Hi fellow denizens of r.a.sf.w.,

"Implied SPACES" by Walter John Williams

It is set in the far future when mankind with the aid of solar power
True Artificial Intelligences has mastered control of immense energies
which permit the creation of pocket universes. The Earth is
essentially abandoned to restore itself.
The hero is an Elite of the highest rank over a 1000 years
old with a a supplementary AI and an avatar of one of the Solar
powered TAI in the form of a cat though it can change forms.
Immortality and death-less-ness are achieved by Pools of Life
which are common in all universes settled. Nano machines repair the
bodies of all and store backups of minds.
The Pools of Life permit some deviations and reconstructions
in other forms for the people who want to go to otherwise inhospitable environments and a person can decide to leave the basic line and
send his backups off to other worlds. There they may go mad...
So we have an immense human population with special worlds
for adventure and the story starts in one of these with the hero,
a bard with a magic sword. The character takes control of the local
caravan guards to route a group of bandits and we meet Grax the
Troll, who will show up later.
We have robotic wars with human commanders.
We have super-science. And some humor...
JWW did a good job with this one.
Hardcover of 266 pages from Night Shade Books in San Francisco
in 2008 at $24.95 originally. You can get it for free at the <https://archive.org/details/impliedspaces0000will>
Or you can buy a copy at the usual shops online.
I was lucky enough to find it at the San Francisco Public Library Main.

bliss

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