This time around, I am going to talk about S.M. Stirling's ON THE OCEANS OF ETERNITY, Guy Gavriel Kay's LORD OF EMPERORS and Eric Nylund's SIGNAL TO NOISE
S.M. Stirling has been moving up the ladder of writing for quite a while now. From the underappreciated 5th Millenium series books, through the Draka novels, he has carved out a niche for himself in the alternate history/time travel genres much akin to Harry Turtledove. The Nantucket Trilogy, however, are his breakthrough books, since he has since gotten books published as hardcovers first.
ON THE OCEANS OF ETERNITY is the third of the Nantucket books. For the uninitated, some inexplicable event transported the entire Island of Nantucket one day, along with a Coast guard cutter nearby,not in space, but in time. In point of fact, the island and its inhabitants find themselves roughly 3250 years in the past. A single island, lost in time, and trying to survive.
Naturally to do so, they will have to employ what technology they can, develop what they must and alter history forever. A factional breakout in the first book sets up the rest of that and the subsequent book, and this one. One William Walker has managed, by strength of guns and force, made himself King of a Greek Empire that stretches from Italy to the Balkans, and Greece. Tartessos is a second power, given aid by Walker and led by a crafty native who has learned much of Nantucket's secrets and tried to uplift his culture. The Nantucketers themselves are mainly allied with a Babylonian power that in our history fell and ended their glory.
The story of the book is World War. There are conflicts ranging from Iberia, to Greece, to Asia Minor and even in California.
Characterization is somewhat better than in previous novels of his, and Stirling does female characters enthusiastically and well. The relationship between Marion and Swindapa is believable and tender. I could quibble on a couple of turns of plot, but if you've read the first two novels in the sequence, the third is much more of the same.
Recommended, although you should start with ISLAND IN THE SEA OF TIME, the first in the series, and then read AGAINST THE TIDE OF YEARS
Guy Gavriel Kay finishes his Sarantine Mosaic duology with LORD OF EMPERORS. Set in the same world, although hundreds of years earlier, as THE LIONS OF AL-RASSAN, Kay transmorgifies 7th century Byzantium into Sarantium.
It's different by a long shot from SAILING TO SARANTIUM, the first book of the set. In that one, we follow the story of Crispin, a mosaicist who travels from the backwaters of Varena to the mighty capital of the Empire. The journey itself is much of that book, and his quest to find his fame and fortune. In LORD OF EMPERORS, Crispin gets much less screen time in favor of new characters, and the politics of the game of thrones.
Kay feels free to depart from the historical record with his fictional characters, and this gives him the chance to tell unique stories. While a student of history will recognize the parallels to Justinian, Belisarius, Theodora and others, and the characterizations are much like their counterparts in the book, the events certainly diverge, and this is a good thing.
The one quibble I have with the book is that Crispin almost seems like a male wish-fulfillment. Literally, three of the beauties of the age (and a fourth beauty) fall for him at one point or another. A tad unrealistic, I should think, even if for plot reasons it helped lubricate matters.
Still, for the depiction of a city heavily influenced by Byzantium it is definitely worthwhile to read. You can literally see in your mind the exciting race that forms one of the high points in the novel.
Recommended.
Although he has seemingly fallen on hard times by being reduced to writing media tie-in novels, I am a fan of Eric Nylund's work. I sort of liked PAWN'S DREAM, although it was clearly a first novel and needed a bit of work. A GAME OF UNIVERSE I liked well enough to steal ideas and concepts for to help build Finndo's shadow in Ad Astra Per Amber. DRY WATER, his fantasy novel, was a sweet concoction, and zelaznyesque.
SIGNAL TO NOISE is pure science fiction.
In Signal to Noise, Jack lives in a near-future that is still shaken by climatic change and other disasters. Flooded coastlines, new seas and seismic shifts have changed this 21st century's players considerably. His America reads like a far-right's dream...corporations hold the power, and the National Security Organization has exceeded all of the excesses ever dreamed by the CIA and FBI. Technology has made virtual enviroments for everyday use practical. If there is a "bubble", you could choose to see the city street of San Francisco as it looked in 1860, rather than a century and half later.
A breakthrough of Jack's in finding information in white noise leads to alien contact, and commitant problems. Wheeler clearly has an agenda of his own, and Jack soon finds himself trying to outwit his business partner, his friends, and various governmental organizations.
Characterization is not strong here, but the scenery, the vision of a world which has taken a beating and is now different, as well as the twists and turns makes for a quick, engaging read. There is a sequel, that I will pick up at some point. The book isn't good enough to make the sequel a "must get now", but SIGNAL TO NOISE entertains and entertains well. Nylund writes in an easy manner.
Recommended
Posted by Jvstin at October 25, 2003 6:06 PM