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Loading... The Empress of Mars (Company) (edition 2010)by Kage Baker
Work InformationThe Empress of Mars by Kage Baker
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This was one of the best books I read in 2010. I think Baker did a marvelous job of creating plausible details of what colonizing Mars would be like, tackling the economics behind such an endeavor (at least better than anyone else I've read), and sketching out likable and believable characters. If I ever re-read this (and I think it is likely I will do so), I will revise my rating to 5 stars. Update (3/29/2013) - So, I re-read it and gladly give it five stars. It was every bit as enjoyable the second time around as it was the first. But my enjoyment was tempered by the knowledge of Baker's death, and regretting that there will never be a sequel. 64/2021. Empress of Mars, by Kage Baker, is a prequel science fiction novel in her Company series (and should be compulsory reading for anyone considering becoming indentured to Elon Musk's company, with a one-way ticket to Mars). It reads well as a standalone, unlike most Company stories. This tale is a pastiche of old west gold rush narratives about Irish immigrants, saloon owners with a heart of gold, navvies and prospectors, conmen and gamblers, except the expected evil American cattle barons have been replaced with capitalist English landlords, all successfully transposed to a futuristic Mars that doesn't quite achieve escape velocity from earlier science fiction about pioneering colonials... because why would it want to? Barsoom Day is even an official Martian holiday in this milieu. Characterisation of the stock types isn't especially strong but plot and subplots romp along fast enough to be interesting, and I laughed aloud a few times here and there.
The feel of frontier society runs strong in The Empress of Mars. The reader might find fond comparisons with Steinbeck's Cannery Road and Twain's Roughing It with sly humor and vivid, memorable characters. There are rough patches in the writing. Some passages definitely feel inserted to stretch the adventure to novel-length. The climax also feels very sudden — bang, and it's all over. I really would have enjoyed more stories of Kage Baker's Martians. Belongs to SeriesThe Company (prequel 1) Is an expanded version of
In this rollicking novel of action, planetary romance, and high adventure, a determined Mary Griffith opens the only place to buy a beer on Mars' Tharsis Bulge and soon becomes the center of a terraforming company's machinations, its downfall, and the founding of a new world. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Easily the best part of this book is the setting. The entertainingly and lovingly dysfunctional Martian colony manages to toe a narrow line between the hackneyed utopian-or-dystopian space colonies of other sci-fi.
The elements of magical realism kicking in at the end didn't come out of nowhere, but they were unexpected and didn't do it for me. I think I'd have to go back and reread the whole book through that filter for it to work. ( )