The stories converge

Cosmonaut Keep's two story-lines converge over the course of the last two thirds of the book, concluding with the last chapter of the book remaining in Matt Cairns first person perspective instead of switching to the third person perspective that the far future chapters have always been written in up to that point. The path that the convergence takes is interesting because it covers why the crew of the Bright Star showed up at Mingulay and explains much more about the culture of the saurs. I think that the deeper insight into saur and kraken cultures that the book provides as it gets closer to the end is important for understanding how everything fits together but is also partly to maintain the balance between the near and far future aspects. The book definitely has a much faster pace for the last two thirds but at the same time seems to scramble for things to keep it going. If the author (Ken Macleod) wanted to provide fewer details the book could have easily been 100 or so pages shorter. Another aspect that fewer details would have provided is that the mystery and imagination that is persistent for the first eight chapters would have remained. To put it simply, there is less material that encourages enthusiastic discussion in the last two thirds of the book.

Cosmonaut Keep (to chapter 8)

The first three sentences really set the mood for this book: a state of limbo between dualities. This dreamy quality flows through the book but never quite so clearly as it does in the beginning.

"You're not here. Try to remember this. Try not to remember where you really are."

Reading the book from this perspective leaves you as an outside observer to what is happening but draws you away from your own reality pushing you into a place that is not "here" in the book or "here" in the real world. It shifts you into a place that is not the near or far future but instead an undefined middle ground. A place where things proceed in familiar ways but with an alien feel.

Looking at the far future, saurs (pot smoking lizard aliens) present the feeling of slow wisdom, quietly learning and allowing the impetuous youth to create their own new mistakes to learn from. Perhaps the saurs are a representation of a middle age species watching over the ambitious, young human species and learning from their differences. Krakens, from the few glimpse's we are given from the perspectives of human and saur, indicate the are the ancient species that can frolic and travel as they wish. They can do so because they have already made their youthful mistakes, gone through their slow acquisition of knowledge and can finally use what they have learned to enjoy themselves and their prosperity.

The duality is in the not so distant future where we are given a view of humanity having more difficulty because of their technology and complicated ways pushing them around in ways that the seemingly low tech existence in the far future avoids entirely. The society of humans in the near future is a complex web of distrust and deception that uses technology for everything. This near future uses virtual reality and artificial intelligences to deal with information and even the dust in certain areas is technologically advanced to deter electronic listening in to conversations. This reliance on technology influences the actions of everyone in these sections of the story. The sections that take place in the far future, by contrast, still have some technology but they use it only when absolutely necessary so it has almost no effect on their daily lives. The humans in the far future don't even use calculators to help them with the math required for their great project of re-using a star ship (that was created by humans) so that they may be able to travel independently of the krakens. These things may change as the book progresses and I look forward to finding out.