Stone (novel)
| Author | Adam Roberts |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Gollancz |
Publication date | March 2002 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-575-07396-9 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
Stone, published in 2002, is a science fiction novel by the British writer Adam Roberts.
Themes
(Warning, possible spoilers ahead)
Stone is a story about a criminal, Ae, who lives in a utopian society, the 'T't'. This society heavily uses nanotechnology, here called 'Dot-tech'. Much of the society lives in comparatively primitive conditions but the high-technology of the 'dot-tech' enables them to survive and prosper in such conditions.
Ae has been imprisioned for a crime rarely commited in the society he lives in, murder (mainly due to the difficulty of killing a body protected by nano-tech). He is placed in a high tech prison (a stone with an artificial environment inside held in the plasma of a sun) and has all of his nanobots purged by the jailors.
He is broken out and picked up by a sub-light ship, were he recuperates before traveling on, employed by a mysterious agency. He travels to a planet where he learns the secret of creating black holes and finally his mission is revealed, as well as his employers.
He is to kill an entire planet, on the orders of the nanotech bots, which due to being so many have formed a quantum intelligence. Unfortunately everytime humans use them they collapse the quantum waveform killing some of them. They want the planet killed so they can think easier.
The book ends with the planets atmosphere being scourged away by the black holes, killing billions.
Some large-scale effects of the application of quantum theory are also explored in this novel.
Links
(2002, ISBN 0-575-07396-9)