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What's New
Review Features
S - Science Fiction
F - Fantasy
H - Horror
Complete Listing
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Adams, Douglas (S)
Asher, Neal (S)
Aylett, Steve (S)
Banks, Iain M (S)
Barclay, James (F)
Barker, Clive (H)
Baxter, Stephen (S)
Brin, David (S)
Bury, Stephen (S)
Card, Orson Scott (S)
Cherryh, CJ (S/F)
Clute, John (S)
Cockayne, Steve (F)
Cook, Glen (F)
Danielewski, Mark (H)
Dick, Philip K (S)
Egan, Greg (S)
Feist, Raymond (F)
Gaiman, Neil (F)
Gibson, William (S)
Goodkind, Terry (F)
Grimwood, Jon C (S)
Hamilton, Peter (S)
Jeter, K.W. (S)
Jordan, Robert (F)
Lethem, Jonathan (S)
McAuley, Paul (S)
MacLeod, Ken (S)
Martin, George RR (F)
McMullen, Sean (S)
Miéville, China (S)
Moran, Daniel K (S)
Morgan, Richard K (S)
Nagata, Linda (S)
Niven, Larry (S)
Noon, Jeff (S)
Robinson, Kim S. (S)
Rucker, Rudy (S)
Simmons, Dan (S)
Smith, Michael Marshall (S)
Stephenson, Neal (S)
Sterling, Bruce (S)
Vinge, Vernor (S)
Westerfeld, Scott (S)
Williams, Sean (S)
Williams, Tad (S/F)
Collections (S/F)
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| The Classics |
Bradbury, Ray (S/H)
Burgess, Anthony (S)
Tolkien, JRR (F) |
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| Paul McAuley |
| Author Information |
Reviewed Books |
Other Books |
| Notes: (C) - Books of Confluence |
Fairyland
The Rift (Short Story)
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Four Hundred Billion Stars
Of the Fall
Eternal Light
Red Dust
Pasquale's Angel
Child of the River (C)
Ancients of Days (C)
Shrine of Stars (C) |
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 Our
Ranking Fairyland won both the Arthur C. Clarke
Award and the Philip K. Dick Award with good reason. The vision displayed of an
extremely dark future is very well thought out, chillingly so. The book is mostly
set in a futuristic Europe (a very cool prophecy of EuroDisney is also included)where
nanotechnology is running out of control. The book is actually set in multiple
time periods, following chunks of a scientist's quest for a constructed child
genius who he has become obsessed with. With each time advancement, McAuley escalates
the advancement and danger of the nanotechnology that both the chemist and the
child have spread. The child is trying to use it to save a race of constructs,
called dolls, the have more or less replaced pets. The question throughout the
book though, is has she gone too far and has the technology she created to free
these dolls, actually spiraled out of control enough to be used against her. McAuley
does an excellent job setting the background and setting for this novel. The potential
dangers of nanotechnology are spelled out in almost depressing detail, leaving
you wondering if there is any way to combat it if it becomes a reality. At points,
the technology itself as it is being used gets a bit confusing but after rereading
the section once or twice you start to get the idea of how it's working. It's
hard to tell if McAuley just struggled in explaining the technology or if he purposely
made it somewhat vague. Unfortunately, the vagueness also spreads into the characters
a bit. There are a few holes in the character's motivations and development, but
it doesn't hurt the story too much. All in all this is a tremendous read, the
dark vision of Europe and this technology alone is worth it for any fan of science
fiction. It will certainly serve as a sort of warning if and when nanotechnology
ever does become rampant. |
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