Tobias Buckell sent along a review copy of his forthcoming novel Crystal Rain. Like SM Stirling's Raj Whitehall series, whose premise it somewhat resembles, Crystal Rain is an interesting mix of fantasy and military science fiction. It starts off a bit slow, but especially picks up pace once main POV characters John deBrun and Pepper finally hook up.
Long ago, so the stories say, the old-fathers came to Nanagada through a worm’s hole in the sky. Looking for a new world to call their own, they brought with them a rich mélange of cultures, religions, and dialects from a far-off planet called Earth. Mighty were the old-fathers, with the power to shape the world to their liking---but that was many generations ago, and what was once known has long been lost. Steamboats and gas-filled blimps now traverse the planet, where people once looked up to see great silver cities in the sky.
Like his world, John deBrun has forgotten more than he remembers. Twenty-seven years ago, he washed up onto the shore of Nanagada with no memory of his past. Although he has made a new life for himself among the peaceful islanders, his soul remains haunted by unanswered questions about his own identity.
These mysteries take on new urgency when the fearsome Azteca storm over the Wicked High Mountains in search of fresh blood and hearts to feed their cruel, inhuman gods. Nanagada’s only hope lies in a mythical artifact, the Ma Wi Jung, said to be hidden somewhere in the frozen north. And only John deBrun knows the device’s secrets, even if he can’t remember why or how.
Tobias is an active blogger and is making a very aggressive effort to market the book through the blogosphere and I suspect it'll pay off. Buckell writes cleanly and skillfully, has a deft touch with plot twists, and is as good a world builder as any. What starts out shaping up as a Caribbean take on medieval fantasy turns into what Andrew Wheeler aptly calls "a lost-colony SF novel, low-tech division, conflict between more powerful alien races sub-division." Along the way, Buckell neatly avoids the Dark Lord cliche by creating bad guys who have some moral nuance. If I wasn't quite convinced by the ending, it was a plausible outcome and the ride getting there was fun.
I wouldn't put Buckell in the same class as my current favorites Charles Stross and John Scalzi, but I'd slot this book at about the same level as Andre Norton's best work, which is a pretty high standard IMHO.
