- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Orbit; New edition edition (2 Sep 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1857238621
- ISBN-13: 978-1857238624
- Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 10.8 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 506,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
This debut SF novel won several awards, because it's finely written, warmly characterised and refreshingly different. 22nd-century Earth is run by China (still officially Marxist), and our hero Zhang is one of many people who need to exploit the cracks in the system. Good news: he looks Chinese, now a plus point for getting construction work in New York. Bad news: being half Spanish, he daren't risk racist gene testing, and being gay, he's embarrassed by his Chinese foreman's hope of marrying off an ugly daughter. In further episodes he survives the long winter night at a frozen Baffin Island research station, plays illicit virtual-reality games, studies organic architecture in Beijing, teaches an unconventional college class, and more. Meanwhile there are sidebar chapters about the fascinating people whose lives touch Zhang's. One is a flyer, neurally linked to her silk kite--a descendant of today's hang-glider--and competing in death-defying races above Greenwich Village. Two more are struggling colonists on Mars, and the foreman's daughter is likewise a deeply human being with her own story. No one overthrows the government; no one saves the world. With charm, wit, and carefully layered plausibility, Zhang and his friends get along somehow, and find more elbow-room in the system than they expected. Richly intelligent SF. --David Langford
Review
An astonishing tour de force ... This is a rich and amazingly intelligent novel, drawing a portrait of a time, a place, and characters that will absolutely convince you of their reality. (ISAAC ASIMOV'S SF MAGAZINE )
McHugh writes with a clear, solid voice- distinctive, evocative, and occasionally so brilliant that it's hard to believe this is a first novel'. LOCUS ('A beautifully realised first novel.’ )
NEW YORK TIMES ('Amazingly she has already tapped into the core of quality SF- great imagination, a solidly realised future world, a pacy story and lots of well drawn characters. A winner.’ )
BRISTOL EVENING POST ('McHugh abandons the usual plot lines of sci-fi and creates a brilliantly imagined future.’ )
McHugh writes with a clear, solid voice- distinctive, evocative, and occasionally so brilliant that it's hard to believe this is a first novel'. LOCUS ('A beautifully realised first novel.’ )
NEW YORK TIMES ('Amazingly she has already tapped into the core of quality SF- great imagination, a solidly realised future world, a pacy story and lots of well drawn characters. A winner.’ )
BRISTOL EVENING POST ('McHugh abandons the usual plot lines of sci-fi and creates a brilliantly imagined future.’ )
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First Sentence
The foreman chatters in Meihua, the beautiful tongue, Singapore English. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The foreman chatters in Meihua, the beautiful tongue, Singapore English. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a stunning tale of lives lived in alienation. Zhang is marginalised by his mixed race heritage and his sexuality, and the other characters are mostly just as conflicted about the trials of hard lives and expectations of others.
I don't think I've read a sci-fi book where people prevaricate and dissemble so much. Against a background of Martian colonisation, communist Chinese economic dominance and global warming, McHugh gives us a humane tale of survival and adjustment. It left me wanting more.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A beautifully written book, without unnecessary linguistic fireworks. Well defined characters, developed realistically .. in short; a real book in an SF setting. 'Half the Day is Night' by the same author is also good, but harder to get into.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The first two chapters are a bit off a puzzle. Because the author writes in a slightly unusual style, the reader has to work at understanding what is going on. Once that is out of the way, by chapter three you're hooked. It's a bit like a softer William Gibson. Better charectarisation and protagonists who you actually care about. The story follows the training of a young American Chinese engineering student with side stories about some of the people he comes into contact with. All round good value for money.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Excellent science fiction and social commentary
A book you don't want to put down, it holds your attention with all of main characters. Also highly topical considering it was written so long ago - with its predictions of a... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Vern
Intimate Portrayal of regular people in a dystopian society
The book is set in a future world where China has become the dominant world power and the US had become a poorer communist nation. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Killie
Wonderful debut novel - highly recommended
Ironically it take a woman to write perhaps the best SF novel of the 20th century in which a gay man is the main character. Read more
Published on 7 Aug 2007 by Rod Williams
A good book, but not a Great one
When I started reading the book I found it quite appealing, with an interresting story and well defined characters. However it leaves me wanting. Read more
Published on 17 Oct 1999
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