The Author Comments: Cauldron

When the omega clouds first appeared, in The Engines of God, I had no intention of going any farther with them. They were what they were, and I saw no need for an explanation. Readers, I knew, would easily create a satisfactory one for themselves. That was part of the fun. They'd recognize that the clouds were an ancient weapon run amok. A hint of interstellar conflict in the distant past.

Or possibly that they were connected to a cosmic reclamation project, presumably the part that clears decaying neighborhoods.

There are different kinds of mysteries. Some types don't need explanation, and indeed lose some of their impact if they're held up to the light. The moonriders, a cosmic EPA force that show up in Odyssey, were such an obvious necessity if colliders could actually tear holes in the universe, that they required no explanation. Who cared specifically where they came from? The point was that somebody was out there, and fortunately they were keeping an eye on the dumber races. But the clouds were of a different order.

When readers began insisting that Hutch find an answer, I found myself in a box. To identify the mechanism behind the clouds as either a runaway weapons system or a runaway reconstruction operation was to replace the mystery with a mundane explanation that would already have occurred to everyone anyhow. And therefore to disappoint them. So I couldn't wrap up the clouds until I had a third option. Something artistic, maybe. That produced Hutch's theory, in Omega, that it was all a kind of cosmic symphony.

I should have known better. It's fair to say that an interstellar Tschiakowsky didn't exactly move anyone. So when the Locarno Drive became available, Hutch and her colleagues tried again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

— Jack McDevitt

June 28, 2008

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