The Great Sky River Trilogy by Gregory Benford
The Great Sky River Trilogy is a science fiction series that follows the epic adventures of the Family Bishop, a lineage of humanity living on the planet Snowglade and their journey toward the galactic center's black hole. The first novel, *Great Sky River*, introduces Killeen, the central character, who grapples with the fallout of the Calamity, an event leading to the destruction of their citadel by advanced machines and cyborgs. As the Family Bishop, a remnant of two hundred people led by Capn Fanny, navigates their transformed, desolate world, they encounter allies and enemies, including the Mantis, an anthology intelligence.
In the second installment, *Tides of Light*, Killeen's journey continues as he explores the shattered planet New Bishop while interacting with the Myriapodia, a cybernetic life-form, and contending with remnants of humanity known as the Card Tribes. This novel delves into themes of thoughtfulness versus selfishness through characters like Quath, who plays a pivotal role in Killeen's fate.
The trilogy concludes with *Furious Gulf*, where Killeen, now captain of the starship Argo, ventures into the mysterious depths of the Milky Way, facing ancient artifacts and the vast black hole at its center. The narrative intertwines personal growth and cosmic exploration, culminating in profound discoveries about consciousness and the nature of existence. Overall, the trilogy weaves complex themes of survival, identity, and the intersection of organic and mechanical life in a richly imagined universe.
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The Great Sky River Trilogy
First published:Great Sky River (1987), Tides of Light (1989), and Furious Gulf (1994)
Type of work: Novels
Type of plot: Science fiction—evolutionary fantasy
Time of work: More than twenty-eight thousand years in the future
Locale: The planet Snowglade, the planet New Bishop, and the black hole at the galactic center of the Milky Way
The Plot
All three novels of the trilogy concern epic adventures of the Family Bishop, distant descendants of earthly humanity, on a journey from the home planet Snowglade to the galactic centers black hole. Great Sky River, the first novel in the series, introduces Killeen, the trilogys central character, through his dream of the Calamity, the fall of the Bishop Citadel before the onslaught of a superior race of hunter machines and cyborgs.
In part 1, “Long Retreat,” the two-hundred-member remnant of Family Bishop, led by Capn Fanny, fights its way across the ravaged face of Snowglade, a once-lush planet now transformed by “mechs” into an arid plain more congenial to machines. Fanny is shot down by a Mantis, a vast anthology intelligence shadowing the Family. In part 2, “The Once-Green World,” Bishops fight their way to a Splash, a green swamp created by the fall of an asteroid, finding there members of Family Rook and one Knight, the woman Shibo, who is encased in an “exshell,” or machine-augmented body. In part 3, “The Dreaming Vertebrates,” Shibo becomes Killeens lover and friend of his adolescent son Toby. The Family Bishop finds Capn Hatchet and his Metropolis, a Citadel of mud huts constructed in the Splash with the help of a renegade machine. The Mantis reappears, forcing Hatchet to have sex with its grotesque reconstruction of Fanny. Killeen shoots them both and discovers that Hatchet was a “manmech” tool of the Mantis. Killeen receives a message from his dead father, Abraham, urging him to find the Starship Argo and lead the remaining families farther into the galactic center. With the help of the Mantis, the starship is recovered. Killeen destroys the supermech before leaving Snowglade.
In Tides of Light, Killeens story continues. The Argo finds the shattered planet New Bishop orbiting Abrahams Star. In part 2, “Starswarmer,” the reader enters the mind of Quath of the Myriapodia, an immense, insectlike cybernetic life-form that fights off mechs and “Noughts,” remnants of human Card Tribes from the era of the Chandeliers, when humans traveled between the stars.
The Myriapodia mine New Bishop by liquefying the planets mantle with the help of a cosmic string, capturing its flow through the Syphon, a golden fountain of metals used to build the sky Web that the Myriapodia will use to leave the planet on their own way to the galactic center. Quath, a rare “philosoph,” is far more thoughtful than her envious and selfish colleague Beqqdahl. In part 3, “A Matter of Momentum,” she captures Killeen, only to release him after realizing that, to the Magnetic Mind at the galactic center, there is something special about him. He falls through the center of the planet as it is being cut by a cosmic string.
In part 4, “Such Men Are Dangerous,” the Bishops meet the Card Tribes, which are under the leadership of His Supremacy, a fanatic half-mech who urges humans to battle the cybers to the death, In part 5, “Skysower,” an immense form of organic life living on starshine descends on the planet, sowing pods. The families feast on this manna before engaging in a final battle with good and evil cybers and illuminates, in which both Shibo and His Supremacy fall. In an epilogue, “Sailing with the Tide,” Quath and the Argo travel on toward the galactic center as Shibo becomes Tobys first Aspect, or implanted personality.
In Furious Gulf, the Argo with Killeen as captain journeys toward the galactic center, meeting the Sail-snake and other new organic life-forms, part of the continuum between matter and mind, along the way. In part 1, “Far Antiquity,” the Family explores an ancient Chandelier only to see it exploded by an equally ancient bomb. In part 2, “The Eater of All Things,” the Argo approaches the great black hole at the center of the Milky Way. So vast a hole can be entered along its edges without risking physical destruction. In part 3, “The Time Pit,” the Argo enters the holes ergosphere and finds itself at Port Athena, a gate to deep reality space/time lanes guarded by a dwarf. In part 4, “Gravitys Gullet,” Toby and Quath explore these lanes, where particles and fields of energy struggle with one another. The Mantis reappears and shoots down Quath. Part 5, “Malign Attentions,” concludes the trilogy with a force of mechs gathering in the furious gulf between life and death, with Toby’s discovery of the door between matter and self-consciousness, and with Killeens message to his son sent through the agency of Nigel Walmsley, a British astronaut from Gregory Benfords first galactic center novel, In the Ocean of Night (1977).