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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
It took me a little bit to into this one, but once I did, I was pretty hooked. The idea of Lock-step worlds is fascinating and offers a lot of potential. I did wonder, more than once, how wear and tear of machinery over the course of thousands of years would affect civilization, but it was pretty much assumed that there were never any problems with maintenance and that technology was 100% reliable. That kind of bothered me.
Otherwise I enjoyed it and would love to see more of this universe.
Otherwise I enjoyed it and would love to see more of this universe.
A unique premise that's nicely fleshed out. I won't repeat the setup as that's on the back cover - but this book delivers on the promise.
Full disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book from Net Galley.
Lockstep is a fantastic, entertaining novel that I find a bit difficult to summarize. The short version is that it will probably appeal to readers of young adult and hard scifi, but existing experience with scifi will definitely help ease the process. Schroeder is most interested in the way developments like cryogenic sleep and interstellar travel might change human society, and he dives deep into almost every aspect of the “lockstep society” he’s created for this novel.
The story kicks off when seventeen-year-old Toby McGonigal goes on a fairly mundane mission to claim an asteroid for his family, who’ve settled on a far-off planet to escape Earth’s corruption. Something goes wrong with Toby’s ship while he is en route, and instead of staying in cryosleep for a short time, he wakes up to discover that a huge amount of time has passed and everything he knows has irrevocably changed. These changes are social, political and extremely personal, and the more we learn about the lockstep society, the more heart-breaking Toby’s story becomes.
The first important thing that Toby learns is that humans colonized hundreds of far-flung worlds thanks to one of his family’s inventions. However, because faster-than-light travel doesn’t exist and most of the colonized worlds are short on natural resources, the only way for the colonies to survive and trade with each other is for every world to go into cryosleep for set periods of time at the same time. While everyone is in cryosleep, ships travel vast distances and limited resources build up enough to keep them alive. In the lockstep society founded by Toby’s family, this means thirty years of cryosleep for every month of time spent awake in real-time or “fast time”.
This leads to Toby’s second discovery, which is that despite the fact that huge amounts of time have passed since he left on his ill-fated trip, some of his immediate family members are still alive. The problem is that they are now infinitely powerful, decades older than when he last saw them, and, much to his surprise, bent on killing him just for existing.
It turns out that while Toby was gone, his family members not only cemented their control over a huge society of hundreds of worlds, but also built up an intricate mythology behind his disappearance. His reappearance in their world threatens their control, and he soon finds himself running from the man and woman he used to call his little brother and sister.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Lockstep is the idea of human civilizations getting out of sync; inside the lockstep society, everything stays the same despite decades spent in cryosleep, while outside societies rise and fall in real-time. Humans slowly become post-human, intergalactic wars destroy entire worlds, and cities build up outside the gates of sleeping locksteps. A constant influx of settlers from outside worlds means that there are people born millennia after Toby now living inside the lockstep society, people who grew up their entire lives hearing about the legendary McGonigal family and their lockstep worlds.
Lockstep definitely has the young protagonist common to the YA genre, and the lockstep world is ultimately a failed utopia, but the hard scifi elements might make it hard to sell as a YA novel, which is probably why it’s not marketed as such. However, I definitely think this book would appeal to YA readers if they’re willing to wrap their head around some fairly complex world-building.
I might recommend it to someone who enjoys books like Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies series, but wants to read something that plays on a bit bigger canvas. Personally, I really enjoyed reading a book that explored theoretical worlds in such depth, and I highly recommend it. Also, the book definitely wraps up all of its threads at the end and feels like a very solid standalone, but I wouldn’t mind reading another story set in the same universe.
Lockstep is a fantastic, entertaining novel that I find a bit difficult to summarize. The short version is that it will probably appeal to readers of young adult and hard scifi, but existing experience with scifi will definitely help ease the process. Schroeder is most interested in the way developments like cryogenic sleep and interstellar travel might change human society, and he dives deep into almost every aspect of the “lockstep society” he’s created for this novel.
The story kicks off when seventeen-year-old Toby McGonigal goes on a fairly mundane mission to claim an asteroid for his family, who’ve settled on a far-off planet to escape Earth’s corruption. Something goes wrong with Toby’s ship while he is en route, and instead of staying in cryosleep for a short time, he wakes up to discover that a huge amount of time has passed and everything he knows has irrevocably changed. These changes are social, political and extremely personal, and the more we learn about the lockstep society, the more heart-breaking Toby’s story becomes.
The first important thing that Toby learns is that humans colonized hundreds of far-flung worlds thanks to one of his family’s inventions. However, because faster-than-light travel doesn’t exist and most of the colonized worlds are short on natural resources, the only way for the colonies to survive and trade with each other is for every world to go into cryosleep for set periods of time at the same time. While everyone is in cryosleep, ships travel vast distances and limited resources build up enough to keep them alive. In the lockstep society founded by Toby’s family, this means thirty years of cryosleep for every month of time spent awake in real-time or “fast time”.
