From Publishers Weekly
In this impressive debut novel, the first volume of a projected trilogy, Calder joins the current band of fantasists (Kim Newman, Marc Laidlaw, Patrick McGrath et al.) who generally depict human beings striving to be human within a decadent, vicious society. Calder follows the exploits of expatriated English teenagers Ignatz Zwakh and Primavera Bobinksi through progressively more harrowing treacheries; these involve not only their adopted Thailand but also a resurgent U.S. government (on the brink of recovering the glory it lost sometime between now and the 2072 of the novel) as well as the English, depicted by Calder as naturally xenophobic. The teens fled England because Primavera is a human/nanotech hybrid known colloquially as "Lilim," after Adam's first wife, Lilith. The Lilim "weren't built around nucleic acids" but do have a "human-like consciousness." It is this quality that binds Ignatz and Primavera, whose relationship drives the narrative. Calder evokes his characters beautifully: "Primavera was a doll now... a Lilim with the treacherous coal-black locks of an errant gypsy girl. Her eyes glowed like viridian isotopes. And her body was filled with the cold deliciousness of allure." Even in the decadence Calder limns in dense, highly imaginative prose (the most realistic representation in fantastic fiction of a decayed England since Newman's Bad Dreams), and even in seemingly the most heartless of characters, love, like the earth itself, abides.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
A gender-specific nano-virus threatens humanity with extinction by transforming its female victims into doll-like vampire killing machines. When Ignatz Zwakh tries to protect his former lover Primavera from those who would exterminate her, he falls into a dark web of intrigue and sinister politics. This first novel begins a trilogy that draws its ambience from its cyberpunk underpinnings while manifesting a clarity of vision at once unique and disturbing. Fans of cutting-edge sf will enjoy this taut, provocative debut.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
