Archipelago

Mr. Hawkins,

Thank you for writing Archipelago. I found it to be a wonderful "thought experiment" and a good story in a credible "space opera" setting, with very interesting characters. I finished the book wanting to know more about them and look forward to a sequel if not a series.

What I'm calling the "thought experiment" addresses the question-- highly relevant for me-- of what an ecologically-sensitive, compassionate, and equitable society might look like if we had the enabling conditions to create it from whole cloth, avoiding the exploitation of people, species, and systems of life that has marked the development of the best examples of imperfect governance and economics in Earth's modern history. The applicability of that question to the polarized politics of the moment keeps driving me to science fiction. Your fiction here has presented the closest thing to a believable "ecotopia" that I've encountered, while still acknowledging the red flags around privacy, de facto oligarchy, and enforced groupthink that may ultimately make it unworkable, or at best unpalatable? Please tell us more!

A question about your storytelling choices... I noticed several figures of speech in dialogue that seemed so "dated" (to our time) as to be jarring. Examples I can remember: "We're not in Kansas anymore" ... "Are you on crack?" ... "We all have our mujahedeen." Were those intentional, to ground the reader in a familiar relatable society that has its own idioms that are here simply translated to something we can understand, or were they inadvertent, or do you think those are lasting parts of our language(s) that may still be around however many centuries it takes to arrive at your future?

I also found it interesting to imagine this culture in which respect for ecology and biodiversity is almost a primary ethic, almost a religion, and yet the Earth from which it all presumably came is barely mentioned. I recall one reference to it as a long-dead planet, maybe all but forgotten, or maybe I made that up. I wonder if the creation and sustainability and repeatability of what must be "novel ecosystems" to some degree, based on whatever components have survived the loss of Earth, would be enough to create that ethic-- or would it require a continual reference to (and reverence for?) the biomes and ecoregions and ecosystems of Old Earth, kind of a Lost Cause that the culture aspires to restore? I suspect you're imagining something more like the former, which has relevance to the way we think about conservation and restoration today... i.e. should it be motivated by the cultivation of ANY kind of ecology, versus the restoration of an "authentic" ecology. This is the field in which I've spent the latter part of my career and I can tell you that opinions vary.

I've read a lot of Kim Stanley Robinson... your themes remind me of his Mars Trilogy, and your storytelling style reminds of his more recent Ministry of the Future. Both are favorites of my mind so that is a compliment, despite whatever quibbling might be inferred by my observations above.

Thanks for providing this forum, and thanks again for the book.