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Chung Kuo Recast #1
Son Of Heaven
The brand-new prequel to Chung Kuo, a masterwork of future history standing alongside Herbert's Dune and Asimov's Foundation The year is 2085, two decades after the great economic collapse that destroyed Western civilization. With its power broken and its cities ruined, life in the West continues in scattered communities. In rural Dorset, Jake Reed lives with his 14-year-old son and memories of the great collapse. Back in '43, Jake was a rich, young futures broker, immersed in the datascape of the world's financial markets. He saw what was coming—and who was behind it. Forewarned, he was one of the few to escape the fall. For 22 years he has lived in fear of the future, and finally it is coming—quite literally—across the plain toward him. Chinese airships are in the skies and a strange, glacial structure has begun to dominate the horizon. Jake finds himself forcibly incorporated into the ever-expanding "World of Levels," a global city of some 34 billion souls, where social status is reflected by how far above the ground you live. Here, under the rule of the mighty Tsao Ch'un, a resurgent China is seeking to abolish the past and bring about world peace through rigidly enforced order—but a civil war looms, and Jake will find himself at the heart of the struggle for the future.
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
133 people are currently reading
977 people want to read
About the author
David Wingrove
50 books165 followersDavid Wingrove (born September 1954 in North Battersea, London) is a British science fiction writer. He is well-known as the author of the "Chung Kuo" novels (eight in total). He is also the co-author (with Rand and Robyn Miller) of the three "Myst" novels.
Wingrove worked in the banking industry for 7 years until he became fed up with it. He then attended the University of Kent, Canterbury, where he read English and American Literature.
He is married and, with his wife Susan, has four daughters Jessica, Amy, Georgia, and Francesca.
Between 1972 and 1982 he wrote over 300 unpublished short stories and 15 novels.
He started work on a new fictional project called A Perfect Art. Between 1984 and 1988, when it was first submitted, the title was changed twice, becoming first A Spring Day at the Edge of the World and then finally Chung Kuo, under which title it was sold to 18 publishers throughout the world.
A prequel to the Chung Kuo series, called When China Comes, was released in May 2009 by Quercus Publishing, which also re-released the entire series: "The series has been recast in nineteen volumes, including a new prequel and a new final volume. After a series launch in May 2009, Quercus will embark on an ambitious publishing programme that will see all nineteen volumes available by the end of 2012."
He has plans for a further a novels, a a first person character novel called Dawn in Stone City and three very different novels: The Beast with Two Backs, Heaven's Bright Sun, and Roads to Moscow.
Wingrove worked in the banking industry for 7 years until he became fed up with it. He then attended the University of Kent, Canterbury, where he read English and American Literature.
He is married and, with his wife Susan, has four daughters Jessica, Amy, Georgia, and Francesca.
Between 1972 and 1982 he wrote over 300 unpublished short stories and 15 novels.
He started work on a new fictional project called A Perfect Art. Between 1984 and 1988, when it was first submitted, the title was changed twice, becoming first A Spring Day at the Edge of the World and then finally Chung Kuo, under which title it was sold to 18 publishers throughout the world.
A prequel to the Chung Kuo series, called When China Comes, was released in May 2009 by Quercus Publishing, which also re-released the entire series: "The series has been recast in nineteen volumes, including a new prequel and a new final volume. After a series launch in May 2009, Quercus will embark on an ambitious publishing programme that will see all nineteen volumes available by the end of 2012."
He has plans for a further a novels, a a first person character novel called Dawn in Stone City and three very different novels: The Beast with Two Backs, Heaven's Bright Sun, and Roads to Moscow.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 111 reviews
January 3, 2016
(Originally reviewed on Otherwhere Gazette)
If you were reading science fiction in the 1990s, you might remember the Chung Kuo series by David Wingrove. I do, and I remember it as a magnificent masterpiece of worldbuilding and characterization, where the good guys and the bad guys weren’t all white or black, but shades of grey. The problem is, the series ended very poorly, which is probably explained by the publisher pushing Wingrove to finish before he was ready, so he had to cram the ending into fewer books than he’d planned on.
I’m pleased to announce (if you haven’t read it anywhere else on the web yet, and you might have) that Wingrove has started rewriting and expanding Chung Kuo. Please note, he’s not, as far as I’ve heard, re-imagining it. The core story of the War of Two Directions will be the same, but he’s adding new material to the same story. The first book in the new series, Son of Heaven, is part of the new material, being the first of two prequels that explain how the world of Chung Kuo came to be. In it, we follow one of the survivors of The Collapse, as the crash of the global computer system that handles the world’s finances is called, as he experiences the world both before and after The Collapse, and the coming of the Chinese to England to take over.
The War of Two Directions I mentioned before is the core of the entire series, but it doesn’t appear much in Son of Heaven, since this prequel is set before the War really begins. It’s a cold war, being fought mostly with politics, policies, and the occasional sabotage or assassination. At its heart is the conflict between the Chinese (or Han) desire for absolute stability, or as some say, stasis, and the Western (or Hung Mao) desire for progress and change.
In order to achieve that stability, the Han build continent-spanning cities a mile high (just glimpsed being constructed in Son of Heaven), where status is determined by where one lives and vice versa. There are four major demarcations, called The World Of Levels. The Above, where the elite live, The Lowers, where lower classes live, Below The Net, where criminals are exiled to keep them from “contaminating” the higher levels, and The Clay, which is underneath the city on the actual surface of the earth, where believe it or not some people still live. Within each section are multiple floors where the people live and work, most of them never seeing the world outside the huge cities.
The original Chung Kuo series was praised by many as being a masterpiece of science fiction, with comparisons made to James Clavell’s Shogun and Frank Herbert’s Dune, among others. He’s kept all the ingredients that made the original Chung Kuo so fascinating intact in Son of Heaven, including characters that are believable in their humanity and frailty, people who agonize over the hard decisions life hands them, but try to make the best of what they’re given.
If you like stories of wars being fought in the shadows; of political intrigue with people who think they’re all doing the right thing, but have very different ideas of what is “right”; and stories showing the lives of people at all levels (literally!) of society and how they shape and are shaped by the shadow war, Son of Heaven is very definitely for you. Heck, if you just want an absorbing read that makes you reach for the next book just to find out what happens next, I still strongly recommend Son of Heaven.
If you were reading science fiction in the 1990s, you might remember the Chung Kuo series by David Wingrove. I do, and I remember it as a magnificent masterpiece of worldbuilding and characterization, where the good guys and the bad guys weren’t all white or black, but shades of grey. The problem is, the series ended very poorly, which is probably explained by the publisher pushing Wingrove to finish before he was ready, so he had to cram the ending into fewer books than he’d planned on.
I’m pleased to announce (if you haven’t read it anywhere else on the web yet, and you might have) that Wingrove has started rewriting and expanding Chung Kuo. Please note, he’s not, as far as I’ve heard, re-imagining it. The core story of the War of Two Directions will be the same, but he’s adding new material to the same story. The first book in the new series, Son of Heaven, is part of the new material, being the first of two prequels that explain how the world of Chung Kuo came to be. In it, we follow one of the survivors of The Collapse, as the crash of the global computer system that handles the world’s finances is called, as he experiences the world both before and after The Collapse, and the coming of the Chinese to England to take over.
The War of Two Directions I mentioned before is the core of the entire series, but it doesn’t appear much in Son of Heaven, since this prequel is set before the War really begins. It’s a cold war, being fought mostly with politics, policies, and the occasional sabotage or assassination. At its heart is the conflict between the Chinese (or Han) desire for absolute stability, or as some say, stasis, and the Western (or Hung Mao) desire for progress and change.
In order to achieve that stability, the Han build continent-spanning cities a mile high (just glimpsed being constructed in Son of Heaven), where status is determined by where one lives and vice versa. There are four major demarcations, called The World Of Levels. The Above, where the elite live, The Lowers, where lower classes live, Below The Net, where criminals are exiled to keep them from “contaminating” the higher levels, and The Clay, which is underneath the city on the actual surface of the earth, where believe it or not some people still live. Within each section are multiple floors where the people live and work, most of them never seeing the world outside the huge cities.
The original Chung Kuo series was praised by many as being a masterpiece of science fiction, with comparisons made to James Clavell’s Shogun and Frank Herbert’s Dune, among others. He’s kept all the ingredients that made the original Chung Kuo so fascinating intact in Son of Heaven, including characters that are believable in their humanity and frailty, people who agonize over the hard decisions life hands them, but try to make the best of what they’re given.
If you like stories of wars being fought in the shadows; of political intrigue with people who think they’re all doing the right thing, but have very different ideas of what is “right”; and stories showing the lives of people at all levels (literally!) of society and how they shape and are shaped by the shadow war, Son of Heaven is very definitely for you. Heck, if you just want an absorbing read that makes you reach for the next book just to find out what happens next, I still strongly recommend Son of Heaven.
January 27, 2011
This book is a reimagining of an old series first seen in the late 1980’s and 1990’s. Originally a series of eight novels, it is now ambitiously proposed as a rewritten series of twenty.
David’s Chung Kuo series was first published in 1989 with The Middle Kingdom, and finished (rather ignobly) in 1996 with The Marriage of the Living Dark. The series told of an Earth and Mars dominated by China, living in a tiered hierarchical series of global cities, and how their world collapsed. Touted as ‘Shogun meets Blade Runner’ it was quite a series, though the ending was troubled and dissatisfied many readers.
Son of Heaven is a completely new prelude to the series and begins to set up scenarios for the rest of the series.
Overall, the book focuses on one main character, Jake Reed, at different times before the Chinese invade England (Ying Kuo). The first part of the book is set in Autumn 2065, subtitled ‘The Last Year of the Old World’ and deals with Jake’s life in rural Dorset, twenty years after the global upheaval known as ‘the Collapse’. It is an odd combination of unchanging rural idyll, steeped in history and tradition but with a contemporary survivalist mentality. Strangers are viewed with suspicion, and when raids occur, shot. This was reminiscent to me of John Christopher’s The Death of Grass.
The second part, ‘The East is Red’, suddenly changes tack and goes back earlier to Spring 2043, the time of ‘the Collapse’, when Jake was a young and talented futures broker, a ‘web-dancer’. He is a fast-tracker in London with a good quality of life, friends and a great fiancée. Things are looking good. However the sudden collapse of the Western economy is precipitated by a Chinese coup, which destroys key companies in the ‘datscape’, assassinates key players and takes over the Market. Jake is one of those who are targeted. His friends and family are killed and Jake goes into hiding in rural Dorset.
In the third section, the tale ‘When China Comes’ is rather self-explanatory. Returning to Autumn 2065, the tale continues where it ended in the first part but is told more from the perspective of Jiang Lei, a Han General given the responsibility of bringing this area of England (to submission for Emperor Tsao Ch’un. It also suggests a rich and complicated cultural background which supplants the English one, though the politics of Chinese culture and the social positioning of some of Jiang’s subordinates is something that is nothing particularly new. Jake and the other characters we met in the first third of the book are dealt with swiftly and brutally as the land is covered by the construction of a huge white city: the City of Levels. The story ends as we realise that Jake’s life enters a new phase in the Chung Kuo saga.
For the sake of clarity I will admit that when I read the original (twenty years or so ago!) I was impressed. The books were new, exciting and well thought out (at the beginning, anyway.) They were quite adult and pleasingly complex.
However, times have changed since they were first written. The use of China as a future world-power was seen as something relatively new and unusual in the 1980’s. These days, with Ian McDonald’s The Dervish House, River of Gods and Brasyl, Paulo Bacliupi’s Windup Girl, not to mention Lavie Tadhar’s Apex Book of World SF or even Guy Gavriel Kay’s alternate history, Under Heaven, things in the genre are more cosmopolitan. Generally, we are more worldly-wise in many areas.
