The Bookshelf: Virga series by Karl Schroeder
The Virga series by Karl Schroeder is a fantastic exercise in world-building. The setting for the space opera is a colossal balloon (named Virga), that is thousands of miles across and filled with air, water, earth and at its center an artificial sun named Candesce. Oh and, by the way, no natural gravity! The people who live in this world must provide their own gravity by building wheels or cylinders that spin around a central axis. Some of these are towns that provide for a few hundred people, some are so monumental they exist as whole nations who, seeking room to grow that is too far from the light and heat of Candesce, have lit their own artificial suns. All are, to some extent, constantly moving, pushed by the eternally circulating winds. This is a world of constant struggle and ingenuity (there are properties of Candesce that prevent certain types of technology like radar from functioning) with plenty of political intrigue as nations literally come together in conflict. Action abounds with gun fights, sword fights and naval battles between nations and pirate fleets where torpedo shaped wooden cruisers and battleships bank and swoop like jet fighters, firing rockets, machine guns and cannons in all directions.
Truly Epic! Looking forward to Book 4.
02/07/2012 at 7:34 PM