Metaplanetary is an underappreciated gem on so many levels: from its depiction of AI love as solving systems of mathematical equations with transfinite values--that is, engaging the faculties of the AI to their fullest, leaving room for no "spare thought"--to extraordinary modes of traversing the Solar System via self-evolved nanotech-based strands full of a breathable, snot-like substance; from the wry remark that when we abandon our human form for an inorganic carrier, we lose some of our ment...

Actual rating: 2.5 stars.Metaplanetary is good old-fashioned space opera, scaled to the entire solar system and a bit beyond, taking place approximately 1,000 years from now. The inner system, led by evil dictator Ames, is at war with the freedom-loving rebels and cloudships of the outer system. Exciting stuff! Unfortunately it turns out to be the first of a two-book deal, and a lot of interesting characters are left hanging from cliffs at the end. Will I buy the second book to find out what hap...

More like 4.5 stars, Metaplanetary starts and ends slowly and unevenly. That middle though, probably pages 100 to 450, is a tremendous blend of old-school sci-fi, new and improved technobabble, and philosophy of science on par with Neal Stephenson.Metaplanetary is the first of several novels that essentially questions sentience. Daniel writes a highly evolved form of the solar system (similar to that of James S.A. Corey's Expanse) where everything inside the Kuiper Belt is connected by a fantast...

One of the best hard SF books I've read in years. Not an easy read. Had to think. Had to think a lot. It was so much better than the mental mush so many SF authors are serving these days.That said, Daniel squeezed and awful lot of science and back story into 437 pages. Created a full, rich scientific and historical path from this world to his over the next several centuries. Some of it approaches fantasy, but he gave us hard--if fanciful--development for it.The ending "felt" like the set up for

i've always had a soft spot for SF where the author has decided that as they're going to play fast and loose with the laws of physics, they might as well go *large*. Tony Daniel's /Metaplanetary/ is such. The "Met" of the title is a vast network of space elevators, cables, tethers and bolas made from a quantum nanotech stratum called "grist". And when I say vast, I mean VAST: stretching all the way from Mercury to beyond the orbit of Mars! Of course the various cables aren't actually permanently...

I hate cliffhangers. I don't mind them on TV series when I am watching the whole thing on DVD and can go straight to the next season. But even though I knew Metaplanetary was the first of a two part series, I expected some resolution at the end that would set the stage for what comes next. (For instance, I read Red Mars and was totally satisfied with "the story so far," and I may well read Mars Green and Blue because I know they will take the saga of colonization into new levels. Metaplanetary t...

Interesting. I read this book after I read the sequel, but I like this one better. The sequel assumes too much about this book.Metaplanetary is about how a civil war occurred in the solar system. One side wanted to create a sort of hive mind, and the others wanted to stay individuals. Also, the first group didn't believe in the humanity of self-aware AIs, and the other felt that the were fully human.The book doesn't quite work as an adventure story, or as space opera, but it has some big ideas t...

Well, darn. This was very good, but I didn't realize until the end that it's only the first of an intended trilogy, one that will never be completed since the publisher didn't make enough money. So while ordinarily I'd be jumping gungho to the 2nd book, I'm going to stop now, it will just be too frustrating.

Humanity, in the early years of the 3rd millennium, freely travels around the inner solar system via giant cables, a kilometre wide slung from the poles of the planets with the magma of the interior cores providing lubrication. Interesting idea! Humanity is diverse with some only existing as a piece of computer program, but they can appear in a bodily state, even have sex and have children. The outer planets, or their moons, are also inhabited some be humans genetically enhanced to be able to wi...

“Metaplanetary,” by Tony Daniel (Eos, 2001). Dense, complex, intricate, hard SF, good and fun. I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. Very far in the future. There are three sets of human civilization: the Met, the inner planets to the asteroid belt, connected by huge, semi-sentient cables, one large, swarming, unified society; the outer planets, more independent minded, not as wealthy, fractious and a bit ornery; the cloudships, immense craft that are living beings. Swarming through it all

Metaplanetary and I have a bit of an odd history. I picked up a copy of the paperback in a tiny bookstore in Acadia National Park back in 2002. After reading the whole thing in basically two days, I desperately wanted to find the sequel, with the rear cover promised had come out already. Of course it hadn’t and it would be another there years before Superluminal would see the light of day, and in the meantime I forgot about the whole thing. Going back to Metaplanetary hasn’t quite lived up to my...

I feel like I've been burned, badly, by this book. After a disastrous encounter with Peter F Hamilton's Pandora's Star, which I thought was standalone until the last few pages when I realized it couldn't possibly be finished in the book remaining, I swore to never again read a book that I didn't *know* was standalone, or part of a series. I kept that up for a decade but Metaplanetary just ruined it. I'm 90% of the way through the book, there's NO WAY he can finish it in time...check the internet...

See those stars at the beginning of this review? Yeah, those are provisional. The thing you should know, that I did not know upon picking this book up, is that this is the first book in a series. Or at least in a diptych. There is a sequel and how many of those stars it keeps are going to depend on how well the author develops the things he has set up in this volume in the next book.That particular little niggle aside, Metaplanetary is a hell of a ride. Adventure, drama and particularly compelli...

The library had this book and its sequel Superluminal, but had delisted this one and insisted that if I wanted it I had to buy it for 50c. Because turfing the first book in the series makes so much sense... Not an encouraging sign either.Still, I wanted to read it so I ponied up 50 little ones and I'm glad I did. This is an underappreciated book. About 12 years old, but exploring some high concept stuff involving a world with pervasive nanotechnology ("grist"), sentient AI and theory of mind.Rec...

It was a good book. I especially like/ remember the concept of a rail system between the planets. The idea was a web of tubes extending from a planet out into space. As an example, the rail line to the Moon. As the Moon revolved around the Earth, the tube/ rail line moved around the planet, constantly being reconnected by nano-bots. Same for the tubes extending to other planets. One way or another, you could always find a connection from one inner planet to another. Pretty cool.

Overall a very good book. It should probably be a single volume (with its sequel, "Superluminary"). It's main goal seems to be interrogating what defines a human, in a world with humans, AI's, and people in between.Unfortunately, the bad guys are very static characters, and are primarily described as just being greedy, immoral people, but they do gain depth as the novels progress.

I found this book to be refreshing. There are many ideas in this book that I haven't found developed as well elsewhere. The characters are believable and the issues relevant; the only problem that I have found is that the author didn't develop the character of Ames enough for my liking. But that is a small quibble- I highly recommend this book!

Best space opera of the past decade. Trippy, precise world-building, sharp characters, sigularity-level nano-tech, a one-named bad guy in the Foundation tradition, a hero priest and "cloudships" who vote on things. Perfect.

Very nice concept, well executed - a complex future history, set in a wartime (which always makes things interesting). Recommended.

Way too clever for my simple mind. The far-out concepts were probably explained brilliantly but I comprehended very little. Maybe a 4-star computer wiz or quantim phyisist could do better.

Currently reading - but it's WEIRD. Which is good.

Its a broad milieu Daniel creates with this novel. I look forward to reading the next in the series.

Very nice, although some parts of it leave a bad taste in your mouth.

Hard science fiction with an epic narrative.

Very good book. Interesting take on exploration/expansion. Nice character development. Free converts were fascinating. I'll read the sequel.

I guess it was kind of clever at points.

I shouldn't have liked this book as much as I did, since one of its central issues is transhumanism or posthumanism, something I have no patience for. But Daniel can write. It was worth it.