So, to revisit an old series and try and update to the near-future can be a risky business. In the old days of ‘fix-ups’, such things were commonplace. However the unusual background to the writing of the book has led to a strange novel. It is both pleasingly contemporary in some ways and harshly dated in others. Whilst the new tale talks of the changes since the 1990’s - the global growth of China, social networks such as Facebook, and a Gibson-esque ‘datscape’ - in contrast, the tone of some aspects are jarringly behind the times. The initial scenes bring to mind a scene from a rural soap opera but combined with a melancholic wistfulness for the past. Women are dealt with fairly roughly and vary in context wildly from rampant sexual partners to oppressed homemakers. Musical tastes go back to Spirit and Coldplay. (Surely, for a book set in thirty years time, it should be something a little more contemporary to now?)
In particular, the sex scenes are quite unsettling, both in their lack of subtlety and their *cough* performance. Whilst clearly important and that they may be here as a means of showing a harder, rougher, tougher world, I felt that they were, at times, overwrought and overplayed, here more for shock effect rather than for purpose.
These aspects could be deal-breakers for some readers. However, overall I did enjoy my read of this new beginning for the Chung Kuo series. There was enough developing for me to be interested in the next book. I’m going to be interested in reading how they cumulatively form a tale that grew in the telling.
David’s Chung Kuo series was first published in 1989 with The Middle Kingdom, and finished (rather ignobly) in 1996 with The Marriage of the Living Dark. The series told of an Earth and Mars dominated by China, living in a tiered hierarchical series of global cities, and how their world collapsed. Touted as ‘Shogun meets Blade Runner’ it was quite a series, though the ending was troubled and dissatisfied many readers.
Son of Heaven is a completely new prelude to the series and begins to set up scenarios for the rest of the series.
Overall, the book focuses on one main character, Jake Reed, at different times before the Chinese invade England (Ying Kuo). The first part of the book is set in Autumn 2065, subtitled ‘The Last Year of the Old World’ and deals with Jake’s life in rural Dorset, twenty years after the global upheaval known as ‘the Collapse’. It is an odd combination of unchanging rural idyll, steeped in history and tradition but with a contemporary survivalist mentality. Strangers are viewed with suspicion, and when raids occur, shot. This was reminiscent to me of John Christopher’s The Death of Grass.
The second part, ‘The East is Red’, suddenly changes tack and goes back earlier to Spring 2043, the time of ‘the Collapse’, when Jake was a young and talented futures broker, a ‘web-dancer’. He is a fast-tracker in London with a good quality of life, friends and a great fiancée. Things are looking good. However the sudden collapse of the Western economy is precipitated by a Chinese coup, which destroys key companies in the ‘datscape’, assassinates key players and takes over the Market. Jake is one of those who are targeted. His friends and family are killed and Jake goes into hiding in rural Dorset.
In the third section, the tale ‘When China Comes’ is rather self-explanatory. Returning to Autumn 2065, the tale continues where it ended in the first part but is told more from the perspective of Jiang Lei, a Han General given the responsibility of bringing this area of England (to submission for Emperor Tsao Ch’un. It also suggests a rich and complicated cultural background which supplants the English one, though the politics of Chinese culture and the social positioning of some of Jiang’s subordinates is something that is nothing particularly new. Jake and the other characters we met in the first third of the book are dealt with swiftly and brutally as the land is covered by the construction of a huge white city: the City of Levels. The story ends as we realise that Jake’s life enters a new phase in the Chung Kuo saga.
For the sake of clarity I will admit that when I read the original (twenty years or so ago!) I was impressed. The books were new, exciting and well thought out (at the beginning, anyway.) They were quite adult and pleasingly complex.
However, times have changed since they were first written. The use of China as a future world-power was seen as something relatively new and unusual in the 1980’s. These days, with Ian McDonald’s The Dervish House, River of Gods and Brasyl, Paulo Bacliupi’s Windup Girl, not to mention Lavie Tadhar’s Apex Book of World SF or even Guy Gavriel Kay’s alternate history, Under Heaven, things in the genre are more cosmopolitan. Generally, we are more worldly-wise in many areas.
So, to revisit an old series and try and update to the near-future can be a risky business. In the old days of ‘fix-ups’, such things were commonplace. However the unusual background to the writing of the book has led to a strange novel. It is both pleasingly contemporary in some ways and harshly dated in others. Whilst the new tale talks of the changes since the 1990’s - the global growth of China, social networks such as Facebook, and a Gibson-esque ‘datscape’ - in contrast, the tone of some aspects are jarringly behind the times. The initial scenes bring to mind a scene from a rural soap opera but combined with a melancholic wistfulness for the past. Women are dealt with fairly roughly and vary in context wildly from rampant sexual partners to oppressed homemakers. Musical tastes go back to Spirit and Coldplay. (Surely, for a book set in thirty years time, it should be something a little more contemporary to now?)
In particular, the sex scenes are quite unsettling, both in their lack of subtlety and their *cough* performance. Whilst clearly important and that they may be here as a means of showing a harder, rougher, tougher world, I felt that they were, at times, overwrought and overplayed, here more for shock effect rather than for purpose.
These aspects could be deal-breakers for some readers. However, overall I did enjoy my read of this new beginning for the Chung Kuo series. There was enough developing for me to be interested in the next book. I’m going to be interested in reading how they cumulatively form a tale that grew in the telling.
August 19, 2011
If I could give this book negative a million stars, I would. I never even finished it, but I'm pretty sure it's the worst book in the world. Between the racism (Yellow Peril, hooray!) and rampant sexism, I'm really only adding it to remind myself to NEVER READ ANYTHING BY THIS AUTHOR AGAIN.
May 24, 2015
So this is actually a prequel book (one of two) which was published when David Wingrove managed to republish this series. It was originally an 8 book series and yet it was planned to be re-released and revised with two added prequels and two sequels and each of the original 8 being split in half. This would have meant that there would be a grand total of 20 books, however unfortunately the series has currently only got 8 of the recast books released and it was dropped after not having enough interest which means it's unlikely that those other books will come out any time soon if ever.
With that said, it's a real shame for any long series to be cancelled in the middle, be it on TV or in book form, and its certainly disappointing to me as I am a first-time reader of this series, and I have to say I think it deserves to have all of the books released!
I have never read anything by David Wingrove prior to this, and yet I was immediately drawn in. Originally I found the cover of book 3 in my local Waterstones but I didn't pick it up as that was the only one they had. I am so glad, however, that I noted down the name of the series and looked it up online and saw I could get it on my kindle (which is just what I did). Not only are the covers very beautiful, but the story is brilliantly written.
Going into this I had no idea what it was about really, not even which genre it would fall under (despite finding it in the sci-fi and fantasy section I didn't know which it would be more relatable to). Now having read book 1 I would say that this falls solidly into the Sci-fi camp with a fair bit of dystopia mixed in. I haven't read a whole load of sci-fi yet, although it's something I am reading more of recently, but this one was by far one of the much easier and much more interesting takes on sci-fi that I have read in a while. In fact I found it fascinating to read about not only the dystopian elements and character development, but also the way that the science and technology of this world has evolved and affected the population,
In this story we follow Jake Reed who is a member of a small community living in a rather isolated part of England. All we know when we begin this story is that there's been some big catastrophe which has meant that the world is in disarray, technology is a thing of the past for most, and largely people live in small tribes or communities with just the bare necessities. Jake is a kind and careful character straight from the outset. He's clearly a valued member of their community and I found it easy to involve myself in his story and like him even when he made choices which were hard. He's the father of Peter (another character who we focus on) and a good friend of Tom (another member of the community), but his life was not always what it is now and he's actually got a very interesting backstory.
Tom is a friend to Jake and he's one of the elder members of their small village. He's got a loving family with a wife and three daughters, and it seems like he's always been happy with his lot in life. However as the story goes on we get to see a little more of the dangers of the world and how they can challenge even the nicest of men. He's a kind soul too, but when faced with some personal battles and the dangers of travel he gets into some rather sticky situations.
Peter is Jake's son and he's a very dear boy. He takes after his father in that he's a very conscientious and careful leader, but he is a leader at heart. He knows a lot about what he wants in life, despite being only 14 years old, and he's a great character to follow as the events begin to unfold because he was born after the 'catastrophe' and we learn from him about the severity of it all.
The story itself has 3 parts, the first part follows jake in the life he leads today as he and a couple of other men from the village head to get supplies from a market. They're on a dangerous journey and they don't quite know what they may be walking into because of the way that they are rather cut off. News travels in this world, but it's a lot slower than it used to be, and they have to be wary wherever they go.
The second part of the story focuses on the backstory and we go back in time to once more follow Jake as he's living his life. He's actually a part of a big and successful company and there's a lot of very, very cool technology which is an everyday commodity. We get to see what he used to be like, his hopes and dreams for the future, and the way that everything that seemed so perfect quickly combusted and fell to ruin.
Finally part 3 brings together the two plots of the catastrophe and the modern day story with all sorts of revelations and drama unfolding. We see political intrigue and manipulation, but we also see tests of loyalty and trust.
One section I really loved was part 2 when we got to learn a lot more about the history of the world and the events that led up to the 'catastrophe' because it felt convincing and interesting as a world history. I found the ideas of the two warring sides of the world really gripping and even though it was all past events it really solidified this as a great story and made my interest in the current day storyline grow a lot.
On the whole I would say that this book was a great opening to a story I certainly want to read more of. I will 100% be continuing on with the books as they're highly readable and very easy to get into and through, but I do wish I had more hope for the series being finished up. I would say that this is certainly one worth a shot, and that potentially this could go on to be great, but it's a shame we may not ever know.
I would give this a solid 4*s and I look forward to continuing on :)
With that said, it's a real shame for any long series to be cancelled in the middle, be it on TV or in book form, and its certainly disappointing to me as I am a first-time reader of this series, and I have to say I think it deserves to have all of the books released!
I have never read anything by David Wingrove prior to this, and yet I was immediately drawn in. Originally I found the cover of book 3 in my local Waterstones but I didn't pick it up as that was the only one they had. I am so glad, however, that I noted down the name of the series and looked it up online and saw I could get it on my kindle (which is just what I did). Not only are the covers very beautiful, but the story is brilliantly written.
Going into this I had no idea what it was about really, not even which genre it would fall under (despite finding it in the sci-fi and fantasy section I didn't know which it would be more relatable to). Now having read book 1 I would say that this falls solidly into the Sci-fi camp with a fair bit of dystopia mixed in. I haven't read a whole load of sci-fi yet, although it's something I am reading more of recently, but this one was by far one of the much easier and much more interesting takes on sci-fi that I have read in a while. In fact I found it fascinating to read about not only the dystopian elements and character development, but also the way that the science and technology of this world has evolved and affected the population,
In this story we follow Jake Reed who is a member of a small community living in a rather isolated part of England. All we know when we begin this story is that there's been some big catastrophe which has meant that the world is in disarray, technology is a thing of the past for most, and largely people live in small tribes or communities with just the bare necessities. Jake is a kind and careful character straight from the outset. He's clearly a valued member of their community and I found it easy to involve myself in his story and like him even when he made choices which were hard. He's the father of Peter (another character who we focus on) and a good friend of Tom (another member of the community), but his life was not always what it is now and he's actually got a very interesting backstory.
Tom is a friend to Jake and he's one of the elder members of their small village. He's got a loving family with a wife and three daughters, and it seems like he's always been happy with his lot in life. However as the story goes on we get to see a little more of the dangers of the world and how they can challenge even the nicest of men. He's a kind soul too, but when faced with some personal battles and the dangers of travel he gets into some rather sticky situations.
Peter is Jake's son and he's a very dear boy. He takes after his father in that he's a very conscientious and careful leader, but he is a leader at heart. He knows a lot about what he wants in life, despite being only 14 years old, and he's a great character to follow as the events begin to unfold because he was born after the 'catastrophe' and we learn from him about the severity of it all.
The story itself has 3 parts, the first part follows jake in the life he leads today as he and a couple of other men from the village head to get supplies from a market. They're on a dangerous journey and they don't quite know what they may be walking into because of the way that they are rather cut off. News travels in this world, but it's a lot slower than it used to be, and they have to be wary wherever they go.
