Fallen Dragon
Encyclopedia
Fallen Dragon is a science fiction
novel
by Peter F. Hamilton
. It was first published in 2001 by Macmillan
. It follows the adventures of the mercenary
Lawrence Newton as he attempts to capture what he believes is a fabulous treasure, only to find something of much greater importance.
space travel was discovered, allowing a speed of one-half of a light-year
per day. This led to a series of colonization efforts in a globe about 70 light years around Earth
, but these ended as their costs proved prohibitive. The only major ongoing starflight efforts are carried out by the Zantiu-Braun megacorporation, who use their fleet of starships to periodically plunder their colonies in what they call "asset realization" raids, typically involving military occupation of the planet in question. As it is cheaper to copy technology than ship it, these efforts normally collect single samples of interesting goods, or raw materials that are expensive on Earth. Zantiu-Braun is controlled by clones
of Simon Roderick, who is motivated by the idea of uplifting the entire human race to his ideal.
The story mainly follows the life of Lawrence Newton from the colony planet Amethi, both in the current time and in a series of flashbacks. In the current time, Newton is a mercenary in the Zantiu-Braun asset realization forces, who leads a squad of "skins", troopers wearing organic
armour suits that render them practically invulnerable. Through a series of flashbacks we learn how Newton came to be in the Zantiu-Braun.
As a teenager, Newton lived on the planet Amethi and is the oldest son of one of the most powerful members of the board of the corporation which controls the planet. Lawrence dreams about being a starship pilot despite being told by his father that starship exploration is finished. Lawrence loses interest in school work and withdraws socially. His father takes him to a holiday resort, where a gorgeous girl named Roselyn breaks through Lawrence's isolation, and the two develop a passionate relationship. Never having given up on his dream, as he prepares to tell his father of his decision to leave school he overhears him mentioning that Roselyn was paid to meet him. He decides to leave Amethi immediately, and avoids detection by his father through the use of an advanced artificial intelligence
called "Prime", given to him by a friend, Vinnie. Newton makes it to Earth and scores well on the Zantiu-Braun entrance exams, but lacking any shares in the company he is limited in the jobs available him, and chooses a career as a soldier. As a soldier, Newton takes part on two missions of note, which are told over a series of short vignettes
.
The first is on the planet Thallspring, which is fairly Earth-like. Newton is stationed in the village Arnoon, and during his time there he stops his squad-mates from gang-raping one of the villagers. Throughout his stay, Newton is bothered by something odd about the village, which seems to have a quality of living that is well beyond what one would expect given the surroundings. He is convinced they are hiding something, but can't find out what it is.
On the planet Santa Chico, where the original founders modified
themselves at a genetic level to coexist with the planet's biota
, the mission goes disastrously wrong. As the colonists are no longer fully human, and Zantiu-Braun's soldiers have trouble communicating with them, being unable to fully comprehend their new lifestyle. The civilization has little in the way of centralized industry or anything of value to Earth, and remains extremely hostile to the Zantiu-Braun forces, using their biological augmentations to inflict severe casualties on the asset realization force. They eventually destroy their own moon in order to create a Kessler syndrome
that will make further trips to the planet too expensive to contemplate. Newton concludes that the asset realization concept is no longer workable; the technology levels of the colony planets are growing so quickly that future missions will be too dangerous to be worthwhile.
But it is this mission that apparently solves the mystery of Arnoon. Arnoon had, in plain sight, alien plants living on unsterilized soil bearing edible fruits. This would be impossible for Thallspring technology to create, and he concludes it was provided by Santa Chico geneticists. Lawrence plans to "realize" their unknown wealth for himself, using it to buy his way back to Amethi. When he learns of another mission to Thallspring, he ensures his team is part of the contingent.
In the time since the first mission, Thallspring has advanced greatly. A small group has formed an effective resistance movement in preparation for the next asset realization mission, led by Denise Ebourn from Arnoon. As a cover, Denise works in a kindergarten, where she tells the kids supposedly fictional stories about an ancient alien galaxy-wide civilization and an alien prince named Mozark. Denise uses an advanced alien intelligence known as "Prime" to enhance herself, her resistance cell mates, and the lives of the villagers in Arnoon. When the mission arrives, her team uses Prime to sabotage the Zantiu-Braun efforts with some effect. However, Newton also has Prime, and uses it to return to Arnoon in search of its treasure. As Denise learns that Lawrence is headed for Arnoon village she races to intercept him.
A violent confrontation takes place between Lawrence's platoon and a group of Arnoon villagers, ending with a wounded Lawrence staggering alone towards Arnoon village. When he gets there his Skin suit is spent, and he is near death. The villagers, one of whom (Denise's sister) is the girl he saved from being raped, revives him. They reveal that their wealth comes from a damaged alien dragon with greatly advanced technological knowledge such as the nanotechnology used to enhance the resistance movement. The dragon is a spaceliving creature, and as such is nothing but immobile electronics on the planet surface. To repay the dragon for its help, the villagers plan to use steal one of Zantiu-Braun's starships to travel to a red sun
, where the dragon says its species lives.
