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Biased and superficial Science Fiction reviews

           
     
Stations Of The Tide

Copyright 1992 by Michael Swanwick

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SOJALS rating:     
one SOJALS point one SOJALS point no SOJALS point no SOJALS point no SOJALS point    Mediocre (2/5)

I first read this on the 20th December 2001.

In the future, wild technology has turned Earth into a slaughterhouse. Now the other worlds have heavily restricted the use of advanced technology and the use of proscribed knowledge is a very serious offence.

Our bureaucrat (he has no other name) is sent by his boss, Korda, to the planet Miranda to track down Gregorian, who is believed to have fled with advanced and potentially extremely dangerous Earth technology.

Our bureaucrat finds Miranda in the middle of a massive upheaval - the "Jubilee Tides" are just about to inundate most of the planet, an event that occurs every few hundred years. Even with this distraction, the locals seem very reluctant to talk to him, or to his associate, a local security officer, Lieutenant Chu. Still, he perseveres in his quest and draws to closer to his quarry.

A very odd tale. I was initially well fed-up because it seemed to be rapidly changing from SF into some supernatural woodland fantasy. But I was misled, it was just an illusion, of which the book is full.

It's sprightly, once I got over some initial confusion, in addition to the aforementioned, about what's going on.

What's it got? artificial intelligence, cloning, aliens, matter-transmission, virtual reality and quite an impressive climatic conditions on the planet Miranda. And sex, lot's of it, and quite educational

Loaded on the 20th January 2002.
    
Cover of Stations Of The Tide

Reviews of other works by Michael Swanwick:
In The Drift
Bones Of The Earth