The second part of the story focuses on the backstory and we go back in time to once more follow Jake as he's living his life. He's actually a part of a big and successful company and there's a lot of very, very cool technology which is an everyday commodity. We get to see what he used to be like, his hopes and dreams for the future, and the way that everything that seemed so perfect quickly combusted and fell to ruin.
Finally part 3 brings together the two plots of the catastrophe and the modern day story with all sorts of revelations and drama unfolding. We see political intrigue and manipulation, but we also see tests of loyalty and trust.
One section I really loved was part 2 when we got to learn a lot more about the history of the world and the events that led up to the 'catastrophe' because it felt convincing and interesting as a world history. I found the ideas of the two warring sides of the world really gripping and even though it was all past events it really solidified this as a great story and made my interest in the current day storyline grow a lot.
On the whole I would say that this book was a great opening to a story I certainly want to read more of. I will 100% be continuing on with the books as they're highly readable and very easy to get into and through, but I do wish I had more hope for the series being finished up. I would say that this is certainly one worth a shot, and that potentially this could go on to be great, but it's a shame we may not ever know.
I would give this a solid 4*s and I look forward to continuing on :)
February 13, 2017
Does not stand on its own - its just a very long introduction that has no story of its own. Very unrealistic depiction of a post-crash rural society. I find it hard to believe Mr. Wingrove has ever lived on a non-mechanized farm - particularly in a place completely isolated by 20 years from industrial resupply. The main character, born in a dense urban ultra-tech rich society and trained as a financial manager, immediately transforms to James Bond during the week of the crash, and then again to an Uber-libertarian Charles Ingalls for the next 20 years. Way over praised.
March 21, 2014
In the last couple of decades I have become fascinated with Asia, reading whatever I can and hoping that one day I can go there. In the meantime, I read, watch what I can get, and even picking up a smattering of languages. Yep, it's that well-known method of scattershot study for me!
One series that caught my eye back in the 1980's was David Wingrove's series call Chung Kup, a science fiction series of books that envisions an Earth dominated by China, ruled by what are known as the Seven T'angs. The City covers most of the Earth, and the population is composed of nothing but Han Chinese and Western Europeans. While I tend to despite genocidal dystopias, I was fascinated by the world-building and the more subtle characters of the story.
Now Wingrove is relaunching his series, adding in two books at the very start, and filling in some of the blanks. The first book, Son of Heaven, tells the story of Jake Reed, a survivor of the Collapse, when financial markets crashed, and chaos erupted over North America and Europe. Jake barely made it through those awful days, finally finding some sanctuary at Corfe, England. Now twenty years have passed, and now there are strangers and raiders moving west, fleeing something that is following them. Jake thinks that he knows what is coming, but is too afraid to speak up. When he goes with the other men on a trading expedition to the nearby town, a journey of several days, not only are they attacked but Jake is wounded, and hears of something sinister coming from the east.
A hike to the nearby ruins and a pair of binoculars reveals something like a glacier coming. And this time, there is nowhere for Jake and his family to flee to...
I was of very mixed feelings about picking this book up and reading it., given that I'm not much of a fan of genocide, and knowing a bit of what was to come in later novels. But I was also curious, as so much science fiction these days is either drivel or just endless copying of someone else. So this book sat on the shelf for quite a few months (think years) and I finally decided that it was time to sit down and finally read it and make up my mind -- continue on or pull the trigger.
Son of Heaven has two viewpoints. The first was Jake Reed, a brilliant young internet designer who worked in the financial markets when it crashed, and the other is Jiang Lei, a general of one of the Emperor's armies and sometime poet. While Jake is focused on merely surviving and getting his family to safety, Jiang Lei is much more complex. The duty that he has from the Emperor, T'sao Ch'un, is much more difficult. Not only is he in command of men who are not much more than killers, he also has to assess those people who are not Han, and decide if they are worthy enough to live in the future, in the City that is advancing behind them. The ill, the elderly, drug users and 'ethnicities' are to be disposed of and forgotten, while the survivors are reeducated in camps..
Not that Jiang Lei has much choice. His wife and daughters are being held as hostages for his continued co-operation, and worse still, quite a few of his men are members of the secret police -- the Thousand Eyes -- who watch and report everything.
An interesting touch was the various bits of future culture -- one modern author constantly mentioned was Philip K. Dick and his novel Ubik. Many of the references were to music, and at times it did get pretty annoying. Not very many authors can pull it off successfully, and unfortunately Wingrove isn't one of them. While it was interesting, it wasn't that well handled. Pity.
Still, I was interested enough by the end of this one to go onto the second novel in the series, Daylight on Iron Mountain.
This novel gets three and half stars, rounded up to four, and a somewhat recommended. Not for everyone, but it's bearable if you like this sort of thing.
One series that caught my eye back in the 1980's was David Wingrove's series call Chung Kup, a science fiction series of books that envisions an Earth dominated by China, ruled by what are known as the Seven T'angs. The City covers most of the Earth, and the population is composed of nothing but Han Chinese and Western Europeans. While I tend to despite genocidal dystopias, I was fascinated by the world-building and the more subtle characters of the story.
Now Wingrove is relaunching his series, adding in two books at the very start, and filling in some of the blanks. The first book, Son of Heaven, tells the story of Jake Reed, a survivor of the Collapse, when financial markets crashed, and chaos erupted over North America and Europe. Jake barely made it through those awful days, finally finding some sanctuary at Corfe, England. Now twenty years have passed, and now there are strangers and raiders moving west, fleeing something that is following them. Jake thinks that he knows what is coming, but is too afraid to speak up. When he goes with the other men on a trading expedition to the nearby town, a journey of several days, not only are they attacked but Jake is wounded, and hears of something sinister coming from the east.
A hike to the nearby ruins and a pair of binoculars reveals something like a glacier coming. And this time, there is nowhere for Jake and his family to flee to...
I was of very mixed feelings about picking this book up and reading it., given that I'm not much of a fan of genocide, and knowing a bit of what was to come in later novels. But I was also curious, as so much science fiction these days is either drivel or just endless copying of someone else. So this book sat on the shelf for quite a few months (think years) and I finally decided that it was time to sit down and finally read it and make up my mind -- continue on or pull the trigger.
Son of Heaven has two viewpoints. The first was Jake Reed, a brilliant young internet designer who worked in the financial markets when it crashed, and the other is Jiang Lei, a general of one of the Emperor's armies and sometime poet. While Jake is focused on merely surviving and getting his family to safety, Jiang Lei is much more complex. The duty that he has from the Emperor, T'sao Ch'un, is much more difficult. Not only is he in command of men who are not much more than killers, he also has to assess those people who are not Han, and decide if they are worthy enough to live in the future, in the City that is advancing behind them. The ill, the elderly, drug users and 'ethnicities' are to be disposed of and forgotten, while the survivors are reeducated in camps..
Not that Jiang Lei has much choice. His wife and daughters are being held as hostages for his continued co-operation, and worse still, quite a few of his men are members of the secret police -- the Thousand Eyes -- who watch and report everything.
An interesting touch was the various bits of future culture -- one modern author constantly mentioned was Philip K. Dick and his novel Ubik. Many of the references were to music, and at times it did get pretty annoying. Not very many authors can pull it off successfully, and unfortunately Wingrove isn't one of them. While it was interesting, it wasn't that well handled. Pity.
Still, I was interested enough by the end of this one to go onto the second novel in the series, Daylight on Iron Mountain.
This novel gets three and half stars, rounded up to four, and a somewhat recommended. Not for everyone, but it's bearable if you like this sort of thing.
February 11, 2012
This was a novel that ventures so close to being racist, sexist, and fear-mongering that I absolutely could not enjoy it at all. You could say that it goes over the line, and I wouldn't necessarily argue. Surely, Mr. Wingrove himself is not necessarily a person who can be described in those ways: I've never met him. Perhaps he is of the most liberal character. He still wrote a novel with a featureless protagonist and a premise that is fairly ridiculous, plus the aforementioned issues. The rest of the characters are pulled straight from tvtropes articles, or are otherwise stereotypes. Used the sentence "brutal oriental faces," as well as several dozen other cringe-y phrases about the Chinese. Wish I could score it lower. A terrible experience, and despite the time I spent reading the first 3/4s, I honestly couldn't finish it. Instead, I am finished with it. Avoid.
March 31, 2012
Back in the late eighties, I picked up a book that was the first in a series called Chung Kuo: The Middle Kingdom. It was a science fiction series about a world controlled by the Chinese, where many races have been wiped out, and the majority of humanity live in a giant, world-spanning city of many layers, where the level you live in indicates your position.
I followed the series, but mid-way through, the book releases became erratic, and more difficult to find. And apparently the author was pushed to merge the last two books, since the publisher wanted it done with.
Flash forward to this year, and the surprise I felt at seeing a new Chung Kuo novel on the shelf. A little research finds that the original series is being expanded and recut, with two prequels added, to make the original 8 books into a total of 20 books to be released over the next while.
Son of Heaven is the first of the prequels, primarily from the point of view of Jake Reed. In 2043, he was a brilliant 'Login' working for a London firm, going into the datastream of the global market to identify financial opportunities. He's just been licensed to marry his girlfriend and have children. Everything is wonderful. Only, there's signs of danger, that quickly escalates to complete collapse. With Chinese assassins trying to kill him, he ends up running as the world burns.
In 2065, Jake is living in a small rural community that has adjusted to the new world, grieving his dead wife, raising his teenaged son, and worry about the future. And his worries are coming true as the Chinese arrive.
The original version of the series caught me with its world-building. In this book (and the next volume that concludes the prequel), we actually get to see how this world came to be. We get a view of a world post-oil bust, where the Americas have merged into a single country, and China went through a boom, a bust, and is now climbing again. In England, people are divided into Citizens and Unprotecteds (unregistered people). I found the technology of The Market a little hard to believe, but it made for a very visual section.
After the collapse, England has collapsed into something a little more medieval in tone, with trading and farming being life. The cities are home to scavengers, but something is driving them out into the countryside in the hundreds.
I can't wait to read the next book, and the ones that follow. Hopefully the publisher will keep up with the ambitious publishing schedule they have for the series.
I followed the series, but mid-way through, the book releases became erratic, and more difficult to find. And apparently the author was pushed to merge the last two books, since the publisher wanted it done with.
Flash forward to this year, and the surprise I felt at seeing a new Chung Kuo novel on the shelf. A little research finds that the original series is being expanded and recut, with two prequels added, to make the original 8 books into a total of 20 books to be released over the next while.
Son of Heaven is the first of the prequels, primarily from the point of view of Jake Reed. In 2043, he was a brilliant 'Login' working for a London firm, going into the datastream of the global market to identify financial opportunities. He's just been licensed to marry his girlfriend and have children. Everything is wonderful. Only, there's signs of danger, that quickly escalates to complete collapse. With Chinese assassins trying to kill him, he ends up running as the world burns.
In 2065, Jake is living in a small rural community that has adjusted to the new world, grieving his dead wife, raising his teenaged son, and worry about the future. And his worries are coming true as the Chinese arrive.
The original version of the series caught me with its world-building. In this book (and the next volume that concludes the prequel), we actually get to see how this world came to be. We get a view of a world post-oil bust, where the Americas have merged into a single country, and China went through a boom, a bust, and is now climbing again. In England, people are divided into Citizens and Unprotecteds (unregistered people). I found the technology of The Market a little hard to believe, but it made for a very visual section.
After the collapse, England has collapsed into something a little more medieval in tone, with trading and farming being life. The cities are home to scavengers, but something is driving them out into the countryside in the hundreds.
I can't wait to read the next book, and the ones that follow. Hopefully the publisher will keep up with the ambitious publishing schedule they have for the series.
April 19, 2011
A dystopian look at a possible future Earth about fifty years hence, this book is the first in a planned series of twenty. I absolutely devoured this huge book because once I started I just hated to put it aside, even for short periods. I got so wrapped up in Jake’s story and the lives of people struggling to survive twenty some odd years after the total collapse of the world economy and infrastructure. Told in a very easy to read, straight-forward, yet positively mesmerizing style I felt as if I were there, sharing the experience, celebrating the small triumphs, mourning the losses, but mostly, fearful of the uncertain future barreling down upon us.
