing how the characters interacted with their world.
Pg. 146
I think adapting the traditions of older generations is fun to an extent, but creating your own traditions is incredibly satisfying. And to accept them unquestionably, never.
Why do I type so differently than I talk….
Pg. 181
The pioneers of the 3 dimensionality of space often overshadow the pioneers of time. The “frontier generation” is becoming more focused on the future because of this wall that we seem to have hit regarding space travel. Of course there is more to our world to explore, but realistically there will never again be such undiscovered countries on this planet.
Pg. 321
This survival strategy of a species to hedge most of its resources (including population) on conservitive means is a great means of coming to an understanding and tolerance between the different types of people. The pioneers and conservative types need each other, yet so often it seems like they only want to fight each other. It’s kind of interesting to think of why, or what aspects cause, the need for each other arises.
Pg. 325
The whole “Thing about aliens is, they’re alien” line repeated is about an extreme example in this book. It also applies to acknowledging a lack of understanding between people. We are so alien to each other, it’s important to remember that every once in a while.
December 12, 2018
4.5 stars.
Ah man, these stupid books don't have numbers on them so I must have started reading this one out of order - uh nope. We really just skipped from humanity's first steps into space to a fallen tribe of augmented humans on some random planet existing on parasites on a robotic society. No Nigel Walmsley. There is still conflict between characters, and there is still a main character, Killeen, but Benford has wisely withheld his omnipotence from him. Just because Killeen argues for something, doesn't mean it's true, which always adds a bit of suspense. With the lack of bad out of the way, on to the good.
The Bishop family was thrown out of their last home a decade or so ago, and has been migrating across a dead planet ever since. Every thing they need must be taken from the machines, most of which are stupid and docile, but they must be conservative enough not to trigger a statistical anomaly in the higher minds running the planet, and there is always the chance of encountering one of the various types of hunting robots. We come to learn this stalemate is one of many brief respites in their family's history of decline on this planet. A stalemate that ends as they encounter a new type of machine early on in the book.
It's a taught adventure full of big ideas and cool-as-hell details, bridging the classics written before it and contemporary SF in all media today.
Ah man, these stupid books don't have numbers on them so I must have started reading this one out of order - uh nope. We really just skipped from humanity's first steps into space to a fallen tribe of augmented humans on some random planet existing on parasites on a robotic society. No Nigel Walmsley. There is still conflict between characters, and there is still a main character, Killeen, but Benford has wisely withheld his omnipotence from him. Just because Killeen argues for something, doesn't mean it's true, which always adds a bit of suspense. With the lack of bad out of the way, on to the good.
The Bishop family was thrown out of their last home a decade or so ago, and has been migrating across a dead planet ever since. Every thing they need must be taken from the machines, most of which are stupid and docile, but they must be conservative enough not to trigger a statistical anomaly in the higher minds running the planet, and there is always the chance of encountering one of the various types of hunting robots. We come to learn this stalemate is one of many brief respites in their family's history of decline on this planet. A stalemate that ends as they encounter a new type of machine early on in the book.
It's a taught adventure full of big ideas and cool-as-hell details, bridging the classics written before it and contemporary SF in all media today.
July 10, 2024
Killeen is a human on the planet Snowglade, circling the star Denix, which all circle the Eater - a giant black hole.Humans have been at war with a machine intelligence on Snowglade for a long time. The mechs have decided to change the climate by removing water, as it assists in rust formation and is needed by the humans. Humans have limited tech, one of which is the sensorium in their heads. This can hold memories of deceased humans provided there is time to get them. If not the human suffers truedeath. Of the many types of killer mechs on Snowglade, the Mantis is something different. Capable of a distributed mind which makes it hard to destroy, it can absorb whole human minds. But what the Mantis is mostly, is an artist! What a machine doesn’t know about art becomes glaringly obvious when the Mantis starts explaining its ‘project’. Throw in an intelligence living in the accretion disk of the Eater and some bizarre human-mach experiments and we get a rather scattershot tale from Gregory Benford. With echoes of Saberhagen’s Berserkers and Philip K. Dick’s classic Second Variety, it offers some hope for humanity’s last known outpost with the mysterious Argo. As Killeen’s father always said, ‘The thing about aliens is, they’re alien.’
