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Secret Harmonies
  
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Secret Harmonies (Paperback)

by Paul McAuley (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Hardcover (First Edition) 14 used & new from £1.79
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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Orbit; New edition edition (27 Jun 1991)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0747405441
  • ISBN-13: 978-0747405443
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 2,263,014 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description
A second novel by the only British winner of the Philip K. Dick Award. The planet Elysium is long settled, but troubles lay underneath the seeming paradise. Citizens of the Port of Plenty have benefitted from new technology, but settlers across the planet are left to fend for themselves.

About the Author
Paul J. McAuley won the Philip K. Dick Award for his first novel and has gone on to win the Arthur C. Clarke, British Fantasy, Sidewise and John W. Campbell Awards. He gave up his position as a research biologist to write full-time. He lives in london. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3.0 out of 5 stars Competent but rather bland sf, 19 Nov 2003
By dogbarkssome (England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)      
This review is from: Secret Harmonies (Paperback)
The good news is that Paul J McAuley’s second novel is a big improvement on his first. Initially Secret harmonies appears to be exploring the same territory as Four Hundred Billion Stars, with a colonised world inhabited by mysterious aliens who may or may not be intelligent, and featuring a lead character with psychic ability, before it turns into a civil war drama between the colonists.

While Secret Harmonies is set in the same universe as Four Hundred Billion Stars these links are relegated to a very few minor name checks, and with no sharing of characters or plot this is for all practical purposes a completely stand-alone novel.

Technically Secret Harmonies marks a big step forward, with a more intricate plot construction resulting in a more readable book. McAuley sensibly splits the narrative between two leads on either side of the cultural divide – city dweller Richard Florey and ‘dingo’ Miguel Lucas – which means that this novel doesn’t suffer from the pacing problems of his debut.

Unfortunately, while well written, I can’t say I was particularly enamoured of the main story elements. Both the ideas of colony civil war and a sentient computer trying to take over the world are fairly standard sf ideas, and McAuley does nothing new with them here.

While engaging and readable, Secret Harmonies is ultimately a rather dry and uninspiring novel. It’s by no means a bad book – just a rather mediocre one

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4.0 out of 5 stars Second novel shows strengths and weaknesses, 11 Mar 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Secret Harmonies (Paperback)
By anyone else's standards they would be very pleased with themselves if they only ever wrote one novel which was as good as this. Unfortunately, we are talking about Paul McAuley here. His subsequent performance has shown this novel for what it is: a flawed classic novel which doesn't quite gell. This is a not Mr McAuley's fault, however, because new writers are allowed such mistakes when beginning their careers. The signs are there of what Mr McAuley was to go on to achieve later in his writing life: notably 'Fairyland', 'Pasquale's Angel' and 'Red Dust'. If you have ever read a novel by Paul McAuley then you will enjoy this, if you haven't then I suggest you try 'Fairyland' or 'Red Dust' first and then try this afterwards.

On a positive note it is refreshing to read a novel with aliens in that doesn't have the aliens as the central plot device. Good, but not great, as they say. But well worth a look all the same!

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