In this alternate future Earth, the Chinese, under the leadership of one brilliant and capricious man, successfully set the Information Age back hundreds of years. Lawlessness abounds and small communities band together for mutual protection and trade. There are three distinct parts. The story opens in 2065, in rural Dorset, England. Twenty-two years after the collapse, tensions are, once again, mounting, as rumors fly across the land and an unnatural, huge, white structure can be barely discerned on the edge of the horizon. The second part delves backwards in time as details of the economic crisis and ultimate collapse are relayed. It is in this part we discover the role Jake played and relive those harrowing days with him. Then finally, in the third section, the invading force arrives with superior numbers and high-tech weapons, this relentless force seems to be unstoppable and determined to “process” every last living soul.
For anyone who loves science-fiction, dystopian literature, this is surely a must read. I found this book to be exceptionally well-written, totally engrossing and, for the most part, complete within itself. I most certainly do want to read the next book in the series, titled Daylight on Iron Mountain. Whether I will remain enchanted enough to follow through on the entire series remains to be seen as I, usually, prefer series to be no longer than three or four books. This series, may easily become the exception, however, if the writing remains as impressive and original as it was in this first book.
Laurie-J
Reviewer for Night Owl Reviews
In this alternate future Earth, the Chinese, under the leadership of one brilliant and capricious man, successfully set the Information Age back hundreds of years. Lawlessness abounds and small communities band together for mutual protection and trade. There are three distinct parts. The story opens in 2065, in rural Dorset, England. Twenty-two years after the collapse, tensions are, once again, mounting, as rumors fly across the land and an unnatural, huge, white structure can be barely discerned on the edge of the horizon. The second part delves backwards in time as details of the economic crisis and ultimate collapse are relayed. It is in this part we discover the role Jake played and relive those harrowing days with him. Then finally, in the third section, the invading force arrives with superior numbers and high-tech weapons, this relentless force seems to be unstoppable and determined to “process” every last living soul.
For anyone who loves science-fiction, dystopian literature, this is surely a must read. I found this book to be exceptionally well-written, totally engrossing and, for the most part, complete within itself. I most certainly do want to read the next book in the series, titled Daylight on Iron Mountain. Whether I will remain enchanted enough to follow through on the entire series remains to be seen as I, usually, prefer series to be no longer than three or four books. This series, may easily become the exception, however, if the writing remains as impressive and original as it was in this first book.
Laurie-J
Reviewer for Night Owl Reviews
February 5, 2012
Actual rating: 3.5 stars.
I guess I was up for a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel, because I devoured this one. Was it really that good? Actually, it was that good.
The scene of the action shifts between two times set twenty years apart: post-collapse England, where survivors of the rioting and war that consumed the western world after the markets and all online systems failed live in small country villages, wary of roaming strangers and bandits; pre-collapse London, where Jake Reed works inside a visual and olfactory virtual datascape, playing the commodities market for his employer. Jake inhabits both times: he was there for the collapse, and he is in the country now, living a more basic life, trying to protect himself, his son, and a few close friends. And then the Chinese, who engineered the collapse in the first place, show up.
The novel starts slowly but quickly builds momentum, and I found I could not stop reading for any but the most essential chores. The characters are well-drawn and the situations fraught with suspense and peril. Both pre-collapse England, including the cyberspace environment within which Jake works and the secure enclaves within which Jake and his friends live, safe from the hoards of UPs (unprotecteds) living outside the walls, and the post-collapse countryside and simple lives the survivors live, are well and meticulously detailed. Even the Chinese villains are more than one or two layers deep. Some big ideas are of course discussed, but never in a doctrinaire, Ayn-Randish way -- I won't compare David Wingrove's writing to the masterful William Gibson's, but it's similar. Everything about this novel drew me in.
Now the problem. I read this, the first of a two-volume set, as a Kindle book. Imagine my disappointment in discovering that the second book, Daylight on Iron Mountain, is unavailable in electronic form ... I'm going to have to buy the paperback!
I guess I was up for a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel, because I devoured this one. Was it really that good? Actually, it was that good.
The scene of the action shifts between two times set twenty years apart: post-collapse England, where survivors of the rioting and war that consumed the western world after the markets and all online systems failed live in small country villages, wary of roaming strangers and bandits; pre-collapse London, where Jake Reed works inside a visual and olfactory virtual datascape, playing the commodities market for his employer. Jake inhabits both times: he was there for the collapse, and he is in the country now, living a more basic life, trying to protect himself, his son, and a few close friends. And then the Chinese, who engineered the collapse in the first place, show up.
The novel starts slowly but quickly builds momentum, and I found I could not stop reading for any but the most essential chores. The characters are well-drawn and the situations fraught with suspense and peril. Both pre-collapse England, including the cyberspace environment within which Jake works and the secure enclaves within which Jake and his friends live, safe from the hoards of UPs (unprotecteds) living outside the walls, and the post-collapse countryside and simple lives the survivors live, are well and meticulously detailed. Even the Chinese villains are more than one or two layers deep. Some big ideas are of course discussed, but never in a doctrinaire, Ayn-Randish way -- I won't compare David Wingrove's writing to the masterful William Gibson's, but it's similar. Everything about this novel drew me in.
Now the problem. I read this, the first of a two-volume set, as a Kindle book. Imagine my disappointment in discovering that the second book, Daylight on Iron Mountain, is unavailable in electronic form ... I'm going to have to buy the paperback!
November 25, 2015
Heard of Chung Kuo? Released over a decade, the series span a complicated future history where China rules a vast multi-levelled plastic city covering the Earth, and the ideological struggle between dynamism and stability that shook it. Cut short, the final volume, the Marriage of the Living Dark (1999) was not the ending the writer wanted. Now he’s back, with more understanding publishers, and Chung Kuo returns as a 20-book epic, with 500,000 new words of material, including a new finale, and two prequel volumes, of which this is the first.
This is an ambitious and somewhat awesome endeavour, yet both its strengths and weaknesses are on show here. Son of Heaven tells of the fall of the west due to a China-engineered market meltdown, sounds intriguing, but the world it takes place in is cursorily imagined, a cardboard stage-set, painted with illogicality. Likewise his enormous planet-city, the birth of which we witness here, seems somewhat ridiculous in the making. As a backdrop to human travail the city is a grand canvas, as a thing in and of itself… well, the old SF classification of “Big Dumb Object” springs to mind.
But it is in characterisation that Wingrove wins. Never mind his “cosy catastrophe”, or the unconvincing worlds that precede and follow it. His characters, peering out from behind info-dumps, are mammal-warm, and that brings the world of Chung Kuo to life. In fact it makes one think: is our own world not ridiculous? And yet real people live here too.
Son of Heaven sets genuine humanity against inhuman endeavour. Do not mistake it for speculative fiction – it is fantasy, yet like all great fantasy, it carries the hallmark of legend. Flawed, yet compelling.
This is an ambitious and somewhat awesome endeavour, yet both its strengths and weaknesses are on show here. Son of Heaven tells of the fall of the west due to a China-engineered market meltdown, sounds intriguing, but the world it takes place in is cursorily imagined, a cardboard stage-set, painted with illogicality. Likewise his enormous planet-city, the birth of which we witness here, seems somewhat ridiculous in the making. As a backdrop to human travail the city is a grand canvas, as a thing in and of itself… well, the old SF classification of “Big Dumb Object” springs to mind.
But it is in characterisation that Wingrove wins. Never mind his “cosy catastrophe”, or the unconvincing worlds that precede and follow it. His characters, peering out from behind info-dumps, are mammal-warm, and that brings the world of Chung Kuo to life. In fact it makes one think: is our own world not ridiculous? And yet real people live here too.
Son of Heaven sets genuine humanity against inhuman endeavour. Do not mistake it for speculative fiction – it is fantasy, yet like all great fantasy, it carries the hallmark of legend. Flawed, yet compelling.
October 18, 2012
I've put this on the science-fiction shelf, but is it? Cyber warfare, world collapse, limited reconstruction are at its heart so perhaps it it.
China takes over the world and sets about indoctrinating all of the countries which it takes control. I really enjoyed reading it and read it very quickly whilst on holiday without realising it is the first of a series and therefore is incomplete. (I sometimes feel that there should be a very large warning on the front of novels like this especially for readers like me who just turn to chapter one and get on with it ). The big question is can I be bothered to read the next NINETEEN installments?
China takes over the world and sets about indoctrinating all of the countries which it takes control. I really enjoyed reading it and read it very quickly whilst on holiday without realising it is the first of a series and therefore is incomplete. (I sometimes feel that there should be a very large warning on the front of novels like this especially for readers like me who just turn to chapter one and get on with it ). The big question is can I be bothered to read the next NINETEEN installments?
November 28, 2022
Avevo letto molti anni fa i primi 4 volumi della serie originaria Chung Kuo (senza sapere che dei primi 3 c'era anche un'edizione italiana) e mi erano piaciuti molto. Per diverse ragioni non ero andato oltre nella serie.
Volendo rileggerli, ho scoperto che Wingrove aveva incominciato a ripubblicarla in una edizione rivista, aggiungendo anche due volumi di prequel. Questo Son of Heaven è il primo dei due, e leggendolo ho ritrovato lo stesso piacere dei romanzi originali, lo stesso stile coinvolgente, la stessa capacità di descrivere personaggi molto reali ed umani.
Gli anni passati gli hanno anche permesso di adeguare meglio il tema del crollo della vecchia società, specialmente quella occidentale, perché ormai incominciamo a vederne certi aspetti con i nostri occhi.
Devo ora leggere il secondo prequel, ma poi sarò davanti al dubbio se proseguire con questo Chung Kuo Recast, che è al momento incompleto, o tornare alla serie originale.
Ma non è una decisione che devo prendere ora.
Volendo rileggerli, ho scoperto che Wingrove aveva incominciato a ripubblicarla in una edizione rivista, aggiungendo anche due volumi di prequel. Questo Son of Heaven è il primo dei due, e leggendolo ho ritrovato lo stesso piacere dei romanzi originali, lo stesso stile coinvolgente, la stessa capacità di descrivere personaggi molto reali ed umani.
Gli anni passati gli hanno anche permesso di adeguare meglio il tema del crollo della vecchia società, specialmente quella occidentale, perché ormai incominciamo a vederne certi aspetti con i nostri occhi.
Devo ora leggere il secondo prequel, ma poi sarò davanti al dubbio se proseguire con questo Chung Kuo Recast, che è al momento incompleto, o tornare alla serie originale.
Ma non è una decisione che devo prendere ora.
January 3, 2020
Scary alternative future dystopian world in which England and China are the only two countries, splitting the world in half. China destroys the stock market, causing a global disaster, all electricity and modernization is eliminated in England and causes a civil war between the have and have nots. 20 years goes by whole citizens learn to fend for themselves, before China then takes over globally, rounding up people and killing those they don’t believe will make perfect citizens. Not sure I need to spend time reading the rest of the series, even though it was intriguing concept.
January 8, 2020
Prequal to a great 90's sci-fi series. It was nice to go back and revisit these stories.
May 16, 2017
Ini pertama kalinya saya membaca buku novel dgn genre apocalyptic. Selama ini saya membayangkan yg seram-seram jika membaca buku berjenis genre ini. Namun terjadi sebaliknya pd saat saya membaca novel ini.
Di bagian pertama, semacam pendahuluan yg memperkenalkan tokoh utama kita, Jake Reed, seorang duda yg bertanggungjawab, sangat setia kawan pd rekan2nya (tapi sering kejeblos karena tidak bisa mengendalikan libidonya). Hingga akhirnya kedatangan pasukan China yg mengancam daerah suakanya.
Bagian kedua, kita dibawa mundur saat Jake masih belia dan menyaksikan bagaimana China mengoyak-ngoyak AS seperti harimau mengunyah mangsanya.