Lawrence decides to join them, and helps them to hijack a spaceship. But they are followed by a damaged Simon Roderick clone, who is determined to use all means to capture the technology for himself, not even trusting his clone brothers. Another Simon Roderick clone follows, to get the technology and to stop his clone brother from doing something disastrous. When Denise and Lawrence arrive at the red star they quickly find the dragons, millions of kilometer-sized creatures. They learn that the dragons are a disengaged race who do nothing but amass knowledge, sharing it freely with others. The Arnoon dragon was simply a seed, one out of billions, and no more important to them than a single sperm cell
is to humans. By using their early arrival, Denise and Lawrence convince the red star dragon to disable the damaged Simon Roderick's ship. The dragon civilization gives their patternform construction knowledge to Lawrence, Denise and to the last Simon Roderick, in an agreement arranged by Denise and Lawrence that the knowledge be shared freely on Earth, and not monopolized by Zantiu-Braun.
Lawrence uses the technology to construct the spaceship he has wanted since he was a teenager. He flies back in time through an ancient time portal, mentioned in Denise's kindergarten story, and then travels to Amethi. There he uses the technology to transform into Vinnie, one of young Lawrence's closest friends. After giving young Lawrence the Prime program so he can travel to Earth, "Vinnie" changes into young Lawrence, and goes to make up with Roselyn.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Peter F. Hamilton
Peter F. Hamilton
Peter F. Hamilton is a British author. He is best known for writing space opera. As of the publication of his tenth novel in 2004, his works had sold over two million copies worldwide.- Biography :...
. It was first published in 2001 by Macmillan
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
. It follows the adventures of the mercenary
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
Lawrence Newton as he attempts to capture what he believes is a fabulous treasure, only to find something of much greater importance.
Synopsis
Fallen Dragon takes place during the 24th century. In the preceding centuries, a means of Faster-than-light (FTL)Faster-than-light
Faster-than-light communications and travel refer to the propagation of information or matter faster than the speed of light....
space travel was discovered, allowing a speed of one-half of a light-year
Light-year
A light-year, also light year or lightyear is a unit of length, equal to just under 10 trillion kilometres...
per day. This led to a series of colonization efforts in a globe about 70 light years around Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
, but these ended as their costs proved prohibitive. The only major ongoing starflight efforts are carried out by the Zantiu-Braun megacorporation, who use their fleet of starships to periodically plunder their colonies in what they call "asset realization" raids, typically involving military occupation of the planet in question. As it is cheaper to copy technology than ship it, these efforts normally collect single samples of interesting goods, or raw materials that are expensive on Earth. Zantiu-Braun is controlled by clones
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
of Simon Roderick, who is motivated by the idea of uplifting the entire human race to his ideal.
The story mainly follows the life of Lawrence Newton from the colony planet Amethi, both in the current time and in a series of flashbacks. In the current time, Newton is a mercenary in the Zantiu-Braun asset realization forces, who leads a squad of "skins", troopers wearing organic
Biotechnology
Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...
armour suits that render them practically invulnerable. Through a series of flashbacks we learn how Newton came to be in the Zantiu-Braun.
As a teenager, Newton lived on the planet Amethi and is the oldest son of one of the most powerful members of the board of the corporation which controls the planet. Lawrence dreams about being a starship pilot despite being told by his father that starship exploration is finished. Lawrence loses interest in school work and withdraws socially. His father takes him to a holiday resort, where a gorgeous girl named Roselyn breaks through Lawrence's isolation, and the two develop a passionate relationship. Never having given up on his dream, as he prepares to tell his father of his decision to leave school he overhears him mentioning that Roselyn was paid to meet him. He decides to leave Amethi immediately, and avoids detection by his father through the use of an advanced artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
called "Prime", given to him by a friend, Vinnie. Newton makes it to Earth and scores well on the Zantiu-Braun entrance exams, but lacking any shares in the company he is limited in the jobs available him, and chooses a career as a soldier. As a soldier, Newton takes part on two missions of note, which are told over a series of short vignettes
Vignette (literature)
In theatrical script writing, sketch stories, and poetry, a vignette is a short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a trenchant impression about a character, an idea, or a setting and sometimes an object...
.
The first is on the planet Thallspring, which is fairly Earth-like. Newton is stationed in the village Arnoon, and during his time there he stops his squad-mates from gang-raping one of the villagers. Throughout his stay, Newton is bothered by something odd about the village, which seems to have a quality of living that is well beyond what one would expect given the surroundings. He is convinced they are hiding something, but can't find out what it is.
On the planet Santa Chico, where the original founders modified
Pantropy
Pantropy is a hypothetical process of space colonization in which rather than terraforming other planets or building space habitats suitable for human habitation, humans are modified to be able to thrive in the existing environment...
themselves at a genetic level to coexist with the planet's biota
Biota
Biota may refer to:* Biota , the plant and animal life of a region* Biota , a superdomain in taxonomy* Biota , an evergreen coniferous tree, Platycladus orientalis* Biota , an avant-prog band from Colorado, USA...
