Paul J. McAuley
Mr A Yool
Hi there,
I've just finished reading McAuley's trilogy-after-a-fashion, "Four
Hundred Billion Stars" to "Eternal Light", and I was wondering if
anyone could recommend any of his more recent novels.
I've already read "Red Dust" (my favourite), but there are at least
two other novels of his ("Fairyland" and "Pasquale's Angel" (sp?))
which I've not heard a lot about. How do they compare to his other
works?
<<<<< SPOILER WARNING >>>>>
Whilst I'm here, does anyone know quite what the relationship between
"Secret Harmonies" and the other two trilogy books, FHBS and EL, is?
I was told the three books form a trilogy, and I did notice that the
planet in SH (Elysium) is mentioned in (at least) EL, but the whole
story turned out to be a complete tangent for me. And I was also
worried that there didn't appear to be any mention of the phase
graffle drive in SH - hence why everyone got so upset when the ship
from Earth didn't show up as planned. Any ideas?
Cheers,
A.
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Andrew Yool, University of Warwick, http://www.oikos.warwick.ac.uk/~plumbago/
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Christian Claiborn
ls...@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr A Yool) writes:
> I've just finished reading McAuley's trilogy-after-a-fashion, "Four
> Hundred Billion Stars" to "Eternal Light", and I was wondering if
> anyone could recommend any of his more recent novels.
> I've already read "Red Dust" (my favourite), but there are at least
> two other novels of his ("Fairyland" and "Pasquale's Angel" (sp?))
> which I've not heard a lot about. How do they compare to his other
> works?
_Fairyland_ is good. Better than _Red Dust_, to my tastes, and better
than _Pasquale's Angel_ too.
Fairyland is bio-punk (is that a genre, or did I just invent a
word?). It's a Gibsonesque novel about genetic hackers and nanotech,
and includes some of the most twisted imagery I can remember reading.
Particularly memorable is the scenes which take place in a delapidated
Disneyworld.
It's set in the same "universe" as his story "Gene Wars," which is in
one of the Dozois collections a few years back.
I just picked it up last week in trade pb. Definitely worth a shot.
christian
--
Christian Longshore Claiborn - 508-657-7000, x3304 - c...@cmgi.com
"One cannot in the nature of things expect a little tree that has
been turned into a club to put forth leaves." -- Martin Buber
Duncan Hedderley
Andrew
I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that I assumed Secret
Harmonies took place in the same universe as 4HBS and EL, but several
hundred years earlier (To use a Niven analogy, it's like the
relationship between World of Ptavvs or A Gift From Earth and
Ringworld). He's also written some short stories in that universe
(mostly in the latter, Brazilian/Re-United Nations/FTL period, I think)
- one appeared in Interzone many moons ago (40-ish), and several appear
in his collection King Of The Hill. I like McAuley's stories, but they
all seem to lose their drive about 2/3 of the way through...
BTW How are the UWSF&FS these days?
Duncan Hedderley
(Duncan.H...@BBSRC.AC.UK)
Reading, UK
David Kennedy
In article <53bhsa$5...@crocus.csv.warwick.ac.uk>,> Hi there,
>
> I've just finished reading McAuley's trilogy-after-a-fashion, "Four
> Hundred Billion Stars" to "Eternal Light", and I was wondering if
> anyone could recommend any of his more recent novels.
>
> I've already read "Red Dust" (my favourite), but there are at least
> two other novels of his ("Fairyland" and "Pasquale's Angel" (sp?))
> which I've not heard a lot about. How do they compare to his other
> works?
I have read both of these; they're widely touted in the UK
, I'm surprised you haven't seen a review of either so far,
especially since "Fairyland" won the Authur C. Clarke award (I think,
it either won or was runner up for something...is that vague enough?).
I hesitate to write too much about them as it has been a while since I
read them and I can't recall details without a look at the cover or a
quick scan of the blurb text. But they're very good, I'd reccomend them
to you. They are two very different books, both in their setting (one
medieval and one harsh future cf cyberpunk) and their writing in
general. Roughly speaking "Pasquale's Angel" is a renassaince
(I know I spelt that wrongly!) murder mystery spiced with an
artist's dream of a perfect painting, its not a perfect book, but its
very very good. I seem to recall being puzzled/unsure/annoyed about
a plot point but it totally escapes me now, but don't let that put you off,
I enjoyed the story telling a lot.
