| |
| Author | Wil McCarthy |
|---|---|
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Del Rey Books |
The Queendom of Sol is ascience fiction book series by American authorWil McCarthy. It includesThe Collapsium (2000),[1]The Wellstone (2003),[2]Lost in Transmission (2004),[3] andTo Crush the Moon (2005).[4] The first two novels of the series were also printed together asThe Monarchs of Sol byScience Fiction Book Club (ISBN 0739433881).
The Queendom referred to is the present-dayKingdom of Tonga. In the Queendom of Sol, humanity has returned tomonarchism as a stabilizing force in the face ofaccelerating technological change.
The Collapsium is a 2000hard science fiction novel and the first in the series.[5][6][7] The first section of the novel is based on McCarthy's short story "Once Upon a Matter Crushed", which was aSturgeon Award finalist.[8] A reviewer stated McCarthy usedpostmodern literary technique in consciously creating a protagonist who is a "throwback" to the scientist-heroes ofGolden Age SF.[9]
The Wellstone is a 2003 novel, publishes as the second in the series.[10] InThe Wellstone, McCarthy explores the lives ofimmortal humans known asimmorbids in the future.Nanotechnology has created thewellstone,programmable matter that can emulate nearly any other form of matter,[11] and nanotechfax machines that can not only fabricate objects on demand, but store and retrieve human bodies (with minds intact), cure disease or reverse aging, or be used asteleporters. Ultradenseexotic matter known ascollapsium makes gravity manipulation andfaster-than-light communication possible. Humanity has formed a solar system–wide society based onmonarchy.
Many of the technologies in this novel are also described in McCarthy's 2003 nonfiction book,Hacking Matter.
To Crush the Moon, published in 2005,[12] is the last in the four-part series.
| Year | Work | Award | Result | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | The Collapsium | Theodore Sturgeon Award | — | Finalist | [13] |
| 2002 | Nebula Award | Novel | Finalist | [14][15] | |
| 2007 | To Crush the Moon | Nebula Award | Novel | Finalist | [16][17] |
Its hero, Bruno de Towaji, is smart and sexy—a brooding supergenius who combines the most estimable qualities of Albert Einstein, Sherlock Holmes and Marlon Brando. Of course, he is a postmodern construct—a conscious throwback to the scientist-heroes of early 20th-century science fiction, who defeated evil and won the girl with weapons they whipped up in the laboratory on a moment's notice.
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