Terra Ignota is a quartet of science fiction and philosophical novels by the American author Ada Palmer. The series consists of Too Like the Lightning (2016), Seven Surrenders (2017), The Will to Battle (2017), and Perhaps the Stars (2021). After three centuries of a global near-utopia, a minor crime and a miracle child begin to unravel the social system and lead the world to technologically-advanced total war. The first three books cover the events leading up to the war and the final book covers the war itself. The novels have won several awards, including a 2017 Compton Crook Award.[1] The first novel was a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and the series as a whole was a finalist for the 2022 Hugo Award for Best Series.[2]
Set in the year 2454, the Earth of Terra Ignota has seen several centuries of near-total peace and prosperity. Technology is very advanced. Food can be synthesized. The workweek is 20 hours, but vocateurs, or vokers, voluntarily work much more because they love what they do. Everyone is publicly gender neutral, using they/them pronouns. Families are no longer nuclear, but are organized into co-housing collectives called bash'houses (from the Japanese i-basho, meaning 'home' but stronger). Religion is legally restricted to private counseling relationships or sanctuary reservations. Surveillance is universal; individuals are equipped with personal tracker devices which allow for telecommunication and record a person's whereabouts (as the name suggests), but these can be switched off. Criminals are sentenced to indentured servitude to repay their debt to society; there is no death penalty. This peace and plenty is delicately maintained by the relationships among a small cadre of world leaders.
However, there are still tensions among political groups, such as distribution of land, citizens, and income. The question of "set-sets", people whose nervous systems have been rewired to interface with computers, has caused riots in the recent past. Nurturists are people who believe that set-set creation is cruel and should be banned, since they are cultivated as non-consenting children and are not able to change, grow, or interface normally with life.
Following the invention of flying cars and a series of religious wars known as the Church Wars, the 22nd century saw the end of the geographic nation state. Replacing this was a series of Universal Laws and a group of Hives, non-geographical nations with voluntary citizenship. Each Hive has its own legal system, government, language, manner of dress, and capital city. By the year 2454, there are seven Hives, as well as three groups of Hiveless. All minors are Graylaw Hiveless until they pass their Adult Competency Exam and declare an allegiance.[3] Bash'houses can include people from multiple Hives or all from the same Hive.
| The Humanists | Buenos Aires | Spanish | Flexible-Constitution Democracy | Power is proportional to the amount of the vote received. For example, in times of crisis, power concentrates in a president, who might have more than half the voting power, whereas in more stable times it might be spread among a ruling council. Humanists believe in the power of individual achievement, and were formed by the merger of the sport-dedicated Olympic Hive and theater-dedicated World Stage. Humanists wear individualised boots, whose soles can imprint their individual signature on the ground when they step. Colors: Rainbow. | |
| The Cousins | Casablanca | English | Board of Trustees and Suggestion Box | Originally an international group of volunteers who provided welcoming accommodations to travelers, the Cousins continue to be a community of good Samaritans, their chair being responsible for the Servicer program, and their laws banning the use of recreational drugs and prostitution. Most are Nurturists who oppose the creation of set-sets. The poorest of the Hives.Cousins wear a wrap. Mycroft assigns all Cousins except Carlyle 'she' pronouns. Colors: Blue and white. | |
| Masonic Empire | Alexandria | Masonic neo-Latin[4] | Nonhereditary absolute monarchy | Legend says that the Masonic Empire is descended from Masonic lodges, and the air of mystery gives the Imperium an aura of strength. The successor is kept absolutely secret as is the Oath of Office. Each Emperor can add or change three words of the Oath during their reign.Masons wear suits, frequently with different coloured arms or armbands to symbolise status. | |
| Gordian | Ingolstadt | German | Brain Bash' and corporate Board | The Gordian corporation was named for the sword which cut through the mythical knot. It slowly merged with the Brillist Institute, an academic institution founded by revolutionary psychologist Adolf Richter Brill. The leadership of Gordian is chosen by the institute. Gordians wear sweaters with patterns that indicate their personality traits. Colors: Black, red, gold. | |
| Europe | Brussels | French | National Parliamentary Democracy | The EU of the series represents those who still value ethnic/national identity, even beyond the European continent. Colors: Blue and gold. | |
| Mitsubishi | Tōgenkyō (in Indonesia) | None (English) | Shareholder Democracy (Corporate Timocracy) | Mitsubishi members value land ownership, and are allocated additional shares based on ownership of land, apartments, or factories. The Greenpeace Hive controlled most of the world's wild areas before their merger with Mitsubishi. Indonesia was chosen as the location of the capital as a compromise between the Hive's three major nation-strats, Japan, Korea, and China. Mitsubishis wear clothing that changes with the season. Colors: Red, white, green. | |
