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Loading... Stamping Butterfliesby Jon Courtenay Grimwood
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. http://www.sfsite.com/01b/jg240.htm  popomo | Nov 28, 2007 |  jguy7500 | Sep 18, 2007 | This book has three different layers that eventually merge together, however unlikely that seems. First, in the contemporary timeline there's the most-liked US president in the history and the strange Prisoner Zero who tries to assassinate him and after capture doesn't say a word. Then there's the Marrakech of 1970s with Moz and Malika and their messd-up lives. Third, there's the mystic Emperor watched by his 148 billion citizens, waiting for an assassin to arrive. So yes, it's a strange book. All three storylines didn't work as well for me; I liked the Marrakech, but didn't like the Emperor too much. Then again, I read someone else commenting exactly the opposite, so your mileage may vary. Some of it will get boring before the end, but the final twists make enough sense to make it all worth reading, I suppose. However, there's quite a bit of - perhaps unnecessary - graphic violence, torture and sex; some might find that unpleasant. (Original review at my review blog.) (  ) msaari | Aug 16, 2007 | Odd. Split into three apparently unrelated plot themes that do resolve in the final chapter it is confusing reading. A past timeline of Makkeresh in the 70's invovles the life and love of a young streey arab (well not actually an arab but a mix of bloods). His girlfriend some europeans and the local police and drug runners. A contempary timeline featuring theUS president, who is nearly assinated by an unknown prisoner who is easily captured and proves to decidedly odd, but not willing to declare himself insane. Infact he doesn't talk at all. the third timeline is just very peculiar. China were the first nation to develop interstella space drives and eventually a survivor make shis way to a formally inhabited artifact of 2023 worlds orbiting a sun. This now ruled by a chinese style Emporer with magical Library Most of these thread get dull after a while but the final resolution in thelast couple of chapters is interesting enough to make the book worth reading once at least. There is graphic and probably unnecessary sex and torture in the Makerresh threads, but it isn't too unplesant. (  )1  reading_fox | Jun 15, 2007 | http://www.livejournal.com/users/nhw/... Finished this on Monday night, so it just about counts as my last book of last month. I wasn't overwhelmed by RedRobe, but really very much enjoyed Pashazade, Felaheen and Effendi, Grimwood's trilogy set in an alternate history (but very contemporary) Alexandria where the German and Ottoman empires never fell. This latest combines present day US/western Mediterranean political interactions, a far future empire of two thousand worlds, a near future Chinese space mission, and 1970s Marrakech which is the key to the whole story. I love Grimwood's prose and characterisation - he stated at PicoCon the weekend before last how important it is for him to be able to experience the world he is writing, and that is very believable. For most of the book it was able to carry me past the shoals of unsuspended disbelief. I was left at the end just a bit unsatisfied, unfortunately. (  ) nwhyte | Oct 10, 2005 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0553383779, Paperback)From acclaimed author Jon Courtenay Grimwood comes an exotic new novel that defies expectation at every turn. A mystery, a thriller, and a cutting-edge sci-fi adventure all in one, Stamping Butterflies bends time, genre, and consciousness itself to tell the spellbinding story of two worlds, three lives, one future–and the question upon which everything depends: who is dreaming whom....From Marrakech to China’s Forbidden City, from a doomed starship carrying a cryogenically preserved crew to an island prison camp, the fate of the world is being played out in the minds of two dreamers. One, a would-be assassin obsessed with enigmatic equations, has set out to kill the U.S. President. The other is a young Chinese emperor ruling thousands of years in the future. Each believes he is dreaming the other. One must change the future; one must change the past. And time is running out for both. Caught in the maelstrom is a motley cast of characters, each an unwitting key to the ultimate fate of both worlds: Moz, a resourceful young Marrakech street punk, and his half-German girlfriend, Malika; Jake Razor, a self-exiled rock star; and psychiatrist Katie Petrov, who finds herself racing against a looming death sentence to pry free the secret of her condemned patient–a secret with the power to restore hope to the future...or stamp it out forever. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:56 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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