The Tropic of Eternity Read online

  PRAISE FOR THE AMARANTHINE SPECTRUM

  Praise for The Promise of the Child

  “To call The Promise of the Child one of the most accomplished debuts of 2015 so far is to understate its weight—instead, let me moot that it is among the most significant works of science fiction released in recent years.” —Tor.com

  “One of the most ambitious and epic-scale pieces of worldbuilding I’ve read. Reading The Promise of the Child, you feel you’re in the presence of an author at the height of his powers. If this is what Toner is like when he’s just getting started, I think we can expect great things from him. Utterly absorbing; a tremendous adventure.” —Karl Schroeder, author of Lockstep and Sun of Suns

  “This is the purest example of space opera we’ve seen in some time. . . . The book is challenging, ambitious, and rewarding, and it’s impossibledecadence so prevalent in not to admire Toner’s wild imagination and carefully constructed world. This thing is bonkers, no question. It’s also one helluva debut.” —Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog

  “Humming with energy, this is space opera like you’ve never seen it before. Absolutely brilliant.” —Adam Roberts, author of Salt and Jack Glass

  “A gorgeously-written, wildly imaginative book. It’s like no space opera I’ve ever read—compelling and addictive.” —Will McIntosh, Hugo-award winning author of Soft Apocalypse and Defenders

  “A dizzying mash-up of science fiction and fantasy themes that are both mystifying and entertaining . . . will appeal to readers who enjoy the offbeat end of far-future SF. This is the kind of novel that could develop a cult following.” —Booklist

  “Marvelous . . . a space opera of surpassing gracefulness, depth, complexity, and well, all-round weirdness.” —Paul Di Filippo, Locus

  “An amazing debut. Intriguing, disorientating. Like Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief or Moorcock’s Dancers at the End of Time, it’s told with the heightened vibrancy of a fable, and the melancholic sense of age and decadence so prevalent in Jack Vance’s Emphyrio.” —Gareth Powell, BSFA Award–winning author of Ack-Ack Macaque

  “First rate . . . a clever and interesting world, with something new always coming across the horizon, more wonders as yet unreached. I ate it up with a spoon.” —Paul Weimer, SFSignal

  “Bold and intense from start to finish, The Promise of the Child is a master-class in innovative, evocative world-building. The entire book buzzes with imagination.” —Michael J. Martinez, author of The Daedalus Incident and MJ-12: Inception

  “A rip-roaring, full-blown Space Opera, with Epic-ness writ large across its pages, and one that will repay rereading. . . . As they say in 1960s parlance, ‘Prepare to get your mind blown.’ Dare I say it? The Promise of the Child is a book with ‘promise,’ that may create a standard for other new SF writers to meet . . . an impressive debut and one of my favourite books of the year.” —SFFWorld

  “A sweepingly ambitious universe as engaging as any Iain M. Banks or Peter F. Hamilton creation. . . . The Promise of the Child is an incredibly impressive debut novel.” —SciFiNow

  “An amazing debut—a colorful space opera in the post-human tradition of Iain M. Banks, combined with the razor-sharp plotting of Alastair Reynolds. It left me feverish with delight.” —Loren Rhoads, author of The Dangerous Type

  “Hard sci-fi is all about new worlds and huge, vertiginous ideas. Even so, it’s rare to come across something as original as this debut novel, set 12,000 years from now.” —Stuff.tv

  “A beautifully-crafted read that’s evocative and hugely inventive.” —SFX

  “The Promise of the Child provides a warning about the future that we should all take seriously.” —Amazing Stories

  “Ambitious, beautifully written, Tom Toner has created something memorable and unique.” —Edward Cox, author of The Relic Guild and The Cathedral of Known Things

  Praise for The Weight of the World

  “Toner’s richly layered sequel to 2015’s The Promise of the Child is a sprawling space opera likely to remind readers of complex works such as Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun. . . . Readers who enjoy a challenge will appreciate both the book’s complexities and its beautiful language.” —PublishersWeekly

