Customer Reviews

Child Of The River: The First Book Of Confluence

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Before I really get into reviewing this book I must give a brief hisory of why I read it. Some of my viewpoints might differ from the average reader of this book , and to be completly fair an explanation is in order.

It has been about four years since I read any real science fiction, (well, I did just recently read a large collection of H.G. Wells, but personally I don't regard them so much as science fiction as I do classical literature,) and maybe seven or eight years since I have read any with any regularity.

Back then my main focus on reading was lots of fantasy with a good dose of science fiction to season.These books made up probably around ninety percent of reading. If I wasn't reading one I was reading the other. Then, I found it. Other books. Physics, history, classical, cookbooks, modern fiction, biographies, and oh so much more. A whole new world. I was still reading some science fiction, but after a few years it had slowly faded off of my general reading list. Now four years after the last (the last being the whole of the triumphant Foundation series, at least the ones penned by Asminov himself) I decided to go to the library and look for an eye-catching science fiction book that I have never seen before, or ever even heard of the author, just to keep the experiment as clean as possible. I wanted to see if science fiction still had a place in my heart, or if it was just going to be slowly reduced to pleasant, yet fuzzy memories.

Well, as you might have guessed, this is the book that caught my eye. Everything about it said Pick Me, Pick Me. A flashy cover with a nice bit of artwork inset. An author that I had never heard of with a nime that had a dignified ring to it. There is more than one book to read which is always a nice thing. It takes place in the far distant future which is always a bonus for my sci-fi reading.

Turns out that this is a nice addition to the genre.Some of the ideas seem to have the recycled stamp on them, but then most books nowadays do. Still, there are alot of fresh ideas (at least from my reading experience) that seem to be well thought out. Although I will say this. I had forgotten how gritty the details can be in science fiction. In most of these kind of books you can expect in various degrees some sort of unneeded junk. Not even Arthur C. Clark or Isaac Asminov are entirely exempt from this classification. I find it to be an interesting phenomenon, and would jump at the chance to read an essay explaining why this is so.

A galaxy that was totally controlled and shaped by its super intellegent inhabitants, also known as the preservers, who had genettically engineered thousands of intellegent races from various species of animals, built whole planets, designed and arranged solar systems as if they were rearranging their living room, and when they decided their work was completed, took the ultimate final step, and as an entire race, went into the black hole at the center of the galaxy. All adding up to a very thought provoking session once all the little details that I don't have the desire to list are thrown in.

Now the story itself has been done before in many various ways (in many different genres as well, though science fiction and fantasy seem to have the beast cornered so to speak), but the setting, storytelling, and some nice little twists all do a nice job of covering it up. We follow a boy (Yamamannama I think, but everyone thankfully calls him Yama for short,) on the edge of manhood who lives a fairly boring life, but thinks he is destined for a better, more adventurous life. (Sound familiar to anyone out there?) His father isn't really his father (where did that come from?), but we are aware of this very early as they are both from different races, (ok, now things are begining to cross that *not so typical* threshhold,) Yama being a human-like human, while his father being a praying mantis or something-like human. See how the story progresses?

Yama, after some strange adventures, ends up traveling with this monkish character who seems to have a darker edge than your average monk. After a terrifingly cool scene in which he finds he can control ancient machines with his mind he ditches the monk. (Wrong move, I can see this coming back to haunt him in the next book.) He eventually teams up with a young rat-boy, who wants nothing more than to be Yama's squire. He also hooks up with a very mouthy She-Cat, who is supposed to make the story a little more fun, but instead the character comes across as just plain annoying, (think Jar-Jar meets Rosessane Barr!), constantly critizing and using words that I had better never catch my cat saying. The three then team up and embark on some fantasy based adventures that blatently reminded me of my D&D days, when the book abruptly ends almost in the middle of a sentence. ( Well not quite, but it sure felt like is it.) This isn't McCauley's fault though. It was an editorial call.

McCauley is a very good writer. He easily weaves together the story blending science fiction, fantasy, nice plot lines, lots of little surprises, a very colorful world, and quest themes that have *hero* stamped all over them.

To answer my earlier question of science fiction in general, I have found it to still be fun, capturing my imagination almost as if I had never left. Lesson learned. I will continue to read science fiction although not in the glutonous amounts of my glory days. As for continuing the series, I will most likely do so. The book has more of an epic scope to it than most science fiction can ever reach, although I won't truly know until I finish reading the series if that scope can be carried out to its fullness.

I think if I'd not been a McCauley fan and had read that this was a Gene Wolfe pastiche. I'd have been unlikely to have bought it.
It's really not too bad at all. Has a lot of Wolfean elements, basically combining the far, far future of "The Book of the New Sun" with the artificial enviroment of "The Long Sun" books.
Gene Wolfe lite desribes it well and though it lacks the embedded complexity of Wolfe it does capture a lot of his stylistic touches well.
I agree with those who think this should have been released as a single novel rather than a trilogy but its still an interesting journey rather than a compulsive page turner.