This leads to Toby’s second discovery, which is that despite the fact that huge amounts of time have passed since he left on his ill-fated trip, some of his immediate family members are still alive. The problem is that they are now infinitely powerful, decades older than when he last saw them, and, much to his surprise, bent on killing him just for existing.
It turns out that while Toby was gone, his family members not only cemented their control over a huge society of hundreds of worlds, but also built up an intricate mythology behind his disappearance. His reappearance in their world threatens their control, and he soon finds himself running from the man and woman he used to call his little brother and sister.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Lockstep is the idea of human civilizations getting out of sync; inside the lockstep society, everything stays the same despite decades spent in cryosleep, while outside societies rise and fall in real-time. Humans slowly become post-human, intergalactic wars destroy entire worlds, and cities build up outside the gates of sleeping locksteps. A constant influx of settlers from outside worlds means that there are people born millennia after Toby now living inside the lockstep society, people who grew up their entire lives hearing about the legendary McGonigal family and their lockstep worlds.
Lockstep definitely has the young protagonist common to the YA genre, and the lockstep world is ultimately a failed utopia, but the hard scifi elements might make it hard to sell as a YA novel, which is probably why it’s not marketed as such. However, I definitely think this book would appeal to YA readers if they’re willing to wrap their head around some fairly complex world-building.
I might recommend it to someone who enjoys books like Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies series, but wants to read something that plays on a bit bigger canvas. Personally, I really enjoyed reading a book that explored theoretical worlds in such depth, and I highly recommend it. Also, the book definitely wraps up all of its threads at the end and feels like a very solid standalone, but I wouldn’t mind reading another story set in the same universe.
I had picked this up thinking it was a foray into YA sci-fi in a way that was sorely lacking. Having never read a Karl Schroeder book before, I was happy to find a good (albeit sometimes draggy) science fiction tale even if it's not really young adult.
The story is really about Toby, who wakes up 14000 years after being put in a frozen state. He quickly learns that his family pioneered a form of interstellar travel/cooperation called the Lockstep, which involved timing states of sleep/suspended animation and using robots to do the standard work along the way. The interesting point is a bit of a curveball that I don't want to give away, but it sets the stage for what quickly becomes a fairly epic story.
The book itself is good. It's hard sci-fi written in a pretty accessible way, and it has a lot of fun concepts. I loved the idea of the Lockstep and really enjoyed a lot of the science that went into this.
The story itself could be a little tighter, and I wonder if part of that is because it might have had young adult intentions (and the marketing at least suggests as such) and just fails to balance itself completely on that line.
Overall, a good science fiction read, my favorite in a while. Worth a look.
The story is really about Toby, who wakes up 14000 years after being put in a frozen state. He quickly learns that his family pioneered a form of interstellar travel/cooperation called the Lockstep, which involved timing states of sleep/suspended animation and using robots to do the standard work along the way. The interesting point is a bit of a curveball that I don't want to give away, but it sets the stage for what quickly becomes a fairly epic story.
The book itself is good. It's hard sci-fi written in a pretty accessible way, and it has a lot of fun concepts. I loved the idea of the Lockstep and really enjoyed a lot of the science that went into this.
The story itself could be a little tighter, and I wonder if part of that is because it might have had young adult intentions (and the marketing at least suggests as such) and just fails to balance itself completely on that line.
Overall, a good science fiction read, my favorite in a while. Worth a look.
This was... fine.
The idea is super intriguing and the would-be future here is really fascinating. The ideas Schroeder is playing with were enough to keep me engaged in the story. Unfortunately, the character fell quite flat. Toby is a decent protagonist and I didn't mind following him around as he figured things out, but I never connected with him in any sort of meaningful way. His companions and most of the other characters around him are similarly flat. I felt detached from them all.
And, predictably, an eleventh hour romance that was completely unnecessary and lacking in chemistry. The epitome of:
Blah.
The pace really accelerated at the end too, which is too bad, because I found myself wanting the details. It just sort of seemed like it was unbalanced.
Again, the whole concept of lockstep time is really the selling point here. So if you're okay with reading your sci-fi for the worldbuilding instead of the characters, you might give this one a try.
The idea is super intriguing and the would-be future here is really fascinating. The ideas Schroeder is playing with were enough to keep me engaged in the story. Unfortunately, the character fell quite flat. Toby is a decent protagonist and I didn't mind following him around as he figured things out, but I never connected with him in any sort of meaningful way. His companions and most of the other characters around him are similarly flat. I felt detached from them all.
