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Another Hit for Tobias Buckell
Jun. 28th, 2007 01:01 pmTobias Buckell, author of the outstanding SF novel Crystal Rain
, now in paperback, has delivered yet another exciting novel, Ragamuffin. edited to add: Tobias has a few review copies of both books available. Visit him here for details.
Ragamuffin, although set in the vision of the future introduced in Crystal Rain, isn't a straight sequel. Rather, the book is the story of Nashara, a heavily-modified human warrior, and her ongoing struggles against the Satrapy, an alien dictatorship that rules space. Humans are technically free under the Satrapy, but they are definitely third-class citizens, and some of them aren't happy about that.
The story starts with Nashara making her way out of the human reservation of Pitt's Cross on the world of Astragalai. Having just killed one of the ruling Gahe, there is a certain urgency in her departure. Once she gets off planet, she becomes a hunted person, sought by the Satrapy and their human collaborators as well as the shadowly League of Human Affairs, who paid her to kill in the first place. The story runs quite briskly on from there, ending with a series of space battles around the world New Anegada, setting for Crystal Rain.
Toby Buckell does a very good job with his characters, both good and evil. The human collaborators, members of a group called the Honggua, aren't mustache-twirling villains, but believe that they are doing the best thing possible for humanity. The "good guys," in the League of Human Affairs, seem to have a love for terroristic actions that would give pause to Al Queda. All sorts of characters, even Buckell's aliens, have complex motivations and real personalities.
Buckell's vision of technology is interesting as well. Travel between star systems is possible via artificial wormholes, linked in paths or streams. To travel in real space is extremely slow, taking centuries to get from star to star. Buckell also has "lamina," a construct that allows direct human-to-computer interface. People see computer data and reality at the same time, overlaid one on the other.
Buckell was born and raised in the Caribbean, and his "Ragamuffins" are desendants of islanders like himself. There's a number of touches of Caribbean culture, from dreadlocks to ship names like Starfunk Ayatollah. Overall, Ragamuffin is an outstanding roller-coaster ride of a book, and well worth buying.
, now in paperback, has delivered yet another exciting novel, Ragamuffin. edited to add: Tobias has a few review copies of both books available. Visit him here for details.Ragamuffin, although set in the vision of the future introduced in Crystal Rain, isn't a straight sequel. Rather, the book is the story of Nashara, a heavily-modified human warrior, and her ongoing struggles against the Satrapy, an alien dictatorship that rules space. Humans are technically free under the Satrapy, but they are definitely third-class citizens, and some of them aren't happy about that.
The story starts with Nashara making her way out of the human reservation of Pitt's Cross on the world of Astragalai. Having just killed one of the ruling Gahe, there is a certain urgency in her departure. Once she gets off planet, she becomes a hunted person, sought by the Satrapy and their human collaborators as well as the shadowly League of Human Affairs, who paid her to kill in the first place. The story runs quite briskly on from there, ending with a series of space battles around the world New Anegada, setting for Crystal Rain.
Toby Buckell does a very good job with his characters, both good and evil. The human collaborators, members of a group called the Honggua, aren't mustache-twirling villains, but believe that they are doing the best thing possible for humanity. The "good guys," in the League of Human Affairs, seem to have a love for terroristic actions that would give pause to Al Queda. All sorts of characters, even Buckell's aliens, have complex motivations and real personalities.
Buckell's vision of technology is interesting as well. Travel between star systems is possible via artificial wormholes, linked in paths or streams. To travel in real space is extremely slow, taking centuries to get from star to star. Buckell also has "lamina," a construct that allows direct human-to-computer interface. People see computer data and reality at the same time, overlaid one on the other.
Buckell was born and raised in the Caribbean, and his "Ragamuffins" are desendants of islanders like himself. There's a number of touches of Caribbean culture, from dreadlocks to ship names like Starfunk Ayatollah. Overall, Ragamuffin is an outstanding roller-coaster ride of a book, and well worth buying.
