#172 The endless plain of fortune: Orbitsville trilogy by Bob Shaw (1975 - 1990)

It was British science fiction writer Olaf Stapledon, not US physicist Freeman Dyson, who first imagined the "Dyson sphere" - an immense macrostructure which would enclose and harness the entire energy of a star. Beginning with his BSFA Award-winning novel Orbitsville (1975), Northern Irish SF writer Bob Shaw explored this dizzying concept in a trilogy of novels.

This episode explores not only Orbitsville but also its belated sequels Orbitsville Departure (1983) and Orbitsville Judgement (1990).

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Transcript

Like many other science fiction writers of his generation, Bob Shaw (1931 - 1996) tended to focus on one-off novels, and seldom published series. However, there are notable exceptions in his work. The first of these is the Orbitsville trilogy, published intermittently over the long period from 1975 to 1990. These are some of the most notable examples of the concept of the macrostructure in SF. Set in the far future, the novels detail the discovery of a Dyson sphere in a distant star system with a surface area equivalent to many millions of Earths.

The sudden availability to humankind of almost incalculable, functionally infinite, amounts of living space is the dominant novum of the Orbitsville trilogy. In their own way, each book explores the implications of this idea, which profoundly affects the lives of three different protagonists. Along the way, Shaw explores faster-than-light travel, Earth’s abandonment, religious fervour, and the mystery of unknowable intelligences in the galaxy, whose inscrutable actions long ago may dictate the human future.

Orbitsville (1975)

This novel was something of a landmark for Shaw - published in the year he became a full-time, professional writer, it also earned him the BSFA Award for Best Novel for the first time (he would win it again for another trilogy-starter, The Ragged Astronauts, in 1986).

Orbitsville is a fast-moving survival adventure which begins, ominously enough, with the death of a child. In the far future, Vance Garamond is captain of Bissendorf, a starship capable of traveling at “many multiples of the speed of light”. When the story opens, he has been called to Iceland, which has become the headquarters of the Starflight agency. While waiting to see Elizabeth Lindstrom, the immensely powerful tyrant of this institution, he is left to care for her young son. The son, Harald, recklessly climbs a tall statue and then falls to his death before Garamond can react.

Knowing that the ruthless Lindstrom will have him marked for death, Garamond flees with his wife and son aboard Bissendorf - in effect conscripting its crew of 450 into his escape. Working on a personal theory based on scant evidence of extinct alien origin, Garamond discovers what becomes known as Orbitsville: an immense Dyson sphere, an artificial world which completely encloses a star. This is only a temporary reprieve, however, as Lindstrom remains on our hero’s trail.

Like Larry Niven’s Ringworld (1970) and Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama (1973) before it - both multi-award winners - Orbitsville is a classic example of a novel centred on a mysterious alien macrostructure. Shaw does not deliver Niven’s memorable characters, nor conjure a sense of wonder on Clarke’s level, but he does craft a more engaging plot than either. Orbitsville is first and foremost an exciting yarn, pacy and inventive. While the plot takes some satisfying twists, its climax is both abrupt and rather convenient. 

Also convenient is Shaw’s sidestepping of Einsteinian physics. Early on, it is stated that a faster-than-light vessel creates and surrounds itself with a portable pocket universe. This negates entirely the issue of time  dilation, which is greatly helpful for Shaw’s plotting.

Orbitsville Departure (1983)

This novel, which was not serialised but rather published in full initially, was Shaw’s first ever sequel. Arriving eight years after its precursor, it sees Shaw ring the changes in numerous ways. Orbitsville Departure is exactly that - a departure. While the original was chiefly a survival story, this is more an SF thriller with a metaphysical angle.

Strikingly, the novel opens in 2293 - nearly 200 years after Vance Garamond and his crew discovered Orbitsville. In the intervening time, the macrostructure has become the dominant centre of human life, and Earth is increasingly depopulated. Surprisingly, it is on this decaying homeworld that Shaw sets his sequel. Only a tiny fraction is set on Orbitsville - likely under 5%.

Garry Dallen is an officer of the Deregistration Bureau, responsible for overseeing the closure of derelict Earth cities. He is, as he often reminds people, not a policeman. He has just (literally) defused an attempted terrorist attack when he receives terrible news - his wife and young son have had their personalities wiped with a black market weapon inside a municipal building across town.

Dallen sets out to hunt the guilty party, a drug-addicted bureaucrat out to cover up his financial crimes. Along the way, he encounters a religious-scientific sect seeking life after death, rogue “independents” living in officially abandoned cities, and a boorish botanist planning a return to Orbitsville. Meanwhile, lightyears away, the macrostructure is showing signs of undergoing an ominous change.

Orbitsville Departure is a fairly bold move on Shaw's part, a sequel which breaks decisively from the original. Not all aspects of it work - Dallen essentially just overhears who shot his family, so the novel doesn't satisfy as a mystery. Shaw does little with potentially interesting ideas like the independents, which are used only to propel the plot. Ultimately, the novel’s freshness and Shaw's easygoing prose gets it over the line.

Interestingly, the metaphysical aspect of the novel - which becomes more prominent in its climactic conceptual breakthrough - recalls Shaw's earlier book The Palace of Eternity (1969).

Orbitsville Judgement (1990)

Perhaps surprisingly, seven years passed before the third and final volume was published. Orbitsville Judgement begins somewhat unpromisingly, and has its share of dubious moments, but ultimately serves as a fairly satisfying conclusion.

The novel opens shortly after the end of Departure. Orbitsville and everything within it - every city, town, and human being - has abruptly been repositioned, apparently into an alternate universe. To jobbing engineer Jim Nicklin and the other people of the small town of Orangefield, this is an incredible fact which in practice makes very little difference to their lives. These are people born on “the Big O”, who have never seen a real sky, let alone a star. Distant, abandoned Earth is known to them only through history books.

Nicklin’s life is changed, however, by the arrival of the charismatic evangelist Corey Montane and his nomadic clan of followers. They believe that Orbitsville is a tool of the devil, a cosmic trap designed to ensnare humankind for some terrible purpose. Nicklin is not susceptible to Montane’s theology, but falls readily for another trap - seduction by the preacher’s follower, Danea Farthing. Soon, the naive Nicklin is bankrupted, all of his money sucked into Montane’s effort to acquire a starship and escape Orbitsville.

Nicklin at first plans to leave the religious caravan and start his life over again, but ultimately decides to stay on - if only to exact revenge against Danea. In time, it becomes clear that while it may not be the devil’s work, Orbitsville has still more transformations to come, with profound implications for humankind.

Orbitsville Judgement has a shaky start, rooted in the banal location of Orangefield and dominated by the unlikeable figure of Jim Nicklin, who often comes across as a cynical, misogynist boor. Gradually, however, Shaw spins a fairly interesting tale albeit one which lacks the urgency of the first two volumes. Again echoing The Palace of Eternity, the finale evokes vast cosmic forces to quite powerful effect.

Being somewhat haphazardly constructed, the Orbitsville trilogy lacks the coherence of today’s meticulously planned series. In many ways, though, this is a large part of its appeal. Shaw was, if not growing, then certainly changing as a writer over the 15 years the series took to reach its conclusion. The individual oddities of each book, and especially the change of protagonist for each one, lends the series some capacity to surprise. Decades after Shaw’s death, his landmark series remains an important part of his legacy, and one which deserves to be returned to print.