September 17, 2020
Benford, Gregory. Great Sky River. 1987. Galactic Center No. 3. Aspect, 2004.
I like to imagine Gregory Benford sitting in a theater in 1984 watching Arnold Schwarzenegger terrorize California in The Terminator. He must have thought, I can do this in my Galactic Hub series and make the mechs more plausible. Three years later, that is exactly what he accomplished in Great Sky River. Having discovered the hostile mech civilization at the center of the galaxy, humans have begun to settle multiple systems trying to grab a toehold in which they can survive. Great Sky River is set on a colony planet where things have not gone well. The ecology has been devastated by mech invaders and only a few bands of nomadic humans survive to wage a feeble insurgency. They scavenge and adapt what they can of mech technology and struggle to maintain their cultural heritage. By this point in the series, Benford has a solid grip on where he wants the six-novel sequence to go. Epic space opera at its best.
I like to imagine Gregory Benford sitting in a theater in 1984 watching Arnold Schwarzenegger terrorize California in The Terminator. He must have thought, I can do this in my Galactic Hub series and make the mechs more plausible. Three years later, that is exactly what he accomplished in Great Sky River. Having discovered the hostile mech civilization at the center of the galaxy, humans have begun to settle multiple systems trying to grab a toehold in which they can survive. Great Sky River is set on a colony planet where things have not gone well. The ecology has been devastated by mech invaders and only a few bands of nomadic humans survive to wage a feeble insurgency. They scavenge and adapt what they can of mech technology and struggle to maintain their cultural heritage. By this point in the series, Benford has a solid grip on where he wants the six-novel sequence to go. Epic space opera at its best.
May 11, 2022
The story of a distant and horrifying future. A civilization of soulless machines has overrun the Galaxy. On a planet near the Galactic center, the last scattered bands of humanity are live on the run, surviving by pilfering from the machines. Earth is forgotten. All they know is to flee and hide. They themselves are half cyborgs, with augmented senses and slots in the back of their necks where subordinate personalities are loaded. They live like rats under the feet of the machines, who when they don't ignore them kill them as vermin. Is there any hope?
July 1, 2023
On a planet at the centre of the galaxy, humans have been almost completely exterminated by an alien race of machines. The planet is almost completely devastated by the aliens and a small band of humans are constantly on the run from alien attack. Story takes an unexpected twist about halfway through and I'm looking forward to the sequel. The story does stand on its own however.
May 11, 2024
Complete change of pace in this book as we leave Nigel and friends behind and jump 70,000 light years to a human colony in the galactic core.
There are elements of the Hero's Journey in the story of young Killeen. The human colony on Snowglade has fallen on hard times due to the encroachment of the mechs. This is the story of the endgame in their struggle for survival.
It felt like one of Heinlein's YA novels at times. A fairly lively story with twists and turns.
There is some godlike entity that knows Killeen and is looking out for him.
There are elements of the Hero's Journey in the story of young Killeen. The human colony on Snowglade has fallen on hard times due to the encroachment of the mechs. This is the story of the endgame in their struggle for survival.
It felt like one of Heinlein's YA novels at times. A fairly lively story with twists and turns.
There is some godlike entity that knows Killeen and is looking out for him.
June 7, 2018
Odd start, great finish. I had a really hard time getting my bearings for the first third of the book--a lot different than the first two--but ended up getting sucked in and really looked forward to picking it up.
August 6, 2018
Una novela de humanos sobreviviendo al acecho de las máquinas que los han mermado. Hubiera sido muy buena si Benford no fuese tan complicado con las descripciones sobre las máquinas o las bases de éstos.
September 5, 2018
Not near as good as the first two books in the series (In the Ocean of Night & Across the Sea of Suns). Hope the rest of the books get better
November 17, 2019
Molto meglio dei due precedenti libri della serie, avendo uno stile narrativo più tradizionale.
June 14, 2020
I read this book over twenty years ago, it was the first “hard sf” I read.
After all those years, it is still magnificent.
After all those years, it is still magnificent.
November 26, 2020
Story was not as exciting as the first two in the series.
January 7, 2021
Big shift in tone from the previous two books, darker more action.
June 21, 2021
Interesting far future speculation. Can mech and humans coexist?
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