  “Toner’s second book of the Amaranthine Spectrum is as deeply imagined, deliberately paced, and brain-breakingly opaque (in the best way) as the first . . . While much remains a mystery, Toner’s confident style—and the forceful impact on the reader when pieces do fall into place—give the sequel a heft and power that goes beyond the plot twists.” —B&N Sci-Fi Blog

  “This extensive story of the 147th century is filled with spectacular ideas and adventure across the solar system and beyond. . . . a tour de force of universe building and characterization . . . splendid, outrageous and brilliant speculations.” —Shelf Awareness

  “I was hooked from the very beginning . . . Tom Toner paints his characters and worlds beautifully, even when they’re at their ugliest. This is a clever, ambitious, inventive, wondrous series, brilliantly executed, that leaves me wanting more and soon. It might be only February but this is the science fiction novel to beat this year and it most certainly won’t be easy.” —For Winter Nights

  “So far this series has been highly imaginative, and I really am looking forward to seeing how far this imagination stretches. . . . Toner builds upon his previously established universe, and with his eloquent prose he makes it seem just as beautiful the second time around. . . . an excellent second installment.” —TheBookBag

  “Tom Toner has settled into his author boots with aplomb and I can only imagine that he will continue to grow from strength to strength and I can’t wait to see where he takes the Amaranthine Spectrum next.” —RaptureInBooks, 5/5 Stars

  “The virtues that made the first novel so compelling still abide and grow, here. This is the sort of novel where space opera and post-singularity universes abut up against epic fantasy and it shares that sort of type and expanse of worldbuilding and possibility. . . . It is those literary motifs, the rich descriptiveness and evocation of theme in the writing, the depth of how the novel brings that richness to life that makes this series fascinating for me to read.” —SkiffyandFanty.com

  “Epic and complex . . . immense character development and nonstop action. It is definitely not a book that you should read lightly, as the author writes his story in a way that makes you think about and savor every little detail.” —Manhattan Book Review

  “Like The Promise of the Child, The Weight of the World is bold, ambitious and incredibly complex. . . . this is a wonderfully ambitious series that has taken me a little while to get into, but it’s safe to say that I’m now hooked, and I’m looking forward to volume three.” —Jo’s Book Blog

  Also by Tom Toner

  The Promise of the Child

  The Weight of the World

  Copyright © 2018 by Tom Toner

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Night Shade Books, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

  Night Shade books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fundraising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Night Shade Books, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or [email protected].

  Night Shade Books® is a registered trademark of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.®, a Delaware corporation.

  Visit our website at www.nightshadebooks.com.

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  Library of Congres
s Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Toner, Thomas, 1986- author.

  Title: The tropic of eternity: volume three of the Amaranthine Spectrum / Tom Toner.

  Description: New York: Night Shade Books, [2018] | Series: The Amaranthine Spectrum ; volume 3

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018018058 | ISBN 9781597809115 (hardback: alk. paper)

  Subjects: | GSAFD: Science fiction.

  Classification: LCC PR6120.O47 T76 2018 | DDC 823/.92—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018018058

  eISBN: 978-1-59780-592-6

  Cover design by Blacksheep Design Ltd.

  Printed in the United States of America

  “We must imagine ‘Primitive’ language as consisting (chiefly at least) of very long words, full of difficult sounds, and sung rather than spoken . . . early words must have been to present ones what the plesiosaurus and gigantosaurus are to present-day reptiles.”

  Otto Jespersen

  Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin

  For Andy

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  There are a few odd formats used throughout this odd book. Whole chapters are occasionally written in italics, and these take place in the past. Anything written in the present tense can be assumed to be a dream, or taking place in a dreamlike state.

  The Tropic of Eternity is the third volume of the Amaranthine Spectrum.

  The first, The Promise of the Child, began in the year AD 14,647.

  Earth, now known as the Old World, has changed beyond recognition and become the forgotten haunt of talking beasts and the twisted, giant-like remnants of humankind known as the Melius. The lifeless, apparently sterile local stars—discovered, much to everyone’s surprise, to have been visited and subsequently abandoned seventy-nine million years earlier by an intelligent species of dinosaur known as the Epir— are now in the possession of the Amaranthine, a branch of immortal humans left over from a golden age.

