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Review #570 - Dated: 22nd of December, 2004
Author: Tucker |
Wowzers! What a book... and this is just the first installment of a series! A long-time fan of Peter's literary works, I was very interested to see if he would follow in the Night's Dawn style of technology, with biotechnology vs nanotechnology... nope, whole new stuff in here folks, whole different version of the universe in fact.
This had the advantage of giving him a whole new free reign to weave a new story, without having to risk contradicting 'known facts' - a common theme when you have fans who will pick your stories to bits and hassle over the smallest error or ambiguity. (Don't believe it happens? Go to any sci-fi convention and just watch.)
I found this book a bit hard to get into at first, but I suspect that was because I was unable to sit down and dig right in due to workload pressures. However, by the 4th chapter or so I was really enjoying the read quite intensely. With some very detailed, and internally-consistant science and quantum physics going on, it really engaged both sides of my brain. That's a rare thing for me, most books stimulate either one side or the other, but rarely both.
The aliens he creates are varied in form, function and culture, and range from near-godlike aliens who get addicted to the digitally-stored memories of humans, through to a giant slug-like creature that talks with patterns of ultra-violet light. From the mystic Silfen (the original creatures that inspired the Fairy myths) to the overly logical Prime, locked away behind the esoteric forcefields that surround the Dyson Pair. They are all equally strange, yet easy to understand thanks to Peter's easy style of writing.
Overall, I was very impressed, and eagerly anticipate another brilliant series in the making. Though it was a little hard to keep track of the many sub-plots, it was easy to see the overall pattern forming, despite the red-herrings and twists popping up all over the place. Roll on book 2!
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