Soggy dialogue and paper-thin descriptive passages, hobbled further by Modesitt’s annoying habit of noting little more about...
A new triology extending, but not improving, Modesitt’s well-regarded Spellsong Cycle (Darksong Rising, 2000, etc.). “Something’s going to happen and you’ll be the one who’ll have to deal with it,” intones Anna, the Earth-born, singing sorceress heroine of the first three Spellsong books, to her protégée Secca. Anna then expires, fatally disturbed by changes in the Harmonies that govern this peculiar world where music is magic and a song, properly sung, can build bridges, pave roads, mine iron, or cause a cruel, feckless warlord to die of seemingly natural causes. Anna’s death sets off a storm of dissension and conflict. Within days, the wily Sea Priests, led by the Maitre of Sturinn use strange drumming magic to send a tidal wave smashing into a defenseless port city, and a shifty sorcerer named Belmar utters a spell that causes a bunch of soldiers to slit their own throats. Lord Robero of Defalk sends Secca and Secca’s apprentice Richina out to line up allies and put down insurrections. Secca, who is more accustomed to using sorcery for public-works projects, is eager use her powers against the army of rebellious Lord Mynntar—until she sings a spell designed to incinerate any soldier who isn’t loyal to Defalk, and ends up immolating some of her allies in a literal version of friendly fire. An interminable number of minor characters come and go, weighing in about the moral complexities of sorcery, as Secca readies for a climactic sea battle against the Sturinn, who are counting on Alcaren, a handsome cousin to the Maitre and himself a sorcerer of moderate skills, to beat Secca at her own game. Is it mere magic that makes them fall in love?
Soggy dialogue and paper-thin descriptive passages, hobbled further by Modesitt’s annoying habit of noting little more about his characters than their all-too-numerous smiles, frowns, and facial grimaces.Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-312-87877-X
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001
The belated sequel to Code of the Lifemaker (1983), Hogan's mildly satirical tale featuring an ecology composed entirely of machines derived from an alien factory that went haywire on Saturn's frigid, smoggy moon, Titan, a million years ago. The advanced, andromorph robot Taloids have constructed a medieval city-state culture. Leading the Earth contact team are talented illusionist Karl Zambendorf and chief scientist Werner Weinerbaum. The latter soon learns how to activate some huge, mysterious, apparently nonfunctional blocks of computer code (the machines' equivalent of DNA), and these prove to be the stored personalities of alien Borijans, who escaped their doomed planet but, because their ship was damaged on the journey, were never reconstituted. Once awake, however, Sarvik, his intelligent computer, GENIUS, and other Borijans prove to be wily, devious, and competitive. They easily persuade the gullible Weinerbaum to grant them access to the Earth uplink. Suddenly, Zambendorf—previously having frustrated an attempt by Earth industrialists to take over Titan's chaotic, evolving factories—and his Taloid allies find themselves in a struggle not only for Titan, but for the Earth itself. A beguiling and diverting yarn—once again, its benignly satirical elements help—that totters towards success despite a plot that grows increasingly more absurd.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-345-37915-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1994
Fourteen tales, written between 1987 and 1994, from physicist and author Sheffield (Godspeed, 1993, etc.), showcasing an impressive range of themes, ranging from near-mainstream historical to hard SF. ``Millennium,'' a short-short, is Sheffield's wryly effective retort to religious extremism. In the novella ``Destroyer of Worlds,'' he dramatizes the alarming consequences of an attempt to create a sustainable, self-contained ecology for use in space colonies and habitats. Sometimes, he includes real-life friends and colleagues as characters, as in the Nebula Awardwinning title story, a splendid contemporary investigation of a Victorian mystery involving Babbage Engines, incest, weird aliens, and a knotty problem in modern computing. In ``The Feynman Saltation,'' a brain- cancer victim treated with an experimental drug experiences visions that move farther and farther back in time. The dying, ruthless 21st-century dictator of ``The Fifteenth Station of the Cross'' summons Christ from the past in order to demand a cure. And ``Beyond the Golden Road'' details the progress of a papal delegation to the court of Kublai Khan. Constrained by the discipline necessary to write convincingly at a shorter length, Sheffield here is better—considerably better- -than in his often precariously plotted or uninterestingly peopled novels.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-312-85663-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1994
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
