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The Quiet War (Gollancz S.F.) (Hardcover)

by Paul McAuley (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
Price: £18.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Gollancz (16 Oct 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0575079320
  • ISBN-13: 978-0575079328
  • Product Dimensions: 23 x 16 x 4.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 272,111 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

Twenty-third century Earth, ravaged by climate change, looks backwards to the holy ideal of a pre-industrial Eden. Political power has been grabbed by a few powerful families and their green saints. Millions of people are imprisoned in teeming cities; millions more labour on Pharaonic projects to rebuild ruined ecosystems. On the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, the Outers, descendants of refugees from Earth's repressive regimes, have constructed a wild variety of self-sufficient cities and settlements: scientific utopias crammed with exuberant creations of the genetic arts; the last outposts of every kind of democratic tradition. The fragile detente between the Outer cities and the dynasties of Earth is threatened by the ambitions of the rising generation of Outers, who want to break free of their cosy, inward-looking pocket paradises, colonise the rest of the Solar System, and drive human evolution in a hundred new directions. On Earth, many demand pre-emptive action against the Outers before it's too late; others want to exploit the talents of their scientists and gene wizards. Amid campaigns for peace and reconciliation, political machinations, crude displays of military might, and espionage by cunningly wrought agents, the two branches of humanity edge towards war . . .


About the Author

Paul McAuley's first novel won the Philip K. Dick Award and he has gone on to win almost all of the major awards in the field. For many years a research biologist, he now writes full-time. He lives in London.
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4.2 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent, entertaining and serious SF, 18 May 2009
This review is from: The Quiet War (Gollancz S.F.) (Paperback)
McAuley returns to the harder end of the SF range with this expansive and complex novel. The story unfolds on a big scale - it offers heady thrills and exciting set pieces - but as ever with McAuley the real success of the book is down to the powerful and precise characterizations. Stories live or die with how much you care about characters, and the people here, for all their posthuman wonders, are utterly believable and true. Few writers succeed at the macro and micro as well as McAuley. His best novel since White Devils and his best pure SF book since Fairyland.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb science fiction novel, does everything right, 29 Oct 2009
By A. J. Poulter "AP" (Edinburgh) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Quiet War (Gollancz) (Paperback)
There is not much to say about this novel, not because it is bad but because it is extremely good. In fact there is nothing to find fault with. The setting is the solar system, after Earth has been devastated by global warming, and is beginning to rebuild, while thriving colonies have been established on the moons of Saturn and Jupiter.

All sounds idyllic but it is not. Earlier, colonists from the Moon fled to Jupiter and Saturn after the colony on Mars was nuked by China. Earth is now controlled by three power blocs, Greater Brazil, the European Union and the Pacific Community. All are run by powerful families who squabble behind the scenes. The poor live in overcrowded cities, denied access to the regenerating countryside. Science is fostered, but mainly to create weapons, sometimes involving brutal biological and psychological re-structuring of people.

In stark contrast, the descendants of the Moon colonists, known as the Outers, live in free communities, run by continuous e-ballots. They delve into the physical and biological sciences, especially genetic engineering, to improve their technologies and bodies and to spread new forms of life by creating new ecosystems on previously sterile moons. The 'Quiet War', a low-intensity conflict with little all out fighting, deliberately engineered by factions in Greater Brazil, breaks out after a reconciliation mission to build an Earth-like habitat on Callisto is sabotaged.

On one hand the novel succeeds as a classic space opera, with a militaristic regime trying to control freedom-loving individualists. There is plenty of action, from a ground assault on a domed city to balletic space battles, using clever weapons and some effective 'dumb' ones, like asteroids used as missiles. Heinlein would be proud. On the other hand, this is very 'modern' science fiction, with subtle insights into politics, very well drawn characters on both sides, awe inspiring new science, like organisms adapted to life in a vacuum on cold, dead moons and beautiful, poetic descriptions of vistas on the various moons and planets. This book is a perfect blend of a mainstream novel with a rigorous approach to science fiction.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars McAuley is one of the best, 21 May 2009
By L. Richards (London, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Quiet War (Gollancz S.F.) (Paperback)
Paul McAuley accomplishes something difficult in a sci-fi book: realism. He does this through intricate characters who we can believe in and follow. These are realistic people of spirit, and McAuley makes them work hard throughout the multi-layered plot. His narrative is clear, crisp and emotionally engaging. The science behind the story is not only believable, but is integral to the theme.

I don't wish to give away any element of the plot. Just trust me, if you like your science fiction plausible and human, buy this book. I have not come across a sci-fi writer better than Paul McAuley.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Slow to start, still well worth reading.
I really liked this one, and when I was finished, still wished it had more to go. Obviously, there is, but I still think some of the characters could have been developed more... Read more
Published 8 days ago by Daniel Nelson

3.0 out of 5 stars I've read worse
I agree with the previous reviewer. It is good book but it lacks something, making it quiet easy to put it down for a few days. Read more
Published 4 months ago by moonstone

2.0 out of 5 stars Not that interesting
I read this book and kept putting it down through lack of interest. The story has everything. Space colonies around Jupiter and Saturn, a monolithic and possibly corrupt world... Read more
Published 6 months ago by bob

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