Bagian ketiga, kita diperkenalkan pd tokoh antagonist-nya, Tsao Ch'un (sayangnya cuma namanya saja yg didengung-dengungkan) dan antek2nya. Tidak semua antek Tsao adalah penjahat. Jake beruntung dibantu salah seorangnya.
Tokoh Jake sbg hero di buku ini terlalu manusiawi sehingga tidak terlihat gregetnya ataupun sisi jagoannya. Dan tujuan novel ini masih membuat saya tidak mudeng. Apakah ingin menggambarkan bagaimana China menganeksasi dunia, atau justru Jake harus menyelamatkan dunia dari cengkeraman China? Saya merasa ending yg menggantung ini tidak menggugah rasa ingin tahu saya.
Di bagian pertama, semacam pendahuluan yg memperkenalkan tokoh utama kita, Jake Reed, seorang duda yg bertanggungjawab, sangat setia kawan pd rekan2nya (tapi sering kejeblos karena tidak bisa mengendalikan libidonya). Hingga akhirnya kedatangan pasukan China yg mengancam daerah suakanya.
Bagian kedua, kita dibawa mundur saat Jake masih belia dan menyaksikan bagaimana China mengoyak-ngoyak AS seperti harimau mengunyah mangsanya.
Bagian ketiga, kita diperkenalkan pd tokoh antagonist-nya, Tsao Ch'un (sayangnya cuma namanya saja yg didengung-dengungkan) dan antek2nya. Tidak semua antek Tsao adalah penjahat. Jake beruntung dibantu salah seorangnya.
Tokoh Jake sbg hero di buku ini terlalu manusiawi sehingga tidak terlihat gregetnya ataupun sisi jagoannya. Dan tujuan novel ini masih membuat saya tidak mudeng. Apakah ingin menggambarkan bagaimana China menganeksasi dunia, atau justru Jake harus menyelamatkan dunia dari cengkeraman China? Saya merasa ending yg menggantung ini tidak menggugah rasa ingin tahu saya.
December 30, 2016
I have read the Chung Kuo series the entire eight books on its original release. In fact I remember waiting for months for the last two installments to come out. Wingrove's last book "Marriage of the Living Dark" was, as many have said, a disappointment to many readers including myself. Yet I have been doing some research on the new re-release of this Epic series. It seems that not only are they releasing these two prequels, and making the volumes a bit more digestible (the original series had 8 books with well over 700 pages, sometimes over 800 pages) they are cutting that amount in half by breaking each of the eight into two or more volumes. But the best and most anticipated news, I have been looking for some kind of conclusion to one of my favorite Epics of all time. Yet on the web site David Wingrove says that he has rewritten the ending, and gave his fans a reason for the lackluster ending in the original series.
Within the series as a whole we are told briefly about the events told to us in these prequels. As I begin the second of these tales of how the world of levels begins in "Daylight on Iron Mountain" some events, and characters we learn about in the series at large are introduced to us in full color.
The truth of the matter was that I have been listening to audio books via "Audible.com" for the past two years and I have been seeking this story in that format, but to no avail. This re-release is the reason I believe. Yet just before I began to listen to novels, this was the last series I was reading, I tried to interest a few friends in the series as well at that time, and now that I have 'had it easy' and rested my old eyes. This is the series I have returned to 'reading' by, the Epic has come back and I shall enjoy reading of my old friends and enemies from this series once more. Now if I can just get them all for my Kindle then we can blend the future and the present once more.
I only hope you will all enjoy this wonderful story now almost a decade old now in its fresh new light.
Within the series as a whole we are told briefly about the events told to us in these prequels. As I begin the second of these tales of how the world of levels begins in "Daylight on Iron Mountain" some events, and characters we learn about in the series at large are introduced to us in full color.
The truth of the matter was that I have been listening to audio books via "Audible.com" for the past two years and I have been seeking this story in that format, but to no avail. This re-release is the reason I believe. Yet just before I began to listen to novels, this was the last series I was reading, I tried to interest a few friends in the series as well at that time, and now that I have 'had it easy' and rested my old eyes. This is the series I have returned to 'reading' by, the Epic has come back and I shall enjoy reading of my old friends and enemies from this series once more. Now if I can just get them all for my Kindle then we can blend the future and the present once more.
I only hope you will all enjoy this wonderful story now almost a decade old now in its fresh new light.
December 9, 2012
Wingrove is an extremely inconsistent writer. Some parts of this book are chilling and other sections are puerile. I didn't know how this was going to work as a prequel because we all know it ends so badly, but the feeling of doom worked quite well for me as time ran out for all the little people. I also liked the most of the structure of this book with the cyberpunk flashback. Such a pity he couldn't keep it going till the end - and what a terribly dumb ending it is. Perhaps the worst final scene in a book I have read in many years.
Wingrove cannot write dialogue. This was less obvious in his other novels where the language is fake formal Chinese - but when he attempts country Dorset accents or London - it is so badly fake it sounds like someone is reading a Monty Python script.
Wingrove cannot write sex scenes. They are not sexy, they are male wish fulfillment fantasies.
Wingrove cannot write Baddies - His villains are less believable than comic book baddies with evil laughs and white pussies.
This book does make a good attempt at explaining how China might take over the world - The original series was criticized as not being historically feasible -and I think many of the problems have been addressed here. I don't think a believable explanation is offered for the adoption of New Confucianism. That still reads like affected Orientalism. I don't think this is a racist book - like a number of Good Reads reviewers have written - but considering the content, I don't think Wingrove has thought deeply enough about how to present this sort of material. That just makes him a poor writer - not a bad person - and maybe more than a little naive.
My review of this book looks pretty grim - but i actually enjoyed a lot of this. Some parts reminded me of a John Wyndham - and I kept looking out for Zombies in the escape from London sequence. I guess I must love a good Apocalypse.
Wingrove cannot write dialogue. This was less obvious in his other novels where the language is fake formal Chinese - but when he attempts country Dorset accents or London - it is so badly fake it sounds like someone is reading a Monty Python script.
Wingrove cannot write sex scenes. They are not sexy, they are male wish fulfillment fantasies.
Wingrove cannot write Baddies - His villains are less believable than comic book baddies with evil laughs and white pussies.
This book does make a good attempt at explaining how China might take over the world - The original series was criticized as not being historically feasible -and I think many of the problems have been addressed here. I don't think a believable explanation is offered for the adoption of New Confucianism. That still reads like affected Orientalism. I don't think this is a racist book - like a number of Good Reads reviewers have written - but considering the content, I don't think Wingrove has thought deeply enough about how to present this sort of material. That just makes him a poor writer - not a bad person - and maybe more than a little naive.
My review of this book looks pretty grim - but i actually enjoyed a lot of this. Some parts reminded me of a John Wyndham - and I kept looking out for Zombies in the escape from London sequence. I guess I must love a good Apocalypse.
February 18, 2014
Wingrove's original eight volume epic of 'Chung Kuo' was planned as a nine volume work but it appears that the publishers - for no clear reason - requested Wingrove to round everything off in volume eight, a book that was indeed unsatisfactory as the denouement to a masterly piece of work, both in scope and execution, by anyone's standards.
Wingrove has now revised and expanded his magnum opus with a proposed radically different ending. This, the first of a posited twenty volume series (each, I would estimate, about half the length of the original volumes) begins before the Chinese have constructed their all-encompassing enclosed cities, and centres around Jake Reed, a login. His job is to interface with virtual computer landscapes and in particular the Datscape which manifests the stock markets as a form of biosphere.
The narrative takes a while to get into its stride. There's some post-apocalyptic scene setting to be done in a Cornwall where the residents' social level has been pushed back to pre-technology levels following a devastating worldwide economic collapse twenty years before.
We are subsequently taken to an earlier time and - with Jake - live through the series of events that bring the world to chaos.
Even then, the Chinese were prime suspects in the sabotage of the Western economy, although China herself also collapsed and burned along with the rest of the world.
I'm not convinced it was ever necessary to provide such extensive additions to this series although given that 'Son of Heaven' is, as already pointed out, about half the length of a 'classic' Chung Kuo novel the additional material will only comprise of about four volumes of this size. I will be interested to read Wingrove's originally intended ending but will - with the rest of Wingrove's Chung Kuo fans - have to wait and go through the full reloaded, revamped Chung Kuo experience.
Wingrove has now revised and expanded his magnum opus with a proposed radically different ending. This, the first of a posited twenty volume series (each, I would estimate, about half the length of the original volumes) begins before the Chinese have constructed their all-encompassing enclosed cities, and centres around Jake Reed, a login. His job is to interface with virtual computer landscapes and in particular the Datscape which manifests the stock markets as a form of biosphere.
The narrative takes a while to get into its stride. There's some post-apocalyptic scene setting to be done in a Cornwall where the residents' social level has been pushed back to pre-technology levels following a devastating worldwide economic collapse twenty years before.
We are subsequently taken to an earlier time and - with Jake - live through the series of events that bring the world to chaos.
Even then, the Chinese were prime suspects in the sabotage of the Western economy, although China herself also collapsed and burned along with the rest of the world.
I'm not convinced it was ever necessary to provide such extensive additions to this series although given that 'Son of Heaven' is, as already pointed out, about half the length of a 'classic' Chung Kuo novel the additional material will only comprise of about four volumes of this size. I will be interested to read Wingrove's originally intended ending but will - with the rest of Wingrove's Chung Kuo fans - have to wait and go through the full reloaded, revamped Chung Kuo experience.
December 12, 2017
London, 2043. Jake Reed is a young futures broker, trading stock on the datascape, the high-tech virtual stock market, one of the best in his field. When the datascape comes under attack from hackers, Reed is called in to investigate who could be responsible. However, the virtual attack is but the opening move in a struggle years in the planning. Cities burn, riots erupt and armies are neutralised as the long-feared collapse of modern civilisation begins.
Twenty-two years later, Reed lives in a rural community in Dorset. Millions have died in the post-Collapse years and the UK is now a patchwork of farming communities. Supplies of advanced medicines and high technology are running low, with no infrastructure available to replace them. But strange things are happening. Waves of refugees are appearing out of the east, strange craft with dragons painted on the wings have been seen in the sky and, on the horizon, a vast structure has appeared and is getting closer. The age of Western dominance has ended and the future belongs to the East.
Son of Heaven is the first novel in the new version of David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series, a science fiction epic spanning 200 years of future history. In Wingrove's series, the entire world has come to be dominated by China, which has constructed vast, continent-spanning cities packed with billions of people and begun to expand into space. Wingrove previously attempted to tell this story in the late 1980s and through the 1990s in eight large volumes, but the series was not completed properly. Now Corvus are republishing the saga in twenty volumes, with a new beginning and ending and a thorough revising of the previously-published material.
Son of Heaven starts the story much earlier than the original first volume, depicting exactly how Western civilisation and modern economic system were destroyed and how China survived the aftershocks to rise to dominance. This is an interesting move: the original first book started with China's supremacy firmly established and the reasons for its rise consigned to backstory. Here we see it in progress. It also means we are introduced to the world through the eyes of outsiders (Jake and his neighbours and family who are 'incorporated' into the World of Levels) rather than from inside, which is perhaps a little more forgiving to new readers to the series.
On the downside, this means that the methods by which China's dominance was established have to be depicted in a lot of detail, and these methods are somewhat fanciful, requiring a catastrophic and colossal failure of tens of thousands of Western intelligence, military and economic experts across many years whilst still requiring China to have acquired technology far in advance of the rest of the world (particularly the AI and nanotech required start building its massive continent-spanning cities in the space of a few years). Lots of SF is based on far more ludicrous premises, of course, but generally these work by taking place in the distant future with the transition from modern society being a vague or mythological event. Here it's more central to the story and therefore more open to scrutiny. This isn't helped by Wingrove having to take into account twenty years of additional real history (such as China's economic explosion) and then weld it onto the front of his original narrative. Ironically, China's real-life economic success provides a much more reasonable grounding for it becoming the dominant world culture over the course of decades, but using this as the grounding of the story would have presumably required a much more thorough rewriting of the entire series.
