Obra galardonada con el premio Compton Crook. El científico Ayax, comandante de la nave celeste Lágrima de Chandra, se prepara para embarcarse en una misión secreta al Sol, con la intención de robar un trozo del elemento más puro: el fuego. Esta porción definitiva de materia celeste será la base de un arma capaz de acabar por fin con la guerra que enfrenta al Imperio griego con los taoístas del Lejano Oriente.

A fascinating, and very well-executed, novel of "alternate science." It's set in a world in which what Aristotle posited about the nature of the world — four elements, rotating geocentric celestial spheres, four humour-based medicine, etc. — are actually true. (Mostly. More on this.) Furthermore it's a novel of alternate history, for which the point of divergence appears to be that the Peloponnesian War never occurred. Rather, Athens and Sparta united in the Delian League and eclipsed Macedonia culturally and militarily. Alexander, as a League general instead of a deified emperor, lived until old age. His tutor Aristotle used his science to create new weapons of war that led to an even larger, and much more durable, Hellenic empire.

In the time of the novel's setting — the world is essentially divided in a forever war between the Greek Delian League and the Chinese Middle Kingdom, with the battle lines in Tibet and central North America. (The time period is never quite specified; it's said Alexander's empire has lasted a thousand years, which would put it about 700 AD, but the feel of the setting, with motorized ships and space travel, is more 20th Century.) The needs of the great war have led to accelerated science but atrophied culture, with philosophy and history both low-prestige disciplines.

I've talked mostly about the setting rather than the plot, but honestly, the setting is the reason to read the book. It's a clever conceit that's executed well, with a first-person narration that drops you into the deep end of an unfamiliar world but doles out details on its rules in a steady fashion as the book goes on. This includes not just science but culture, as the characters of the book hold to ancient Greek traditions: the Olympic pantheon, funeral games, inspiration from the muses, a Spartan sense of honor, and a huge classical influence on the ideals of heroism.

My biggest qualm with the book is the way its final act developed, which stepped into the realm of world-saving, world-shaking heroism. The too-neat conclusion was justified by a little divine intervention, though I suppose one could argue that is itself authentic to the material's inspiration. Regardless, it felt a little narratively implausible; I'd have felt it to be more earned if the novel's conclusion had been the end of a trilogy that started on a very grounded level and only gradually raised the stakes.

I was also left with questions about the world. Though by the end I understood the Aristotelian physics undergirding the universe rather well, in a confusing twist the Taoist model of the universe ALSO turns out to be true. The novel never really explains how two contradictory models of reality can be true at the same time — the narrator and protagonist figures it out but doesn't actually tell us what he's figured out. Given that the author thought out the implications of both physics models with great care that suggests he didn't quite square that circle either.

But altogether it was an enjoyable read, at least for someone like me who is vaguely familiar with Aristotle. (A lover of speculative fiction with no background might still enjoy the story; I can't say how that experience would be different — or the experience of someone who's actually an expert in Aristotelian or Taoist physics.) The writing style seemed accessible, though I'm not particularly picky on that matter; particularly well done seemed to be the narrator's habit of periodically expressing regret for not noticing something important, foreshadowing future developments without giving it away. ( )

Celestial Matters is a diverting tale of a long global war between a Greek Empire that was never eclipsed by Rome and whose science never diverted from Aristotle/Ptolemy, and a China whose science is based on traditional Chinese medicine.

My usual complaint about sci-fi: there's one female mortal character, who is !coincidentally a romantic interest. And a ninja, apparently. But space travel among the crystal spheres is a charming story idea, so I'll only mutter about it a little bit. ( )

(Alistair) This book is made of awesome.

Yes, that's an unabashed recommendation. I have a great fondness even for conventional hard SF. Imagine, then, how much more I am delighted by a work of alternate-universe hard SF that incorporates some of my favorite classical themes.

Such as this book, which is a work of hard SF in which the sciences in question are Ptolemaic astronomy, Aristotelian physics and chemistry, Pliny's biology, and on the other hand, Daoist alchemy and xi-based sciences.

It is also, of course, an alternate history. In this universe, Alexander having survived his bout of illness, the Delian League has expanded through all of Europe and half of "Atlantea", and is now - and has been for centuries - at a stalemated war with the Middle Kingdom. And they think they're about to start losing the war.

And in this world, Celestial Matters is told by one Aias, the commander of the celestial ship Chandra's Tear, who is in charge of the Delian League's answer to the Manhattan Project: to steal celestial fire from the Sun itself as a weapon...

Superlatively recommended for excellent worldbuilding, great characterisation, and a thundering good plot. ( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/cerebrate/2008/11/celestial_matters_richard_g... )

(Amy) I admit I was very dubious about this book. My husband recommended it to me, and for the first three-dozen pages I alternated between giving him skeptical looks over the top of the pages and muttering under my breath at the insanity of the people who thought our world worked this way. See, this science fiction book is one wherein the scientific principles are Aristotelian and Ptolemaic and, well, by the standards of our world, Just Plain Wrong. But herein, they are not. The celestial spheres are quite present, and the elements are every bit as elemental as one could wish.

As a modern scientist by almost-training, I find it hard to fully comprehend the philosophical community from the centuries before empiricism was considered particularly relevant, and my reading of the story from the world in which the above philosophies were empirically true was colored by my bafflement as to how anyone came up with them in this universe, where some of them were very obviously not.

But all that aside, I did manage to set aside these objections (amusingly enough, right around the 50-page point at which I would have given up on the book had it still proved difficult), and found myself quite caught up in the story of the trip to steal a piece of the sun to use in the war against the Middle Kingdom.

I didn't enjoy it as much as Alistair did - but then, I've never really been a classicist in my reading or study, so I didn't get as much out of it as he did. But for anyone who likes thinking in interesting directions, or who is both a classicist and an SF fan, this book is highly recommended.
(http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/zenos-library/2009/01/celestial_matters_richard_garf.html) ( )

Meh. Interesting idea. ( )