Whales! Tally Ho!
Dec. 30th, 2005 01:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
I just finished reading: The Miocene Arrow by Sean McMullen. In a radical departure for me, I read the 2nd book of a trilogy. It turns out this wasn't as bad as I feared.
So here's the situation on the ground:
In the early 2000's we clone an ancient sea mammal. Turns out they were a lot smarter back then. They escape to the ocean and create a psychic Call that causes anything larger than a cat to mindlessly walk towards the sea (and their doom). There are a few areas that only get hit occassionally and some places (like Austrailia) where there's almost no Call at all. So Humanity is knocked on it's ass and has been for the past 2000 years.
Luckily, in Austrailia, a few scientists mixed avian and human DNA and came up with Callwalkers -- people who could ignore the Call. Unluckily, most of these Callwalkers quickly became racist assholes and had to be driven out.
The book is focused on North America where the people in the Rocky Mountains have reconstructed diesel engines and use them to power small airplanes. Things quickly devolve into a Feudal existence with the knight of old being replaced by the fighter pilot of today (or the future).
Into this chivalric air society come the Callwalkers and things go downhill from there.
The book isn't great. The characters are pretty weak and there's no real focus on anyone in particular. But the plot is good and the pace is brisk and the concepts are fun to think about. I'm very tempted to pick up the first book in the series (which takes place entirely in Austrailia and thus made it possible to read the second without any problems). I don't know if I'd recommend it first off to anyone, but if you're looking for a mix of Pulp Air Adventure and science-fiction, this might not be a bad choice.
later
Tom
I just finished reading: The Miocene Arrow by Sean McMullen. In a radical departure for me, I read the 2nd book of a trilogy. It turns out this wasn't as bad as I feared.
So here's the situation on the ground:
In the early 2000's we clone an ancient sea mammal. Turns out they were a lot smarter back then. They escape to the ocean and create a psychic Call that causes anything larger than a cat to mindlessly walk towards the sea (and their doom). There are a few areas that only get hit occassionally and some places (like Austrailia) where there's almost no Call at all. So Humanity is knocked on it's ass and has been for the past 2000 years.
Luckily, in Austrailia, a few scientists mixed avian and human DNA and came up with Callwalkers -- people who could ignore the Call. Unluckily, most of these Callwalkers quickly became racist assholes and had to be driven out.
The book is focused on North America where the people in the Rocky Mountains have reconstructed diesel engines and use them to power small airplanes. Things quickly devolve into a Feudal existence with the knight of old being replaced by the fighter pilot of today (or the future).
Into this chivalric air society come the Callwalkers and things go downhill from there.
The book isn't great. The characters are pretty weak and there's no real focus on anyone in particular. But the plot is good and the pace is brisk and the concepts are fun to think about. I'm very tempted to pick up the first book in the series (which takes place entirely in Austrailia and thus made it possible to read the second without any problems). I don't know if I'd recommend it first off to anyone, but if you're looking for a mix of Pulp Air Adventure and science-fiction, this might not be a bad choice.
later
Tom
