Due to a slight accident and catching a common cold, I had more time than usual where all I really wanted to do was sit and read. I started Winter Song with some trepidation as it was reviewed as harsh and brutal and I was feeling a bit morose myself!
What is harsh and brutal is the world the main character crash lands on. It is a cold bleak world with sub-earth norms for food, water, gravity and atmosphere. The local natives appear to be from Icelandic stock who have regressed into viking traditions having been abandoned by the terraforming company who put them there hundreds of years ago. In so many ways this is an excellent story that had me hooked so that I finished it in 5 days.
The main character has some advancements which allow him to survive the environment, but they can't prepare him for the culture he encounters. His advanced neural implants also cause him some problems to. I was glad to see that despite the augmentation he was not a super ninja warrior trained in all forms of killing everything. He is in fact a starship Pilot or to put it another way, an ordinary bloke who is somewhat weary of muscly men with swords and axes.
With a large number of the characters coming from regressed viking civilisation, you may wonder where the science fiction comes in. Thats the beauty of this tale as there are some very interesting ideas in here. Including; future marriage arrangements, human expansion, collapse and re-expansion, terraforming, augmentation, human development, AI and probably a few I have forgot to mention.
What marks this book out is the quality of the writing. The author manages to make even a slow trek across a bleak, grim terrain interesting. The book is divided into a number of parts with each part having its own focus. This is very intelligently done as each part lifts the story to a new level. The final part is a nail biting climax.
My only criticism of the book is that it possibly ends a paragraph or page to early. Thats not to say it is unfinished or requires a sequel. Certainly not, as it is one of those rare beasts - a self contained story in one book. It is just that more could have been said to complete the ending. (I am trying very hard here to comment without giving away the ending!)
Certainly worth a read.
Andy
What is harsh and brutal is the world the main character crash lands on. It is a cold bleak world with sub-earth norms for food, water, gravity and atmosphere. The local natives appear to be from Icelandic stock who have regressed into viking traditions having been abandoned by the terraforming company who put them there hundreds of years ago. In so many ways this is an excellent story that had me hooked so that I finished it in 5 days.
The main character has some advancements which allow him to survive the environment, but they can't prepare him for the culture he encounters. His advanced neural implants also cause him some problems to. I was glad to see that despite the augmentation he was not a super ninja warrior trained in all forms of killing everything. He is in fact a starship Pilot or to put it another way, an ordinary bloke who is somewhat weary of muscly men with swords and axes.
With a large number of the characters coming from regressed viking civilisation, you may wonder where the science fiction comes in. Thats the beauty of this tale as there are some very interesting ideas in here. Including; future marriage arrangements, human expansion, collapse and re-expansion, terraforming, augmentation, human development, AI and probably a few I have forgot to mention.
What marks this book out is the quality of the writing. The author manages to make even a slow trek across a bleak, grim terrain interesting. The book is divided into a number of parts with each part having its own focus. This is very intelligently done as each part lifts the story to a new level. The final part is a nail biting climax.
My only criticism of the book is that it possibly ends a paragraph or page to early. Thats not to say it is unfinished or requires a sequel. Certainly not, as it is one of those rare beasts - a self contained story in one book. It is just that more could have been said to complete the ending. (I am trying very hard here to comment without giving away the ending!)
Certainly worth a read.
Andy
