Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Giraut and Margaret, characters from the earlier book, are now a husband and wife diplomatic team for the Council of Humanity. They also do clandestine work for the Office of Special Projects, an undercover organization that deals with serious problems that result when local governments prove intractable. Their next assignment: promote peace and cooperation on Briand, a hellish planet whose physical hostility is matched only by the hatred its two cultures show to each other.
Tamil Mandalam was founded by classical Tamils, and Kintulum was founded by classical Mayans. Tamils believe themselves to be perfect and believe that once the springer does open Briand to humanity, they will show the rest of the universe how to live. The Mayans, when they communicate at all, apparently feel the same way. The magnificence of each culture's accomplishments in art and literature is overshadowed by citizens' bigotry.
A difficult assignment indeed; as if high gravity, high temperatures and ethnic attacks weren't enough, Giraut and Margaret's mission grows even more troublesome because of their marital problems, Margaret's depression, and the bureaucratic thick-headedness of Briand's Ambassador. --Bonnie Bouman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Both are compellingly written and readable. The author is very good at telling stories through the viewpoint of the main character. Giraut's viewpoint is an interesting place to be.
Giraut's marriage with Margaret is in trouble, and he doesn't understand why. Previous reviews characterized Margaret's behavior as irrational and irritating. It didn't strike me that way at all.
She seemed to be behaving very reasonably by what was actually wrong: she didn't want to be married to Giraut anymore, but she still loved him as a friend, and she recognized that he still was in love with her, though she was insecure enough to consider that being in love with her was stupid of him.
Both characters were very clearly of their cultures, which the author describes and delineates beautifully so that when they are being what we might think of as obtuse, they're using different cultural markers. It might have seemed obvious to us what Margaret was doing, and how everyone else knew, but in Giraut's culture it was a duel-worthy challenge (and worse, as he would put it, "ne gens") to doubt someone's word or faith. Not something he would willingly ever do. Also in his culture, women were expected to act irrational and flighty toward men whether or not that was their nature. So he didn't really see anything peculiar about how Margaret was acting; what had been strange was her earlier Caledonian candor and straightforwardness. If he'd thought of it, he would have realized she was acting weird; he didn't think of it because, to him, her behavior seemed natural.
Barnes is a tremendous writer and I enjoy almost all his work. The sequence that Earth Made of Glass is part of is tied for my favorite of his series. I dislike star ratings but I can't bring myself to give the book less than 5 stars, although in an ideal world I'd be able to give it a less linear-scale rating or ratings on several axes of quality.
I agree with earlier reviews that putting parentheses in characters' speech is jarring. I also think that in the edition I read, the grammatical errors were fixed: I didn't notice any.
The cultural stuff was interesting, and more to the point, convincing, but the story dragged a lot.
But I'm still a fan of the author, no doubt about it.
When it comes to re-reading books, this one isn't likely to make it on my list.
