- Hardcover: 480 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz (29 Dec 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0575074728
- ISBN-13: 978-0575074729
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.6 x 4.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,944,243 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
"A rollicking reengineering of The Counte of Monte Cristo. This is also a serious, grown up novel that riffs on current concerns by, for example, casting as its outsider heroine a woman born into a fundamentalist tribal society." 4/5 -- Jonathan Wright BBC FOCUS "Noose-tight plotting and the author's characteristic, searching interest in biological science fiction. Jones's material is inventive... the plotting and pacing are well judged. With Spirit, Jones has inverted, and illuminated, the Count of Monte Cristo." -- Nic Clarke SFX
Product Description
Bibi (it means princess) is the sole survivor of a massacre. Lady Nef, the General's wife, stops the General taking her as a concubine, winning Bibi's eternal and passionate devotion. Years later, a diplomatic mission to a supposedly friendly planet ends in disaster. Bibi, now a junior officer in Lady Nef's household, is incarcerated with her mistress in the notorious high-security prison on Fenmu. Lady Nef, 150 years old when arrested, dies in prison; she bequeaths to Bibi her rank, her level of access to the AI systems that permeate the Diaspora of inhabited planets, and a highly secret set of 4-space co-ordinates. Bibi uses Lady Nef's death to escape from Fenmu, finds Spirit, an instantaneous-transit space pod, and follows Lady Nef's co-ordinates to a treasure beyond price: a virgin, perfect, uninhabited planet. Soon after this, the mysterious, fantastically wealthy Princess of Bois Dormant makes her debut in the high society of Speranza, the Diaspora's capital city. Thus disguised, Bibi sets out to discover why she and her mistress were condemned to a living hell; and to punish the guilty. Twenty years have passed: Lady Nef's enemies now rule Speranza. As she uncovers a forgotten, ruthless and far-reaching conspiracy, Bibi's vengeance is transformed into a project of world-changing reparation.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The complexity of the worlds, characters and stories within this book is almost staggering, in retrospect. Yet because of the depth of the relationships and the skill with which the author expresses herself, I didn't feel overwhelmed by it, the characters were distinctive and individual whether human or otherwise. So, it's a long book, but don't let that put you off, the time flew by for me and it was time well spent.
In one way, this book is a retelling of the Count of Monte Cristo story, but that summary doesn't reveal the whole tale. It is also an exploration of growing up, sexuality, motherhood, madness, cruelty, resilience, love and friendship in a convincing and interesting scifi/fantasy setting. It avoided cliche at all turns and I became so attached to the characters that I actually missed them when I'd finished the book. I highly recommend it.
In one way, this book is a retelling of the Count of Monte Cristo story, but that summary doesn't reveal the whole tale. It is also an exploration of growing up, sexuality, motherhood, madness, cruelty, resilience, love and friendship in a convincing and interesting scifi/fantasy setting. It avoided cliche at all turns and I became so attached to the characters that I actually missed them when I'd finished the book. I highly recommend it.
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