Grail [Mass Market Paperback]

I really liked this series when it started and I raced through the last two books, still interested in the characters and wanted to see the conclusion. This one takes up immediately after the conclusion of the second book and you are thrown immediately into the action. I really liked the first half and felt the danger of the situation changed the tone of the series for the better. Then before you knew it you were in another chase seen through the great ship. Started to feel the same. Then new characters are introduced and everything slows way down as an ethical debate merges with a murder mystery. I never felt that the murder had the impact emotionally that it should have and the characters to be most impacted by it were marginalized in this volume. The ending fo the series was a bit of ehh? Great start, okay middle, didn't really enjoy the ending. Can't complain overall about the series and would still recommend it as pretty good science fiction just wish the ending had been stronger and didn't end is such a way that while clean and concise didn't feel like it had the real life messiness that it should or that I guess I prefer.

I have just finished Grail the concluding volume of Elizabeth Bear's generation ship epos Jacob's Ladder. I have a hard time distilling the story down to review size but here goes.

Jacob's Ladder is getting close to journey's end and the planet Grail. Perceval became the captain after her beloved Rien scarified herself and merged with the ship's ai and vanquished the dragon Dust, the ship library that ruled ship for centuries turning it into something from Literature. That is why the story reads as a medieval saga with transhuman technologies, knights and angels (most so in the first book). They survived the alien encounter and the acceleration that followed. Perceval and her companions have started to repair the ship again and are working towards uniting the different tribes that has been separated for so long. But the ship is far from well and not everyone agree on a course of action. Some even want to turn around not to infect another world. A theft turned murder reveals powerful old enemies. In a transhuman world death is seldom permanent.

It became something of a different story when we dive into the culture of the `rightminded' humans that already lives on Grail, the planet they call Fortune. Jacob's Ladder left earth to escape the Kleptomancy and forge their own solution to human development while humanity back on the devastated earth forged their own - rightminding. It raises all kind of interesting questions and most of them get their answers here. Elizabeth delivers civilization critique wrapped in velvet. For the people on Fortune it is a legend come alive but it also raises fear. Are the Jacobeans even human anymore? The fear of the uncorrected `normal' humans also surfaces and it is quite entertaining at times how they portrait that. There are forces on both sides that are willing to go to war to take or protect what they think is right. Premiere Danilaw has to walk a tight rope as he becomes the emissary to the Jacobeans.

It is a complex story with many aspects and participants and I am in awe how tight Elizabeth still succeeds in keeping it, this could easily have swelled to a kilo pages. I enjoyed the different points of view and the characters are distinct and well developed. Perceval is in many respects the main character everything revolves around, she is also by far the most human in all her Exalted transhumanism. Danilaw is the other character that stands out rightminded as he is he plays old tunes on his guitar and are used to manage the planet by nudging or tweaking. I like the characters here, they don't bicker as much as I like but it is not that kind of story.

Two different paths of human evolution meet and clash. Will they be able to forge a new future together? You have to read the book to find out.

I love this series. It is like blending LOTR with The Diamond Age and Matrix with a crust of Ghost in the Machine. Grail is a satisfying conclusion to Jacob's Ladder loaded with tension, intrigue, treason, revelations and humanity. Singularity has become something of a Holy Grail in current science fiction but here Grail is a planet and trans-humanism a gateway to becoming human which is refreshing. I recommend this as one of the more significant science fiction trilogies in later years. You should really read it, I enjoyed it immensly.

Having wandered through space seemingly forever on Jacob's Ladder, the Jacobites are euphoric having finally found a habitable planet. However, the travelers are stunned when they find a human race beat them to the orb. This species of humanoids have been surgically "right minded" emotionally. They seem even more extraterrestrial than some of the alien races they met during the odyssey (see Dust and Chill).

The humans on the planet and those occupying Jacob s Ladder refuse to negotiate. Instead each side opposes comingling. War is imminent only to have enemies from within Jacob's ladder attack from inside the craft.

This is a great finish to the strong trilogy as the cultural difference between the Jacobites and the right minded is further than Pluto is from the sun. Elizabeth Bear looks deep into those riding inside of Jacob's Ladder as they have reached their Promised Land, but like Joshua at Jericho face a major occupant dilemma, but unlike the Old testament, the crew is divided. To a lesser degree fans will learn of the right minded society. War between these two humanoid groups seems imminent.

Harriet Klausner

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