Moving beyond this, Wingrove's actual writing is pretty solid, depicting both the high-tech world of 21st Century London and the post-Collapse, almost post-apocalyptic agrarian society quite well. The conflict presented by the latter is handled intriguingly: the 21st Century, money-fixated world of haves and have-nots is shown to be comfortable but also shallow. The post-apocalyptic world initially lauds the absence of pointless materialism but then exposes the ugliness of living in a world where people die of cold exposure in the winter or from very minor wounds a modern hospital would sort out in a few minutes, or where girls are encouraged to get pregnant before the age of twenty to increase the chances of propagating the species. This sort of duality was one of the key themes of the original series, with the conflicts between progress and stasis and the state and the individual being key, but with the various options being presented as having their own benefits and disadvantages.
In the latter part of the book the Chinese finally show up and we meet a raft of new characters. General Jiang Lei is leading the subjugation of England and is presented as an effective soldier but also one with a sense of history and a conscience. He is contrasted against Wang Yu-Lai, a savage and ruthless intelligence agent who is all for rape, plunder and genocide. Jiang is an interesting character whose attitudes mirror many of the conflicts inherent in the series in microcosm. Wang is a caricature and a cartoon villain at best, however, lacking convincing motivation or characterisation.
The contrast between these two characters is symptomatic of much of the book: some excellent worldbuilding stands contrasted against some highly unconvincing developments needed to make China top dog. Jake and Jiang's solid depictions stand against some under-developed characters (particularly women) elsewhere. Respect and admiration for Chinese culture is contrasted against stereotypical elements elsewhere (the 'cold, brutal' Chinese stereotype is played up a bit, even when characters like Jiang are shown to be nothing like this). Overall though, the book is readable and sets up a world intriguing enough to make even the modest wait for the second book, Daylight on Iron Mountain (due in late 2011), feel somewhat disappointing. Whether it's enough to sustain twenty novels released across five years is another question, but we'll see.
Son of Heaven (***½) is a solid opening to a very long epic SF series, overcoming its weaknesses to deliver an unsettling (if implausible) depiction of the future. The novel will be published in the UK on 3 February 2011 as a limited-edition hardcover and ebook and on 1 March as a regular hardcover. American imports of the latter should be available via Amazon and the Book Depository.
Twenty-two years later, Reed lives in a rural community in Dorset. Millions have died in the post-Collapse years and the UK is now a patchwork of farming communities. Supplies of advanced medicines and high technology are running low, with no infrastructure available to replace them. But strange things are happening. Waves of refugees are appearing out of the east, strange craft with dragons painted on the wings have been seen in the sky and, on the horizon, a vast structure has appeared and is getting closer. The age of Western dominance has ended and the future belongs to the East.
Son of Heaven is the first novel in the new version of David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series, a science fiction epic spanning 200 years of future history. In Wingrove's series, the entire world has come to be dominated by China, which has constructed vast, continent-spanning cities packed with billions of people and begun to expand into space. Wingrove previously attempted to tell this story in the late 1980s and through the 1990s in eight large volumes, but the series was not completed properly. Now Corvus are republishing the saga in twenty volumes, with a new beginning and ending and a thorough revising of the previously-published material.
Son of Heaven starts the story much earlier than the original first volume, depicting exactly how Western civilisation and modern economic system were destroyed and how China survived the aftershocks to rise to dominance. This is an interesting move: the original first book started with China's supremacy firmly established and the reasons for its rise consigned to backstory. Here we see it in progress. It also means we are introduced to the world through the eyes of outsiders (Jake and his neighbours and family who are 'incorporated' into the World of Levels) rather than from inside, which is perhaps a little more forgiving to new readers to the series.
On the downside, this means that the methods by which China's dominance was established have to be depicted in a lot of detail, and these methods are somewhat fanciful, requiring a catastrophic and colossal failure of tens of thousands of Western intelligence, military and economic experts across many years whilst still requiring China to have acquired technology far in advance of the rest of the world (particularly the AI and nanotech required start building its massive continent-spanning cities in the space of a few years). Lots of SF is based on far more ludicrous premises, of course, but generally these work by taking place in the distant future with the transition from modern society being a vague or mythological event. Here it's more central to the story and therefore more open to scrutiny. This isn't helped by Wingrove having to take into account twenty years of additional real history (such as China's economic explosion) and then weld it onto the front of his original narrative. Ironically, China's real-life economic success provides a much more reasonable grounding for it becoming the dominant world culture over the course of decades, but using this as the grounding of the story would have presumably required a much more thorough rewriting of the entire series.
Moving beyond this, Wingrove's actual writing is pretty solid, depicting both the high-tech world of 21st Century London and the post-Collapse, almost post-apocalyptic agrarian society quite well. The conflict presented by the latter is handled intriguingly: the 21st Century, money-fixated world of haves and have-nots is shown to be comfortable but also shallow. The post-apocalyptic world initially lauds the absence of pointless materialism but then exposes the ugliness of living in a world where people die of cold exposure in the winter or from very minor wounds a modern hospital would sort out in a few minutes, or where girls are encouraged to get pregnant before the age of twenty to increase the chances of propagating the species. This sort of duality was one of the key themes of the original series, with the conflicts between progress and stasis and the state and the individual being key, but with the various options being presented as having their own benefits and disadvantages.
In the latter part of the book the Chinese finally show up and we meet a raft of new characters. General Jiang Lei is leading the subjugation of England and is presented as an effective soldier but also one with a sense of history and a conscience. He is contrasted against Wang Yu-Lai, a savage and ruthless intelligence agent who is all for rape, plunder and genocide. Jiang is an interesting character whose attitudes mirror many of the conflicts inherent in the series in microcosm. Wang is a caricature and a cartoon villain at best, however, lacking convincing motivation or characterisation.
The contrast between these two characters is symptomatic of much of the book: some excellent worldbuilding stands contrasted against some highly unconvincing developments needed to make China top dog. Jake and Jiang's solid depictions stand against some under-developed characters (particularly women) elsewhere. Respect and admiration for Chinese culture is contrasted against stereotypical elements elsewhere (the 'cold, brutal' Chinese stereotype is played up a bit, even when characters like Jiang are shown to be nothing like this). Overall though, the book is readable and sets up a world intriguing enough to make even the modest wait for the second book, Daylight on Iron Mountain (due in late 2011), feel somewhat disappointing. Whether it's enough to sustain twenty novels released across five years is another question, but we'll see.
Son of Heaven (***½) is a solid opening to a very long epic SF series, overcoming its weaknesses to deliver an unsettling (if implausible) depiction of the future. The novel will be published in the UK on 3 February 2011 as a limited-edition hardcover and ebook and on 1 March as a regular hardcover. American imports of the latter should be available via Amazon and the Book Depository.
September 3, 2014
Not the best science fiction book I have read. The plot ended up being very predictable.
Also the author's explanation of how the previous world collapses due to market failure did not sound very plausible. A failed market could be the start of destruction leading to greater economic problems, which is turn can lead to the current world to fail. I did not however agree with the author's sense of simplicity in this regard.
The scenarios also did not seem real enough. After the current world collapses, people seem to be living in isolated villages. This is not how I would envision the collapse after a modern world. I would expect to see more underground organizations, corruption, and aggressive warlords. Instead you have none of that. The world simply collapses and China takes over.
The characters in the book do not change either. The story starts of sounding very sexist. This is excusable given the age the original book was written. But in the future, after the collapse of the modern world, the men still seem to be the dominant beings, with the women looking up to support. I did not agree with this view either.
I would recommend this book to high school students as the reading and story plot is very easy to follow.
Also the author's explanation of how the previous world collapses due to market failure did not sound very plausible. A failed market could be the start of destruction leading to greater economic problems, which is turn can lead to the current world to fail. I did not however agree with the author's sense of simplicity in this regard.
The scenarios also did not seem real enough. After the current world collapses, people seem to be living in isolated villages. This is not how I would envision the collapse after a modern world. I would expect to see more underground organizations, corruption, and aggressive warlords. Instead you have none of that. The world simply collapses and China takes over.
The characters in the book do not change either. The story starts of sounding very sexist. This is excusable given the age the original book was written. But in the future, after the collapse of the modern world, the men still seem to be the dominant beings, with the women looking up to support. I did not agree with this view either.
I would recommend this book to high school students as the reading and story plot is very easy to follow.
March 16, 2014
I read this because it was a free book on iTunes. I had no idea what it was about, except that it was a book set in the near future, and, therefore, was pleasantly surprised by this novel. At the beginning, anyway. It however went down hill a bit as the main character was too self questioning about everything and soon became just plain repetitive and dull. Then, it picked up again in the second part, but soon lead to the self questioning by the characters. It all got too dull, but I was left wondering about the future of the characters. It was intriguing and frustrating at the same time.
Being the first book in a new series I have to ask if I'm ready to commit myself to a 20 book series and I'm not leaning in that direction.
Being the first book in a new series I have to ask if I'm ready to commit myself to a 20 book series and I'm not leaning in that direction.
February 14, 2011
This book is a prequel to the Chung Kuo series by David Wingrove. It provides back story to the cities in the series and explains how the Chinese came to be in control of the Earth. This book stands on it's own as an excellent read, well worth the readers time spent on it. Great storyline and the pace of the book moves well. It is set in our close future.
February 13, 2011
A simply magnificent novel with plot, world-building and characters which many authors can only dream of.
My favourite sci-fi novel since Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon (2002).
This is the first of an extensive series which I look forward to immensely.
My favourite sci-fi novel since Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon (2002).
This is the first of an extensive series which I look forward to immensely.
January 29, 2013
Rating: 8.8 / 10
David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series is a rather unique situation wherein it's actually two series, the second a “recast” of the first, divided separately with different endings and a new prequel. This confused the hell out of me when I first stumbled across this series, so let me clarify things for everyone right off the hop. From 1989 through 1999, Wingrove released Chung Kuo as a series of long, roughly 500-800 page (a piece) novels chronicling the rise of a neofeudal dynastic global Chinese empire. However, the cult following of the series wasn't strong enough to garner sympathy from the publisher, and as Wingrove was writing the eighth book, he was told he wouldn't get his ninth, his finale. This left Book 8 apparently rushed and unsatisfactory – Wingrove himself didn't like what became of it. However, after much negotiation with a new publisher, Corvus, they are now re-releasing the series with a proper ending. They're also updating the technology and history to reflect the past decade, and including a prequel. Furthermore, all (now) ten books are being split in two to make a twenty novel series. This series is called the Chung Kuo Recast, and many of the books bare the names of the original series, and of course it's the same author. The word “Recast” doesn't appear on the novels' covers, and this is why it's helpful to check sites like Goodreads.
All that being said, this is the first half of the prequel, which now becomes Book 1 of the Recast series.
I discovered this series completely at random when I picked up the Book 2 (Daylight on Iron Mountain) in a book store, and did a little research. I asked for Book 1 for Christmas, and was left waiting for a month and a half to begin reading it. Let me say, I love post-apocalyptic science fiction. I have a bizarre fascination with Confucian dynastic China. And after reading all the currently published books of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, I have a newfound appreciation for when an author takes the time to tell a story properly in all explicit detail with astounding worldbuilding. This is the book for me.
I went into this with high expectations. In fact, very high expectations, which I knew were a disaster. Too high of expectations can sour even a very good novel if it's just a little shy of the greatness you were hoping for. Therefore, I consciously tried to lower my expectations, and went into it expecting very little. This made me think it would be both great and abysmal and I couldn't quite meet those two in the middle. The result was the I was hyper-critical of everything, but still loved it.