  Their empire, known as the Firmament, extends outwards from the Old World for twenty-three solar systems to the edges of the Prism Investiture, a ring of grindingly poor planets and moons occupied by the Prism, a cluster of dwarfish primate descendants of humanity.

  In the Vaulted Lands of the Amaranthine Firmament, the Perennial Parliaments are jostling for power, with one sect challenging the Emperor himself for the Firmamental Throne. Their nominated ruler is Aaron the Long-Life, a recently discovered man of incredible age who they hope has the power to heal the Firmament and push back the ever-encroaching Prism.

  On the Old World, in a remote estate near the former Mediterranean Sea, lives Lycaste, a shy giant Melius man and legendary beauty. Pining for a girl who does not love him in return, Lycaste’s life changes when a census-taker arrives from the distant ruling Provinces. Lycaste and the man find themselves immediately at odds, and one night, when the dispute becomes physical, Lycaste mistakenly believes that he has committed murder. Terrified, he flees his homeland for the first time in his life, making his way through the war-torn Old World Provinces. The Melius eventually falls into the hands of Sotiris, an Amaranthine mourning the death of his sister, who realises that Lycaste is far more important to the fate of the Firmament than ever could have been anticipated.

  Sotiris has been tempted by the mysterious Aaron the Long-Life with the possibility of seeing his sister again. He eventually accepts the devil’s bargain, agreeing to rule the Firmament on Aaron’s behalf, but not before turning Lycaste over to his old friend, Hugo Maneker, a one-time confidant of Aaron’s who he knows will keep him safe.

  In the lawless worlds of the Prism Investiture, Ghaldezuel, Lacaille Knight of the Stars, is contracted to steal a miraculous invention: the Shell, a device apparently capable of capturing and preserving one’s soul. He delivers it to the Old World and its new owner, Aaron the Long-Life, along with the mummified remains of one of the star-faring dinosaurs. Aaron is revealed to be the spirit of a dead Artificial Intelligence created by the creatures in the distant past. He has lain dormant in projected form for seventy-nine million years, whispering into the ears of the powerful until he could be reunited with a body. Aaron uses the Shell to conjoin his soul with the dinosaur’s corpse and takes physical form. He tells Ghaldezuel that together they must travel to Gliese, the capital of the Firmament, before his ancient plan can be fulfilled.

  On a lonely, windswept planet, the true Emperor of the Firmament speaks to the voices in his head. Although everyone thinks him half-mad, the voices are in fact real: they are the souls of other long-dead AI substrates, relatives of Aaron the Long-Life, bound to the world where they died just as he once was. Panicked, they tell the Emperor that Aaron has freed himself and embarked upon a course of revenge, pursuing those who wronged him so long ago. The Emperor tells them not to worry, for many thousands of years ago the Firmament also created an artificial soul called Perception. Somewhere Perception’s spirit still resides, and it might just be able to help them.

  The second volume, The Weight of the World, follows on at the turning of the Amaranthine new year, AD 14,648.

  Vaulted Proximo, closest Satrapy to the Old World: in a lonely, storm-swept tower, we encounter the Spirit of Perception, forgotten now for four thousand years.

  Lycaste, accidentally Bilocated from the Old World by the fleeing Maneker, awakens to find himself inside the same great Vaulted Land. For company, he has with him the Vulgar soldier Huerepo, also Bilocated from the Old World. Proximo is under siege, fought over by millions of risen Melius slaves and the hordes of arriving Prism, and Maneker has no time to spare; he must get to the home of Perception, hoping that the Spirit will join their cause.

  On the water moon of AntiZelio-Coriopil, Captain Wilemo Maril and his crew find themselves stranded on a lonely island without hope of rescue. They discover that they are sharing their island with the Bie, a species descended from the Epir and watched over by an enigmatic elder, whom Maril and his crew have nicknamed Gramps. But others have heard of their arrival, and a party of Zelioceti slavers land upon the beach in search of the shipwrecked crew.

