McAuley, Paul. Into Everywhere. Jackaroo No. 2. Gollancz, 2016.
Into Everywhere is a not-so-close sequel to Paul McAuley’s 2015 Something Is Coming Through. In the near future, the Jackaroo, aliens who appear in humanoid avatars, give humanity access to a stargate that connects us to a few colonizable worlds that we can reach with our current space technology. The worlds are littered with bits of ancient technology left by alien races that have either evolved beyond space flight or died out. Some of this technology contains codes that can leave ghosts in your head. We find a trove of derelict starships that give us access to other stargates. One protagonist is Tony, a xenologist exploring stromatolites that may contain an alien code that will cure a mental illness caused by other alien codes. Another protagonist is Lisa, a woman who has been infected with a ghost code. They are observed by Jackaroo avatars and another alien who collects the life stories that will excite the females of its species. McAuley’s writing has the technological inventiveness I associate with William Gibson. He also likes to give defamiliarizing names to familiar technologies—robots are hands, AIs are bridles, and near-light-speed spacecraft are timeships. There are several subplots and lots of narrative twists, but the effort pays off. A strong 4 stars. ( )

This is an extremely fascinating SF novel that does more for fans of SF in general than 200 of its ilk.

What do I mean?

It not only has a very cool Tomb Raider type story with a ton of alien ghosts (or ghosts in the machine) weird AI or virus type aliens, and 15 gifted worlds for humans to do as they please, but it also is a novel that is one huge, ongoing easter egg for FANS of SF.

By no means is this a hard-to-follow novel if you don't get all the references. It just means you'll be awash in wonderful and strange ideas, often in the background, but sometimes up in your face. Wormhole networks, ancient aliens, and inscrutable truly-alien aliens that have learned US so freakishly well that they fit right in without ever (or mostly never) show their true colors.

What kind of species would ever just GIVE AWAY fifteen star systems to us? The Jackaroo is as much a mystery as the alien ghosts or the Elder tech.

What we have here is a very interesting archeological (or rather less official) series of adventures that are far from being formulaic. Indeed, the characters are fascinatingly complex and in to0 deep. :)

You can read this as a standalone, but I would recommend reading [b:Something Coming Through|24013151|Something Coming Through|Paul McAuley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1420479191l/24013151._SY75_.jpg|42850628] first. I'm very impressed with this SF, either way. The devil is in the details and I absolutely adored the worldbuilding.
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In near-future (maybe mid C-21st?) Earth went through a bunch of disasters known as the Spasm: climate change, economic crises, terror attacks, /limited nuclear exchange/, and so on, before an alien race *Jackaroo* showed up in the Solar system. They offered some advanced technologies and fifteen "gift" systems for the humanity. Jackaroos presented themselves as avatars only, modeled after pop-stars. They never talked about their motives, or their home world. And nobody visited their ships. Soon another alien race arrived too. The /!Cha/ appeared to be a aquarium tank mounting on three slender legs. They claimed that they were collecting tasting stories to woo their females.

Humans soon found that all fifteen worlds, scattering across the Milky Way, were not pristine worlds. They were heavily engineered at past time, and had been populated by /Elder Cultures/ more than once. The Elder Cultures were previous /clients/ of the Jackaroo who now all vanished. Jackaroos were evasive about where Elder Cultures had gone or what they had become, as Jackaroos always were. Nonetheless from the ruins or tombs they left, people unearthed remnants of alien technology, retinkered them for useful human purposes. But often rogue codes of those artefacts had infiltrated explorers' or researchers' brains. Some of which were harmless, some caused violent outbursts, others led the infected seeing the so called /eidolons/ or "ghosts".

The first novel in this series – _Something Coming Through_ tells the "Calling Down" of /Ghajar/ ships from orbital /sargassos/, spaceships humanity believed were built by former client race Ghajar. Swarms of fleets. Using those ships, humans no more depended on Jackaroo shuttles. Then they discovered a new wormhole network, further leading to discovery of more new worlds, called collectively /New Frontier/.

The protagonists, also point-viewers of this second novel are two having /ghosts in the heads/. We start with *Lisa Dawes*, a coder turned homesteader living 50 years after the "First Contact" near /Port of Plenty/ on /First Foot/, one of the fifteen gift worlds; and more than 100 years later, *Tony Okoye*, who was a member of aristocrat house in charge of an "archeology" mission. The story alternates between two plots, keeps a steady up-and-down pacing, though it's made clear early in the text that they are living in different eras. Of the two main characters, Tony is quite lofty. Lisa is the one I easily engaged to, and empathized of; much more a human character to begin with. She encountered her ex-husband Willie on First Foot. They made a live there tombraiding the /Dead City/ and deciphering artefacts. One day when exploring a tomb they were both affected by ghosts who wiped out their memory of the incident. Lisa gave up the alien business afterwards while Willie kept seeking answers in various ways. At the beginning of the novel Lisa's ghost, dormant for years, returned as Willie and his fellows died searching a tomb Willie believed had relation to his ghost. Lisa chased Willie's footprints, got herself caught up in the old feud between /Adam Nevers/ and /Ada Morange/. More, she found out that Willie was alive out in wasteland. As he passed away eventually, Lisa gained mysterious perspectives and a "lodestar" tugged in her brain. She was then "rescued" by Morange's subordinates. Morange revealed to Lisa her plan of travelling in a spaceship destined to Lisa's lodestar, accelerated up close to the speed of light to meet the future there.

