The driving force behind this—one of Ballard's most puzzling, disappointing and least impressive efforts—is the concept of America as Land of Fantasy, an Unlimited Dream Company. It first appeared in England in 1981; not surprising that it took seven years to brave the Atlantic crossing. The shaky foundations: at the end of the 20th century, a devastating off shortage caused worldwide economic collapse; with America abandoned, an artificially altered climate opened up the Eurasian Arctic but reduced the eastern US to a desert. Now, a hundred years later, a band of scientists and explorers—all American-descended—steams out of Plymouth on a voyage of rediscovery. Threatened by apparently senseless nuclear explosions, haunted by gigantic projections of bygone folk heroes (John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda, etc.), and accompanied by latter-day Indians (bearing names like Heinz, GM, and Xerox), the expedition crosses the desert to reach the fabled West. Now surrounded by dense jungle, Las Vegas—nuclear-powered, neon-lit, filled with robot presidents—survives as a high-tech enclave by Charles Manson, self-styled President of the US. The expedition's leader, Wayne, falls under Manson's spell, only gradually realizing that Manson is as insane as his ancient namesake, intent on using the nation's last nukes to bring down an orgy of destruction. Ballard's intensity seems almost incidental here, lost among the hollow and unpersuasive underpinnings, wildly overcomplex or contradictory motivations, obvious symbolism, and murky satire. No Empire of the Sun this, nor even The Day of Creation (p. 298), it leaves the reader wondering, simply, why?
Pub Date: Sept. 25, 1988
ISBN: 0881845477
Page Count: -
Publisher: Carroll & Graf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1988
The sequel to To Save the Sun (1992) shares the previous book's large-canvas premise as the Empire of the Hundred Worlds pursues a generation-spanning project to save Earth's dying sun. Despite the hard-science backdrop, much of the plot concerns Lord Jephthah, a mysterious demagogue who preaches hatred of the alien Sarpan. Now the discovery of still another new race on a distant planet sends the finest minds of the Empire to study it — as does Jephthah, who seeks new evidence to discredit the Emperor, followed by Imperial agents hoping to catch Jephthah. Many of the central characters from the previous volume — long-lived through life-extension technology or cryogenic sleep — make return appearances. In an interesting, but insufficiently developed subplot, an Australian aborigine leader named Billy Woorunmarra attempts to reconnect his far-flung people with their traditions. Well-paced, if sometimes melodramatic; overall an improvement over its predecessor.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0812523822
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
A shelf-cracking sequel to The Great and Secret Show (1989) that begs the question: Is this sort of hermetic dross really worth the felling of defenseless forests? It's back to the shores of Quiddity, the undulant dream sea that separates worldly Cosm (a.k.a. the Helter Incendo, where we Sapas Humana live) from the trippy Metacosm (home of fabulous beings with names like Noah and King Texas), for a restaging of the epic struggle for the Art, major magic that was last coveted by the infinitely wicked Kissoon, who sponsored the previous battle to control this transcendental force. Itinerant biker chick Tesla Bombeck leads the way to Everville, a sleepy small town in Oregon about to be savaged by the passage of the Iad Uroboros—a mindless, evil juggernaut bent to Kissoon's will—through a rip in the veil between Cosm and Metacosm. Determined to thwart Kissoon, Bombeck enlists the aid of several cronies, among them Catholic gumshoe Harry D'Amour, a tattooed student of necromancy; computer archivist Nathan Grillo, guardian of the novel's paranormal Internet; and Phoebe Cobb, an Everville resident whose lover, Joe Flicker, has fled to Quiddity. A vast array of freaks and oddities—moody ghosts, supernatural impresarios, serpents molded from feces—crops up as everyone lurches toward the apocalypse at Everville's crossroads (there's even a vigilante marching band). Flogging his readers with one limp cliffhanger after another and concocting increasingly more baroque pseudo-religious explanations for each new image of wonder or shock that floats, flies, drifts, swims, or slithers into view—while relinquishing a lot of the sex and gore that have enlivened other efforts—Barker gasses on to a feeble climax before abandoning the story to its doleful collapse. The man should have his pens and paper taken away before he can get to thinking about a trilogy. Everville? Never mind.
Pub Date: Oct. 27, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-017716-0
Page Count: 704
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
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