I remember a big fuss when Tobias Buckell’s Crystal Rain first hit the shelves, but despite the great reviews, I kept passing it up whenever I saw it in the stores. Then I saw his latest, extending the story with a new cast of characters in Ragamuffin. Both novels are noted for Buckell’s unique mesh of cultures, showing the human race flung out into space, faring for itself among alien races that are either indifferent to our survival, or outright hostile.
The only consolation I can give myself for waiting so long is that, after I finished Crystal Rain in two days of subway commutes, I didn’t have to wait for his next one to come out, and am already leaping into Ragamuffin. Anyone who likes a great adventure should read these. I’m also of the opinion that even if you don’t generally read speculative fiction, Crystal Rain might be a story you’d enjoy. A lot of it happens in a low-tech society with more of a science fiction history. But the story revolves around the people (albeit, some genetically altered and/or enhanced), with only parts of it relying on technology to move the plot along. Ragamuffin is very much more space-bound, and I’m just a few chapters into it, but it’s still gripping.
I’ll give a fuller review of Ragamuffin when it’s done, but for now, let me say that Crystal Rain has to be one of my favorite science fiction reads of late (this being from someone who usually prefers fantasy). The setup is this:
Humans came to the planet Nanagada many generations ago, and have long since forgotten or lost most of their technological prowess along with their history. John deBrun (the man with the hook) was fished out of the ocean twenty-seven years ago, and doesn’t remember a thing about his life before that time. Now the Azteca, a violent sect of humanity led by fearsome Teotl “gods” are surging over the mountains in a wave of bloodshed, and the world’s only hope lies in a mysterious device in the northern ice–one that only John can find and use…if he remembered how.
The environment within the story–the forests, the ocean, the island culture–comes across vividly, and I really enjoyed how the world is slowly expanded so you get a sense of how these people are living in a tenuous peace at first, and then are getting caught up in the generations-old, interstellar chaos.
The dialects in Crystal Rain are noticeable and add a great flavor, but fortunately they don’t fall into that overly distracting mode, or become too difficult to read. The steampunk technology of the humans combined with the ancient, mysterious technology of the aliens makes for an intriguing blend, and it is fun to spot the many twists and turns Buckell uses on familiar phrases to show how a culture mixes fragments of truth into its old stories and legends (like how the colony “old-fathers” came to the planet through a “worm’s hole” in the sky).
His third novel, Sly Mongoose, looks to be coming out in 2008, and I can’t wait. I’m a fan now, Mr. Buckell. Keep it coming.
I see that smile.