Tony's plot line starts as his mission digging up and analyzing /stromatolites/ to looking for a cure for /sleepy sickness/ was interrupted by approach of potential claim jumpers. He ran home with some stromatolites and his /wizards/--the future mad scientists.
Only to find out that his family council had decided to terminate his work soon. The laminated brain-AI /Aunty Jael/ of Tony's house, acted as a scientific supervisor for many years, had tricked him by blowing up most of wizards and stromatolites, then escaped with rest of them. With help of /Colonel X/, aka Adam Nevers, Tony slipped out of family's custody, went after Aunty Jael through many worlds, but was captured by her at last. Aunty Jael turned out to be remnant of Ada Morange altogether. The one hibernated inside the "timeship" was kidnapped Lisa really. She was again "rescued" by Nevers, waked up hundred years since her time. The two led Morange and Nevers through different paths into the finale--a system of libraries built before Jackaroo. Many races visited the system before humanity and left traces of themselves. Lisa and Tony landed on one of the worlds, which fully covered with /a sea of red sand/. The sands built a library city in minutes. There Lisa transfigured, while the ancient feud came to an end above.

One !Cha character /Unlikely Worlds/ jumped in and off of both plot lines and was present on the final scene. He is an unusual outsider and observer in the story. He influenced human characters from varied factions, also served as joker regarding narratives, but again seemed above the narrative. Both protagonists have had no control of situations perpetually, and were *ignorant* what was really going on out there, in a sense neither locally and right-now, or in the big picture. So far as the humanity. That is made abundantly clear in the last chapter, which is from the first person view of Unlikely Worlds. McAuley argued that the convenience of salvaging alien technologies provided humanity no progression at all. No new scientific discovery was made. In place they turned to embracing superstitions and mysticism, as the society was divided, and devolved into (space) feudalism, even though humans have advanced beyond our solar system. In this I suppose refers McAuley to neo-colonialism nowadays.

As expected from a veteran SF writer McAuley has orchestrated quite SFnal references into this book. For instance the chapter titles are all like ripped off from earlier SF works. one chapter name is called /Wizards of the Slime Planet/, like from a pulp fiction book; Another is /Speaker for the Dead/, and so on... There are in-jokes seasoned readers could laugh about but wouldn't obstruct those are not familiar with classics. (like /I guess it's so long and thanks for all the...) ( )

The sequel to last year's 'Something Coming Through' continues the the story of humans seeking the answers to the motivations of their 'helpers', the enigmatic and inscrutable Jackaroo. The futuristic Gold rush continues, scrabbling through the mysterious leavings of the 'Elder Cultures', sometimes finding riches, and sometimes madness or death. Lurking in the background are busineswoman Ada Morange and policeman Adam Nevers who have irreconcilable differences about the wisdom of using alien technology. And then there are the !Cha, who are only interested in the story...

Lisa Dawes and her partner Willie had eke out a living on Jackaroo Gift World First Foot, prospecting for exploitable alien artifacts. At least they did until the 'Bad Trip', which left both of them shattered, and carrying an alien ghosts in their heads. Eight years later, they have gone their separate ways when Lisa's ghost wakes. Something has happened to Willie. And it is not something good. In her quest to find out what has happened to Willie, Lisa begins a quest in which she loses everything...

A century in the future, Tony Okoye captains the Abalunam's Pride, seeking the alien secrets, hidden in stromatolite fossils on a slime planet, which, if decoded, might restore his family's fortune and reputation. When a heavily armed raider enters the system through the local wormhole mirror he must flee with what little his party has recovered, hoping that it will be enough. But he is betrayed and loses everything...

This sequel can be read well enough as a standalone. There is sufficient backstory recapitulation provided to make a pre-read of 'Something Coming Through' unnecessary. I think it is a stronger book than its prequel, with tension and mystery held throughout, and with a plausible and satisfying resolution. McAuley creates a deliciously eerie atmosphere, particularly with his worldscape descriptives, be it the strip mall encumbered deserts of First Foot, or the melancholy dankness of the eternally rainy streets of Tanrog, the only city of waterworld Veles. And he has learned the lesson of the Heechee, that the chase is most often more satisfying than the unveiling.

This one is on my Hugo longlist for 2017.

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Hundreds of years after the Jackaroos had freed humanity from the bonds of Earth and the solar system, humanity lives on the fifteen gift worlds and the worlds opened up by the discovery of the Ghajar ships that could be adapted to human use. Lisa and Tony are the two protagonists, separated by a couple of hundred years and the story is told with chapters from each other's point of view interleaved with each other. through their adventures we are supposed to learn the nature of the mysterious Jackaroo and the equally mysterious !Cha.

The story runs reasonably straightforwardly once I got my head round the interleaving and worked out that the storylines could not be taking place in the same timeline, but I did feel a bit let down by the actual writing. ( )