Full Tide of Night

by J.R. Dunn

When the Erinye exchanged their human forms for virtual bodies and annihilated Earth, survivor Julia Amalfi had escaped to the frozen world of Midgard and made it habitable, and now, years later, as rebellion rages Midgard, a spaceship from Earth has been sighted, and Julia fears that their world once again must face the Erinye. Original.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

312 pages, Hardcover

First published August 12, 1998

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a well written book with interesting characters and situations, but it moves at a pretty slow pace and seems to assume that the reader is better educated and smarter than I was. It has some lengthily described political philosophy that I thought bogged down the story a bit, too. I enjoyed having read it, but not the actual reading. It's my least favorite of the three Dunn books that I read, but fans of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi should definitely check it out.

[Maura Heaphy Dutton · Rating 1 out of 5]

A real curiosity and, as the pages dragged on, less and less of an enjoyable one. This seems like a thought experiment, rather than a novel, or a private joke that only J.R. Dunn is in on. It's excruciatingly smug, and a lot of it makes no sense.

First, in the biographical notes on the dust jacket, Dunn makes a HUGE big deal about this being "inspired" by John Webster's Jacobean revenge tragedy The Duchess of Malfi -- and I'm not seeing it. Not even a little. In The Duchess of Malfi, a wealthy young widow is forbidden from remarrying by her two brothers (for reasons financial and, hinted at, kinky sexual). She defies them, and -- in true Jacobean revenge tragedy style -- horrors ensue.

Nothing like that happens here, not even close. Julia Amalfi (geddit?) has terraformed a distant planet and populated it with genetically engineered human stock she has rescued from an Earth ravaged and wiped clean of true humanity by the Erinyi, creatures of virtual consciousness who turn humans into mindless zombies. (That's my best guess about what the Erinyi are, and what happened, because Dunn never takes a moment, in the actual text, to explain the backstory of Julia, the Eneryi, the terraformed world of Midgard ... all you get are a few "the story so far" paragraphs on the dust jacket. The story starts so very much in media res that I even wondered if Full Tide of Night was actually the sequel to a novel I'd missed -- it isn't. The details of the ravages of the Erenyi, and what they are, Julia's escape (having lost her lover and fellow-freedom fighter to the Erenyi), and her efforts to establish humanity on Midgard, helped by her ship's A.I., Cariola, are mentioned in passing, if at all (I was never sure about what exactly the Erenyi are, where they came from, what's their motivation ...).

When the story begins, the descendants of the humans that Julia "decanted" when she began terraforming Midgard are in full rebellion against her leadership: fed up with with her "benign" dictatorship, convinced that she invented the Big Bogeyman of the Erenyi to keep them in line. Sure that they could do things better.

So, I don't see The Duchess of Malfi, but something more like The Tempest, with Julia's Prospero lording it over a population of Calibans and Ariels-- who have finally had enough, and have decided that Prospero's magic is just smoke and mirrors. One thing that I found genuinely amusing is that the groups rebelling against "Lady Amalfi" are ignorant of the history of their colony, dubious about the science and technology that has enabled it, and is keeping them alive, and devoted to a mythology that has very little bearing on their reality. Sound familiar?

The other thing that makes no sense to me is the time frame -- we are told that Julia is 150 years old, with enhancements and genetic tweaks that means she looks like a healthy middle-aged woman. But in the 100 years or so of her efforts to terraform Midgard, the human population has not only established itself and survived, but managed to find the time to splinter into cults, rediscover variations on Earth religions, and dabble in political extremism. Rather than world building that asks the interesting question -- what would a society be like that was the [brain]child of one person, subject to the demands of survival on a harsh alien planet? -- it all feels like something that has been bred in a Petrie dish, or -- as I said -- a thought experiment, rather than a true society.

I finally gave up on this because Dunn's Big Bads (a dreary bunch of Stalinist/Calvinists) are ridiculous and his Good Guys (Lady Amalfi and the sweet innocent free market capitalists who eventually decide she may be bossy, but isn't so bad after all) are insufferable.

[Sadie Yuly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of really great ideas and complex in this novel, to the point where it can be difficult to follow at times due to how many things are happening at once (both in terms of narrative and thematic content). This ability to have nuanced and complex analysis of certain concepts becomes muddied whenever overt political ideologies are explored. When this happens, the author’s clear bias comes out in a cheapened, overly simplified way, which basically boils down to: communism, socialism, Marxism = evil and its followers are mindless drones. The book also includes some odd contradictions, such as clearly being critical of authoritarianism, but then having idolization of some of history’s most brutal leaders, such as napoleon. Contains some very outdated and right-wing coded ideas such as alpha and beta males. That being said, despite the author being open regarding his conservative political views, this novel, overall, is more nuanced than one might expect, and the writing itself is very good. I likely would not have suspected how right-wing the author is simply from reading the book on its own.

[Anthony L · Rating 1 out of 5]

Incomprehensible!

[Kally · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book without reading the back. So, after finishing what read like fanfiction, I actually read the back and found out that's exactly what it was! It is a continuation of some other book written by another author. You probably need to read that original book to get half of the references in this one. But, even setting that aside, it still read like mediocre fan fiction. I was able to finish it, though I wasn't horribly motivated to.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of those books where I knew I was missing more than half of the literary and historical references that are ... well... the whole point of the work.

There was fair warning about that aspect of the book in the cover blurb, so caveat emptor applies.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I dont remember reading this book