And, predictably, an eleventh hour romance that was completely unnecessary and lacking in chemistry. The epitome of:
Blah.
The pace really accelerated at the end too, which is too bad, because I found myself wanting the details. It just sort of seemed like it was unbalanced.
Again, the whole concept of lockstep time is really the selling point here. So if you're okay with reading your sci-fi for the worldbuilding instead of the characters, you might give this one a try.
http://theprettygoodgatsby.wordpress.com/2014/03/29/lockstep-by-karl-schroeder/
In high school there was nothing I loved reading more than sci-fi and fantasy. I loved getting swept away in magical worlds and strange new galaxies with totally new lifeforms. Since then, however, I've tested out other genres and wound up falling head-over-heels. There's a part of me that will always love sci-fi though, and the moment I first heard about Lockstep I knew it was something I needed to read. I was more than ready to revisit the genre and the only disappointment is that I'm fully aware of all the fantastic books I've been missing out on all these years!
Toby McGonigal's family was wealthy, but not as wealthy as the trillionaires who controlled the universe. The McGonigals had a respectable planetary claim on Sedna, but there was a small hiccup: to claim a planet every moon had to be visited. Toby was tasked with visiting a tiny hunk of rock further away than any others and in the course of journeying there the ship somehow flew off course.
When Toby woke he discovered he had been missing for 14,000 years. In that time the McGonigal family pioneered the Locksteps - a way of hibernating. Although many millennia had passed, in actuality only 40 years time had elapsed since Toby's family last saw him. And in that time Toby's younger siblings grew up...and proceeded to take control of the universe. An entire religion had formed around Toby's existence - and his prophesied return. This 17-year-old boy is the Emperor of Time and heir to an entire empire. What's worse: now that his siblings know he's alive they want him dead.
To cut to the chase, Lockstep was phenomenal! I was hooked from the very first page and loved every minute I spent in this strange new way of living. The people within the Lockstep 'winter over' - use special beds to freeze and hibernate - for thirty years at a time and then wake for a month before wintering over once more. Their entire existence relies on this method; trade has been expanded tenfold now that you can get there in what feels like overnight. However, it's also used as a form of punishment. Certain cities and planets are subject to other frequencies. They might live ten years while other planets have only seen two weeks. Entire families can be torn apart in the blink of an eye - Toby witnesses this firsthand with his own siblings. Peter and Evayne were just kids when he last saw them. Now they're in their 40s.
Let it be known that I am not a fan of math. No, sir. All these different frequencies started to gnaw on my brain and I had a difficult time wrapping my head around it - but that says more about my lackluster skills than it does about Lockstep. Another thing that confused me was how greatly technology advanced. Totally believable after 14,000 years, but 40..? Not so much. Also, there are hardly any of the 'original' colonists left. After only 40 years. But, again, my inability to understand falls on me, not the book.
Toby felt entirely believable and he was simply great. The secondary characters were spot-on too, but I have to say my favorites were the denners. Denners are little cat-like creatures that can act as a cicada bed - these little guys are fully capable of wintering over their owner and it's this ability that makes them a family of stowaways, criminals, and anyone else who opposes the McGonigals' iron fist. Although the denners can't speak, with special glasses (I kept picturing Google Glass), owners can see little icons and emoticons hover above their bodies.
For as much of an emphasis as their was on Toby's death threats, the climax was a bit anti-climatic. Things Happened and it was all very sitcom-y. I was expecting a giant intergalactic battle and it never came. Despite the Happy Family ending and my NUMBERS ARE HARD mentality, I enjoyed Lockstep! A lot. I'm actually pretty bummed out that it's now over! I'm not quite sure this book will work for the everyday reader, but if you're a fan of space operas and hard sci-fi, definitely check out this book!
In high school there was nothing I loved reading more than sci-fi and fantasy. I loved getting swept away in magical worlds and strange new galaxies with totally new lifeforms. Since then, however, I've tested out other genres and wound up falling head-over-heels. There's a part of me that will always love sci-fi though, and the moment I first heard about Lockstep I knew it was something I needed to read. I was more than ready to revisit the genre and the only disappointment is that I'm fully aware of all the fantastic books I've been missing out on all these years!
Toby McGonigal's family was wealthy, but not as wealthy as the trillionaires who controlled the universe. The McGonigals had a respectable planetary claim on Sedna, but there was a small hiccup: to claim a planet every moon had to be visited. Toby was tasked with visiting a tiny hunk of rock further away than any others and in the course of journeying there the ship somehow flew off course.