Now, I love me some good post-apocalyptic science fiction (emphasis on “good”), and this doesn't disappoint. My experience in this genre has been lacking up until now. I've read S. M Stirling's Emberverse series, and John Barnes' Daybreak series (or, I should say, read parts of these before abandonment). There were many small problems with Stirling's series – from the structure to the flatness of the characters, the misdirection of Astrid and Eilir's sexuality, the formulaic nature of conflict and resolution...and romance – but was an interesting premise and didn't per se have its wheels slip into the same tire marks in the mud that post-apocalyptic usually does. John Barnes, however, fulfils every post-apocalyptic blunder to a T.
The usual problem with post-apocalyptic is that first you have to get through the apocalyptic. For as much as I love post-apocalyptic, I don't like apocalyptic. Why? Because I've seen too much apocalyptic fiction follow the same point by point formula. Start with an incredibly large number of characters. Make not a single story, but a series of vignettes surrounding this plethora of characters. Please note that the reader will not develop any attachment to most of them because they know that most of these characters are perfunctory and will be killed off or wane into oblivion shortly. This was Barnes' mistake. It was not Wingrove's.
The Chung Kuo series, as I understand it, is not meant to be post-apocalyptic, per se, but rather post-post-apocalyptic, and therefore doesn't need the formulaic apocalyptic first novel opener, but can skip that and jump to a post-apocalyptic first novel opener. That was Son of Heaven. It doesn't bother with an endless string of atonal apocalyptic vignettes to try and tell the story of doomsday from all sides. It skips all that and jumps right into the good stuff. However, as though Wingrove realised that even that would be problematic, he does include the tale of the apocalypse itself. However, instead of spending all of Book 1 on this, instead of spending 120 pages of Part 1 on this, and instead of summing it up in pure unbridled exposition in an explanatory prologue, he takes a different course, and I can't praise him enough for this.
He does spend 120 pages telling the story. It's not Part 1, though, but Part 2. The book is told non-linearly, Parts 1 and 3 taking place in 2065 in post-apocalyptic Dorset County, England, and Part 2 in 2043 recounting the events of the fall itself. Moreover, the apocalypse isn't recounted through the eyes of 120 characters – 1 per page – 113 of which are dead by Part 3, but instead almost exclusively through the eyes of the protagonist, Jake Reed. I am usually leery of anything non-linear, not because of some inherent bias against that type of structure, but because I've seen it go bad one too many times. I was leery of this. I needn't have been. The timespan between Parts 1 and 3 is nil, and he chose the perfect moment to splice the story. Part 2 is somewhat perfunctory, but is unique enough that it's barely noticeable. Wingrove sets up a dystopian near future England where permits are required to marry and procreate, and any procreation without a permit means the child shall not have legal protections under the law. Why? The law can't afford it. There was an oil peak back in the twenties and it wrenched the world into a new era – a very rightwing era, as Jake reflects through his viewpoint chapters, with only minimal political allusions. The Welfare State is gone, almost exclusively, including access to police, fire, ambulance, etc., except for a very small percentage of self-sufficient people – the rich (which Jake happens to be apart of). Strict regulations keep it that way, and “the unprotected” are granted their welfare only through private charity and are often walled up in city-wide prisons and kept inside by armed guards. It's kind of a “Yeah, we'll let you fuck, but we ain't cleaning up the mess” kind of system.
Without giving too much away, the nature of “the Collapse” is almost instantaneous for Western Civilisation, and therefore about half of Part 2 is Jake's wanderings in his attempt to get away from London along the roads. This means that for a good chunk of the apocalyptic phase of the novel, we're still blessed with post-apocalyptic, albeit with the apocalypse only a day or two past.
If there's one serious problem with this novel, it does occur during the perfunctory parts of Part 2, wherein Jake is reflecting upon the period between 2009 and 2043 (between the writing and the inception of the story). Jake, in a moment of reflection, recalls the events leading up to 2043 in a three or four page span of what I call E-brake exposition. That is, imagine it as a movie, and all action and the furthering of the story ceases as though the protagonist turns to the camera and says “Oh, and by the way, our focus group has determined you're too stupid to figure this out if we work it in covertly, so...” and he vomits all the background details of the story at you in a single breath. I don't like E-brake exposition. Exposition can be done properly, and huge steaming piles of it at that, but there are specific codes and regulations for it, and slipping it in in the middle of a doomsday sequence as the market is crashing isn't one of them. The novel is excellently written in the way that each scene follows the exclusive viewpoint of one character (and not roaming omnisciently), usually Jake, but the justification for Jake to sit back on the couch, put his feet up, and just happen to recount the specific history of a thirty year period as though it were a high school history lesson... well, I'm not buying it.
As I say, the novel is excellently written. The prose is beautiful. He chooses his swearing selectively but specifically. To wit, the C word makes a few appearances beginning in Part 2 (not to give spoilers) at a moment of intense emotion. Rage, namely. In large part, this occurs in the description, not the dialogue (along with other swears), as an expression of the viewpoint character's inner monologue. For this, I cannot thank Wingrove enough, because it actually gives the prose some fluidity. Fluidity, far too often neglected in prose, is the difference between a tax form and poetry.
The structure, as I've said, is spectacular – not just with Part 2 being non-linear, but also the flow of the chapters, the scenes, the viewpoint changes.... Wingrove relies a lot on sentence fragments, which works very well to help establish the dire tone and affix the narration to Jake, but he goes just a little bit overboard with it. It becomes too prevalent, and the effect is kind of dulled.
The coming of China is the premise of this book, so it shouldn't be a spoiler that in the end, China comes. Major characters of Part 3 include Chinese General Jiang Lei, and Cadre Wang Yu-Lai. Immaculate political drama is set up between the two of them, and their superiors – the Thousand Eyes Ministry and Emperor Tsao Ch'un himself. This is the sort of thing I was hoping for in this series, and I believe I will be quite pleased as the series progresses. However, despite the fact that the characterisation between these two is good, the actual conflict between the two of them seems rushed. Part 3, I think, could serve as it's own book with the content involved, and yet it's reduced to a mere 120 pages or so. The political intrigue, good as it was, was somewhat muted by the rapid pacing in that third part. I know Wingrove probably had to make certain concessions to the publisher to redo the series, but I, myself, would have liked to have seen maybe fifty pages more to that third part; perhaps a subplot to establish these character before pitting them at odds.
Finally, the themes. This is not merely post-apocalyptic pulp. There are some good themes in here, and they are somewhat subtle or hidden away. First, as I've mentioned, there's the licensing aspect of procreation in dystopian England. Commentary on the Welfare State, and the conservative callousness of opposition thereto. The frailty of the market. After the fall, England has fallen into once again a feudal state. King Branagh of Wessex seems like a compassionate monarch, but he's a monarch nonetheless. Traditional gender rolls are cropping back up. We're beginning to see the transition from the modern feminist day to wives as chattel once more. Finally, in Part 3, Confucianism makes its appearance.
So, here are my problems in a nutshell:
1) E-brake exposition in Part 2
2) Part 3 served as a subplot when it deserved full plot status with subplots of its own
3) The prose reads like an excellent author on his first novel. First novels all read the same. This, unfortunately, is not a first novel.
Apart from those three minor things right there, I absolutely loved this book, and I can't wait for Book 2. This is going to be a good series.
David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series is a rather unique situation wherein it's actually two series, the second a “recast” of the first, divided separately with different endings and a new prequel. This confused the hell out of me when I first stumbled across this series, so let me clarify things for everyone right off the hop. From 1989 through 1999, Wingrove released Chung Kuo as a series of long, roughly 500-800 page (a piece) novels chronicling the rise of a neofeudal dynastic global Chinese empire. However, the cult following of the series wasn't strong enough to garner sympathy from the publisher, and as Wingrove was writing the eighth book, he was told he wouldn't get his ninth, his finale. This left Book 8 apparently rushed and unsatisfactory – Wingrove himself didn't like what became of it. However, after much negotiation with a new publisher, Corvus, they are now re-releasing the series with a proper ending. They're also updating the technology and history to reflect the past decade, and including a prequel. Furthermore, all (now) ten books are being split in two to make a twenty novel series. This series is called the Chung Kuo Recast, and many of the books bare the names of the original series, and of course it's the same author. The word “Recast” doesn't appear on the novels' covers, and this is why it's helpful to check sites like Goodreads.
All that being said, this is the first half of the prequel, which now becomes Book 1 of the Recast series.
I discovered this series completely at random when I picked up the Book 2 (Daylight on Iron Mountain) in a book store, and did a little research. I asked for Book 1 for Christmas, and was left waiting for a month and a half to begin reading it. Let me say, I love post-apocalyptic science fiction. I have a bizarre fascination with Confucian dynastic China. And after reading all the currently published books of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, I have a newfound appreciation for when an author takes the time to tell a story properly in all explicit detail with astounding worldbuilding. This is the book for me.
I went into this with high expectations. In fact, very high expectations, which I knew were a disaster. Too high of expectations can sour even a very good novel if it's just a little shy of the greatness you were hoping for. Therefore, I consciously tried to lower my expectations, and went into it expecting very little. This made me think it would be both great and abysmal and I couldn't quite meet those two in the middle. The result was the I was hyper-critical of everything, but still loved it.
Now, I love me some good post-apocalyptic science fiction (emphasis on “good”), and this doesn't disappoint. My experience in this genre has been lacking up until now. I've read S. M Stirling's Emberverse series, and John Barnes' Daybreak series (or, I should say, read parts of these before abandonment). There were many small problems with Stirling's series – from the structure to the flatness of the characters, the misdirection of Astrid and Eilir's sexuality, the formulaic nature of conflict and resolution...and romance – but was an interesting premise and didn't per se have its wheels slip into the same tire marks in the mud that post-apocalyptic usually does. John Barnes, however, fulfils every post-apocalyptic blunder to a T.
The usual problem with post-apocalyptic is that first you have to get through the apocalyptic. For as much as I love post-apocalyptic, I don't like apocalyptic. Why? Because I've seen too much apocalyptic fiction follow the same point by point formula. Start with an incredibly large number of characters. Make not a single story, but a series of vignettes surrounding this plethora of characters. Please note that the reader will not develop any attachment to most of them because they know that most of these characters are perfunctory and will be killed off or wane into oblivion shortly. This was Barnes' mistake. It was not Wingrove's.
The Chung Kuo series, as I understand it, is not meant to be post-apocalyptic, per se, but rather post-post-apocalyptic, and therefore doesn't need the formulaic apocalyptic first novel opener, but can skip that and jump to a post-apocalyptic first novel opener. That was Son of Heaven. It doesn't bother with an endless string of atonal apocalyptic vignettes to try and tell the story of doomsday from all sides. It skips all that and jumps right into the good stuff. However, as though Wingrove realised that even that would be problematic, he does include the tale of the apocalypse itself. However, instead of spending all of Book 1 on this, instead of spending 120 pages of Part 1 on this, and instead of summing it up in pure unbridled exposition in an explanatory prologue, he takes a different course, and I can't praise him enough for this.
He does spend 120 pages telling the story. It's not Part 1, though, but Part 2. The book is told non-linearly, Parts 1 and 3 taking place in 2065 in post-apocalyptic Dorset County, England, and Part 2 in 2043 recounting the events of the fall itself. Moreover, the apocalypse isn't recounted through the eyes of 120 characters – 1 per page – 113 of which are dead by Part 3, but instead almost exclusively through the eyes of the protagonist, Jake Reed. I am usually leery of anything non-linear, not because of some inherent bias against that type of structure, but because I've seen it go bad one too many times. I was leery of this. I needn't have been. The timespan between Parts 1 and 3 is nil, and he chose the perfect moment to splice the story. Part 2 is somewhat perfunctory, but is unique enough that it's barely noticeable. Wingrove sets up a dystopian near future England where permits are required to marry and procreate, and any procreation without a permit means the child shall not have legal protections under the law. Why? The law can't afford it. There was an oil peak back in the twenties and it wrenched the world into a new era – a very rightwing era, as Jake reflects through his viewpoint chapters, with only minimal political allusions. The Welfare State is gone, almost exclusively, including access to police, fire, ambulance, etc., except for a very small percentage of self-sufficient people – the rich (which Jake happens to be apart of). Strict regulations keep it that way, and “the unprotected” are granted their welfare only through private charity and are often walled up in city-wide prisons and kept inside by armed guards. It's kind of a “Yeah, we'll let you fuck, but we ain't cleaning up the mess” kind of system.
