1. Crystal Rain, by Tobias Buckell

[chipmunk-planet.livejournal.com]

I read this recently and am looking forward to reading Ragamuffin, the sequel.

I got excited about this book because it was Caribbean SF with airships (I mean, who wouldn't be excited about that?) but this story just feels real. The cadences of the characters' speech set the scenery as much as the descriptions of the jungle around them (which are excellent). I felt like I was there in the story, something you don't often get with an author's first book. I was impressed. :)

The fact that John LeBrun is ... different ... in color, speech, and in his lack of memory of his past, just adds to the mystery of what is going on. The author uses John's little boy, Jerome, as a way to relate stories of wormholes and other worlds and the alien conflict these people have fallen into without dumping information at us or making the child a placeholder -- he has a story just as real as the adults'.

And Pepper just kicks ass. I love him!

The only thing I didn't like as well was how little mention was made of John's wife. I would have liked to see more of her point of view.

Comments

[rydra_wong]

*share your glee*

I just posted my review of Ragamuffin a few posts down in the comm.

And I agree, I'd have liked to see more of Shanta's POV too - in a way, it surprised me that we didn't, because in general Buckell seems good with strong female characters. I loved Dihana, and the fact that having a female Prime Minister was such a non-issue.

Btw, if you haven't found it already, he's got a website and blog at http://tobiasbuckell.com - it has goodies like sample chapters of the novels and free pdfs of some of the stort stories set in the same universe.

[chipmunk-planet.livejournal.com]

I saw that review, and it jogged my memory about Crystal Rain. (I didn't read it in case there were spoilers ... hee)

Thanks for the link!

[rydra_wong]

The no-spoiler version: I enjoyed Ragamuffin even more than Crystal Rain :).

[sanguinity]

I'm seeing reviews that say the two are largely independent. Is that true? No requirement to read them in a particular order?

[rydra_wong]

Hrm. Good question. Ragamuffin has a different protagonist and starts in a different part of the universe, but several of the Crystal Rain leads do turn up in the latter stages of it. And knowing the backstory has an impact on the emotional weight of some of the things that happen.

So I suspect you'd get a lot more out of them if you read Crystal Rain first. And they're both very enjoyable - I just liked the second one even more :).

[rydra_wong]

P.S. I think we're being watched *g*:

http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/2007/09/06/50books-poc-lj-reviews/

*waves at Mr. Buckell*

[tobias-buckell.livejournal.com]

:-) Hi back atcha! I try to point my readers towards reviews/commentary/interviews. Thank you for the kind words!

[chipmunk-planet.livejournal.com]

Eek!

*hides*

(j/k lol)