Stirling has hit an unexpectedly rich lode of creative ore, or perhaps finally plumbed a hidden reserve of talent: Either...
The splendid alternate universe Stirling invented in The Sky People (2006) has—quite justifiably—metamorphosed into a series.
Two hundred million years ago, mysterious aliens dropped by, terraformed Venus and Mars and stocked them with dinosaurs and other Mesozoic life forms from Earth. Two hundred thousand years ago, the Lords of Creation swung by again, this time conveying humans and other mammals to both planets. Now, in the year 2000, Mars’s ancient civilization—highly advanced in bioengineering, weak in physical science—is slowly dying, along with its emperor, Sajir sa-Tomond. Apparently without issue, the emperor is secretly preparing to declare his daughter, Teyud za-Zhalt, as his heir. Representing Earth’s Western powers, archaeologist Jeremy Wainman has come to Mars to locate and study the lost city Rema-Dza. His companion, intelligence agent Sally Yamashita, knows their real mission is to locate dangerously powerful ancient technology left by the Lords of Creation, one such device already having turned up on Venus, and keep it out of the hands of the Eastbloc competition. Jeremy’s guide will be Teyud, an expert and fearless warrior. But neither Teyud nor Sajir yet know that several political factions, among them ambitious Prince Heltaw, have figured out who Teyud really is and will stop at nothing to kill or control her. The pace soon heats up, while the wonders—magnificently wacky Martian biological machines; the planet’s antediluvian, fully developed and carefully crafted social system; alien technology so advanced it’s magic; the possibility that the aliens themselves are, somehow, still hanging around—never cease.
Stirling has hit an unexpectedly rich lode of creative ore, or perhaps finally plumbed a hidden reserve of talent: Either way, after years of happy somewhat-above-mediocrity, it’s a wonderful surprise.Pub Date: March 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7653-1489-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2007
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
Los Angeles of the 21st century is a land where death has been eradicated, thanks to nanotechnology, and so life is cheap. Every major city has a Necroville, where the first generation of the resurrected pay off the debts they incurred to be born again. McDonald (The Broken Land, 1992, etc.) juxtaposes the story of a group of young friends who gather annually in a celebratory night of the living dead against a literal clash of life and death as the army of the reborn wages war against their mortal enemies. But the real horror story here is about the living: Drug designer and playboy Santiago Columbar constantly seeks obliteration as an escape from life's ambiguities; yuppie cyberspace lawyer Yoyo Mok is so eager to soar up the virtual corporate ladder that she risks her friends' lives to solve the case of a resurrected rich client; and spoiled Toussaint, the son of Adam Tessler, who invented the resurrection process, betrays his father to a team of reborn terrorists. Each of these tales unfolds while battleships blast in high-orbit, corporate denizens maneuver in plush restaurants, and teens glide through all-night murder sprees. McDonald's lush prose paints a vivid and credible Armageddon. World-building SF that's punk, funky, and frightening: a fantastic acid trip to the end of the world.
Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1994
ISBN: 0-553-37416-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1994
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