Implied Spaces, by Walter Jon Williams

Implied Spaces
Walter Jon Williams
Night Shade Books: 2008

Opening as a fairly typical fantasy novel, Implied Spaces is anything but. Aristide is introduced to readers as a wanderer, a scholar and poet carrying a broadsword named Tecmessa. During the first three chapters Aristide battles bandits, trolls, magician-priests, and swings his magic sword. Implied Spaces is not a fantasy.

Technology has advanced so far that entire worlds can be created and are created for all sorts of purposes. The world of Midgarth is a pre-technological world that has developed into something of a fantasy-adventure-world. Aristide is, in fact, a scholar. He studies what he called the "implied spaces."

"The point is, the architect didn't say to himself, 'I think I'll put up four squinches.' What he said is, 'I want a dome, and the dome needs to be supported, so I'll support it with arches.' The squinches were an accident implied by the architect's other decisions. They were implied. pg 48

This is what is meant by "implied spaces". Aristide was on Midgarth to study what was unintentionally created, what was implied during the creation of Midgarth. The desert Aristide adventured in during the first three chapters of Implied Spaces was itself an implied space created because of the other designs of Midgarth.

The scholarly investigation of Midgarth is only the stepping off point for Implied Spaces as Walter Jon Williams expands his story and builds towards a war which could possibly mean the end of civilization. Implied Spaces contains pod-people, mind control, zombie viruses, interstellar war, artificial inteligences, worm-holes through space, philosophy, poetry, and more.

Outside of the "magic" sword, the opening fantasy section of Implied Spaces is not enough of a hook to grab readers and compel them to keep reading. However, once chapter four begins and the reader has the chance to get a grasp on what the real story of Implied Spaces is, the novel takes off.

Implied Spaces is, even in the science fiction elements of the story, an initially confusing novel. The deeper the reader gets, the more compelling the novel. What is most fascinating about Implied Spaces is the "world" itself, or perhaps the universe. The history of the humanity, the various plagues and wars, the still enslaved AIs which permit technology to advance the way it has, all of this together allows Williams to tell a story about unintended consequences.

Implied Spaces is not a perfect novel and at some level it fails to grip or engage at quite the level that the best science fiction does. Implied Spaces entertains and informs, it gives the reader something to think about with clear storytelling. It is a good novel. Implied Spaces falls more in the realm of science-fiction-fantasy with impossibilities, and happily does not overwhelm with too much hard science fiction, the kind that numbs the mind. Implied Spaces is not enough to compel me to seek out more from Walter Jon Williams, but it is still a good read.


Reading copy provided courtesy of Night Shade Books.

Quick Takes: Elizabeth Bear, Orson Scott Card, Walter Jon Williams

Hammered, by Elizabeth Bear: I saw a listing of Space Opera novels that had Elizabeth Bear’s Jenny Casey trilogy on it. As I read Hammered I couldn’t figure out how this could be until I got to the very end. Jenny Casey is an ex elite soldier for the Canadian military. She has served in many of the world’s hot spots and in this future setting, the locations are not what you’d expect. The United States has mostly crumbled and Hartford is a bad town to be in, New York is far worse. Jenny is a 50 year old woman who has had cyborg parts for the last thirty years as a result of her military career. She is worn down, broken down, and in pain. She was trying to live her life quietly and off the grid when she starts to get pulled back in by the military she thought she left behind and by the mean streets of Hartford. Having read Bear’s two Promethean Age novels I can see how she has developed from Hammered, her debut. Hammered is a strong story, interesting, but choppy in how it jumps from scene to scene and I initially had a difficult time figuring out who some people were and how they connected. By the end it made a bit more sense, but Hammered was a bit of work to get through. I hope / expect that Scardown will be a stronger effort than Hammered, but this early Bear novel is still good, but because I know that Bear gets better Hammered wasn’t the thrill I had hoped. I think this is being a little unfair to Hammered, though. After all, on the strength of the three Jenny Casey novels Bear was awarded the Campbell for Best New Writer.



A War of Gifts, by Orson Scott Card: This novella is Card’s Ender Wiggin Christmas story. If you think about it, this is a little bit weird because the story is set in the military academy setting of Battle School, but it works because with Battle School there is to be no religious expression. Battle School needs to bring the kids together and religion is a way to divide. The story seems to be directed through the eyes of a child of an ultra orthodox Christian family from the United States who is very isolated in Battle School and becomes further isolated when he reports other students for celebrating Christmas. By the end of this Christmas story everything is turned about with a heart warming, but not at all sappy conclusion. I wish that more of Card’s fiction was this solid. Since he started telling Bean’s side of the story Card’s Ender-verse has been going downhill fast and A War of Gifts is a very pleasant surprise.



Destiny’s Way, by Walter Jon Williams: Coming off of Matthew Stover’s excellent Traitor, this New Jedi Order novel starts pulling the various threads together. Jacen, Jaina, and the Solo family are reunited, the New Republic begins to find a way to fight back, Vergere gets some more face time, and we learn a bit about the origins of how and why the Vong have invaded the known galaxy. I was hesitant about this one because I worry about any Star Wars author I am not familiar with. Walter Jon Williams knocked this one out. There are only five novels left in the New Jedi Order series (out of 19).