When Toby woke he discovered he had been missing for 14,000 years. In that time the McGonigal family pioneered the Locksteps - a way of hibernating. Although many millennia had passed, in actuality only 40 years time had elapsed since Toby's family last saw him. And in that time Toby's younger siblings grew up...and proceeded to take control of the universe. An entire religion had formed around Toby's existence - and his prophesied return. This 17-year-old boy is the Emperor of Time and heir to an entire empire. What's worse: now that his siblings know he's alive they want him dead.
To cut to the chase, Lockstep was phenomenal! I was hooked from the very first page and loved every minute I spent in this strange new way of living. The people within the Lockstep 'winter over' - use special beds to freeze and hibernate - for thirty years at a time and then wake for a month before wintering over once more. Their entire existence relies on this method; trade has been expanded tenfold now that you can get there in what feels like overnight. However, it's also used as a form of punishment. Certain cities and planets are subject to other frequencies. They might live ten years while other planets have only seen two weeks. Entire families can be torn apart in the blink of an eye - Toby witnesses this firsthand with his own siblings. Peter and Evayne were just kids when he last saw them. Now they're in their 40s.
Let it be known that I am not a fan of math. No, sir. All these different frequencies started to gnaw on my brain and I had a difficult time wrapping my head around it - but that says more about my lackluster skills than it does about Lockstep. Another thing that confused me was how greatly technology advanced. Totally believable after 14,000 years, but 40..? Not so much. Also, there are hardly any of the 'original' colonists left. After only 40 years. But, again, my inability to understand falls on me, not the book.
Toby felt entirely believable and he was simply great. The secondary characters were spot-on too, but I have to say my favorites were the denners. Denners are little cat-like creatures that can act as a cicada bed - these little guys are fully capable of wintering over their owner and it's this ability that makes them a family of stowaways, criminals, and anyone else who opposes the McGonigals' iron fist. Although the denners can't speak, with special glasses (I kept picturing Google Glass), owners can see little icons and emoticons hover above their bodies.
For as much of an emphasis as their was on Toby's death threats, the climax was a bit anti-climatic. Things Happened and it was all very sitcom-y. I was expecting a giant intergalactic battle and it never came. Despite the Happy Family ending and my NUMBERS ARE HARD mentality, I enjoyed Lockstep! A lot. I'm actually pretty bummed out that it's now over! I'm not quite sure this book will work for the everyday reader, but if you're a fan of space operas and hard sci-fi, definitely check out this book!
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
3.5 stars: I was really enjoying this book until the last chapter...what a disappointing ending! I will say it took some math skills keeping up with parts of this book, too, which may deter some from reading it. And personally, the romance sub-plot was completely unnecessary and detracted from the story a little. But for hardcore sci-fi fans, this one is a pretty good choice anyway.
Fascinating concept: in order to marshall resources and be able to traverse great distances in a resource-poor outer solar system, people go into long bouts of hibernation, while they travel between worlds in the Kuiper Belt. Toby, a younger brother of the family that created this lockstep, wakes up and finds out that 14,000 years have passed, while for him no time as passed since he's been in hibernation. What his family has done in the meantime has turned him into a fugitive and also something of a god.
The concept behind the book is sharp and realistic. Schroeder has found a way to tell a family-based space opera that spans time and space without sacrificing realism (no faster than light travel here) and at the same time exploring a lot of the consequences of the technology and cultures he's devised. I found the actual storytelling a tad sluggish, it didn't pull me into it as deeply as I would have hoped, but it's still a very good read.
The concept behind the book is sharp and realistic. Schroeder has found a way to tell a family-based space opera that spans time and space without sacrificing realism (no faster than light travel here) and at the same time exploring a lot of the consequences of the technology and cultures he's devised. I found the actual storytelling a tad sluggish, it didn't pull me into it as deeply as I would have hoped, but it's still a very good read.
This book suffered from the "its a cool idea but it was executed so poorly I could throw something at a wall" pitfall. The idea of an advanced human civilization where we are able to maintain a large population by hibernating to provide sufficient time for resource growth and collection is an interesting one. However, this book executed this idea in a manner that was, at times, painful to read. Firstly, the character development is almost nonexistent. The only character that changes throughout the plot of the story is Toby and his personality change doesn't make any sense. He somehow manages to go from a kid who follows around complete strangers because he knows nothing about the civilization that he woke up into after 14,000 years to a kid who has the tactical military expertise to hold his own against his much more experienced sister. Secondly, none of the technology used within the story is ever explained. How do the hibernation pods work? Some vague explanation about fake organs. How do the denners interact with the fake organs in order to simulation a hibernation pod? I still don't know. How do the glasses he uses to access his computer game world, to interact with his denner, or to control other technology work? I again don't know. Thirdly, the reconciliation at the end of the book that occurred between some of the characters was so completely unrealistic that I actually couldn't believe that the author was going that route. There was so much violence and different experiences between the characters that the reconciliation made absolutely no sense