"Fairyland" should be inthe bookshops near you by the hundreds by now
(Waterstones in Belfast appears to have 200 copies under their 'new
stuff' table!). Its an excellent book, I'd reckon I'd do it a disservice
by trying to summarise the plot after such a long time; but again I remember
enjoying it a lot. Its much better written IMHO than a lot of his earlier
stuff, it may be about the best book he's written. Definately give it
a go. It is a bit of departure from the other books he has written in
some ways. Reading P's Angel and Fland back to back should be an
interesting experience.
--
David Kennedy, The Queen's University of Belfast.
" I come from a hungry family - my mother used to
count us after every meal. " Bob Shaw
Vlatko Juric-Kokic
On 7 Oct 1996, Christian Claiborn wrote:
> Fairyland is bio-punk (is that a genre, or did I just invent a
> one of the Dozois collections a few years back.
Is it the same universe that his story "Slaves" is set in? Or "Slaves"
are a part of _Fairyland_?
------------
vlatko | Still getting about 40% of |
| the newsfeed. Take pity. :) |
vko...@r101.com.hr | Mail me your response. |
John Boston
> Hi there,
>
> I've just finished reading McAuley's trilogy-after-a-fashion, "Four
> Hundred Billion Stars" to "Eternal Light", and I was wondering if
> anyone could recommend any of his more recent novels.
>
> I've already read "Red Dust" (my favourite), but there are at least
> two other novels of his ("Fairyland" and "Pasquale's Angel" (sp?))
> which I've not heard a lot about. How do they compare to his other
> works?
I just read FAIRYLAND and found it extremely enjoyable--more so
than ETERNAL LIGHT, which I got bored with by the time I finished, or RED
DUST, in which I have yet to get past page 30.
FAIRYLAND is set in a mid-21st Century which is dominated equally
by biotechnology and information technology. The main protagonist is an
underground gene hacker. Plot similarities to NEUROMANCER are probably
intentional (but not obtrusive or annoying). The general ambience of the book
is similar to great stacks of cyberpunk--you know, low-intensity warfare everywhere,
everybody's in business for themselves, government is mostly a joke, trip over
another subculture at every step--except that McAuley has a talent for
humanizing. There are large numbers of minor characters and cameos, and
they resemble human beings rather than cynical decorations. (The protagonist
even has a mother.) McAuley is also refreshingly good at the basic mechanics
of putting one word after another clearly, economically and unpretentiously. Its
main fault is that the complicated plot gets pretty murky and hard to follow by the
end of the book. But overall it's a fine performance. While reading the early
parts of the book I almost read past my subway stop.
The other notable characteristic of the book is that the US paperback
edition, just released, has the worst typo I have ever seen on the outside of a
book--what looks like a line or two of dropped text starting in the middle of a word.
(The text of the book, however, is pretty well edited and proofed.)
John Boston
BLANG
In <1996Oct8.1...@queens-belfast.ac.uk>, D.Ke...@qub.ac.uk (David Kennedy) writes:
<snip>
>general. Roughly speaking "Pasquale's Angel" is a renassaince
>(I know I spelt that wrongly!) murder mystery spiced with an
>artist's dream of a perfect painting, its not a perfect book, but its
>very very good. I seem to recall being puzzled/unsure/annoyed about
>a plot point but it totally escapes me now, but don't let that put you off,
>I enjoyed the story telling a lot.
>
I have to offer a differing viewpoint. I read _Pasquale's Angel_ a
few months ago and almost gave up on it. It was thoroughly boring.
But I did slog through it and then quite happily returned it to the
library. That is one book I was very glad I didn't go out and buy.
I've seen others who have differing opinions as well, but for me,
the tale just lacked anything to make it interesting. The characters
were dry, there seemed to be no action, the mystery wasn't mysterious
at all, and moreover the alternate history part of it didn't really make
much difference to the story. I big thumbs down from me.
