[extropy-chat] another moderately Spikish novel

[Damien Broderick]

http://www.sfsite.com/06a/nh177.htm

Natural History
Justina Robson
Pan Macmillan, 393 pages

A review by <mailto:martin at theculture.org?subject=Natural History>Martin 
<mailto:martin at theculture.org?subject=Natural History>Lewis
We've grown used to thinking of ourselves as the pinnacle of evolution but, 
in the future Justina Robson envisions in Natural History, the massed ranks 
of humanity find themselves the Unevolved. No longer the greatest ape, they 
are mere Monkeys. Or so the Forged would have them believe.

The Forged are still human, at least technically, but they are also 
unequivocally other. Many are animal based: arachnids, hive-minded 
insectoids or avians (like viewpoint character Roc Handslicer Corvax). 
Others are vast spaceships. Between these are hybrids like the shuttle 
Ironhorse AnimaMekTek Aurora, "a smooth blue oval with a long, graceful 
tail like a gigantic airborne manta ray", and beyond even this are the 
Gaiaforms, unimaginably vast creatures who have rendered the Moon and Mars 
habitable. [etc]