Stellaris Novel: Infinite Frontiers

[Tjordas]

I recently bought the E-Book set in the Stellaris universe in the last Paradox sale. I actually enjoyed reading it very much, although it was a bit short. People on the web seemed to have mixed opinions on the book, so I wanted to hear a few more thoughts from the Steam community.

Anyway, here's my review, for anyone who is interested (mild spoilers included):

Review

In my opinion, this was a really refreshing and intelligent novel, short and very dense in its progression, but for the most part not "rushed" or "sketchy" as some others called it.

The exposition follows a simple plot that is almost obvious from page one. On Unity, the first human extrasolar colony, resources are depleted and environmental damages irreversible. Set eons in the future, the inhabitants of Unity don't even remember Earth and the motivations of the first humans to colonize Unity, however the efforts and sacrifices needed to establish a new home are well-remembered. Therefore, Unity's inhabitants are divided about the question whether humanity should again seek their future in space, especially since many fear to draw the attention of far superior solar empires to their society. During these times of heated debate, the protagonist of the first section of the novel, Hayden Quinn, a so-called listener, receives an unintelligible signal from an empire far away. It could be the first hint to find a new habitable planet and so, after a failed first ark ship attempt, the second best of Unity gather in a low-budget one way trip to colonise a new Earth, following the ominous signal. From this point, the plot becomes more and more unexpected and new protagonists are introduced.

The fact that the narrative is told from the perspectives of nearly every major character - even from the point of view of AIs and aliens, makes it sometimes hard to identify with the protagonists. There are no lengthy descriptions of personalities and most characters don't even receive a proper background story, but this is exactly what makes this novel so refreshing. Political backgrounds, scientific details of space travel, character psychology, even love stories are just hinted at and the details need to be filled in by an experienced and imaginative sci-fi reader that would otherwise be bored by elements that make up almost every sci-fi novel and thus don't need to be narrated in detail anymore. Instead, the narration focusses on key elements of the plot and leaves the 'profanities' of space travel to our imagination. Only the last two chapters DO feel a bit rushed, although you might argue that at that point, all the interesting elements had already been told anyway.

Some criticise this novel for having no connection to the Stellaris game. In my opinion, there could have been no better way of doing it, considering there is no canonical story to Stellaris to begin with. The book mentions a few premade empires and travel methods you could know from Stellaris, but this is not the part that makes it interesting. The allusions to the game are there, but much more subtle, for example when the first signal of extraterrestrial origin is received and leads to panic and enthusiasm alike. An attentive player of the Stellaris games might remember this from some of the popup texts when you establish communication with your first other Empire hinting at exactly those reactions. The problem of ethics divergence and factions blocking the players decisions is expressed in a very vivid example seen in the extremist groups presented in the novel. Fallen empires, megastructures, debates about AIs, colony ships, and so on are all in the novel as well, but they are not pushed into the face of the reader. Instead, many elements that make the game what it is become an organic part of the novel and just don't need to be implicitly tagged as "Do you remember this from your game?!" by the narration. In fact, some of the plot elements of the novel are so essential to Stellaris you could easily roleplay them in your imagination during your next Stellaris session.

A few words of criticism, though. The author tends to include a lot of vague foreshadowing commentary in the style of "He would have thought differently, had he only seen it coming" or "They could not have been more wrong in their predictions". In my opinion, this is not only done in very blunt ways, but also extremely often to the point where it gets annoying. The narration style also often tends to be full of pathos making the narrator sound like an, excuse my wording, annoying wise♥♥♥♥♥ For a narration that thrives on leaving out unessential commentary, there are just too many instances of the narrator trying to draw overgeneralised truths and insights out of the plot, like e.g. the meaning of life, the human condition, the power of fear, good leadership, etc. I had to roll my eyes more than once when the narrator indulged in philosophical debates from time to time, not just because the points made were unconvincing or often just trivial, but because it simply missed the style of the otherwise very neutral and factual narration. And sometimes the narrator even combines foreshadowing and philosophical pathos into one, which I find very pretentious. As an example, let me just quote the first sentence of the novel without further commentary: "They called the planet Unity. Discord would have been more honest."

As a last point, let me mention that the depiction of the aliens in this book is indeed a bit sloppy. The same species is first depicted as one of animalistic predators using claws and teeth instead of weapons and armor, then another member of this very species is a calm and intellectual demigod with telepathic powers whose technological level is far beyond that of humans. And the few hints the narrations gives according to the physique of the aliens is all to much based on predators as we know them from Earth.

Still a good novel. I can only recommend it - it just takes a day or two to read it and it is very entertaining

[Steve]

I didn't like it as much

[Eelectrica]

I enjoyed it. Not the best ever but good enough.
7.5/10 maybe.

[DarkM4773r]

I've seen that it's a relatively short e-book. How many pages is it?

Edit: Nevermind, I used the few brain cells I've got left to Google it. 242 pages.