Confluence
by Paul McAuley
1 of 3
science fiction
copyright 1997
read in August 2014
rated 8/10: really quite good
Confluence starts rather slowly. Then picks up speed. There are sections where the hero thinks deep thoughts -- authorial opinions -- for a page or two. A bit annoying but this world is different enough to need extra background reading.
And it is a different world ! Not amazingly uniquely fascinating... but fascinating enough. By the end of this book I think I understand the structure of this world... But why does it exist ? And what about the rest of the universe ??
The science, however, is unique... Rather, the knowledge of science is unique... within my own reading at least :-)
There is a mix of technology, from spears to ray guns, from horse and cart to antigravity floaters. People can no longer produce the more advanced technology -- but they do not think of it as magic.
Science and technology ability has been lost. Understanding and application remains. There are primitive people but the world civilisation is not -- technologically -- primitive.
The standard magic sword is understood to be an intelligent artifact. The search for parents is understood to be a search for people with a shared pattern of DNA. The spaceship parked by the mercenary market is known to be... a spaceship.
All this allows the hero to immediately embark on a more advanced level of quest. More advanced than in the usual primitive hero in a constructed world story, that is.
Yet the hero still teams up with the cunning yet loyal thief and the strong and impetuous warrior. With the hero -- a likeable trio of adventurers !
Then, at the end of the book, stage one is complete. Yes, it's clearly only the beginning of the quest. Yet it is a satisfactory ending. I could stop reading here and be satisfied.
Yet I do have the next two books.
I enjoyed this first book. I'm looking forward to reading the next.
====
Problems ? Solved
No comments:
Post a Comment