Schismatrix

Infobox Book |
name = Schismatrix


image_caption = Cover of first edition (hardcover)
author = Bruce Sterling
cover_artist = Ron Walotsky
country = United States
language = English
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = Arbor House Publishing Company
release_date = June 1985
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 288 pp (Hardcover)
isbn = ISBN 0-87795-645-6

"Schismatrix" (Pron-en|skɪˈzmætrɪks"Schismatrix Plus", 1995, page viii.] ) is a science fiction novel by Bruce Sterling, originally published in 1985. The story was Sterling's only novel-length treatment of the Shaper/Mechanist universe. Five short stories preceded the novel. "Schismatrix" was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1985.

Plot summary

The main character, Abelard Lindsay, is born in the ancient lunar colony "Mare Serenitatis Circumlunar Corporate Republic", into a family of aristocratic Mechanists, but after being sent to the Shaper’s Ring Council, he receives specialized and experimental diplomatic training and gives his loyalty to the Shapers' cause. He, his best friend and fellow Shaper protege Philip Constantine and the beautiful and passionate Preservationist Vera Kelland lead an insurgency against the rulers of the republic, who use Mechanist technology to prolong their lives. The three of them influence the younger generation towards the Shapers' cause in their pursuit of Preservationism, a movement devoted to the preservation of earth-bound human culture. Kelland and Lindsay agree to kill themselves as a political statement, but Lindsay reneges on his suicide pact after Kelland is dead. Constantine attempts to kill Lindsay but instead kills a Mechanist, creating a scandal.

Constantine is allowed to remain in the Republic because his knowledge is needed to keep the Republic's environment from self-destructing but Lindsay is exiled to the "Mare Tranquilitatis Circumlunar People's Zaibatsu". This lunar colony, which collapsed due to an environmental crisis, has become a refuge for "sundogs", criminals, dissidents and wanderers. There he meets Kitsune, a woman modified by the Shapers to be an ideal prostitute. Apparently a servant of the "Geisha Bank", a powerful money center, she in fact rules the bank through the remotely operated body of her now brain-dead predecessor. In his months on the Zaibatsu, Lindsay uses his diplomatic talents to organize a complex fraud involving a fictitious theatrical event and befriends an old Mechanist, Fyodor Ryumin. However, eventually the fraud takes on a life of its own, and the new-formed "Kabuki Intrasolar" becomes a legitimate artistic and business venture. Lindsay can't remain to enjoy the profits, though: Constantine has in the meantime overthrown the Corporate Republic's government. Constantine has abandoned Preservationism to become a Shaper militant, and sends an assassin to present a stark choice: become Constantine's pawn or be killed by the assassin. Lindsay manages to escape with a group of Mechanist pirates, in the process aiding Kitsune to take power of the Geisha Bank openly.

Lindsay joins a ship called the "Red Consensus", which doubles as the nation-state of the "Fortuna Miners' Democracy", after the failure of the previously independent asteroid-mining Mechanist cartel. The FMD, financed by more wealthy Mechanists cartels, annexes the asteroid "Esairs XII", home to the Mavrides family, a small shaper clan. Lindsay meets Nora Mavrides, a fellow diplomat. Nora informs Abelard that the subjects of the diplomatic training are in disgrace due to the high incidents of treason and defection from their ranks. The two of them work to promote peaceful coexistence between the Shaper militants and the Mechanist pirates, but after several months of conflict, espionage, murders and sabotages, open fighting breaks out. Mavrides and Lindsay, now lovers, eventually murder their companions to save one another. Before the asteroid's life system dies from the battle, the alien "Investors" arrive.

Peace finally comes to the Schismatrix after the aliens arrive. The alien Investors are obsessed with trade and wealth, and at first encourage humanity to focus on business instead of war. Trade flourishes and the Shapers and Mechanists put their differences aside. Lindsay and Mavrides become powerful Shaper leaders, thanks to their early contact with the Investors. The "Investor Peace" does not last forever, though, and tensions between Shapers and Mechanists eventually start to rise when the Investors play the factions against one another. Ultimately Philip Constantine rises to power and takes control of the Ring Council, ousting Mavride's and Lindsay's pro-détente faction. Lindsay runs away from what he sees as a hopeless battle, but Nora decides to stay in the Rings, where they had built their lives and family, to fight Constantine and his militant government.

Lindsay escapes to the Mechanist cartels in the asteroid belt, where Kitsune has again secretly taken power. There Lindsay works ceaselessly for decades to bring about the detente he believes will reunite him with Mavrides. Using a recording of an Investor's ship queen involved in some taboo activities to blackmail the alien, Lindsay contributes to the creation of Cicada Kluster, neither Shaper nor Mechanist, which quickly becomes one of the richest and most powerful states in the solar system. Lindsay's partner, Wellspring, plans to use the colony to promote his post-humanist ideology, while Lindsay himself seeks to bring Nora to the new colony. However, Constantine discovers Mavride's plan to defect and forces her to kill herself. Consumed with hatred, Lindsay for the first time confronts his former friend directly, arranging a duel with him using an ancient alien artifact called the Arena. While Lindsay wins, the Arena leaves both him and Constantine catatonic.

