A telling profile of a racially divided society, and a pretty good love story too; despite a few procedural problems,...
The feudally matriarchal, blueskinned indigos—their menfolk are drones—own vast estates and consider themselves superior to the feudally patriarchal, technologicallyminded, goldenskinned gulden, whose women are chattels. Still, some indigo males work in the city, and some gulden males will work alongside indigo females; at biracial Biolab, indigo Nolan Adelpho specializes in developing antibiotics for diseases that affect only gulden. Other gulden, however, protesting indigo annexation of gulden lands, are turning to terrorism; Jex, the son of gulden leader Chay Zanlan, presently languishes in jail. His lover, indigo rebel Kit Candachi (her father was a rich and famous friend of the gulden) doesn't believe he's a terrorist, even after she's nearly killed in a bomb blast. Meanwhile, Nolan accidentally discovers that Biolab boss Cerisa Daylen has developed a disease to kill all gulden. She's already infected Chay Zanlan during his recent visit with Jex, and the disease will spread rapidly. Nolan, aware that Kit is Jex's lover, kidnaps her and forces her to take him to Chay Zanlan. Nolan explains what's going on and offers help to find a cure. As Kit and Nolan inevitably fall in love, Nolan ponders radical ways of forcing the races to work together.
A telling profile of a racially divided society, and a pretty good love story too; despite a few procedural problems, another top-notch outing for the underappreciated author of Wrapt in Crystal (1999), etc.Pub Date: April 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-441-00691-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2000
An expertly spun yarn by one of the best fantasy writers on the scene today.
Tolkien meets AI as Bennett (City of Stairs, 2014, etc.) returns with a busy, action-packed sequel to Foundryside (2018), neatly blending technology, philosophy, and fantasy.
Tevanne is a medieval-ish city-state made up of four “campos,” each controlled by a merchant guild. One lies in ruins, the outer wall now “little more than masonry and rubble about ten feet high.” The sight causes Sancia Grado, the nimble thief introduced in Foundryside, to wonder, “Did I do that?” Well, yes—and much more besides. Though in ruins, the campo still plays a role in the current proceedings even as Sancia and her cohort—Gregor, Orso, and other Foundrysiders with nicely Shakespearean names—start things off by trying to run a confidence game on the hitherto unexplored Michiel campo. As ever, things get complicated when the objects in Sancia’s world manifest consciousness through a clever process of programming called “scriving.” When a formidable foe named Crasedes Magnus enters the scene, having scrived himself into near invincibility, Sancia realizes she’s got her work cut out for her if Tevanne is going to survive and remain a playground for her mischief. The insider language comes thick and fast as Bennett spins out his story: “She’d never really had the opportunity to handle the imperiat much,” he tells us, “and unlike most scrived devices, she had difficulty engaging with hierophantic rigs.” Still, old-fashioned tools come in handy, as when Gregor dispatches an unfortunate watchman with his sword: “Orso saw hot blood splash his invisible barrier, and the soldier collapsed into the waters, pawing at his throat.” Vorpal blades won’t do much against Crasedes, though, for whom Bennett gives a fine backstory amid all the mayhem. It’s up to Sancia, as ever, to divine the magical means to make him rue his ways—or, as he thinks, as the very stones of Tevanne rise up to fight against him, “This…is not how I wanted things to go.”
An expertly spun yarn by one of the best fantasy writers on the scene today.Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6038-0
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
A United States space probe erratically falls from orbit and lands near a small Arizona town mysteriously wiping out all life in the vicinity except for two diametrically different survivors. Scientists have to determine "why a sixty-nine-year-old Sterno drinker with an ulcer is like a two-month-old baby". . . among other things. This details the secret mobilization of efforts and the extraordinary precautions taken as the U.S. tries to discover what ominous extraterrestrial entity is causing the plague... as it slowly mushrooms. Four biomedical scientists are encapsulated with the deadly probe far underground in an amazingly intricate decontamination chamber. Obviously based on a pipeline of information to actual equipment and installations (to be annotated with diagrams, etc.), this is horrifyingly immediate and filled with fascinating detail such as the fumigation chamber where they burn the outer epidermis off the skin. Brought right down to earth by what has appeared recently in the news, an exciting demonstration of the possible impossible.
Pub Date: May 26, 1969
ISBN: 006170315X
Page Count: 387
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1969
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