| Utopia | Luna City (on the Moon) | None (English/U-speak) | Overlapping "Constellations" of working groups/teams | Full of genius vocateurs who invent things constantly, Utopia is the richest of the Hives.Utopians wear coats and visors of Griffincloth, a digital material that is programmed to display an alternative view of the world behind it based on the interests of the wearer; for example, as though the surroundings were a space station. When a Utopian dies every Utopian coat turns to static for as many seconds as the dead lost years. |
All the Hives and Hiveless participate in the global Universal Free Alliance Senate, headquartered in the world capital of Romanova. A large section of its Universal Law Code is presented in chapter five of The Will To Battle. The Senate is composed of two hundred Senators, including representatives from the Hiveless (who can veto) and Minors (who can speak but not vote).
The Senate can send Orders to Alliance departments including the court, the Sensayers' Conclave, the Censor's Office, the Commissioner General and their police, the Housing Board, and the Archive.
The Six-Hive Transport System is a global network of flying cars, the primary mode of transportation in the series. They are fast enough to circle the globe in less than 4.2 hours, made possible by Cartesian set-sets. Mukta was the prototype car made in 2073 and now resides in the Saneer-Weeksbooth home.
Utopia operates its own car system, separate to the primary one used in the series. The Utopian system is slightly slower than the primary one, but has 100% fewer accidents.
Since Hive citizenship is voluntary, it must also be possible to be a member of no hive. As such, there are a set of minimum laws that govern all humanity known as the Black Laws. These laws primarily prohibit actions that will result in significant loss of human life or destruction of natural resources, harm a minor, or deprive an individual of the ability to call for help via trackers. Blacklaw Tribunes, the representatives of those without a Hive, have a veto power on any new Black Laws proposed. An additional set of Consensus Laws, known as Gray Laws, reflect reasonable laws frequently recommended to preserve common peace, and ban destructive behaviours such as violence, theft, and exploitation. These laws apply to Minors and those without mental facilities to give informed consent to opt out. Above these is a set of Character Laws known as White Laws, which are used by those that believe that restrictive laws are conducive to moral behaviour, and ban recreational substances and violence, and certain sexual activities. Any adult not a member of a Hive can choose which set of laws they wish to follow and be protected by.
| Group | Capital City | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blacklaw Hiveless | Hobbestown | All humans must follow the eight Universal Laws. Blacklaw Hiveless choose to follow no more. Hobbestown also holds Eight Customs a.k.a. Natural Laws. Further, it's expected that before committing any serious action, a Blacklaw will consult the Rumormonger, who is the best informed person in the city, for advice.Blacklaws wear a black sash. | |
| Graylaw Hiveless | By default, all Minors are Graylaws until they pass their Adult Competency Exam and choose otherwise.Graylaws follow the Black Laws, plus an additional set of "Consensus Laws". Graylaws wear a gray sash. | ||
| Whitelaw Hiveless | Whitelaw Hiveless follow all Black Laws and Gray Laws, plus an additional set of "Characters Laws".Whitelaws wear a white sash. |
The series is science-fiction, but is written as a history and memoir, with significant sections of philosophical, religious, and political treatise.[5]
Each book starts with an in-fiction internal title page of authorizations, disclaimers and trigger warnings. Palmer explained in an interview that French books of the Ancien Régime period listed the authorities having approved them for censorship purposes, and that such lists provide insights as to the preoccupations and priorities of the society in which they were published.[6]
The majority of the chapters are written in a neo-Enlightenment style, because an influential in-fiction subculture has revived 18th century European clothing, society, and language. Palmer felt there is a particular "emotional experience" when one reads this kind of book, and so adopted the style herself, to further the revival of the eighteenth century in the futuristic world of the series. Palmer has stated that "a number of the major themes come from Enlightenment literature: whether humans have the ability to rationally remake their world for the better, whether gender and morality are artificial or innate, whether Providence is a useful way to understand the world and if so what ethics we can develop to go with it."[7] European philosophers such as Voltaire, Thomas Hobbes, and the Marquis de Sade are significant to the text and its characters. Additional influence can be felt from Greek epics such as The Iliad and The Odyssey, such as extended metaphor and Mycroft's own odyssey in the Mediterranean Sea during Perhaps the Stars.
