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Cluster is a series of science fiction novels by Piers Anthony. Anthony originally conceived of and wrote the series as a trilogy but later added two additional volumes.
Setting As the series opens, humanity has colonized an area of the galaxy roughly 100 light years in diameter. This area is called Sphere Sol, as it is the sphere of influence of the race from the star Sol, that is, the sun. Sphere Sol's "neighborhood" is also home to Spheres Polaris, Canopus, Spica, Andromeda, Nath, Mizriam, and Bellatrix as well as the huge, decadent Spheres Sador and Mintaka. In the Cluster setting, races colonize other planets in three ways. First, through instantaneous teleportation, called matter transmission or mattermission. This, however, is prohibitively expensive. Second, colonists travel to new worlds in "freezer" ships, where they are cryogenically stored for the decades it takes for the voyage. Half of those frozen are lost due to failures either of the containment units or the ships themselves. Finally, most colonists arrive in lifeships, slower but safer multigenerational vessels that may take centuries to reach their destination. As the lifeships plod through space, their occupants lose more and more technical sopistication as the years pass. In part due to this, and perhaps because colony worlds with small populations cannot support sophisticated social constructs, all spheres in the Cluster series suffer spherical regression. The farther a colony is from its home star, the less technology the inhabitants use, while the social order begins to resemble periods of the home planet's past. For instance, the inhabitants of Outworld, Sphere Sol's farthest colony, are paleolithic tribes. They hunt with flint spears and make fire, but their society has little technology beyond that level. Spherical regression does not create true copies of Earth or any world's past, however. Colonists know they are part of an interstellar empire, and they are aware of the technological and social differences on other planets. Furthermore, the home world mattermits some government and security personnel to all colony worlds. Therefore individual students of history can often use their knowledge of the home world's past to make their own planets more or less primitive than one would expect when simply calculating the distance from the home star. Kirlian transfer The central plot mechanism of the Cluster novels is that of transfer. Every living thing has a Kirlian aura that can be measured. Through transfer, the mind and personality of individuals with high aura can be sent to animate a body physically distant. For instance, a transferee living on Earth could be sent to Outworld and inhabit the body of one of that planet's stone-age tribesmen. Transfer is a refinement of mattermission technology, but because only the aura is transferred it is substantially less expensive. In the first three novels, the protagonists find themselves tranferring from alien body to alien body in order to combat threats from elsewhere in space. Thousandstar and Viscous Circle These later novels take place between Chaining the Lady and kirlian Quest. While the original Cluster trilogy tells epic stories of galactic scope, the later two books are smaller stories in the same setting. Instead of transferring to different worlds with each chapter, the protagonists spend almost the full novel on a single planet. See further details below. Relationship With Other Novels Anthony first conceived of the Cluster series when writing But What of Earth?, a speculative novel in which the government discovers the secret of mattermission, making interstellar colonization feasible. Earth? follows developments on humanity's home planet as its civilization and resources dwindle when half the population leaves for the colony worlds. The Cluster series takes place roughly 500 years further in the future and is in continuity with Anthony's original manuscript of Earth?, published in an annotated edition by Tor Books in 1989. The Cluster series is not necessarily consistent with the first published version of Earth?, the heavily reworked 1976 Laser Books edition credited to Anthony and Robert Coulson as collaborators. According to Anthony this was an unathorized collaboration. More detail can be found on Anthony's main page. After completing the original Cluster trilogy, Anthony returned to the earlier time frame. His three-volume Tarot series featured Brother Paul of the Holy Order of Vision, a major supporting character in Earth?, and is set some years after that earlier novel. At the same time Anthony wrote the two additional Cluster novels, Thousandstar and Viscous Circle. Series synopsis Cluster Also know as Vicinity Cluster in the UK. Premise Milky Way is divided into spheres, constituted by a central planetary system and other systems, either colonies or varied kinds of aggregates. Our solar system, called Sol, is the center of the backward Sphere Sol. Neighboring Spheres to Sol are: Polaris, Nath, Canopus, Spica and giant Sador. There was some technological interchange among spheres and inter sphere rules defined the limits of direct human colonization — 120 light-years' radius from Sol. Among all the spheres, the Kirlian aura, the essence of all living beings, is widely known and can be measured. It varies in intensity and detail with different individuals. Some have weak fields, some strong fields. Most are average. Those who have a strong field are good subjects for transfer of identity to another body. Sphere Sol lacked the technology to transfer identity from one body to another which is used in more advanced spheres. As the plot begins, the humans acknowledge the alien envoy Pnotl of Sphere Knyfh, which is about five thousand light-years in toward the center of the galaxy. Pnotl is embodied on a human body to enlist the cooperation of Sphere Sol in a mutual crisis of galactic proportion and he posses an intense Kirlian field of about 80 units, when ordinary people have 1 unit. Andromedans pose a threat to all inhabitants of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, by their project to steal our energy by transfer. We readers don't see the Andromedans directly, only their telegraphic messages appear in certain parts of the text. Because of this imminent danger, Knyfh and other Spheres seek a galactic coalition to unify the Spheres and utilize their maximum capabilities unless all of them may be destroyed. Sphere Knyfh offers the technology of Kirlian transfer in exchange for cooperation. Kirlian transfer is a millionth the effective cost of mattermission (transfer of a body). The Knyfhs need that all minor spheres patrol their own regions to multiply the effectiveness of resistance against Andromedans. Earthmen decide to bring the five higher Kirlian individuals from Sphere Sol and use them as agents against Andromeda. Story The text is permeated with mythological stories of the constellations and tarot references. Protagonist here is Flint of Outworld, a planet on the fringe of Sphere Sol, circling the star Etamin, one hundred and eight light-years distant. The farthest viable colony of Sol. Due to the effect of regression, Outworld is in a Paleolithic stone age stage of civilization. Flint has a Kirlian measure of 200, being the highest in the galaxy. He is also extremely intelligent and adapts quickly to new situations. He visits other spheres in his mission being chased all the times by a very high Kirlian female, counter-agent from Andromeda. Upon discovery of an archaeological site of the Ancients in the Pleiades, Flint and his allies from many spheres are able to recover partial information crucial to locating enemy agents before the whole place is blown. Flint ultimately mates with his nemesis, both transferred into Mintakan bodies. Viscous Circle | ||||||||
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