, the mission goes disastrously wrong. As the colonists are no longer fully human, and Zantiu-Braun's soldiers have trouble communicating with them, being unable to fully comprehend their new lifestyle. The civilization has little in the way of centralized industry or anything of value to Earth, and remains extremely hostile to the Zantiu-Braun forces, using their biological augmentations to inflict severe casualties on the asset realization force. They eventually destroy their own moon in order to create a Kessler syndrome
Kessler syndrome
The Kessler syndrome , proposed by NASA scientist Donald J...
that will make further trips to the planet too expensive to contemplate. Newton concludes that the asset realization concept is no longer workable; the technology levels of the colony planets are growing so quickly that future missions will be too dangerous to be worthwhile.
But it is this mission that apparently solves the mystery of Arnoon. Arnoon had, in plain sight, alien plants living on unsterilized soil bearing edible fruits. This would be impossible for Thallspring technology to create, and he concludes it was provided by Santa Chico geneticists. Lawrence plans to "realize" their unknown wealth for himself, using it to buy his way back to Amethi. When he learns of another mission to Thallspring, he ensures his team is part of the contingent.
In the time since the first mission, Thallspring has advanced greatly. A small group has formed an effective resistance movement in preparation for the next asset realization mission, led by Denise Ebourn from Arnoon. As a cover, Denise works in a kindergarten, where she tells the kids supposedly fictional stories about an ancient alien galaxy-wide civilization and an alien prince named Mozark. Denise uses an advanced alien intelligence known as "Prime" to enhance herself, her resistance cell mates, and the lives of the villagers in Arnoon. When the mission arrives, her team uses Prime to sabotage the Zantiu-Braun efforts with some effect. However, Newton also has Prime, and uses it to return to Arnoon in search of its treasure. As Denise learns that Lawrence is headed for Arnoon village she races to intercept him.
A violent confrontation takes place between Lawrence's platoon and a group of Arnoon villagers, ending with a wounded Lawrence staggering alone towards Arnoon village. When he gets there his Skin suit is spent, and he is near death. The villagers, one of whom (Denise's sister) is the girl he saved from being raped, revives him. They reveal that their wealth comes from a damaged alien dragon with greatly advanced technological knowledge such as the nanotechnology used to enhance the resistance movement. The dragon is a spaceliving creature, and as such is nothing but immobile electronics on the planet surface. To repay the dragon for its help, the villagers plan to use steal one of Zantiu-Braun's starships to travel to a red sun
Red giant
A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass in a late phase of stellar evolution. The outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius immense and the surface temperature low, somewhere from 5,000 K and lower...
, where the dragon says its species lives.
Lawrence decides to join them, and helps them to hijack a spaceship. But they are followed by a damaged Simon Roderick clone, who is determined to use all means to capture the technology for himself, not even trusting his clone brothers. Another Simon Roderick clone follows, to get the technology and to stop his clone brother from doing something disastrous. When Denise and Lawrence arrive at the red star they quickly find the dragons, millions of kilometer-sized creatures. They learn that the dragons are a disengaged race who do nothing but amass knowledge, sharing it freely with others. The Arnoon dragon was simply a seed, one out of billions, and no more important to them than a single sperm cell
Sperm
The term sperm is derived from the Greek word sperma and refers to the male reproductive cells. In the types of sexual reproduction known as anisogamy and oogamy, there is a marked difference in the size of the gametes with the smaller one being termed the "male" or sperm cell...
is to humans. By using their early arrival, Denise and Lawrence convince the red star dragon to disable the damaged Simon Roderick's ship. The dragon civilization gives their patternform construction knowledge to Lawrence, Denise and to the last Simon Roderick, in an agreement arranged by Denise and Lawrence that the knowledge be shared freely on Earth, and not monopolized by Zantiu-Braun.
Lawrence uses the technology to construct the spaceship he has wanted since he was a teenager. He flies back in time through an ancient time portal, mentioned in Denise's kindergarten story, and then travels to Amethi. There he uses the technology to transform into Vinnie, one of young Lawrence's closest friends. After giving young Lawrence the Prime program so he can travel to Earth, "Vinnie" changes into young Lawrence, and goes to make up with Roselyn.
Storytelling format
The book has four separate story threads. The threads are told in parallel in the book, merging at the end.- Young Lawrence Newton's life on Amethi and becoming a Zantiu-Braun squaddie sergeant.
- Adult Lawrence Newton's life as a Zantiu-Braun squaddie sergeant preparing for the asset realization expedition to Thallspring.
- Denise Ebourn from Arnoon village and her resistance group's preparation for and battle against the Thallspring asset realization expedition.
- The alien prince Mozark's journey in the galaxy-wide Ring Empire, a story told by Denise Ebourn to the kindergarten children.