The Merchants of Souls

by John Barnes

Thousand Cultures (3)

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The sequel to A Million Open Doors and Earth Made of Glass Special agent Giraut Leones, betrayed by his superior and closest friend, swore he would never work for the Office of Special Projects again--but now he must. A new movement on Earth seeks to use the recorded personalities of the dead as helpless virtual reality playthings, and to the worlds of the Thousand Cultures--where the reborn are accepted as normal citizens--it's a monstrous crime. If Giraut cannot stop Earth from ratifying show more its plans, the tenuous structure of interstellar human civilization will collapse. Complicating matters, Giraut's brain now hosts a second consciousness-the revived mind of his long-dead friend Raimbaut. Together, Giraut and Raimbaut must confront their shared past while struggling with a deadly present. show less

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3 reviews
Sequel to Earth Made of Glass. Disappointing. I wasn't terribly interested in the interactions between the characters (the major characters seemed obnoxious in uninteresting ways), and Barnes focused on them to the detriment of the plot. There was some food for thought about what humans will do after the Age of Scarcity (to borrow a Banks term), but the treatment is much less interesting than in an Iain M. Banks novel.

The way the plot wrapped up towards the end of the book smacked of a deus ex machina. I was left utterly unconvinced that such influential opposition could be so easily defeated, once the scheme was exposed.
Special Agent Giraut Leones helps his dead friend have a new chance for life and works to prevent recorded personalities from becoming owned and sold commodities.
I'm happy that none of the sequels in this series have lagged. They all rock, this one included.

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Author
63+ Works 8,336 Members

Some Editions

Harris, John (Cover artist)

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Common Knowledge

Canonical title
The Merchants of Souls
Original publication date
2001
Blurbers
Clarke, Arthur C.

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, Science Fiction
DDC/MDS
813.54Literature & rhetoricAmerican literature in EnglishAmerican fiction in English1900-19991945-1999
LCC
PS3552 .A677 .M46Language and LiteratureAmerican literatureAmerican literatureIndividual authors1961-
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210
Popularity
153,517
Reviews
3
Rating
½ (3.53)
Languages
English
Media
Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
3
ASINs
1