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
Modesitt switches back to science fiction after his fantasy trilogy about the kingdom of Recluce (The Magic Engineer, p. 103, etc.), introducing an initially intriguing alternate world that is comparable in development to ours but has a substantially different history—and where ghosts are real. Northeast Columbia (America), with its deep Dutch roots, is the quiet, hard-working, chocolate- drinking region to which former government agent Johan Eschbach has retired to teach environmental economics. But then one of his colleagues, Miranda Miller, is mysteriously murdered—and Johan beholds her ghost at the moment of its formation. Gradually, he realizes that he has become the pivot in a power struggle between President Armstrong, Speaker Hartpence, and various foreign powers for control of new ``Babbage engine'' (computer) technology that can banish ghosts (usually they hang around) or create them to order, leaving behind a still-living and compliant zombie. So, to protect himself, Johan is forced to investigate the murder while fending off the attentions of the Spazi (secret police) and probing the affairs of his beautiful but untrustworthy lover, the singer Llysette, a spy for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It's all marvelously inventive. But the scenario has two major flaws: the ghosts, which don't fit and are never convincingly explained; and the lack of specific historical divergence points from which Modesitt's alternate history might reasonably flow. A fairly typical performance, then, alluring yet ultimately unsatisfying.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-312-85720-9
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
In Goonan's medium-future world, space radiation prevents all broadcast communications, so communities are isolated. The wholesale application of nanotechnology, or ``nan,'' has led to dreadful wars, plagues, and a population crash. Young Verity, one of a small community of Shakers subsisting near deserted Dayton, Ohio, finds she has the ability to talk with the still extant, computerized Dayton library. She learns of the existence of the Queen City, Cincinnati, which is ``Enlivened,'' constructed and run by nan, governed by a hive mentality composed of huge genetically tailored Bees and Flowers that have become trapped in a hormonal feedback loop. After various adventures, and aided by her musician friend, Sphere, Verity enters Cincinnati and learns that she is only the latest of a series of clones programmed by one of the Enlivened city's vanished architects. Her function is to help the city out of its mindless, seasonal cycle of creation and destruction. So Verity must join the city's hormonal-informational network and become the queen Bee—a transformation that the city's mad creator is determined to prevent. Fuzzy, overlong, often poorly controlled, but flavorsome and wonderfully inventive, the centerpiece being Goonan's dazzling vision of new technology run riot. An exceptionally promising debut novel.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-312-85678-4
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
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