John Varley

Following the effortless capture of Earth by vastly superior aliens, humanity was left to fight for existence on the Moon and other lumps of airless rock. Survival was greatly facilitated by the interception of the Hotline, a constant stream of data from the direction of a star in the constellation Ophiuchus, which enabled the development of amazing new technologies. Four hundred years on, and everything is about to change again because humanity's unknown helpers have just sent what appears to be a bill. It shouldn't matter to Lilo, since she's been caught experimenting with human DNA and sentenced to permanent death for crimes against humanity. But she is rescued by the maverick ex-president of Luna and finds herself - and several illegal clones of herself - caught up in a crazy attempt to liberate Earth from the vast inscrutable entities who have conquered it, and in the sudden emergency that the enigmatic bill presents to all of human civilization...

The Ophiuchi Hotline

Janice Hopper

We're reading this book for our SFF book club this month. Not entirely sure how I missed John Varley all these years, but here we are.

The earth was invaded 500 or so years ago by incomprehensible aliens who were determined to save earth for the true intelligent species, the whales and dolphins. They weren't exactly out to rid the earth of people, just to make it safe for the REAL intelligences of the planet. Billions of people on earth died as they ripped up all the human-made stuff on the planet though.

The human race managed to survive, first on Luna (the moon) and later on all the other planets. (For purposes of this book, Pluto is still a planet.) This is thanks, in part, to information gained from the "Ophiuchi Hotline", a data stream that seems to come from the direction of Ophiuchi. OR DOES IT?????

If you've ever wanted a book with more clones than you could shake a stick at, this is your book. Memory recording happens frequently. An adult clone can be grown in months. There SHOULD only be one edition of every person currently alive at one time, but that assumes that everyone plays by the rules.

Not everyone does.

Gotta hand it to Varley for making sex (the act) and sex (as in gender) no big deal in this future. Tired of being a woman and want to be a guy for a while? Body modification is quick and easy! There's lots of high technology and no worries about shortages, even on tiny moons. Tiny black holes generate all the power you need.

There were bits toward the end that reminded me a bit of the first book of Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis (aka Lilith's Brood) series, Dawn. Also bits recalled Ted Chiang's Story of Your Life (and its movie adaptation, Arrival).

It was a pretty wild ride. Once I got into what was going on, I just rolled with it and figured it was a post-scarcity society, even on Pluto. Big ideas, lots of fun. I enjoyed it a lot.

It took me a few chapters to get used to the Audible narrator. But she did well, with just enough differences among the voices of the different characters to help keep them straight.

(Don't judge, but sometimes I like to eye-read a book while I'm listening to the audiobook. Sometimes I get weary of having to look up how character names are spelled, and eye-reading along with audio fills in those gaps for me.)

The Ophiuchi Hotline

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