Count to Infinity – John C. Wright

The first two thirds of “Count to Infinity” feels like Olaf Stapledon’s “Star Maker”. The author has a large story to tell, but the time scale is so great that the historical synopsis hardly leaves room for a human-scale plot. The good news is that it provides a coherent back-story for the first five books. The bad news is that almost nothing of the earlier plot survives. Except for the resolution of the love triangle - which was one of the less-interesting plot elements.

The last third of the book feels like a miracle play. The characters, aside from the lovers, are collective intelligences of cosmic scale, but they just have walk-on parts and simple characterizations. “I am - a cluster of galaxies with an intelligence of 10^27! I am conflicted, and cannot decide!”

What they are being asked to decide - mild spoiler warning - is whether to be jerks. In the earlier books we are introduced to an ethical calculus that looks a lot like “might makes right”. In game terms, in a finite universe with finite resources, entities will choose betrayal and aggression over cooperation. In this book they are being asked to take Pascal’s Gamble - that if there is any chance of an infinite reward in the afterlife (or cosmological equivalent), better behavior becomes rational. The catch is “any chance”. If the infinite reward has to be taken on faith, what makes gambling on a better afterlife different from spending Halloween night in a pumpkin patch?

If you’ve read the first five books of the Eschaton, you’ll want to read “Count to Infinity” for closure.