Souls in the Great Machine

Rating:
Summary: Great Ideas and Worldbuilding, Weak Characters and Plotting
Review: Almost every problem I have with science fiction is represented in this sprawling book-a ton of really interesting ideas poorly served by a rambling and disjointed plot populated by too many hastily drawn characters. I had greatly enjoyed McMullen's earlier book, The Centurion's Empire and was hoping he'd be able to exercise the same control he showed in that book, but this was a bit of a disappointment.

The worldbuilding is quite impressive. Set almost two millennia from now, the world is still recovering from a nuclear winter. In Australia a low-tech civilization putters along, with power resting in the hands of librarians. A new head overlibrarian is elected and brings change, as she ruthlessly builds "The Calculator", a primitive computer using imprisoned people as circuits, and extends a series of communication towers across the various fiefdoms and emirates. The initial exploration of this is quite interesting, but as the overlibrarian's power grows, McMullen starts adding more and more storylines to the mix.

It seems that an ancient sunshade being formed by nanotechnology is threatening to block out the sun and initiate a new Ice Age, unless the overlibrarian can do something. Then there's the barbarian horde being mustered by one of her former protégés-for reasons that are never really clear to me, other than the need to have a big war in the book. Then there's the mysterious force that sweeps across the land intermittently, causing all who aren't tied down to walk due south forever. Then there's a whole genetics subplot. Not to mention an awfully confusing series of romances and affairs, you really do need a scorecard to keep track of everyone.

The ideas are all individually really interesting, it's just that there are too many of them at once and the characters are too flimsy to carry them. Coincidence comes into play all too often, as characters are constantly running into each other, and too many of them are cast from the same obsessive mold and act altogether arbitrarily. It doesn't help that there are abrupt leaps of time in the middle of chapters, out of nowhere will pop up the declaration that five years has passed, for example. Also, the book is badly in need of a map. Geography is an integral part of the plot, and without a map to clarify things, the reader is often literally lost.

I salute the McMullen's imagination for ideas, but this book is just too long and haphazard to properly enjoy. I doubt I'll be seeking out it's sequels, The Miocene Arrow and Eyes of the Calculor.

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing SF ideas, disjointed plot
Review: I found Sean McMullen's Souls in the Great Machine a difficult book to evaluate. On the one hand it has some wonderful, sense of wonder-inducing ideas, and some exciting action and colourful characters. But the "colours" of the characters are a bit garish, certainly unrealistic, as they act out the author's whims. And the plot, action-filled as it is in places, also drags in other places, and is somewhat creakily structured. On the whole, though, I recommend this novel for the neat stuff, with a warning that it is far from perfect.

Many years after a disaster called Greatwinter destroyed human civilization, people in what was once Australia live in smallish city states. Technology includes fairly ingenious mechanical devices, and guns, but no electricity or electronics. A central feature of local civilization is the libraries, where intelligent men and women seem to maintain what records of the past they can. The most important library, called Libris, is in Rochester, and a new leader, Zarvora Cybeline, has just been appointed. She establishes a curious project: a huge calculating machine, the Calculor, in which the individual components are human slaves. Add to this intriguing setup a culture which places great emphasis on personal combat -- duels. And one more odd feature -- a mysterious Call, to which every animal larger than a cat, including humans, is subject.

Into this mix Sean McMullen throws Lemorel, a young provincial woman and a talented mathematician, whose ambition has led her into several duels. She ends up at Libris, with many other talented mathematicians, supporting the Calculor. There is also Zarvora, the odd genius who has invented the Calculor, and who has some mysterious use for it besides simply improving communications and tax collection. And Lemorel's talented but untrustworthy sometime lover, John Glasken. And Dorian, the mute linguist who befriends Lemorel. And Ilyire, a strange man from beyond the deserts at the edge of civilization, with an even stranger talent. And more, as the book continues.

The ideas behind this book are truly fascinating and original. I was kept reading simply by curiosity about things like the Call, and the real reason for the Calculor, and the cause of Greatwinter, and so on. And it must be said that McMullen mostly delivers in this area. The rationale for his future -- the source of the Call, the reason electronics cannot be used, the origin of Greatwinter -- all these are given explanations that work well within the context of the book (although some of the explanations are a bit far-fetched scientifically). But I still have considerable reservations.

My problems with the book were in two main areas: characters and plot. The characters are a strange set of, basically, obsessed madmen and madwomen. When the plot requires it, they are happy to fall instantly in love with a stranger, and commit murder, start wars, whatever, to resolve their relationship problems. Moreover they are all essentially immoral. For example, Zarvora, perhaps the closest thing to an overall heroine in the book, kidnaps and imprisons people for years to make the Calculor work. Lemorel has killed something like a dozen people before the book starts. Similar things can be said of many other characters. Indeed, heroes become villains and vice-versa with some regularity. This can be made to work, but not when it is done arbitrarily, as seemed the case here. As for the plot, it is discursive and disjointed. Long stretches dragged alarmingly towards the middle of the book. At times, the author resorts to summary, and authorial voice explanations of tricky bits, in order to advance us to where we need to be.

On balance, I do recommend reading Souls in the Great Machine. It has definite faults, but also definite good points. The ending is rousing and fairly satisfying. Even though the characters are not very believable, they are interesting. And the book is marked by a definite exuberance that makes it a fun read.

Rating:
Summary: Great story, weak characterization
Review: I really liked this book, and I'm going to read the sequels; but I have one problem with it: the characters are a little wooden. For example, Zarvora is a cardboard cutout through most of the book; we know why she does what she does, but we don't really sympathize with it.

What really brings the characterization problem into the foreground is the second time a trusted character turns traitor for no apparent reason. There's no buildup, no explanation after the fact, nothing; just a sudden discovery that he's been stabbing Zarvora in the back. It just doesn't ring true.

Oh, and there's one other recurring irritation: the railroads are called "paralines", even though the railroad engineers have conciously modeled their work on surviving 19th- and 20th-century texts; there's no reason for them to have made up a new word...much less one that I keep misreading as "pralines". :-)

Rating:
Summary: A new master of sf
Review: Souls in the Great Machine is literally a wonderful book - it is full of wonder. Set 2000 years hence, it is set in a meticulously created society with limited technology, complex political and religious battles, well drawn characters and lots of humour. All told with great facility. And it's also a real page turner.

Sean McMullen is a new master of sf, and Souls in the Great Machine is Highly Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Fantasic, Memorable, Engrossing
Review: While many critics say Sci Fi authors in general spend too little time on character development, it is clear that in "Souls in the Great Machine," Sean McMullen has spent a great deal of time on fleshing out his characters. I found myself very attached to the motley crew of warriors, librarians, politicians, commoners, harlots and artisans. The story itself is wonderfully crafted, and beautifully executed in a post-apocalyptic Australia, with a blend of modern technology, ancient tradition, honorable duels, giant computer networks powered by human beings, and even a species of man-bird left over from the age of technology, 2000 years before the story begins.

Few authors have been able to accomplish what McMullen has done with the Greatwinter Series - innovate the genre, and produce a fine work of fiction that seems familiar and fantastic at the same time.

Everyone should own this book - and read it!