- Paperback: 432 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz; paperback / softback edition (8 Jun 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0575077344
- ISBN-13: 978-0575077348
- Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 2.5 x 19.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 444,772 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Life During Wartime (Sf Masterworks)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
In the jungles of Guatemala, David Mingolla is struggling to survive amongst the rotting vegetation and his despairing fellow foot soldiers. He knows he is nothing but an expendable pawn in an endless war. On R & R a few miles away from the warzone he meets Debora - an enigmatic young woman who may be working for the enemy - and stumbles into a deadly psychic conflict where the mind is the greatest weapon.
About the Author
Lucius Shepard was born in the USA in 1947. From the mid-1960s to the early 1980s he lived in various parts of the world and travelled widely. He won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1985 and has also won the World Fantasy Award twice.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well written, but over-long.,
By Behan "J." (uk) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Life During Wartime (S.F. Masterworks) (Paperback)
A sensual, maddening sci-fi saga set in the jungle. It's a story about a war of psychic powers - which is dumb, but no dumber than the usual betentacled aliens and dogfights in space. It's a story of drugs, madness and intrigue set both the jungles of Guatemala and the jungle of the human mind. It's an odd, rambling, and ultimately unsatisfying tale which tries to cover too much ground and turns weirder with each chapter: I made it to the end, but the rewards diminished as the pages flipped by. However, it's still a worthwhile read for those who like parrots, paranoia and purple prose. Like "Heart of Darkness" it's better read sitting sweaty in a too-hot bath under the shade of a potted cheeseplant, so you can nearly hear the croaking tree frogs and buzzing jungle flies. Now and again, there's a gem of a short story shining in the collage of exotic foliage, or maybe just a treat of writer's self indulgence, like the melvillesque, page-long sentence when the hero has his first vision of the fleshpots of the future California. Might appeal to fans of Ballard's "Drowned World".
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
uhmmm...hm...,
By A Customer
This review is from: Life During Wartime (Mass Market Paperback)
A very difficult book to rate...It starts very slowly, and is rather hard going in the beginning. The same with the end, with is for me a bit disappointing because of the absolutely grand middle section. Shepard's speciality, erotic descriptions (have you read "The Golden"? Oh my god, it should be x-rated !), are really class. The mixture of reality and drug hallucinations is fantastic, as is the explanation of why there is war on earth. Well... I cannot say this book is excellent, but the middle section definitely is (read the beginning and the end, or you won't get it...).
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews) 7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Read it. . .,
By Nathan - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Life During Wartime (Hardcover)
Lucius Shepard is a strong and beautiful writer. His stories have frequently been compared to those of Joseph Conrad, and indeed Shepard is a master of the short story and the novella. R&R, the novella that makes up the opening of this novel, is a beautiful and terrible read, and the quality of the writing remains consistently captivating throughout. So why have I given this novel only three stars? Because, as a novel, it doesn't really work. Shepard writes fantastic short fiction, but when he wrote LIFE DURING WARTIME, he just wasn't ready to tackle a novel. It reads like a series of episodes, each an good read on its own, but each also providing its own closure. But they are linked closely enough that were I to read something else in between them, I'd likely lose track of the details of the plot. So, while the writing is beautiful, the plot interesting, and each episode a joy to read on its own, the novel isn't able to sustain its momentum throughout. I'm glad I read it, but as a novel, it just doesn't quite work.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shepard is one of the best 20th century writers,
By Peter F. Delaney - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Life During Wartime (Mass Market Paperback)
I always love Lucius Shepard's work and this is his best novel. It is like "Apocalypse Now" in the future, and has the same kind of impact on the reader as that film did on the viewer.A quote from the opening paragraph: "One of the new Sikorsky gunships... gave Mingolla and Gilbey and Baylor a lift from the Ant Farm to San Francisco de Juticlan, a small town located inside the green zone.... To the east of this green zone lay an undesignated band of yellow that corssed the country from the Mexican border to the Caribbean. The Ant Farm was a firebase on the eastern edge of the yellow band, and it was from there that Mingolla -- an artillery specialist not yet twenty-one years old -- lobbed shells into an area that the maps depicted in black-and-white terrain markings. And thus it was that he often thought of himself as engaged in a struggle to keep the world safe for primary colors."
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not as good as the original story,
By Milos Tomin - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Life During Wartime (Mass Market Paperback)
R&R was the story that put Shepard among the great names of SF and forms the chapter of this book. There are several familiar elements for fans of the author, exotic locales, drugs psychic powers that border on magic and secret forces battling it out under cover of 21st century warfare in the jungles of Central America. The book suffers just a tiny bit from being written in the late 80's when heavy involvement by US secret ops gave the impression that a Vietnam type meltdown was about to happen almost on the doorstep of US. Brilliant language and (naturally) hallucinatory imagery are the qualities of the book. Storyline tends to sag in the second half of the book but if you are one of the author's followers you will enjoy this work.
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