Brian
EllenDat
>>>>Subject: Re: Paul J. McAuley
>From: Vlatko Juric-Kokic <vko...@r101.com.hr>
>Message-ID: ><Pine.LNX.3.91.96100...@master.r101.com.hr>
I believe that "Slaves" is an offshoot of *Fairyland.*
Ellen Datlow
Fiction Editor
OMNI
http://www.omnimag.com
MSpeller PKincaid
John Boston <jbo...@delphi.com> wrote in response to
ls...@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr A Yool)'s query on Paul McAuley's more recent
work
> I just read FAIRYLAND and found it extremely enjoyable--more so
> than ETERNAL LIGHT, which I got bored with by the time I finished, or
> RED DUST, in which I have yet to get past page 30.
I got similarly stuck with RED DUST when it first came out, but
persevered with a second reading and found it much easier to get through,
which supports a friend's contention that Paul McAuley is an author who
benefits from being reread. Having just read practically the complete
works, I would concur with this.
McAuley himself suggests one should think of RED DUST as Chinese cowboys
in space, but I think this rather understates the book, which looks at
cloning and Elvis cults in the far future, as well as tackling that
knotty little problem about who does what with Mars from a slightly
different perspective.
>
> FAIRYLAND is set in a mid-21st Century which is dominated equally
> by biotechnology and information technology. The main protagonist is
> an underground gene hacker. Plot similarities to NEUROMANCER are
> probably intentional (but not obtrusive or annoying). The general
> ambience of the book is similar to great stacks of cyberpunk <snip>
> except that McAuley has a talent for humanizing. There are large
> numbers of minor characters and cameos, and they resemble human
> beings rather than cynical decorations.
Yes, I would agree with all this; to my mind, one of McAuley's real
strengths is that he has fallible, believable, unpretentious characters,
and he likes them to find some kind of happy resolution. And his novels
have plenty of detail and texture, which is why they definitely benefit
from a second reading.
I would also recommend PASQUALI'S ANGEL very highly. Set in an
alternative Renaissance Italy where Leonardo da Vinci's inventions were
built and pretty much changed the world, it's a fascinating
quasi-detective story with a good deal of discussion of the role of the
artist as artisan, and some marvellous set-pieces which might be magic,
might be science. It's tremendous fun.
Also, do think about his short stories. There are two collections, KING
OF THE HILL and the new one, THE INVISIBLE COUNTRY (this latter has four
stories in the same universe as FAIRYLAND) and I recommend both of these
very highly as well.
Maureen Kincaid Speller
mks...@cix.compulink.co.uk
Feel free to mail me direct for details of membership of the British
Science Fiction Association -- we have members worldwide!
John D. Owen
BLANG@ wrote:
> I have to offer a differing viewpoint. I read _Pasquale's Angel_ a
> few months ago and almost gave up on it. It was thoroughly boring.
> But I did slog through it and then quite happily returned it to the
> library. That is one book I was very glad I didn't go out and buy.
> I've seen others who have differing opinions as well, but for me,
> the tale just lacked anything to make it interesting. The characters
> were dry, there seemed to be no action, the mystery wasn't mysterious
> at all, and moreover the alternate history part of it didn't really make
> much difference to the story. I big thumbs down from me.
>
> Brian
Which just goes to show that people's tastes vary enormously, and you
can never pass along a recommendation on a book without some qualms,
unless you really know the person you are talking to has similar tastes
to you.
Personally, I loved Pasquale's Angel, and the only problem I had with it
was that it was too damned short -- I wanted to know more about that
alternative world, and what happened next. The characters were rich and
vibrant, the storyline flowed nicely, the mystery was, if not insoluble,
at least difficult to predict absolutely until late in the book. Above
all the conceit at the heart of that book, that Da Vinci (and others)
really did set off the Industrial Revolution during the Renaissance, is
wonderfully realised -- McAuley really did his research, and made it
beleivable. As for the alternate history part not making a difference to
the story: well, Brian, I can only presume the American version was a
very, very different story to the one that I read!
JDO