Without giving too much away, the nature of “the Collapse” is almost instantaneous for Western Civilisation, and therefore about half of Part 2 is Jake's wanderings in his attempt to get away from London along the roads. This means that for a good chunk of the apocalyptic phase of the novel, we're still blessed with post-apocalyptic, albeit with the apocalypse only a day or two past.
If there's one serious problem with this novel, it does occur during the perfunctory parts of Part 2, wherein Jake is reflecting upon the period between 2009 and 2043 (between the writing and the inception of the story). Jake, in a moment of reflection, recalls the events leading up to 2043 in a three or four page span of what I call E-brake exposition. That is, imagine it as a movie, and all action and the furthering of the story ceases as though the protagonist turns to the camera and says “Oh, and by the way, our focus group has determined you're too stupid to figure this out if we work it in covertly, so...” and he vomits all the background details of the story at you in a single breath. I don't like E-brake exposition. Exposition can be done properly, and huge steaming piles of it at that, but there are specific codes and regulations for it, and slipping it in in the middle of a doomsday sequence as the market is crashing isn't one of them. The novel is excellently written in the way that each scene follows the exclusive viewpoint of one character (and not roaming omnisciently), usually Jake, but the justification for Jake to sit back on the couch, put his feet up, and just happen to recount the specific history of a thirty year period as though it were a high school history lesson... well, I'm not buying it.
As I say, the novel is excellently written. The prose is beautiful. He chooses his swearing selectively but specifically. To wit, the C word makes a few appearances beginning in Part 2 (not to give spoilers) at a moment of intense emotion. Rage, namely. In large part, this occurs in the description, not the dialogue (along with other swears), as an expression of the viewpoint character's inner monologue. For this, I cannot thank Wingrove enough, because it actually gives the prose some fluidity. Fluidity, far too often neglected in prose, is the difference between a tax form and poetry.
The structure, as I've said, is spectacular – not just with Part 2 being non-linear, but also the flow of the chapters, the scenes, the viewpoint changes.... Wingrove relies a lot on sentence fragments, which works very well to help establish the dire tone and affix the narration to Jake, but he goes just a little bit overboard with it. It becomes too prevalent, and the effect is kind of dulled.
The coming of China is the premise of this book, so it shouldn't be a spoiler that in the end, China comes. Major characters of Part 3 include Chinese General Jiang Lei, and Cadre Wang Yu-Lai. Immaculate political drama is set up between the two of them, and their superiors – the Thousand Eyes Ministry and Emperor Tsao Ch'un himself. This is the sort of thing I was hoping for in this series, and I believe I will be quite pleased as the series progresses. However, despite the fact that the characterisation between these two is good, the actual conflict between the two of them seems rushed. Part 3, I think, could serve as it's own book with the content involved, and yet it's reduced to a mere 120 pages or so. The political intrigue, good as it was, was somewhat muted by the rapid pacing in that third part. I know Wingrove probably had to make certain concessions to the publisher to redo the series, but I, myself, would have liked to have seen maybe fifty pages more to that third part; perhaps a subplot to establish these character before pitting them at odds.
Finally, the themes. This is not merely post-apocalyptic pulp. There are some good themes in here, and they are somewhat subtle or hidden away. First, as I've mentioned, there's the licensing aspect of procreation in dystopian England. Commentary on the Welfare State, and the conservative callousness of opposition thereto. The frailty of the market. After the fall, England has fallen into once again a feudal state. King Branagh of Wessex seems like a compassionate monarch, but he's a monarch nonetheless. Traditional gender rolls are cropping back up. We're beginning to see the transition from the modern feminist day to wives as chattel once more. Finally, in Part 3, Confucianism makes its appearance.
So, here are my problems in a nutshell:
1) E-brake exposition in Part 2
2) Part 3 served as a subplot when it deserved full plot status with subplots of its own
3) The prose reads like an excellent author on his first novel. First novels all read the same. This, unfortunately, is not a first novel.
Apart from those three minor things right there, I absolutely loved this book, and I can't wait for Book 2. This is going to be a good series.
May 26, 2021
I liked the book, despite the incongruities. I thought it was interesting and I have also read the second one in the expanded series before writing this review. The people complaining here about "yellow peril" are being hypocritical, since one can easily find "German peril", "Russian peril", "Muslim peril" books. I understand it was not fashionable to have China as a superpower in fiction back when it was written, but seems almost trite today. Dystopia also usually requires some exaggerated evil, though in this case it is cartoonishly so at the higher levels, but all too realistic at the lower ones.
My gripe with the book is the hook of the original series - the idiotic city covering everything. I literally cannot suspend my disbelief to consider it plausible that, 20 years after a collapse that also affected the Chinese, they will have built their world city all the way to England. Even with robotics and automation, the sheer size, waste and futility of it boggles the mind. Not even Warhammer 40k with its hive cities attempts something so drastic for such a small population. You could literally fit 20 billion people in a million sq miles at Manhattan level population densities. Some arcology type architecture could fit even more, especially in a dystopian setting. No covering of oceans or leveling of mountains required.
The project the book propounds is impossible and useless by any standard in its timeframe, including the timeframe of the original novels, and the explanation eventually given, that it was a mania of the founder to kill off every insect and animal, is not sufficient. I think the books would have run just as well with Chinese domination over the whole world, but without the City. Maybe with some sort of immense conurbations, that leave the rest of the Earth despoiled or paradisiacal. And you can still have most of the totalitarian projects described in the books, like the surveillance etc.
That part the author got very well. It was amusing to think that the dictator would get off by spying on his individual minions. But also an extrapolation of what actually happened in the Eastern bloc.
Overall, I liked the writing, but I do not think I will go for the later books. The City thing is just too stupid.
My gripe with the book is the hook of the original series - the idiotic city covering everything. I literally cannot suspend my disbelief to consider it plausible that, 20 years after a collapse that also affected the Chinese, they will have built their world city all the way to England. Even with robotics and automation, the sheer size, waste and futility of it boggles the mind. Not even Warhammer 40k with its hive cities attempts something so drastic for such a small population. You could literally fit 20 billion people in a million sq miles at Manhattan level population densities. Some arcology type architecture could fit even more, especially in a dystopian setting. No covering of oceans or leveling of mountains required.
The project the book propounds is impossible and useless by any standard in its timeframe, including the timeframe of the original novels, and the explanation eventually given, that it was a mania of the founder to kill off every insect and animal, is not sufficient. I think the books would have run just as well with Chinese domination over the whole world, but without the City. Maybe with some sort of immense conurbations, that leave the rest of the Earth despoiled or paradisiacal. And you can still have most of the totalitarian projects described in the books, like the surveillance etc.
That part the author got very well. It was amusing to think that the dictator would get off by spying on his individual minions. But also an extrapolation of what actually happened in the Eastern bloc.
Overall, I liked the writing, but I do not think I will go for the later books. The City thing is just too stupid.
September 8, 2021
I bought this because it was cheap, and because the good cover led me to believe I would be getting a sophisticated story set in a future dominated by the Chinese that would be thoughtful and interesting. My expectations were probably a bit on the high side as it is actually pretty brash and vulgar in tone and lacks any nuance in its plot or its depiction of British or Chinese people. The story is a simple adventure with good guys and bad guys, and it's full of stereotyped characters and situations that lack any subtlety at all. But some people like their sci-fi that way.
It also comes across as self-important, including listing all the characters at the end like it's a classic play. I suppose that when this series started in the 1990s, the idea that China would dominate the world probably seemed fanciful, so maybe the author is entitled to some self-congratulation here. But, as it turns out, China's dominance is likely to be more a creeping, underhand economic and scientific influence than the outright military invasion depicted here.
Having also viewed a few internet videos by westerners who have lived in China, I have become doubtful that China can extend physical dominance very far from home due to the internal problems it has. For example, being a communist country, nobody really owns anything (the government can confiscate anything any time it likes), so there is a lack of both individual and collective responsibility. Outside of the military and the big cities, the citizenry lack motivation, there is a lot of neglect of buildings and possessions, and laws - which can be changed on a whim - are difficult for the government to enforce, with many of them being routinely ignored. The high levels of corruption are also well known. So I don't find this story very believable now either. I struggled to get through it, to be honest.
It also comes across as self-important, including listing all the characters at the end like it's a classic play. I suppose that when this series started in the 1990s, the idea that China would dominate the world probably seemed fanciful, so maybe the author is entitled to some self-congratulation here. But, as it turns out, China's dominance is likely to be more a creeping, underhand economic and scientific influence than the outright military invasion depicted here.
Having also viewed a few internet videos by westerners who have lived in China, I have become doubtful that China can extend physical dominance very far from home due to the internal problems it has. For example, being a communist country, nobody really owns anything (the government can confiscate anything any time it likes), so there is a lack of both individual and collective responsibility. Outside of the military and the big cities, the citizenry lack motivation, there is a lot of neglect of buildings and possessions, and laws - which can be changed on a whim - are difficult for the government to enforce, with many of them being routinely ignored. The high levels of corruption are also well known. So I don't find this story very believable now either. I struggled to get through it, to be honest.
October 5, 2020
Interesting premise - enjoyed the hi-tech world before the collapse and the little fractures that showed hints of the dystopia outside Mr Protagonist's privileged little bubble. Also the thought of roving bands of Brummies terrorising their southern neighbours gave me a giggle. Kind of unfortunate that the series isn't really about either of those things, but never mind.
Readable and reasonably enjoyable but it did annoy me in a number of predictable ways:
1. fridged wife, fridged fiancee, fridged one-night-stand - this man's penis is cursed
2. cartoonishly evil villain who lacked only a moustache for twirling
3. 14 year old boy brought up in the wilderness of semi-apocalyptic Dorset with no proper schooling who still talks like he's swallowed an entire dictionary
4. absolutely farcical final scene. like wtf was that about, seriously
5. a character literally thinks 'gosh I wonder if this is what the Holocaust was like' which had me cringing so hard I nearly broke a tooth
6. the phrase 'perfectly-formed breasts' is used twice, need I (boobily) say more
There's more but if you want the rest you'll have to make sure you ask me in person after a glass or two of wine to get the full (and spoilerful) ranty experience.
It's not dreadful but I'm not reading 19 more books of it.
Readable and reasonably enjoyable but it did annoy me in a number of predictable ways:
1. fridged wife, fridged fiancee, fridged one-night-stand - this man's penis is cursed
2. cartoonishly evil villain who lacked only a moustache for twirling
3. 14 year old boy brought up in the wilderness of semi-apocalyptic Dorset with no proper schooling who still talks like he's swallowed an entire dictionary
4. absolutely farcical final scene. like wtf was that about, seriously
5. a character literally thinks 'gosh I wonder if this is what the Holocaust was like' which had me cringing so hard I nearly broke a tooth
6. the phrase 'perfectly-formed breasts' is used twice, need I (boobily) say more
There's more but if you want the rest you'll have to make sure you ask me in person after a glass or two of wine to get the full (and spoilerful) ranty experience.
It's not dreadful but I'm not reading 19 more books of it.
October 30, 2018
Here I go again
I read the original series in the 90s and it was a mad affair. I like the mix Chinese culture and sci-fi. I don’t think there’s much else like it. If you like long sagas like Dune you will like this book. I find the author has some quirks thematically but he can really spin this yarn.
I read the original series in the 90s and it was a mad affair. I like the mix Chinese culture and sci-fi. I don’t think there’s much else like it. If you like long sagas like Dune you will like this book. I find the author has some quirks thematically but he can really spin this yarn.
July 18, 2019
This is the first book in the revised Chung Kuo series.
Having read the original series this is a good start, a short prequel detailing some of the events that shaped the series and if you have not read the series a perfect starting point
Having read the original series this is a good start, a short prequel detailing some of the events that shaped the series and if you have not read the series a perfect starting point
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