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White Devils (Hardcover)

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

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (Feb 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0765307618
  • ISBN-13: 978-0765307613
  • Product Dimensions: 23.8 x 16.4 x 3.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,818,553 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

McAuley continues to demonstrate that he's quite as adept at the multi-layered thriller as he was at the SF novel - although White Devils is powered by an intriguing scientific premise. Nicholas Hyde, a charity worker in Africa, is part of a team investigating a wartime atrocity. The team is ambushed, and small, preternaturally strong ape-like creatures slaughter most of the group. The team's government observer calls them 'white devils' and falls in with the official story, claiming that he saw only rebel troops in body paint. The cover-up seems to originate inside Obligate, the company that effectively owns the Congo. Nick Hyde refuses to co-operate - and that's when people around him start to die. This is a novel that exhilarates on all levels - the ideas are quite as brilliantly realised as the machine-tooled plotting.

White Devils is set sometime in the future in a post apocalyptic Congo. The Black Flu has wiped out millions of people, and the plastic disease has melted away forests. Engrams, intense emotions that cause human conflict, have been eradicated by mind washing, which is controlled by Obligate, an environmentally conscious transnational whose employees are mainly zombies after undergoing emotional reorientation. Enter humanitarian fieldworker Nicholas Hyde working for the charity Witness. While investigating a massacre, he stumbles into a raid by white devils, horrifying humanoid white primates that appear to be protected by inbuilt body armour and that devour the brains and livers of their human victims. In trying to discover who has engineered the monstrous white devils, Nicholas is stonewalled at every turn. His quest for truth leads him into scary escapades with the daughter of the eccentric genius who developed the monsters. With vivid imagery McAuley has constructed a fantastically frightening vision of a world of unbelievable evil; of mind bending, zombification, genetic engineering and human cloning. A must for fans of futuristic horror. (Kirkus UK) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Paul McAuley has worked as a researcher in biology at various universities, including Oxford and UCLA, and for six years was a lecturer in plant science at St Andrews University. His first novel won the prestigious Philip K. Dick Memorial Award, and his fifth the Arthur C. Clarke and the John W. Campbell Awards. He lives in North London. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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5 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting, intelligent book, 14 Feb 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: White Devils (Paperback)
You can always count on Paul McAuley to deliver high quality, engaging fiction. He is the thinking man's Michael Crichton - though Crichton is not nearly so artful a writer. White Devils is a romp of a story which is also a kind of 21st century reworking of Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The plot is full of surprises and the cast of characters have depth and vitality (and you never know which one of them is going to be killed off at any time!). McAuley quietly turns out some of the best thrillers being written today.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Sporadically Entertaining But Badly Paced, 23 Dec 2009
By C. Green "happily low brow" (Faringdon, Oxon, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This review is from: White Devils (Paperback)
White Devils is the first Paul McAuley novel I have read, so I cannot compare it to any of his other books. Based on my experience of reading it I cannot say that I will be rushing to purchase the author's extensive back catalogue.

Its not that White Devils is a terrible book. Its competently written, although the fact McAuley has chosen to write the entire book in the present tense takes some getting used to. It also tackles some interesting ideas and issues, including genetic engineering and the future economic and political fortunes of central Africa. The possible near future that McAuley has created is well conceived and believeable but isn't pushed to the fore at the expense of the plot or the characters. Those characters are for the most part interesting and well drawn.

Where White Devils falls down badly is in the pacing and structure of the plot. After an exciting opening, with the first attack by the titular Devils and our introduction to Central Africa of the near future, events slow to what can only be described as a crawl. What should have been a fast paced adventure takes an age to actually go anywhere, with McAuley spending far too long setting up various subplots and introducing characters. By the halfway point of what is not a short book I felt that the story really hadn't gone anywhere and my interest was waning.

Matters improve slightly in the second half as the two lead characters finally meet each other as their separate plot strands intertwine and the book becomes more focused. The truths behind some of the many mysteries introduced during the first half of the book are also revealed. The problem is however, that none of these mysteries or the truths behind them are very compelling or particularly surprising. The truth behind Nick's origins for example is patently obvious from early on so the revelation about his parentage early in the second half of the book has little impact.

In fact even the book's central mystery, namely what are the White Devils and where did they come from, never really grabbed me. By the time the book concludes in the middle of the 'Dead Zone' at a camp that is part Colonel Kurtz's compound from Apocalypse Now and part Island of Dr Moreau I really didn't care that much who created the Devils or why. The book hadn't really grabbed me at the beginning and had taken too long to get me from the start of the story to the finish whilst taking too many blind alleys along the way.

Pared down, with a far more streamlined narrative, clearer motivations for the characters (even at the end I wasn't really sure why Nick was still pursuing the truth behind the White Devils) and less padding 'White Devils' would have had the potential to be an entertaining near-future thriller. As it is, whilst it contains sporadically entertaining moments, it feels slow and self-indulgent and failed to really grip this reader.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping Stuff!, 14 May 2009
By D. Mortimer (Merseyside, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: White Devils (Paperback)
I read this book whilst I was away on holiday and I was very impressed! This is a gripping book from start to finish and I would recommend it to anyone. The characters are well thought out and believable and Paul McAuley proves his talents as a writer by changing your opinion about the White Devils throughout the book. Great stuff!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Didn't engage... typo's annoying
I didn't really engage with the characters or story. It may have been the style of writing or the occasional poor use of language that made me re-read sentences again and again... Read more
Published 10 months ago by PJ Online

5.0 out of 5 stars A really great work of fiction
This was my first book by this author and I must admit that I am totally thrilled! I simply loved it. Read more
Published on 6 Sep 2005 by Demetris

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