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Souls in the Great Machine Sean Mcmullen 9780765344571 Books

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Souls in the Great Machine Sean Mcmullen 9780765344571 Books

It is ~1500 years from the modern day in post-apocalypse Australia. Human civilization has recovered to some extent but several factors inhibit further development. First, a mysterious Call from the sea causes all mammals over the size of medium dog to become entranced and wander mindlessly towards the source of The Call every few days unless they are physically restrained. High above the Earth, huge battle stations orbit, frying any electrical devices not heavily shielded and the Mirrorsun, a vast orbital AI carries out an unknown plan. Cybaline Zarvora, the new high liber of the Library of Rochester has created a human-powered calculator to stop a new global catastrophe. In a society where dueling is used to solve disputes and humans power trains and other engines with wind, steam and muscle, a host of characters will pit themselves against each other to via for power in this transformed and changing world.

There is a LOT going on in the Greatwinter Trilogy and Sean McMullen plunges readers right into the thick of it. While the first book can be hard to grasp for the first few chapters, you'll be glad if you stick with it. Sci-Fi readers will be no strangers to post-apocalypse Earths but McMullen's take is unique and imaginative, giving us a bunch of antagonists, both human and artificial. Trying to take on everything happening in this book in a two or three paragraph review is impossible but I thought the mix of plot devices worked well.

The biggest factors in positive and negative thoughts on this book seems to be the characters and I can see why. Personally, I liked the characters quite a bit and thought they developed throughout. Antagonists become protagonists and there's a thick, grey area between "good" and "bad." In short, most of the point-of-view characters have ambition they don't conceal and will do whatever it takes to forward their agenda, usually for their version of "the greater good." There are points when some characters seem to take actions wildly out of character (especially near the middle of the book - keep in mind this was once two shorter novellas turned into one larger book) in a Dues Ex Machina'ed way that left me looking for an explanation of why they'd take such a strange turn.

Having read the rest of the books in this series before writing my review for the first, I'd sum up my review by saying that while Souls in the Great Machine has its flaws, it's a solid introduction to a fantastic world and series.

Aside: For readers NOT living in Australia, a little familiarity with the Down Under may help with the expansive geography of where things are in this book.


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Souls in the Great Machine Sean Mcmullen 9780765344571 Books Reviews

Too many SF writers love to take one or two clever ideas and use thousands of pages of prose to beat them to death. Now we have a book that has at least a dozen clever ideas -- and beats them all to death. And this is just the first in a series!
It's all here Civilization disrupted by a global "call". Global warming. Nuclear winter. Nanotechnology. Religous dogma as a response to ecological disaster. Dueling as an instrument of social stability. Librarians as a social elite. Librarians re-inventing the computer without access to industrial technology. The econmic infranstructure of passenger-powered railways. Genetically-enhanced cetaceans out for revenge against humanity. Social consequences of dealing with genetically enhanced cetaceans. Humans genetically engineered to resist the "call" of genetically enhanced cetaceans. Social prejudice against said genetically enhanced humans. Even, heaven help us, a revival of the broad-gauge/standard-gauge railway controversy!
The sad thing is that McMullen has the makings of a first-rate SF writer. He's a good storyteller, and has an eye for detail. Alas, he seems to think that detail is the whole point. The story itself simply gets lost. If McMullen concentrated on a reasonable number of premises, and on the fate of a manageable number of characters, he could really amount to something.
Alas again. He has no incentive to do so. Most SF readers have come to view the form as a kind of self-hypnonsis. The more bloated and out-of-control a story is, the better it sells. I predict that McMullen will sell very well.
I enjoyed these books (it's a trilogy) when I first read them, and it's taken a long time for them to show up as editions. My excitement was diminished when I downloaded the trilogy (as editions) to find them rife with typos and errors of all sorts. This is very distracting and reduces the enjoyment of the read. Sometimes it's as simple as a missing period, but sometimes it's a word transcribed incorrectly -- 'fradition' instead of 'tradition' for example -- and this catches a reader's attention and is very distracting. The series deserves four starts -- it isn't great literature, after all -- but I'm forced to give the edition of all of these books less than four stars because of the 'translation' to '.'
Somewhat foolishly, I read a number of reviews on this book before starting it. I did so despite knowing that I already wanted to read it, and that it had been on my reading list for a number of years. Reviewers give a lot of fours, primarily because of weak character development. Having read such reviews, I found myself looking for this problem as I read (hence the aforementioned foolishness). Truth be told, McMullen does have some weaknesses in this regard, but I would say his real weakness is a lack of description in places. At times I wanted him to elaborate or give fuller descriptions. My complaint here is persnickety, however. This is a great book! Very long, very involved and I finished it in a little over a month. I simply love the world McMullen has created. His plot is very original and there is nothing predictable about the story. Although he employs many techniques of his genre, that is only because he is writing in that vein. One is continually surprised by developments and all loose ends are tied up. He also sets up the next book in the series, The Miocene Arrow, which I can barely wait to start. A perfect blend of humor, adventure and thoughtful inquiry, Souls in the Great Machine is an engrossing, very fun read!

Iain Mavro Coggins is the author of Lost Apple, available at .
It is ~1500 years from the modern day in post-apocalypse Australia. Human civilization has recovered to some extent but several factors inhibit further development. First, a mysterious Call from the sea causes all mammals over the size of medium dog to become entranced and wander mindlessly towards the source of The Call every few days unless they are physically restrained. High above the Earth, huge battle stations orbit, frying any electrical devices not heavily shielded and the Mirrorsun, a vast orbital AI carries out an unknown plan. Cybaline Zarvora, the new high liber of the Library of Rochester has created a human-powered calculator to stop a new global catastrophe. In a society where dueling is used to solve disputes and humans power trains and other engines with wind, steam and muscle, a host of characters will pit themselves against each other to via for power in this transformed and changing world.

There is a LOT going on in the Greatwinter Trilogy and Sean McMullen plunges readers right into the thick of it. While the first book can be hard to grasp for the first few chapters, you'll be glad if you stick with it. Sci-Fi readers will be no strangers to post-apocalypse Earths but McMullen's take is unique and imaginative, giving us a bunch of antagonists, both human and artificial. Trying to take on everything happening in this book in a two or three paragraph review is impossible but I thought the mix of plot devices worked well.

The biggest factors in positive and negative thoughts on this book seems to be the characters and I can see why. Personally, I liked the characters quite a bit and thought they developed throughout. Antagonists become protagonists and there's a thick, grey area between "good" and "bad." In short, most of the point-of-view characters have ambition they don't conceal and will do whatever it takes to forward their agenda, usually for their version of "the greater good." There are points when some characters seem to take actions wildly out of character (especially near the middle of the book - keep in mind this was once two shorter novellas turned into one larger book) in a Dues Ex Machina'ed way that left me looking for an explanation of why they'd take such a strange turn.

Having read the rest of the books in this series before writing my review for the first, I'd sum up my review by saying that while Souls in the Great Machine has its flaws, it's a solid introduction to a fantastic world and series.

Aside For readers NOT living in Australia, a little familiarity with the Down Under may help with the expansive geography of where things are in this book.