From Publishers Weekly
Kress’s idea-packed sequel to Crossfire (2003) carries several leading characters and conflicts some 39 years farther into the future of a distant human colony. To settle the planet Greentrees, Jake Holman, now aged and feeble, has brought diverse groups: the huge Cutler clan, Arabs, Chinese, New Quakers, Cheyennes. The dissident Chinese city Hope of Heaven seethes with antagonism toward Mira City, where Alexandra Cutler as "tray-o," the Technology Resources Allocation officer, serves as one of the executive triumvirate. When a ship arrives from a devastated Earth, Alex falls prey to its charismatic captain, Julian Martin, whose suave exterior cloaks a formidable and ruthless will to power worthy of Rome’s first Caesar. Martin’s Machiavellian manipulation of Mira City’s naïve citizenry, including Alex, soon easily makes him its dictator. Meanwhile, in space on a daring attempt to defuse the aggressive humanoid Furs’ ability to wage war, Karim Mahjoub and Lucy Lasky are captured by the alien plantlike Vines. A highly complex plot, intricately interwoven motivations and a constantly shifting focus detract from the novel’s pace, while characterizations and dialogue occasionally appear superficial or predictable. Nonetheless, Kress’s inventive juxtaposition of cultures and political systems and her sympathetic treatment of minority viewpoints offer much food for thought. FYI: Kress’s short fiction has won Hugo and Nebula awards.
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From Booklist
The second novel about the settlement of the planet Greentrees takes place 50 years after the events of
Crossfire [BKL Ja 1 & 15 03]. The interstellar expedition to wage germ warfare against the hostile alien Furs succeeds, but it also uncovers much more than was expected about the supposedly friendly Vines and returns with news of new potential dangers. Meanwhile, militarized refugees from a crumbling Earth appear to constitute a valuable defense against the hostile Furs, though their own agenda is a menace to the utopian society of Greentrees. The last half of this book portrays a multicornered fight between space Furs, planetary Furs, Vines, and a double handful of human factions, resolving many conflicts but setting the stage for more in the final volume of Kress' trilogy. Kress is becoming equally adept with hard science, alien contact, planetary colonization, and action, and at combining those four elements with exceeding, possibly unique flair. A must for sf collections.
Roland GreenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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