Good read. Stirling does a great job with action and adventure. ( )

I'm not really attracted to the swashbuckling tales of heroic fighters, even really good female assassins. But I like S. M. Stirling's writing. Even though I was not fond of the previous book in this series, The Sky People, set on a prehistoric, dinosaur and Neanderthal Venus, I did decide to buy the paperback version of the next book. And I did like this book much better than the previous book. Maybe I just like decadent Martian civilizations better than dinosaur riding cavemen. Maybe I appreciate a butt kicking female who is secretly the heir to the Crimson Throne and her human archeologist Consort. Whatever the reason, this book has the requisite nonstop action, strange biotechnological science, and political intrigue. As long as you don't expect too much in the way of nuanced story telling, you should enjoy this book. ( )

Great title, excellent book.

Stirling's updated take on the planetary romance has become wonderfully inventive. The second book is more interesting than the first - probably because the Martian civilisation is ancient, and more politically and technologically advanced--as compared to the literal Neanderthal types, in 'The Sky People'. While the title of the first book could have been Jean J. Auel or Patrick Tilley, this title is much more Leigh Brackett. The latter features in a fun intro of science fiction writers gathering to talk about the discoveries made about the Red Planet.

It does tie-in briefly to the first title, but could be read standalone, with the first in the series about exploring Venus in this alternate past where the mysterious alien 'Lords Of Creation' seed Venus and Mars with earth-type life 200 million years ago.

It is over a decade since the first book, and the story centres on an archaeologist (who is of course a fine fencer), taking a trip on the surface to find an important Martian archaeological site.

The woman that shares major character status is a Martian native, an extremely competent mercenary, and, unbeknownst to the Earth pair, well, think Edgar Rice Burroughs titles. Unlike Burroughs, though, the heroine here is the far more formidable warrior. The terrans have an advantage of Earth muscles in a much lower gravity.

Martian political conflict sees her as a target, because she possesses the requisite genetics to be an important piece in a conflict between the Emperor, a Prince, and the local bureaucracy, and this expedition gets caught in the middle.

The author has invented a style of speech for the Martians that the Earth humans have to try and get the hang of, full of stuff like 'Explicative-Interrogative?' and 'Parareproductive intromission activity', etc.

So, the hunt is on, and monumental discoveries await to be made. Including your actual Lost City, of course, and plenty of Indiana Jones bad jokes to be made.

Part of the interest in the book is the Martian technology - biotech based, so they have creatures that chew gravel and spit out bitumen, or live facemasks and binoculars, and living engines - a bit Dune-like, some of this.

Given the end, it appears we may just get more. Hopefully these are popular enough for such, as I'd happily read this again, right now, after just finishing it.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/07... ( )

This was pretty good. I had forgotten I had already read The Sky People and liked it quite a bit, so it was a nice surprise that I recognized at least the background of the story line. ( )

After being disappointed with the previous reading book, I ate up my next book, In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, the second half of Stirling's Lords of Creation duology.

To recap for those who haven't read The Sky People (and why haven't you?), the Lords of Creation series are set in an alternate world much like our own...at least Earth is. In the LOC universe, it seems that Venus and Mars have been terraformed by unknown aliens 200 million years ago, and for lack of a better world, have been managed since. Humans, or protohumans have been deposited on these worlds along with flora and fauna and allowed to develop. So, on Earth, both the East and the West went for Space exploration and travel in a big way. Who cares about fighting over Vietnam when there are two whole planets out there to explore...

The Sky People was set on Venus, with dinosaurs, bronze age hominids, and "cavemen". In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, we get a Mars straight out of Burroughs, with caste-mad Martians with organic technology and a civilization that was flourishing long before the Trojan War on Earth...

The opening chapter has a bunch science fiction writers watching the landing of a probe on Mars. Stirling makes this chapter a game by giving incomplete names or descriptions or allusions to novels they have wrote (or won't write), to let the reader for fun tease out the people gathered. It was an amusing way to get into the book, separate from the main story.

That story revolves around Jeremy, an archaeologist who is going to excavate a city in the encroaching desert, and Teyud, a mercenary guard who, in the best tradition of John C. Wright, is actually, secretly, a "Space Princess". And when rivals to her dying father decide to eliminate her from the game board, it soon becomes clear that the best way for Teyud and Jeremy to survive these attacks is to boldly return to the Court of the Crimson King...

I loved this book. Like the previous book, Stirling comes up with a rational reason and logic for why and how a Burroughs-like solar system (Venus and Mars with life) could come about. Every chapter has an imaginary excerpt from Encyclopedia Brittanica on this new Mars (just like he did in the previous volume with Venus). This Mars is clearly an homage to Barsoom, with a strange Martian chess game, castes, weird technology, unusual political and social forms, and a grand vision.

And the ending of the book, without giving it away too much, is much like Stirling's novel Conquistador in that it has a fulmination of even more possibilities unfold...

I loved my trip to Stirling's Mars. So will you. Go read the Sky People first, and then go read this. You won't regret it. ( )