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mentat_stem
From the
review on my blog.
This is a story that fires on all cylinders. The magic system is tied to religious imagery. All the elements expected in a space opera have analogs in this system. Space ships, faster than light travel, communication at a distance, etc. Religion has replaced science and we’re shown repeatedly that the standard metaphors employed by this religion’s texts are NOT metaphors, but truth. It’s all delightfully twisted and wrapped around some interesting characters.
As the story progresses, it becomes less and less clear who we should be rooting for. Everyone is telling the truth as they see it … except when they’re lying. The religious intrigue feels like religious intrigue, the magic rituals feel like magic rituals, the first contact scenario feels like a first contact scenario. Nothing is what it seems.
Scalzi deftly writes what initially seems to be a transparent commentary on the excesses of religion but settles into a solid speculative fiction yarn. Scalzi doesn’t shy away from the horror and gore. He doesn’t shy away from a crazy dark ending. Awesome. The moral if there is one would go something like religion isn’t evil, but twisted people can use religion to do some insane evil.
review on my blog.
This is a story that fires on all cylinders. The magic system is tied to religious imagery. All the elements expected in a space opera have analogs in this system. Space ships, faster than light travel, communication at a distance, etc. Religion has replaced science and we’re shown repeatedly that the standard metaphors employed by this religion’s texts are NOT metaphors, but truth. It’s all delightfully twisted and wrapped around some interesting characters.
As the story progresses, it becomes less and less clear who we should be rooting for. Everyone is telling the truth as they see it … except when they’re lying. The religious intrigue feels like religious intrigue, the magic rituals feel like magic rituals, the first contact scenario feels like a first contact scenario. Nothing is what it seems.
Scalzi deftly writes what initially seems to be a transparent commentary on the excesses of religion but settles into a solid speculative fiction yarn. Scalzi doesn’t shy away from the horror and gore. He doesn’t shy away from a crazy dark ending. Awesome. The moral if there is one would go something like religion isn’t evil, but twisted people can use religion to do some insane evil.
I've not laughed so intensely and consistently while reading science fiction since I first read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the first time.
My one line description would be something like: "Year Zero is a smart satire, powered by a pop culture magic system, staring a mildly competent lawyer and accompanied by a stellar soundtrack."
I'll update this after I get a full review written for MentatJack.com
My one line description would be something like: "Year Zero is a smart satire, powered by a pop culture magic system, staring a mildly competent lawyer and accompanied by a stellar soundtrack."
I'll update this after I get a full review written for MentatJack.com
Tor sent me a copy of this to review. Also a copy of the followup, [b:Two Serpents Rise|16059411|Two Serpents Rise (Craft Sequence, #2)|Max Gladstone|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1355469010s/16059411.jpg|21846173].
I was intrigued by the promised mixture of genres...a secondary world, steam-punk, urban/epic fantasy legal thriller.
Wow. Max Gladstone sets up an elaborate magical world based on a few simple rules that allow him to apply contract law to the ebb and flow of life. Into this world he introduces character after character, eventually elevating them to view points, until he has a chorus of motives and desires narrating the tale. The tale they tell is of a murder, politics and love.
The story, stripped of it's eyeball kicks, involves a city scarred by a recent world war trying to modernize while holding onto it's unique cultural heritage. I'm not a student enough of history to come up with a great parallel in our world, but the ideas are powerful. Some institutions remain powerful while others have become a perverted (yet still powerful) shell of their former selves. Imagine your police force and your department of water and power as ex-lovers with PTSD.
By personifying the municipal institutions as gods and having the legal system equate to the magic system in any other fantasy story, a modern police procedural/legal thriller is grafted deftly onto the tropes of fantasy.
I was intrigued by the promised mixture of genres...a secondary world, steam-punk, urban/epic fantasy legal thriller.
Wow. Max Gladstone sets up an elaborate magical world based on a few simple rules that allow him to apply contract law to the ebb and flow of life. Into this world he introduces character after character, eventually elevating them to view points, until he has a chorus of motives and desires narrating the tale. The tale they tell is of a murder, politics and love.
The story, stripped of it's eyeball kicks, involves a city scarred by a recent world war trying to modernize while holding onto it's unique cultural heritage. I'm not a student enough of history to come up with a great parallel in our world, but the ideas are powerful. Some institutions remain powerful while others have become a perverted (yet still powerful) shell of their former selves. Imagine your police force and your department of water and power as ex-lovers with PTSD.
By personifying the municipal institutions as gods and having the legal system equate to the magic system in any other fantasy story, a modern police procedural/legal thriller is grafted deftly onto the tropes of fantasy.
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