A million open books

[bluegargantua]

Hi,

So I just finished tearing through A Million Open Doors by John Barnes. I really liked this book, but mostly as a novel and not as sci-fi. By which I mean that there were a number of interesting ideas, and there were plenty of exciting moments, but it was mostly in how the characters (well, protagonist mainly) grew and changed throughout the book.

Right, so we've got Giraut Leones who lives in Nou Occitan on the planet Wilson. Humanity has spread out among the stars using sub-light ships and stasis tubes. So humanity has mostly lived in isolation from one another and that's given rise to what's commonly known as the Thousand Cultures. But recently, teleportation technology has been developed and now those cultures are slowly coming into contact with one another.

Giraut is a jovent a dashing young rake who fights duels, composes poems and pines for beautiful ladies. He also rails against the influx of off-world influences and it's detrimental effect on Nou Occitan culture. After his current love affair ends badly, he joins his friend who is becoming an ambassador for the Thousand Cultures to the world of Caledony. In Caledony, Rational Christianity holds sway and everyone is expected to do what is most rational. The arrival of the Thousand Cultures here will be even more disruptive than in Nou Occitan.

So Giraut does a lot of growing up fast and learns to see the strengths in this foreign culture and the weaknesses of his own. Which, yeah, sounds pretty tepid for a plot, but it's a lot better than that. His awakening is handled well and isn't as force-fed as you might think.

There are a couple of follow on books and I'm already looking around to pick them up.

later
Tom

p.s. Also, the spell-check in Firefox doesn't seem to recognize teleportation. Which I think is just sad.

Comments

[shogunhb.livejournal.com]

I have that book. I haven't gotten to it yet.