Crystal Rain

An excellent, very engaging read - I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish it. I loved the world-building & the culture-building, and the technology, both pre-apocalyptic and what happens with it post-apocalypse. There's lots of interesting ideas packed into the book - it would easily hold up under another more leisurely read or three. & I adored that this was a book where the heroes were of Caribbean origin, where the whole reason their people are on the planet is because two guys decided to help their communities get off Earth (yes, profit motivated them too, but not exclusively). The world needs more well-written sf/f about people of color, and this one is a welcome addition to my library.

My one complaint is that it's all about show more men. There's one awesome female leader, and she is indeed awesome, but there's one of her and a slew of awesome male characters. What's up with that? I have the sequel, and I'm hoping it does better on this front. show less

Twenty-seven years ago, John deBrun washed up on the shores of Brungstun with no memory of who he was or where he was from. Some kind of instinct pushed him to attempt a journey to the far, frozen North, where he nearly died, but he returned without answers. He married and had a son, yet his nightmares never faded and he never remembered anything more about himself.

One day the lands of Nanagada are invaded by their old enemies, the Azteca, and the Azteca’s terrifying, alien gods: the Teotl. The Azteca capture Brungstun, but John escapes with the help of an Azteca traitor—a double-spy who seeks to wrest a set of valuable access codes from John’s missing memories so the Teotl will have access to something called the Ma Wi Jung. John show more believes his wife and son to be dead, but his son, Jerome, was saved by a deadly, inhuman, frightening man called Pepper who claims to be an old friend of John’s.

Meanwhile, Dihana, the Prime Minister of Capitol City and the Nanagada, works furiously with General Haidan of the mongoose-men and the infuriating Loa to protect the Nanagada from the vast armies of the Azteca. But unless something changes, it’s just a matter of time until they fail, and all their people are enslaved or, worse, sacrificed to the Teotl.

It’s difficult for me to believe that Crystal Rain is Tobias S. Buckell’s debut novel—it’s that good. The feel is incredibly organic, as though the world unwinds naturally before us. Buckell allows any surprises to come out in natural pieces throughout the story, such that if you figure something out ahead of time there’s no feeling of let-down when it’s revealed, because the story doesn’t rely on that twist of surprise for its pacing and interest.

Buckell tells the story through quite a few different points of view, yet I never feel confused as to who’s doing the telling; each character is quite unique, distinct, and fully fleshed out. He manages to use one of John’s enemies (his accompanying would-be interrogator) as a point of view character without spoiling the plot, ruining the pacing, alienating the reader, or otherwise throwing off the book.

He has his characters speak in their own unusual dialects and rhythms—usually a terrible thing for a writer to attempt as it swiftly gets old and almost never adds anything—yet it works. It only took me a brief time to get used to it, then it felt more and more natural until I found myself thinking in it at times. The use of dialect is extremely consistent, and as a matter of characterization dialect is every bit as important in this book as any other measure.

I’m not sure I can adequately describe the number of ways in which this book succeeds. Suffice it to say, I look forward to devouring each of Buckell’s future novels as they come out!

Full review at ErrantDreams show less

Longer review at http://jimhines.livejournal.com/355859.html

Crystal Rain has a lot going for it. Some readers have complained about the Carribean dialect, but I enjoyed it. Seriously, why do we expect everyone in the future to talk like midwesterners? Buckell's dialogue took a few pages to get used to, but there's an almost musical quality to the words which brings the book alive in a way many stories never achieve.

The latter part of the book was more engaging than the beginning for me. That's not to say that the first part is in any way bad. John's struggle to escape the Azteca and his drive to fight back against them are very powerful. But later on, Buckell's worldbuilding skills become more apparent, and the book sucks you in even show more deeper.

This isn't necessarily a pleasant book. Buckell's Azteca are bloody, and even the heroes are often vicious. (Pepper is a bad-ass, but not someone I'd want anywhere near me ... unless he was between me and something scarier.)

If memory serves, Crystal Rain was a Nebula finalist when it came out. The sequel, Ragamuffin, is on this year's final Nebula ballot. Buckell is clearly doing something right. show less

I've been on a massive fantasy bender recently. It was about time that I took on a little something different, and I'd heard enough good things about this book to give it a whirl. What a nice jump back into science fiction. A very interesting world, with a back story that hits you at just the right pace--no long boring info-dumps, yet always enough information so that the story and action are credible. It bookended the month interestingly, where both this novel, and Lion's Blood, had "Aztecs" as the opposing force. As well, the heroes are of African descent in both works. That is about where the similarities end. Nanagada feels like an island itself, a world stranded among the stars. Though there has been a regression of technology, a show more sort of post cataclysmic (not apocalyptic) world, we see the mostly Caribbean descended culture in a phase of rebirth, when the feared enemy the Azteca are thrust upon the scene and life is no longer idyllic. I enjoyed seeing the layers involved in the war, and characters who are not easily broken down into white hats and black hats. Sure, there's no question in the end for whom a reader should be rooting, but there are no perfectly clean hands here. The war takes its toll, and the resolution felt all the more real for it. show less

Vibrant adventure quest novel that falls somewhere between Military SF and Space Opera, with a vigorous dashes of clash-of-civilizations, war-with-aliens, seafaring adventure, and arctic expedition thrown in. I must say, I was quite tickled by Buckell's ability to so deftly shift tropes and mash seemingly unrelated genre-loves of mine. (Except perhaps these genres are not as unrelated as I imagine? There is more than one author who has successfully put Hornblower in space, after all.)