The primary, and unreliable, narrator of the series is Mycroft Canner, a member of the Servicer program for convicted but paroled criminals. Many of the events are described from Mycroft's point of view, but he also describes some events that he was not directly present for, but which have been relayed to him by others, or which he witnessed through another character's tracker; he also admits to imagining some scenes, in keeping with the intimate narrative voice used throughout the novel.[8] There are occasional "interludes" by other narrators and sections which have been added by later in-universe editors and revisers, such as Sniper's chapter in Seven Surrenders. Beginning in the third book, Mycroft's grasp of reality significantly loosens and he begins to relay dialogue between himself, his imagined reader, and historical or fictional persons.
The novels make frequent direct addresses to a reader, inspired by Jacques the Fatalist from Diderot, which provides the epigraph, and other pieces of eighteenth-century literature. However, the "reader" is not the actual reader of the book, but an imagined in-universe reader whom Mycroft supposes is either his contemporary or someone in his future. Mycroft supplies the responses and objections of said reader. The final two books also feature dialogue with an imagined Thomas Hobbes. Similarly, the narrator makes frequent reference to his act of actually writing the book, and the scrutiny he is under from some other characters, who have apparently acted as editors and censors.
Many different languages are spoken throughout the course of the series. Most dialogue is usually rendered in English, but to indicate other languages, and other mediums of communication, various orthographic conventions are used. For the most part, different quotation marks are used for each language. To represent words spoken in Japanese, corner brackets 「 like this 」 are used, while French and Greek speech receive guillemets « like this ». Inverted question and exclamation marks ¡¿like this?! are used to distinguish speech in Spanish. German receives no special punctuation, but text that is translated from German preserves the rules of noun-capitalization of that language, "so the Text looks like this, with all the Nouns capitalized". Masonic Latin, as well as J.E.D.D. Mason's own variety, is often left untranslated, and italicized, but is usually followed by an English translation in brackets, supplied either by Mycroft or 9A. Despite these being the seven languages that Mycroft speaks, occasionally other languages do appear, and they have their own conventions: for instance, when a character speaks Hindi, the full stop is replaced by the Hindi poorna viraam ("।") (U+0964 "Devanagari Danda"). Set-sets communicate only via text seen through trackers, and their dialogue is enclosed in less-than and greater-than signs < like this >, with all text rendered in lower case letters. Other text appearing over trackers is also enclosed in less-than and greater-than signs, but with proper capitalization.
By default, almost all characters publicly use gender-neutral language, with "they/them" the predominant pronoun used. Mycroft, the primary narrator, finds his world's obsession with gender-neutrality oppressive, so often uses gendered pronouns to refer to other characters, assigning genders based on the characters' personalities and roles, rather than sex characteristics. For instance, Chagatai is a male referred to using 'she' pronouns because of their fierce, lioness-like strength when protecting their nephew from attack. The author has explained that Mycroft, an unreliable narrator, frequently "misuses" gendered pronouns, just as people in real life often make mistakes when using gender-neutral pronouns. Also, in its chapter at the start of Seven Surrenders, Sniper advises the reader to not "trust the gendered pronouns Mycroft gives people, they all come from Madame". Mycroft sometimes varies the gendered pronouns he gives characters. For instance, Carlyle Foster is mostly referred to using 'she' pronouns starting with Seven Surrenders, whereas in the first book Carlyle is referred to with 'he' pronouns.
(This article uses the pronouns that Mycroft uses, changing when he changes.)
