The January Review
Jan. 20th, 2009 10:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
I had a pretty good weekend. I also finished up another book.
January Dancer by Michael Flynn is a wonderful book that takes Celtic mythology and history and wraps it in a thick layer of creamy sci-fi goodness.
It's the super-far future and humanity is scattered among the stars. Travel between worlds happens via super-luminal "roadways" of hyperspace that connect major stars. Amos January captains a small tramp freighter with a fractious crew. A ship malfunction forces them to break out of hyperspace around an uncharted star to make repairs. On a planet orbiting the star, they find a pre-human installation and inside they discover an odd block of sandstone that slowly shifts and warps when you aren't looking at it, a "dancing" stone.
January takes the stone and that's the first thread among many that slowly start weaving themselves together in a dense, but lucid story that ranges far and wide following January's Dancer. The Celtic underpinnings are most obvious in the various accents of the characters, but there are numerous other references, from the King who lives in High Tara to the stellar rift that stands in for the Irish Sea and the empire on the far side and that's just the stuff a duffer like me can find, people with a real interest in this stuff might be able to dig up a lot more.
Like I say, it's a fun read and it skillfully manages its cast of characters and its themes. It's certainly something to look into if you'd like a fun slice of space opera.
later
Tom
I had a pretty good weekend. I also finished up another book.
January Dancer by Michael Flynn is a wonderful book that takes Celtic mythology and history and wraps it in a thick layer of creamy sci-fi goodness.
It's the super-far future and humanity is scattered among the stars. Travel between worlds happens via super-luminal "roadways" of hyperspace that connect major stars. Amos January captains a small tramp freighter with a fractious crew. A ship malfunction forces them to break out of hyperspace around an uncharted star to make repairs. On a planet orbiting the star, they find a pre-human installation and inside they discover an odd block of sandstone that slowly shifts and warps when you aren't looking at it, a "dancing" stone.
January takes the stone and that's the first thread among many that slowly start weaving themselves together in a dense, but lucid story that ranges far and wide following January's Dancer. The Celtic underpinnings are most obvious in the various accents of the characters, but there are numerous other references, from the King who lives in High Tara to the stellar rift that stands in for the Irish Sea and the empire on the far side and that's just the stuff a duffer like me can find, people with a real interest in this stuff might be able to dig up a lot more.
Like I say, it's a fun read and it skillfully manages its cast of characters and its themes. It's certainly something to look into if you'd like a fun slice of space opera.
later
Tom
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-20 04:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-20 04:56 pm (UTC)Oh good!
later
Tom