  Eranthis and Jatropha, her immortal guide, have made their way to the greatest port in the Tenth, in the hope of securing passage to the West. Secretly journeying with them are her sister, Pentas, and the baby Arabis—Pentas’s child with the Plenipotentiary Callistemon, now half a year dead. The child, heir to the Secondling bloodline and inheritor of the throne of the First, must be hidden at all times from the Jalan that occupy the region. Jatropha buys a Wheelhouse—the Corbita—and vows to take them in secrecy past the fringes of the annexed Provinces to meet with Callistemon’s old family, and thence to the First. But the stalled invasion has changed the land, leaving entire Provinces unpassable, and Jatropha must plot a new route through the Westerly country of Pan, an enigmatic land owned by a very different people.

  Rumours of their precious cargo pursue them along the roads, and it is on the borders of the West that they realise they are being hunted. A vagrant Awger catches up with them and steals the child, making off with her into the dark.

  Sotiris, returned from his dreams of his missing sister Iro, travels to the Firstling Court to meet Aaron the Long-Life in his dinosaur body at last, there to discuss the prospect of a deal: Sotiris will serve the spectral being, and his dead sister will be returned to him.

  Lycaste, Huerepo and Maneker cross Proximo’s sea during a storm and are boarded by hostile Melius. Before they can jump overboard, Maneker is attacked, his powerful eyes cut from his head. Lycaste grabs him, and together they swim for the lonely tower on the sea’s far shore: the home of Perception.

  Following Sotiris’s rushed coronation as Firmamental Emperor, he is put to sleep by Aaron, as promised, so that he can find and bring back his sister. Sotiris awakens in the time of the Epir, the world of Aaron’s birth, aware that he is wandering in Aaron’s memory. He finds Iro imprisoned, but she is unable to see or hear him, and remains always beyond his reach. It is here that we discover Cor
phuso, also lost in Aaron’s world.

  Captain Maril and his crew are taken by the Zelioceti to the neighbouring moon of AntiZelio-Glumatis, a volcanic world ruled by the barbarous Quetterel monks. There they find that their Bult pursuers have also been imprisoned. While Maril and his Vulgar are waiting to be flayed for the crime of trespassing, one of the Bult escapes, opening his companions’ cages and slaying every Quetterel in the monastery.

  Maneker comes face to face with Perception, promising the Spirit that he will release it on the condition that it hears his terms. Perception, furious with all the Amaranthine for their duplicity, finally submits after taking a shine to Lycaste and Huerepo. Together they leave the tower, only to be attacked by an Oxel ship, the Epsilon India. During a heated firefight, Huerepo realises that one of the enemy soldiers is his cousin, and fighting ceases. They are invited aboard, making a deal with the Oxel to set sail for Gliese, capital of the Firmament.

  Ghaldezuel, Knight of the Stars, embarks upon the Colossus battleship the Grand-Tile accompanying Aaron and the remaining Devout Amaranthine for the long voyage to Gliese. On the way, however, he is tasked with journeying to the moon of Port Maelstrom, there to free the infamous Melius bandit Cunctus—beloved across the Investiture for his daring crimes against the Firmament—in the hope that he and his gang will assist Aaron’s cause. Ghaldezuel knows that once Aaron has got what he wants he will leave the Firmament for ever, abandoning it to the chaotic demise that he has brought about, and resolves to betray him.

  Upon arrival, Ghaldezuel opens the treasure trove of Maelstrom beneath the prison, gifting Cunctus and his gang the Amaranthine ships and weapons Aaron knows they will need, but asking them sincerely if they will join his own cause instead—that of the Lacaille—to bring about a new order and stability to the galaxy: a New Investiture. Cunctus accepts the bounty gratefully and, together with his witch and Spirit Oracle Nazithra—who winkles from Ghaldezuel the fact that he acts as he does for his true love, a Bult woman—they make their way to the Vulgar capital, Filgurbirund.