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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
what about "one of the best poetic SF on the market"?, 7 Jun 2001
First time I've read this book in translation (my mother language is Russian). To say it (translation) was very poor is to flatter a translation - but even this tortured version gave away the beauty and natural magic of this novel. I had to find an original version, which I did immediately! Can you imagine Kafka-esque bureaucrat in Chandler-like pursuit of a witch in a post-Gibson world on a Ian Banks-like planet? Doesn't sound like your average run-of-the-mill SF, does it? The language in itself is another story - precise, even a bit formal in great poetic traditions. Sure, the book will demand some initial efforts from the reader, but one is bound to enjoy it more with each new re-reading. My advise - buy a hardback, so you'll be able to come back again and again.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting try at new narrative technique in sci fi, 12 July 2007
The book descibes the quest an anonymous bourocrat in search of a runaway scientist, for reasons we dont clearly know. We don't know, either, the reason for the runaway or the technology he has stolen. Or why that technology is so dangerous. All in all, the typical Mc Guffin.
The world Miranda is on the verge of destruction, due to the periodic tsunami waves caused by the sudden melting of the poles. Everybody is on the run, chaos appears everywhere, and the bourocrat has little or no help from his local contact officer, more interested in phylandering than in anything else. To make things more confuse, this planet houses magicians and pharmacists who perform hidden cults, and surprise the poor chap now and again. There are also some former inhabitants of the planet, the haunts, that could be intelligent and everybody is anxious to find (they are thougth to have extinguished years ago).
All this is confuse, and the reader is harassed by the author not knowing what is in reserve. The author makes constant references to Shakespeare, to the classics, and makes the bourocrat a kind of Prosper or Diogenes searching not only for a fugitive but alsos for the sense of his own life. There are also references to Jack Vance's Book of Dreams, to the Bene Gesserit's Gom jabbar, to cyberpunk, to artificial intelligence, and whatnot...
Good if you like sci-fi and want a change from space opera.
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by John Wyndham
by Christopher Priest
by Lois McMaster Bujold
by Philip K. Dick
by Kate Wilhelm