The most distinctive thing about this novel, of course, is the world-building: the human settlement is Caribbean Diaspora (the planet itself named New Anegada), a blessed departure from North American Generic In Space. I struggled sometimes with the dialect show more that most characters used -- I don't parse the grammar correctly, and thus often missed emotional nuance -- but I liked seeing a human colony that had a specific heritage that extended beyond a one-note label. Also, as someone who grew up with far too many Erich von Däniken books in the house, I'm endlessly amused that the gods in both of these colonies really are super-advanced aliens.

Some things about the book bothered me. Even though the role normally cast within the fantasy genre as "POC/non-human hordes" was filled by light-skinned Aztecs (overrunning mostly dark-skinned Nagandans), they still felt like traditional POC hordes. (Also, I'm still not satisfied as to where this ultra-traditional Aztec culture was supposed to have sprung from?) And, as always, I pick at the xenobiology -- where does the energy for repeated, within-hours regeneration come from, especially given (as is revealed in a throwaway line in the sequel) that the aliens' metabolism is incompatible with the world they are trapped on?

But as ever, that is picking at the world-building, a reflexive habit of my brain, and unrelated to whether I enjoyed the book or not. Which I did, very much, because Buckell tells a darn good yarn, and throws in lots of interesting mind-candy for me to play with to boot. show less

Uniqueness can be a difficult thing to find in fantasy literature, as most novels follow the general archetypes. The medieval English setting established in the Sir Thomas Malory’s classic “Le Morte d’Arthur” has been grossly overused in the genre. So it is immensely refreshing to discover a fantasy/sci-fi novel that revolves around a Caribbean/South American type of setting. Creativity is a wonderful thing.

“Crystal Rain”, the strong debut novel by Tobias S. Buckell, is a unique hybrid that attempts to be something special. And in making such an ambitious attempt, the novel distinguishes itself. You likely will not forget a novel that is a hybrid of fantasy and science fiction elements, where the characters talk like show more Caribbean islanders, alien gods patrol the land, and the Azteca are the invading force. (And if you do forget it, I want your reading list.) Buckell is to be commended for not playing it safe, and rehashing the same tired fantasy genre clichés.

The novel is set in the Caribbean-styled Nanagada, a peninsula protected by a mountain range, the Wicked Highs, on the landed side. Almost immediately, the brutal Azteca have invaded Nanagada, seeking blood and human sacrifice to satiate their gods. John deBrun lives with his wife Shanta and son Jerome outside of the town of Brungstun in the shadow of the Wicked Highs. Soon they find themselves caught in the battle with the Azteca, becoming separated from each other in the confusion. John, who has no memory of his life prior to arriving in Nanagada twenty-seven years earlier, is saved from being a sacrifical lamb by the Aztecan mongoose man, Oaxyctl. Together they travel to Capitol City, the governmental and major population center of Nanagada, meager steps ahead of the advancing Azteca army. Meanwhile, John’s son Jerome is saved by the mysterious Pepper, a dreadlocked badass who is searching for John, claiming to be an old friend. Pepper oozes more violence and menace than the evening news. On reaching Capitol City, John discovers he is an instrumental part in the plan to stop the Azteca invasion. Somewhere within John’s forgotten memories, he has knowledge of the Ma Wi Jung, an artifact that may save the Nanagadans. Can John regain his lost memories and save the Nanagadans? And who is Pepper and what is his interest in John? What is Oaxyctl’s real agenda?

The pacing of “Crystal Rain” is swift with the majority of the chapters only being a few pages long. The story mainly evolves through action, drawing the reader quickly through novel. The biggest negative to this lightning-fast pace is a lack of more extensive cultural information about the world; the world-building is unfortunately minimal other than a moderate amount of physical description of Nanagada. There are so many interesting cultural and religious aspects about the Nanagadans and the Azteca that could have been further explored by Buckell. But he misses the opportunity. This is a fantasy setting that screams for a more extensive examination. Sacrificing the pace for a more complete Nanagada would have been worth it. Considering the novel’s pacing, the characters are well-drawn. Pepper really jumps off the page; the mystery surround him being one of the most intriguing aspects of “Crystal Rain”. He was the one character I most wanted to read about, not only in this book but in future books.

The uniqueness of “Crystal Rain” makes it a strong debut for Buckell, but it could have been special if the pacing had been sacrificed for more world-building. When you create a setting this amazing, it is natural for the to want to explore it more thoroughly. And it is in wanting more from this novel that makes “Crystal Rain” an overall success.

Last Word:
“Crystal Rain” is a worthy read, filled with a unique setting and fresh creativity. Fast paced action and short chapters will have the reader ripping through the story, but a lack of in-depth world-building keeps the book from achieving more. Ultimately, “Crystal Rain” is oozing with potential. And my sincere hope of Buckell eventually fulfilling that potential has me eagerly anticipating his next novel even more. show less

The Azteca have finally found a way across the Wicked High Mountains and are descending upon Capital City, slaughtering all the Nanagadans that get in their way. The young mayor of Capital City has plans, but all they will do is delay the Azteca. The Nanagandans' only hope is that the explorer John deBrun can find a mythical artifact from long ago, the Ma Wi Jung. Helping John is the bioengineered (to be AWESOME) Pepper, while an Azteca spy skulks undetected in hopes of hindering their quest.

The writing is simple and clunky, and I had a hard time with the Caribbean style dialog. (ex: "Only one airship now. But just you wait. Soon it go be another. And when they see where we is, they go build a boat to come for we.") That said, I adore show more Pepper, who is fearsome and gruesome and unstoppable, and this book delivers some great moments from him as well as a hint at who he was before. Best of all is the world-building. A colony that loses its tech over time and comes to revere its technologically advanced forefathers as gods is nothing new, but the alien spins Buckell adds to the story are scary and fascinating. show less