- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Voyager (11 Sep 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006480233
- ISBN-13: 978-0006480235
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 142,387 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Aiah has learned that plasm is more than an energy source. It resonates within the human mind, giving power to heal and to kill. So when she finds an undiscovered, unlimited supply, she dares to meet with the powerful Metropolitan known as Constantine, a mysterious rebel with plans. Together they can use the plasm to rally forces to overthrow the government.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Back Cover
THE GLORY HOLE
Better than sex, better than drugs, plasm is the solvent of mind and matter once called magic. In the world-wide city of the future, generating plasm is a science, its deployment a technology – and it’s metered at the domestic end. That is, the rich have plenty, the poor next to none. Aiah is a bored clerk with the Plasm Authority until she stumbles upon an unmapped well of the coveted stuff. A thousand Angels of Power sing in Aiah’s mind.
Constantine, Metropolitan in exile, mage and revolutionary, is happy to buy, illegally, all the plasm Aiah has to offer. But he wants more than plasm from Aiah. Along with ambitious wizards, human dolphins, gene twisted avians and a demon living in the plasm mains, Aiah can help Constantine to challenge the Ascended Ones themselves. Unless she burns out.
“A great talent”
INTERZONE
“Ingenious and energetic and knowing”
THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Metropolitan is set in an unnamed world covered in a single enormous city, where the main source of power is plasm, a mysterious energy formed from geometric patterns such as the arrangement of buildings. Plasm is used in a way that sits somewhere between magic and technology - it powers the lights and the trains, but individuals can also use it for astral projection, creating energy, healing, killing and the like. This makes for an intriguing world, especially when you find that it is sealed up by a mysterious Shield in the atmosphere, which prevents anyone getting out.
Aiah, the heroine, is a minor functionary for the Plasm Authority, a company controlling plasm in her metropolis. She's also a member of a displaced ethnic minority who are mistrusted in the city, although Aiah tries to pretend she's above all that. This, and other aspects of the world's history, aren't always explained very fully, despite being potentially interesting.
While searching for the cause of a disaster, Aiah finds an enormous source of plasm beneath a building and rather than reporting it, decides to sell it to solve her domestic money troubles. She ends up offering it to Constantine, a powerful mage in exile with revolutionary views, despite knowing that he will undoubtedly use it for some dangerous political stunt.
Metropolitan is very well written, brimming with ideas, and the main characters are well-drawn. But the end, as Aiah gets drawn deeper into Constantine's plans, is abrupt and doesn't resolve very much, which makes for an ultimately frustrating book.
Aiah, the heroine, is a minor functionary for the Plasm Authority, a company controlling plasm in her metropolis. She's also a member of a displaced ethnic minority who are mistrusted in the city, although Aiah tries to pretend she's above all that. This, and other aspects of the world's history, aren't always explained very fully, despite being potentially interesting.
While searching for the cause of a disaster, Aiah finds an enormous source of plasm beneath a building and rather than reporting it, decides to sell it to solve her domestic money troubles. She ends up offering it to Constantine, a powerful mage in exile with revolutionary views, despite knowing that he will undoubtedly use it for some dangerous political stunt.
Metropolitan is very well written, brimming with ideas, and the main characters are well-drawn. But the end, as Aiah gets drawn deeper into Constantine's plans, is abrupt and doesn't resolve very much, which makes for an ultimately frustrating book.
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is a good old fantasy yarn, the problem is it doesn't actually end. Not really, the second book doesn't eigther and that was even more disapointing. Walter Jon Williams writes very well, and the books enjoyable but if there is a third book I don't know about it.
I'd also so its not sci/fi. Not really it seems to be bording on fantasy. Sort of.
I'd also so its not sci/fi. Not really it seems to be bording on fantasy. Sort of.
1 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I love Aiah. She is one of the great overacheiving heroines of SF. And she does it all with just a to-do list, a business degree, and the occasional killer pedicure!
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