See main article: Too Like the Lightning. Set in the year 2454, the novel is a fictional memoir written by self-confessed unreliable narrator Mycroft Canner, a brilliant, infamous, and paroled criminal who often serves the world's most powerful leaders. He has been commissioned by several other characters to write the "history" that the series is presented as. Mycroft frequents the Saneer-Weeksbooth home, in which an important stolen document has been planted. The mystery of why and by whom serves as a focal point which draws many different characters, vying for global power and peace, into involvement with the family. Meanwhile, Mycroft tries to protect and conceal a child named Bridger, who has the power to make the unreal real.
See main article: Seven Surrenders. Seven Surrenders describes the final three days of Mycroft's history of the "seven days of transformation", March 27–29, 2454. What began as an oddly obvious minor crime turns out to be a revenge plot thirty years in the making, which threatens to unravel the global system of government. The centuries-long golden era has been propped up by sanctioned assassinations, the death of a few for the good of the many. But as the Hives begin to fall, everyone will have to choose a side in a war with no limits.
See main article: The Will to Battle. The world is experiencing higher tensions, threatening to burst into war at any provocation. Sides are formed: Sniper's Hiveguard and J.E.D.D. Mason's Remakers. All sides agree to a truce until the Olympic Games in August, in order to prepare and reduce the lethality of the war. The novel ends with a ceremony, an attack, and the world newly at war.
See main article: Perhaps the Stars. The series finale covers the entire world war. At the start, trackers are disabled and the car system is no longer available. Violence begins as each faction starts to self-identify with uniforms. Beginning with the new Anonymous in Romanova, the war solidifies between the Remakers (who want the Prince to lead the world) and the Hiveguard (who don't). A sub-war between Brillist Gordian and Utopia for the future of humanity is exposed - should they focus on improving life on Earth or exploring space? Some major figures from the previous books appear and are killed. J.E.D.D. Mason eventually unites the world, ends the war, and builds a new global structure, more balanced and hopefully able to last many more centuries.
Note: This list is for the entire series. Some characters listed here do not appear in the earlier books. In order to avoid spoilers, this list's plot relevant details such as Hives or ranks are based on initial appearances of each character. Changes can be found in the character lists for the later books.
People who, either by choice or by youth, are not part of any Hive.
A dynastic Humanist bash' which invented the global flying-car system and has run it for almost 400 years. Their home and headquarters is in the "Spectacle City" of Cielo de Pájaros, Chile. The current members' parents and predecessors all recently died in a white-water rafting accident.
A bash' of virtuosos obsessed with war, each brilliant in their respective fields. Neighbors of Mycroft's foster bash' and the victims of his murder spree. All but one are deceased at the beginning of the narrative, but are often mentioned.
The worldbuilding process took five years, and was first inspired when Palmer heard the line in Romeo and Juliet that gives the first book its name. Palmer states that the original inspiration was for a structure involving the loss of something precious at the midpoint, and that the outline and worldbuilding grew out of that. The Mycroft character was developed after most of the other central characters, but before the plot.
Palmer found out that she had sold the story to Tor Books at San Antonio Worldcon 2013, five years after she had first submitted it. By the time the first manuscript had been sold, Palmer had written drafts for the second and third.[10]
NPR qualifies the book as "dense and complex" and the worldbuilding as a "thrilling feat", comparing with Gene Wolfe and Neal Stephenson worlds. The critic describes Too Like The Lighting as "one of the most maddening, majestic, ambitious novels – in any genre – in recent years" but deplores the abrupt ending.[11] The New York Review of Science Fiction compares the narrator with Alex from A Clockwork Orange.[12]
Paul Kincaid in Strange Horizons was disappointed by the gender treatment in Too Like the Lightning, deploring the direct abandon by the narrator, preferring the style in Ancillary Justice.[13] They consider the book concepts had the potential to be "one of the most significant works of contemporary science fiction" but fails to "[live] up to its aspirations".
Stuart Conover of Horror Tree felt that "'Perhaps the Stars' is a fitting conclusion to the Terra Ignota series. It ties up loose ends and provides a satisfying resolution to the story, while also leaving room for the reader to imagine what might happen next."[14]
Too Like the Lightning was a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel,[15] and won the 2017 Compton Crook Award for the best first novel in the genre published during the previous year.[16] The series as a whole was a finalist for the 2022 Hugo Award for Best Series.