Years after the duel, Lindsay wakes up on his old home, now renamed the "Neotenic Cultural Republic". Constantine's militant Shaperism has been replaced by a Preservationist government, dedicated to remaining a cultural preserve where normal, unmodified human life is preserved. As part of the treatment that restored Lindsay's mind, his original Shaper diplomatic training has been removed. Having returned to a Preservationist world, and now restored to a fully human state, Lindsay decides to break with his past and embrace new dreams. He becomes a post-humanist and returns to Cicada Kluster to work with Wellspring. While Wellspring seeks to terraform Mars, Lindsay attempts to create an abyssal ecology on Europa. Constantine's Shaper family has been disgraced by Constantine's defeat, and Lindsay manages to convert them to his cause, even Constantine's "daughter" Vera (created from DNA taken from Vera Kelland decades before). As time goes on, eventually Cicada Kluster, in its turn, faces social collapse. With his Lifesiders faction's research still in its infancy, Lindsay and Vera Constantine secretly break the Interdict and bring back samples of Earth's abyssal life, providing the breakthroughs that make the Europa project a success.

As the Lifesiders transform themselves into fish-like forms capable of survival in Europa's oceans, Lindsay visits the now-cured Phillip Constantine. Constantine believes that Lindsay will never see Europa, that he will leave in the end rather than see his cause through to fruition, just as he always had. He also reveals that Vera's DNA comes as much from Lindsay as Vera. Phillip reconciles with Abelard, then commits suicide.

When Lindsay returns to Europa, he finds that Phillip is right-- he can't bring himself to undergo the transformation. At that moment, an alien Presence, who had followed Vera Constantine since her mission in an alien embassy, reveals itself. The being explains that it has been devoted to exploring and exulting in the variety of experiences of the universe, and invites Lindsay to join it. Lindsay accepts and is transformed into a bodiless form, to explore the infinite mysteries of the universe for eternity.

Characters in "Schismatrix"

* Alexandrina: Lindsay’s first wife. An aristocratic Mechanist much older than him.
* Abelard Malcolm Tyler Lindsay: Born a Mechanist, he trains with the Shapers and defects to their side. He is a smooth talking Sundog who cannot stay in one place for long.
* Vera Kelland: Aristocrat who also trained with Lindsay and Constantine. She commits suicide in an attempt to defy the aristocratic Republic that she and Lindsay come from.
* Philip Khouri Constantine: Former friend of Lindsay. Becomes obsessed with obtaining power and tries to bring power to the Shapers through radical means.
* Kitsune: Head of the Geisha Bank. Becomes an entire ecosystem that consists entirely of her skin and body parts.
* Nora Mavrides: Lindsay’s second wife. She believes deeply in the Shaper cause and chooses to fight the Mechanists when they begin to attack her state even when the situation is hopeless.
* Vera Constantine: Shaper daughter of Philip Constantine, cloned from genetic material of Vera Kelland.
* Investors: Massive reptilian-esque aliens, interstellar traders who closely guard the secret of their starflight. Charge excessive fares for 'humanity' to travel to other star systems to visit and study the nineteen known alien species.

Vocabulary

*Shapers: Group that alters the body through genetic modification and specialized mental training. They originate from the colonies orbiting Jupiter and Saturn.
*Mechanists: Group that modifies bodies through computer software and external alterations. The Mechanists have been at war with the Shapers for decades, fighting over whose technology is more powerful and efficient. They originate from the asteroid belt's colonies.
*Investors: Dinosaur-like aliens obsessed exclusively with money and wealth.
*Moondocks: A derisive nickname for the Circumlunar habitats which were the first centers of life in space. They are now considered obsolete relics.
*Schismatrix: the system that includes the entire Shaper/Mechanist universe. The term is meant to encompass the myriad modes of human existence, from cybernetics to genetic modifications.
*Sundog: Someone who lives a nomadic existence on the edge of the law. Some are sundogs by choice, some have the life forced on them through political exile or economic ruin.
*Wirehead: A person who ignores or has abandoned his physical body in favor of permanent virtual reality.
*Lobster: A mechanist faction which permanently installs their bodies into spacesuits so that they can live in the vacuum of space.
*Looks: A language of facial expressions. To an untrained observer, they appear to be an endless series of sidelong glances.
*Geneline: A political family structure used by Shapers. Genelines trade genetic material, power, money and influence with one another as part of the subtle interplay of Shaper politics.
*Unplanned: A Shaper epithet for humans born naturally. Typically, such beings are unmodified genetically-- but all such people are considered inferior.

Ideologies

*Preservationism: Contends that technology is destroying the essence of humanity. Places strict limits on anti-human technologies, advocates study of human art and history, and even for some the end of the Interdict with Earth.
*Detente: Belief that in the face of alien contact that humanity should present a united front. Followers of detente called for increased cooperation and contact between Shapers and Mechanists. Detente ended with renewed war and the rise of the Cataclysts.
*Militarism: Belief that one's own faction must be advanced by any means necessary, especially force. Typically this was the viewpoint that drove the wars between Shapers and Mechanists, driven by each factions' innate view of its superiority.
*Cataclysm: This ideology was first promulgated by the Superbrights. It demanded an end to artificial social controls and destruction of authority. Eventually devolved into terrorism and resulted in lingering animosity towards the Superbrights.
*Zen Serotonin: Zen Serotonin centered on the destructive effects of rapid technological advance. It demanded restrictions on technological advance and greater emphasis on social order. Followers of the Unmovement (as they sometimes called it) wore biomonitors that artificially maintained a sense of serene calm.
*Galacticism: A belief that mere loyalty to species was obsolete, and worked for faster than light technologies, interstellar colonization and increased contact with aliens. While not inherently militant, the resources required to pursue these goals demanded major faction support and so indirectly increased militarism as Shaper and Mechanist Galacticists competed with one another.
*Post-Humanism: Post-humanists believe in Prigogenic Levels of Complexity and its surrounding philosophy and science. Sterling only hints at many of the tenets of post-humanism, but a key goal of post-humanists is terraforming, which they consider to be a primal duty of intelligent beings. Post-humanists are supporters of detente. Wellspring is a key ideologue for the post-humanist philosophy.

References