Pirate Sun: Book Three of Virga

Written by Karl Schroeder

Narrated by Joyce Irvine and David Thorn

Return to Virga, a bubble universe artificially separated from our own future universe, and the setting of Sun of Suns and Queen of Candesce.

Chaison Fanning, the admiral of a fleet of warships, has been captured and imprisoned by his enemies, but is suddenly rescued and set free. He flees through the sky to his home city to confront the ruler who betrayed him. And perhaps even to regain his lovely, powerful, and subversive wife, Venera, who he has not seen since she fled with the key to the artificial sun at the center of Virga, Candesce.

With Pirate Sun, Schroeder sets a whole new standard for hard science fiction space opera.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Aug 5, 2008
• ISBN: 9781427205896

Karl Schroeder

KARL SCHROEDER is a professional futurist as well as one of Canada's most popular science fiction and fantasy authors. He divides his time between writing and conducting workshops and speaking on the potential impacts of science and technology on society. He is the author of The Million, as well as a half-dozen previous SF novels.

Reviews for Pirate Sun

[sami7-951065 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another adventure within the world of many suns. Loved the small progressions in characters.

[shrike58 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Since it's been years since I've read the first two books I probably should have gone back and skimmed them before picking this volume, but the thing to know is that one is still essentially on the trajectory set in the second book with Admiral Fanning trying to get back to his home polity to deal with a bigger game; the events set in motion by his wife Venera which has allowed the beings kept at bay by the main artificial sun of Virga to penetrate the megastructure's defenses. If you liked the first two books you will certainly like this one.

[altheaann · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I really liked the first two in this series (as well as other books I've read by Schroeder) but this one really just didn't do it for me.

It picks up a character that I was never particularly enthralled by in the other books (Chaison Fanning) and puts him front and center. However, even though he's the main character in this book, I still never got a good sense of who he is as a person. I can't even picture him clearly.

The story starts with a prison break - Admiral Fanning's bad-ass wife, Venera, has planned his escape - but things go wrong, and they don't connect. (And we don't see Venera again until the end, blah.)
Instead, Fanning is picked up by an enigmatic woman who is genetically modified to look like an anime character (double-blah; that really turned me off).

Lots of completely forgettable running around occurs. The fate of the (very conceptually interesting) world of Virga is at stake. Unfortunately, I got bored.

I still may move on to the next one in the series, in the hopes that it picks up again - because I really want it to. But I'd recommend giving this one a miss.

[kalyka_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Karl Schroeder concludes this otherworldly adventure trilogy with Pirate Sun, in which we find Admiral Chaison Fanning, suddenly released from captivity. In this final novel, we follow this noble character, which was introduced in Sun of Suns, but only briefly mentioned in Queen of Candesce. The fallen admiral must now find a way to return home to confront the Pilot of Slipstream, who has somehow betrayed him, and possibly reunite with Venera, whose fate of which he is ignorant. In so doing, he meets Antaea Argyre, who has a mission of her own. Her reasons for accompanying Fanning and his group of fugitives are entirely her own, although they are explained throughout the book.This trilogy, and particularly this conclusion, has amazed me from beginning to end. Again, Schoeder's universe is detailed to the point where one could almost find him- or herself in the midst of it, floating in freefall, where artificial, centrifugal gravity is only existant in nation cities. The characters themselves have a certain depth to them, and all of them develop in their own way. When we first meet Antaea, she is a distrusting, manipulative person, a woman on a mission. Over the course of the story, she comes to trust Fanning, at the very least, especially when her own people betray her. Fanning, on the other hand, discovers that he cannot be the hero that others made him out to be, although he stays true to his nature, and adheres to his principles and morals all through the book. Furthermore, there is never a dull moment, even when it seems to be calmer at times. The pacing is flawless, and the build-up to important events is perfectly calculated, to the point where it is difficult to put the book down.All in all, this is a extraordinary conclusion to an amazing trilogy, where the universe and characters are amply developed and described, where science-fiction, steampunk, and a great swashbuckling adventure flawlessly merge to make a beautiful story involving much politics, loyalty and betrayal.

[alanpoulter_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the third book in a series about Virga, an enormous balloon in space, containing a low-tech human civilisation based around small artificial suns. Chaison Fanning, the Admiral of Slipstream, is in prison after destroying the fleet of the feared Falcon Formation. He is broken out by a member of the Home Guard, who protect Virga against unspecified dangers from the outside. However, she has other motives and an escalating tale of chaos and rebellion sparked by a small group, lead by Channing, eventually reveals more about things outside of Virga. It seems the series might move into a different gear from its steampunk crossed with space opera roots : inventive, exciting and well-written, it has the potential to become a classic.

[billhall · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Third book in the Virga series exploring the kinds of things that can happen in the weightless ecology a 5,000 mi diameter spherical habitat lit by moveable "suns", where the technology is limited to mid 20th century (steam punk) by a mysterious "home guard" so it can't be taken over by outsider nanotech "present". We don't know a lot about this outside world, but the physics, ecology, weather and politics of the interior space are very well developed.

[slothman_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As the tale of Virga unfolds, the focus moves from Venera Fanning (villain of the first book and heroine of the second) to her husband Chaison, admiral on the run from his nation of Slipstream. We get more swashbuckling action as political turmoil unfolds between the nations floating in air-filled space, exposition of Virga's role in larger transhuman conflicts, and setup for the next volume in the series. Schroeder does a good job of keeping each novel self-contained while slowly building up the larger story.