In the Courts of the Crimson Kings

Hnau

Banned
Wow. This is an awesome novel everybody. S.M. Stirling was brilliant in this tour-de-force of worldbuilding, and for old hands at science fiction, there are a lot of references to enjoy. A really great book. Burroughsian planetary romance given a modern scientific make-over in an alternate history context.

What did you think about the ending though? (Try to hide spoilers, please).
 

Ivan Druzhkov

I've got it, but I've got another two books in the way before I get to it. Hopefully, I'll have it read by the end of the month.
 
Archangel Michael

Archangel Michael

Ivan Druzhkov said:
I've got it, but I've got another two books in the way before I get to it. Hopefully, I'll have it read by the end of the month.
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You've only got a few hours left, so you better hurry. ;)

I probably won't buy it as a hardcover. I enjoyed the Sky People, so I'll pick it up when its published as a paperback.
 

GTD Aquitaine

I may pick this up when it's out in softcover. As for The Sky People, though, I still maintain it would've been better had it been more than the Giernas Expedition On Venus.
 

Ivan Druzhkov

Slacker said:
I think this one was MUCH better than Sky People. Great book.
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I've just started it, and so far I have to agree. I just find it easier to get through now that we're on a planet where the aliens have something more in the way of personalities.

I liked the intro where the various giants of sci-fi literature sit around and watch the initial Viking landing in '62, though it took me a while to figure out who was who. At the same time, I also began wondering about what would happen to science fiction in this TL, with Venus and Mars habitable, and with the societies of Earth resting comfortably in a sort of eternal 1950s. I get the feeling that, while space opera will probably thrive, guys like Phillip K. Dick and William Gibson are likely to fade into obscurity.

BTw, even in this timeline, nothing goes right for the Soviet Union.
 

B_Munro

Ivan Druzhkov said:
I've just started it, and so far I have to agree. I just find it easier to get through now that we're on a planet where the aliens have something more in the way of personalities.

I liked the intro where the various giants of sci-fi literature sit around and watch the initial Viking landing in '62, though it took me a while to figure out who was who. At the same time, I also began wondering about what would happen to science fiction in this TL, with Venus and Mars habitable, and with the societies of Earth resting comfortably in a sort of eternal 1950s. I get the feeling that, while space opera will probably thrive, guys like Phillip K. Dick and William Gibson are likely to fade into obscurity.

BTw, even in this timeline, nothing goes right for the Soviet Union.
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If you mean by "nothing goes right" that they prosper economically while becoming increasingly subordinates of the Chinese, I suppose so. (Along with the "eternal 50's" bit, one of the things in the books I find more of a suspension-of-disbelief sinker than interstellar gateways.)

Definitely found it a more enjoyable book than the first, although it seems to stretch coincidence that the planetary ecology should collapse in the 50,000 or so years the Martian humanoids have been civilized while managing to tick along for the last hundred million. Perhaps the ASBs turned off the air plant last time they were there?

(As to the ending, it's pretty unfair of the ASBs to give earth a Dyson sphere of their own while all the Martians get is a gas-giant moon. Can we say "favoritism?") :)

Bruce
 

Hnau

Banned
(As to the ending, it's pretty unfair of the ASBs to give earth a Dyson sphere of their own while all the Martians get is a gas-giant moon. Can we say "favoritism?") :)
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Spoilers, man! :) Well, Vow'da did have a second gateway, so it might go on forever... What did Venus get, I wonder?
 

zoomar

Being a cheapskate, I am reading it a bit at a time at Borders. I will buy the paper back. It is pretty good - probably better than Sky People because the Martian people and culture are well done. My favorite parts are the little encyclopedia sections that begin each chapter, actually. I do like the way Sterling is leading toward the Big Story, which is not about Martians and Terrans but who terraformed Venus and Mars, stocked them with life, and why. I hope that these two are just a prelude to the main act. Plus the series has airships. Terran airships on Venus. Martian airships on Mars. Is there any series of Sterling's that doesn't have airships?
 

Ivan Druzhkov

I finished this book a few days ago, and overall I thought it was okay. It’s a solid adventure story, though not spectacular. Stirling’s Martians borrow a lot for the classic pulp tales of decadent Martian world empires, but since I’m not familiar enough with those stories, I can't really offer any deeper analysis on the subject. My biggest problem with the book was the ending, the last few pages of which are dedicated to setting up a new series and, as such, seem totally disconnected from the rest of the novel's plot.

This is probably just quibbling on my part, but I’ve been wondering if this and The Sky People should be termed “alternate histories” at all, given how little we hear about life and politics on Earth.
 

Timmy811

I'm about half way through the book and it's an awesome read so far.

I like the allusions that have been made to engineering on a stellar scale out there, I really hope we get "Pirates of the Dyson Sphere" like Stirling talked about in an earlier thread on the series.
 

Timmy811

Ivan Druzhkov said:
This is probably just quibbling on my part, but I’ve been wondering if this and The Sky People should be termed “alternate histories” at all, given how little we hear about life and politics on Earth.
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I think the next will have more about politics on Earth since the portal to the Dyson's Sphere is on the ocean, making routine access by US naval vessels and planes possible.
 
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