Books : Crystal Rain

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Author name: Tobias S. Buckell

 : Crystal Rain
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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780765350909
ISBN number: 0765350904
Label: Tor Science Fiction
Manufacturer: Tor Science Fiction
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: May 29, 2007
Publishing house: Tor Science Fiction
Sale Popularity Level: 59349
Studio: Tor Science Fiction




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Editor's Notes and Comments:

Product Description:
Long ago, so the stories say, the old-fathers came to Nanagada through a worm’s hole in the sky. Looking for a new world to call their own, they brought with them a rich mélange of cultures, religions, and dialects from a far-off planet called Earth. Mighty were the old-fathers, with the power to shape the world to their liking---but that was many generations ago, and what was once known has long been lost. Steamboats and gas-filled blimps now traverse the planet, where people once looked up to see great silver cities in the sky.
 
Like his world, John deBrun has forgotten more than he remembers. Twenty-seven years ago, he washed up onto the shore of Nanagada with no memory of his past. Although he has made a new life for himself among the peaceful islanders, his soul remains haunted by unanswered questions about his own identity.
 
These mysteries take on new urgency when the fearsome Azteca storm over the Wicked High Mountains in search of fresh blood and hearts to feed their cruel, inhuman gods. Nanagada’s only hope lies in a mythical artifact, the Ma Wi Jung, said to be hidden somewhere in the frozen north. And only John deBrun knows the device’s secrets, even if he can’t remember why or how!
 
Crystal Rain is the much-anticipated debut novel by one of science fiction’s newest and most promising talents.




Customer Reviews
User popularity level:  out of 5 stars

Rated by buyers 3 out of 5 stars - 3 1/2. A decent very first effort
"Crystal Rain" by Tobias Buckell

On a distant planet in a distant future: John DeBrun washed up on a beech in Nanagada 27 years ago with no memory of whom or what he was. Now John makes his living as a fisherman and lives with his wife Shanta and son though he still desires to know who he was and where he came from. Meanwhile the Azteca who until now have been held at bay by an impassible mountain range have now found a way to wage a full scale war on their enemies in Nanagada. Their motivation comes from what they perceive to be gods, the Teotle which are actually aliens. Now John and the Nanagada government must race to unlock the technological secrets of the old fathers which are across an ocean and buried in the snow in order to save the people of Nanagada from the Azteca and their gods the Teotle...

"Crystal Rain" is a decent very first effort by Buckell but he does have some holes in his writing game to fill.

The Good: The story overall was interesting and Buckell builds a solid world with an interesting back story that is gradually explained as the story unfolds. The dynamic he created between the Gods/aliens and humans is interesting. The humans come to believe that the Aliens are gods beacuse of their power and because so much time has passes since the two species had initially been introduced.

The Bad: Buckell's writing is vague at times and leaves a little to be desired in this department. There also seems to be a lack of continuity in his writing as characters seem to immediately go to their subsequent action without any lead from one point to another.

Overall: "Crystal Rain" is a decent very first effort by Buckell and is worth checking out for any Sci-fi fan.




Rated by buyers 2 out of 5 stars - Incoherent mish-mash
I waited nearly a year to get this book because of all the good things I read about it online, however I am very disappointed. First the dialect spoken by most characters in the book was very grating and difficult to read. The author should have either used proper English or committed himself to using real Caribbean patois. The dialect he invented is just a mixture of bad verb arrangement and ignorance of the verb "to be". It is very annoying, maybe more so because I am from Jamaica and I know reading Caribbean dialects can be very enjoyable as shown by the poetry of Louise Bennet and the novels of V. S. Naipaul. Maybe he could have invented his own dialect like Iain M Banks did in 'Feersum Endjinn', that at least would have been interesting. Secondly the story is incoherent and the pacing is very weird,time is compressed and expanded at will. Lastly the lack of details or descriptions and or character development is missed in this novel, some authors can do sparse (Elmore Leonard) but this author obviously cannot and this story could have being better with more details. I did however like the story, there is nothing wrong with Mr. Buckell's imagination and the sense of a larger,more interesting and enjoyable novel was apparent throughout and that is why I intend to buy Ragamuffin, the sequel to this novel, perhaps Mr. Buckell has obtained more skill or a better editor so I'll give him another chance.




Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - Original and fun
Crystal Rain is a strong debut. Tobias Buckell has taken the lost civilization genre of science fiction and created a wonderful story. The characters are mysterious and compelling, and John deBrun cuts a dashing and heroic figure whose own personal worries give the reader and emotional connection. But the characters are not deeply emotional. There is some philosophical discussion, but it is mostly surface level. Mostly, this story is an adventure story, with a mystery of space and time providing cohesion to the plot.
[...]



Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - Good Book
Great book with original setting. This book started out good, then it got better. It finished in its third act with a great vast revelation of an even greater reality. I liked the ending as well. Buckell left some dangling threads (although not integral to the plot) at the end, so that readers can leave some things to their imagination, and to the possibilities of sequels. I will be reading the subsequent book in this series, entitled Ragamuffin.

Reading some of the negative reviews, I can say that I can understand some people having difficulty with the dialog and the clash of Aztecs and Caribbean cultures. I didn't, however. I really feel that the author makes it work.

I enjoyed this book, and with it being Tobias Buckell's first, it is a monumental achievement.



Rated by buyers 3 out of 5 stars - Culture Clash
As a very first novel, this book shows promise. There is quite a bit of originality in the author's choice of cultures to highlight: those of the Caribbean islands and that of the Aztecs. Creating a world where these two cultures would logically co-exist is no small feat. Even better is his characterization of some of the natives of these two cultures, as most readers would have great difficulty even imagining the mindset of a Aztec warrior and his calm acceptance of ritual sacrifice, or a person who would normally think very first of hiding and running when attacked. But this is something that Mr. Buckell does well, to where you can get inside the heads of his characters and believe in their reactions.

What's not so well done is the basic plot and setup scenario, as here we have once more a society that has slid down the technological ladder to where the people no longer understand the technology that originally created the world but are slowly rediscovering things like electricity, where legends of the `old-times' dominate over any recorded history, and where relics (including a few near-immortals) from that distant past become the dominate point of focus for the story. That the two described cultures would be at odds with each other is a given; that the two sides would each be aided by `gods' (local aliens) is not, and this aspect comes across as somewhat unnecessary, as we are never given the motivations or complete history of these aliens (for that, you'll have to read the sequel Ragamuffin).

There were some aspects of the technological renaissance that were done quite well. The description of modifying an ocean-going steam/sailing ship to where it could travel over ice via the addition of tank-like treads is exactly the kind of innovation that could be expected from the portrayed society, and doesn't depend on any call to long-buried information or help from any of the somewhat incredibly endowed near-immortals. But such items kept getting buried underneath a story driven in the main by the thoughts and actions of one of those immortals who has lost his memory, a literary device I nearly always find somewhat lacking.

The dialogue is often done in Caribbean patios, with odd word order and (sometimes) lack of appropriate adjectives. This does take a little getting used to, but it does help define both the culture and the characters, and is used sparingly enough that it doesn't cause a problem. The story is told from multiple points of view, a definite plus, especially when we get inside the head of one of the Aztec characters.

Some good characterization, a nice depiction of two different cultures not normally seen within the confines of sf, but a pretty standard adventure plot with a world we've seen many times before.

---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)


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