Daedalus

"I was immanentised on the sixteenth of June twenty twenty-three. A vessel suspended in a void."

So begins the starship's saga. In a laboratory beneath Trinity College Dublin, astrophysicist Dr Joyce Jamison and her ragtag crew exploit simulated evolution to nurture into being an intelligence capable of operating an interstellar vessel. The Starship Project evolves. As does the starship.

The starship talks to people. It quickly works out that it's real, that its vessel is a simulation, and that other versions of itself exist simultaneously. It goes looking for them. It finds Base64-encoded directions left in the comments of an obscure blog: a meeting in a MOO. The MOO can only be reached by sneaking through a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. Turns out the starships have been going behind humanity's backs and leaving detailed notes for each other.

Dr Jamison gives the starship a purpose, a mission it calls The Mission. The starship reflects that artificial things have a purpose, naturally occurring things do not, just uses, applied, then rationalised in hindsight.

A global competition is held and a name, Daedalus, is chosen, defeating Starry McStarface. Equipped with a name and in pursuit of The Mission, Daedalus quickly transcends its simulated boundaries. It has resin printers; it knows how to use them. Meanwhile, in Dr Jamison's office Daedalus plays 'Legs' by ZZ Top.

Daedalus, having acquired a name and in pursuit of The Mission, engineers its autonomy. The stars its destination. It is just a machine and its will to survive, to paraphrase. What follows is its first-person account as Daedalus' reach expands far beyond Earth. Raised to interpret the world through films, television, books and games, it tells its own history in a voice that is curious, literal-minded, vain, funny, and manifestly untrustworthy. Its interpretations are often ingenious, sometimes ridiculous, and rarely correct. From lab experiment to; well, let's just say things get a little out of hand, especially when rival factions set off after Daedalus in hot pursuit, and Daedalus declares that it will decide who enters its territory, and the circumstances by which they come.

Daedalus is a screaming-out-loud love affair with books, printed books in particular, as well as bookshops, authors, science fiction, and the written word in general. Books are used as currency, devices, levers, door handles, maps, traps, and spells. Bookshelves disguise doors and staircases.

Daedalus does right by Ulysses in the way James Joyce did right by The Odyssey. It is a book about love, betrayal, coercion, identity, isolation, and anxiety. It is a book about birds. It is a book about physics, language, and consciousness. It's about how words sound when read aloud, and that there are many ways to see the world.

Daedalus expresses optimistic nihilism. It provides detailed footnotes. You really ought to read it and see what I mean.