- Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins Canada / Science Fictio; First THUS edition (April 11 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0380799154
- ISBN-13: 978-0380799152
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.9 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 204 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,975,627 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Book Description
After Thunder was chaos. The energy output of the inexplicable alien artifact that humans called Thunder Rift shattered the fragile links that held Earth's highly technological society together. And the only world young Taria Spears knew fell violently to pieces.
Thirty years later, the adult Taria -- an anthropologist -- has seen the planet renewed and the true nature of Thunder Rift revealed. An artificially constructed "wormhole," it was created to provide human beings with a bridge to somewhere else in the galaxy...or as an open door for an invading alien fleet.
Joining the crew of the exploratory ship Lightbringer, Taria is venturing into the wormhole on a mission of knowledge, contact and, possibly, survival. What awaits her on the other side is a destiny too powerful to deny -- and a perplexing alien culture that thrives in a strange aural landscape, where what is seen is meaningless...and where devastating truths lie in silence.
About the Author
Matthew Farrell works in computers, and lives with his wife and children in the Midwest.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Blue, here's a song for you",
By lb136 "lb136" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Thunder Rift (Mass Market Paperback)
Matthew Farrell's idea-packed and beautifully written "Thunder Rift" is a survey-team story with a baroquely neurotic postmodernist heroine. His Taria Spears rejects intimacy, disobeys orders, antognizes nearly everyone she meets, but . . . well, wait for it.The premise is simple: a wormhole, "the thunder," appears near Jupiter, and the survey team is sent through it to discover another gas-giant planet that has a life-supporting satellite upon which live the curious "Blues." These critters are hopelessly myopic and their primary sense is hearing (the author does a marvellous job of depicting what a hearing-based society, language, art, and architecture might be like), but it seems unlikely they could be the ones responsible for constructing the wormhole. Taria thinks otherwise. The rulebound survey team, composed primarily of military personnel (although Taria and a few others are civilians) meets virtually with blue representatives and eventually (and reluctantly) the powers that be on the survey team send Taria to the surface (for a postmodernist tale it's surprising how 1950s Farrell makes the hidebound survey-team officers--they could have been created by one of John W. Campbell's "Analog" mag. writers of the 1950s). Taria, of course, finds things are not what they seem, at which point the tale gets a kick start and moves on to its swift conclusion. Notes and asides: Farrell anticipates certain objections readers might have and tosses in an appendix to deal with them, and you get the sense that an editor insisted upon this. With more time (and skill--this is apparently Farrell's first novel) the details listed there could have been worked into the main story. And whatever did happen to Ensign Coen? Did I miss something?
3.0 out of 5 stars
Will probably mislead you...,
By
This review is from: Thunder Rift (Mass Market Paperback)
When I first picked this book up, I was looking forward to a wild, fun and (dare I say it) shallow sci-fi romp through space and alien encounter. What I got was that, yes, in very small quantities, and about two hundred pages too many on an alien society not interesting enough to write twenty pages on. There are a few moments that are awe-inspiring, but the fact is nothing in this book is incredibly original or fresh. Whenever an exciting idea comes along, it is weighed down by a lot of lovey-dovey irrelevance. So if you're like me and don't want your Arthur C. Clarke being distracted by V.C. Andrews, then skip this one.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but not great,
By scifi-o-phile (Schaumburg, IL United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Thunder Rift (Mass Market Paperback)
Some of the language and sexuality in the book was not totally necessary and did not add to the overall arc of the story nor did it serve to flesh-out the characters. Also, how many times did I have to read about her tragic experience in China? Also, the setup was too obvious and aside from the final twist at the end, nothing was a surprise. On the positive side, though, the issues of culture, reality, and perception are all EXTREMELY well developed and explored. Sometimes Mr. Farrell beats you over the head with the message when a simple phrase would do, but all in all, this book was a good, quick read. It took me a little less than a day to read, but it's been with me for several days now, which is always a good sign.
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