- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd; New edition edition (May 1991)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0727841939
- ISBN-13: 978-0727841933
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,059,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
Vintage 'hard SF' from one of it's most important writers, the author of BLOOD MUSIC
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Man had made the Cities, but he had made them too well. For though they were perfect, their inhabitants were not. And so the Cities rejected their creators, threw them to the desert which lay outside their walls. But generations later not all of those in these nomad camps have lost their faith.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Bear seems to be an erratic writer, but this is certainly one of his best efforts. A strange tale which manages to mix ultra-futuristic technology with religion in a story of a people driven into exile by the moral standards of their own machines. One of those books you will still be thinking about months or even years after you have finished it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Bear's early work shows much of the promise he was later to show in more accomplished work, and certainly in some of the themes.
Religion is a thread which runs through much of Bear's work either as a minor theme or right upfront as in `Strength of Stones'
The planet God-Does-Battle was set up as a world where fundamentalist members of various faiths could exist apart from the sinners of the rest of the galaxy. Pearson, the founder, commissioned architect Robert Khan to design `living' cities in which the colonists could pursue their individual religious callings. Khan, it appears, designed too well and the cities, sentient and programmed with the religious rules of their inhabitants, came to the conclusion that all their inhabitants were sinners and exiled them to the cruel surface of the world.
The novel comprises of three sections, set in three different time periods. From a modern perspective it seems a little naive that fundamentalist Muslims and Jews would willingly choose to share the same planet with each other, let alone the Baptists, Gnostics and whatever else. However, it is a measure of Bear's strength as a writer that he makes this rather far-fetched notion seem perfectly plausible.
It would appear that two sections of the novel were published separately as short stories and certainly the 1988 version has been revised.
It does, sadly, still have the disjointed feel of a fix-up.
Religion is a thread which runs through much of Bear's work either as a minor theme or right upfront as in `Strength of Stones'
The planet God-Does-Battle was set up as a world where fundamentalist members of various faiths could exist apart from the sinners of the rest of the galaxy. Pearson, the founder, commissioned architect Robert Khan to design `living' cities in which the colonists could pursue their individual religious callings. Khan, it appears, designed too well and the cities, sentient and programmed with the religious rules of their inhabitants, came to the conclusion that all their inhabitants were sinners and exiled them to the cruel surface of the world.
The novel comprises of three sections, set in three different time periods. From a modern perspective it seems a little naive that fundamentalist Muslims and Jews would willingly choose to share the same planet with each other, let alone the Baptists, Gnostics and whatever else. However, it is a measure of Bear's strength as a writer that he makes this rather far-fetched notion seem perfectly plausible.
It would appear that two sections of the novel were published separately as short stories and certainly the 1988 version has been revised.
It does, sadly, still have the disjointed feel of a fix-up.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Greg Bear's "Strength of Stones" focuses on the development of planet God-Does-Battle, the self-elected exile of Christians, Muslims and Jews from a secularised earth. The planet's habitats are living, sentient, mobile cities designed as a paradise of coalition between the world religions, but they slowly grow disgusted by human sin and cast out all their inhabitants to fend for themselves on a more primitive level. The novel charts what follows as the plot develops, on both philosophical and individual levels, with the backdrop of the cities supporting a spare, but engaging set of characters. In some ways, this is just another planetary-development novel, but it is written and structured well and provides enough surprises to lift it clearly above the throng.
To me, Bear's "Blood Music" remains the most enjoyable, original and unusual of his novels, but "Strength of Stones" is well worth a read nonetheless.
To me, Bear's "Blood Music" remains the most enjoyable, original and unusual of his novels, but "Strength of Stones" is well worth a read nonetheless.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Light reading but worthwhile
This is an easy and enjoyable read, not the typically complex story one would normally associate with this author. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Halo Reader
Dull
Not to my taste at all really... but I'm more of a fan of epic complex space operas and high fantasy, this book lacks substance.
Published 9 months ago by E. Crossley
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