Stations of the Review
Mar. 21st, 2011 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
So last night I finished up Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick. It's a book that's 20 years old (which was when I was a freshman in high school and OH MY GOD I'M OOOOOLD!).
*ahem*
It was a really good book though. You've got the planet Miranda which is about to be inundated by a massive surge in water levels that will leave most of the planet under water. For the native flora and fauna, this isn't a problem as they've evolved to possess an amphibious morphology. When the waters cover the land, the plants and animals shift to an aquatic form until they recede and then it's back to a land-based form.
To this planet comes the bureaucrat (never named). He's an agent of the Department of Technology Transfer and he's here to track down a man named Gregorian who's fled to Miranda with unlawful technology and has set himself up as a wizard.
Adventure follows.
The book does a great job of evoking "sufficiently advanced technology". The bureaucrat has access to some very advanced technology but it all flows together in a surreal fashion. Meanwhile, the low-tech inhabitants of Miranda, living in a world alive with shapeshifters see little difference between technology and magic, save that the off-worlders hoard the former and spurn the latter.
In the course of all of this, the bureaucrat becomes involved in a sorcerous duel with Gregorian and works to uncover treachery within the virtual palace of his department.
All in all a very good book and it gives you a lot to chew on.
later
Tom
So last night I finished up Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick. It's a book that's 20 years old (which was when I was a freshman in high school and OH MY GOD I'M OOOOOLD!).
*ahem*
It was a really good book though. You've got the planet Miranda which is about to be inundated by a massive surge in water levels that will leave most of the planet under water. For the native flora and fauna, this isn't a problem as they've evolved to possess an amphibious morphology. When the waters cover the land, the plants and animals shift to an aquatic form until they recede and then it's back to a land-based form.
To this planet comes the bureaucrat (never named). He's an agent of the Department of Technology Transfer and he's here to track down a man named Gregorian who's fled to Miranda with unlawful technology and has set himself up as a wizard.
Adventure follows.
The book does a great job of evoking "sufficiently advanced technology". The bureaucrat has access to some very advanced technology but it all flows together in a surreal fashion. Meanwhile, the low-tech inhabitants of Miranda, living in a world alive with shapeshifters see little difference between technology and magic, save that the off-worlders hoard the former and spurn the latter.
In the course of all of this, the bureaucrat becomes involved in a sorcerous duel with Gregorian and works to uncover treachery within the virtual palace of his department.
All in all a very good book and it gives you a lot to chew on.
later
Tom