I think if I'd not been a McCauley fan and had read that this was a Gene Wolfe pastiche. I'd have been unlikely to have bought it.
It's really not too bad at all. Has a lot of Wolfean elements, basically combining the far, far future of "The Book of the New Sun" with the artificial enviroment of "The Long Sun" books.
Gene Wolfe lite desribes it well and though it lacks the embedded complexity of Wolfe it does capture a lot of his stylistic touches well.
I agree with those who think this should have been released as a single novel rather than a trilogy but its still an interesting journey rather than a compulsive page turner.

This book is really 4-1/2 stars. It shows a lot of creativity, with a far-future setting that has touches of fantasy. The fast-paced plot, the action, and the slowly unfolding mysteries make this a book a winner. Don't, however, expect any kind of closure at the end of the book, as you have to keep reading to continue the story. The lose ends really pile up.

McAuley invents great backdrops, inventions and moods in his first book of the Confluence trilogy. The City of the Dead gives the reader chills with the dust, isolation and silent videos that activate as visitors stroll by the tombs.

Most of this books races with adventure at a fast pace. A few chapters slow down the action, but only for the reader to catch his breathe.

McCauley does well in keeping the plot from making puppets out of the characters. Yama has an obvious goal: he wants to find his people, or at least who his people were. The characters are likable, but some are cliches--Dr. Dismas or Tamara, for example. Ananda and Pandaras, two different characters whose appearances don't overlap in this book, seem to be too much alike. Overall, however, the characters will endear the reader to this series.

Don't expect Child of the River to be a complete story. The three books in this series may have been only one when the author planned it, but the publisher's marketing department may have seen fit to present this story as a trilogy. I am eager to finish this series and am willing to reserve final judgement until after I read the final chapter. Worth your time for a fun afternoon of speculative fiction.

'Child of the River' is a great novel.

Paul McAuley has created an amazing universe, one where the tropes of fantasy fiction interact with all of the gizmos and gadgets of the hardest SF. The protagonist, Yama, discovers that he's not like the others..that on a world that contains 500 different species, there's no one else like him. So Yama wants to discover who he is and where he came from...and why he's able to command machines.

McAuley is a master wordsmith. The words meld together and form an incredible tapestry. The reader feels as though he's present in McAuley's universe. And really, any book that contains men fencing with chainsaws has to be worth reading. I couldn't put the book down. McAuley has taken a place on my Must-Read list. Highly recommended.

So why did I give it only four stars? Two reasons. It's the first book in a trilogy, and I always reserve some opinion (in this case, one star's worth) for the final work all together. Secondly, it's not really a trilogy, but a single novel broken up into three printings. This can be somewhat frusterating when you're ten pages from the end and asking yourself, "How is this going to wrap up?"... Answer: it doesn't.

That said, this is a terrific book. The descriptions of exotic locales and strange creatures are not only imaginative, but eloquently written, beckoning to be spoken aloud at times. While reading, I often drifted into a lush animated world of McAuley's creation. I wanted to pop "ghost berries" into my mouth and feel the tangy juice on my tongue as I burst open the skin. The Child of the River is that delicious. It doesn't even really need a plot. But it has a great one, or at least the beginnings of a great one.

Yama, the child of the river, is completely and totally unique among his fellows of Confluence. He doesn't know where he came from, how he was born, or what he is to be. But as he developes and begins to learn the standard lessons of adulthood, he stumbles upon some abilities that might come in handy for others. How these powers will play in the war between the Heretics and the Preserver's Theocrates is one of the many decisions Yama must make on the long road to discovering himself.

A wonderous start for a trilogy... now on to the second book, Ancients of Days.

Yama is on the journey of his young life from the city of the dead to a metropolis of living wonders on a world that stands apart. Thru this savage, secret & war torn land, Yama must survive to discover the truth about who he is & his purpose in life. This is a saga of Mixed Life. Way up the time-line from Here & Now on Earth. Where humans have become gods, have gone away & been long forgotten. There is no one left behind who remembers what they were like. What a toe-curler! .........

I liked the idea of this story, the characters and the writing, but I would hardly call it a BOOK. Books usually have a beginning, a middle and an end. This one has no end. I was horribly disappointed that to get to an ending, I have to buy another book! Even though I would like to read more, I won't buy the next one. If the only intention of the author is a preface for the NEXT book, he should write a larger book and have his publishers charge more for it. What a rip-off!

I liked the idea of this story, the characters and the writing, but I would hardly call it a BOOK. Books usually have a beginning, a middle and an end. This one has no end. I was horribly disappointed that to get to an ending, I have to buy another book! Even though I would like to read more, I won't buy the next one. If the only intention of the author is a preface for the NEXT book, he should write a larger book and have his publishers charge more for it.