Ceres Storm

by David Herter

The human race has settled the solar system and expanded out among the stars. In this bizarre, mysterious, and colorful future, the solar system-and indeed human civilization itself-were transformed by nanotech storms. At their height, they swept across the planetary surfaces changing everything in their path.

Young Daric has been raised in an isolated enclave on Mars, the clone of a fearsome ruler from the distant past. His identity discovered, the boy is kidnapped and dragged to the quarantined Earth, in search of his progenitor's fabled technologies. Daric escapes and begins a quest across the solar system to discover his fate-which may be the reconquest of a fallen empire.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

David Herter is a graduate of Clarion West 1990, where his instructors included Gene Wolfe. In 2004 he spent a month in the Czech Republic celebrating the 150th anniversary of Leoš Janáček’s birth, an experience that led to his First Republic trilogy On the Overgrown Path, The Luminous Depths, and One Who Disappeared. His other novels include the far-future Ceres Storm, the Vernian cheese fantasy Evening’s Empire, and the Halloween horror October Dark. Forthcoming is epic planetary romance The Cold Heavens, inspired by C. L. Moore, Gustav Meyrink, and Weimar Berlin. He lives in Seattle, Washington. Visit his blog at www.davidherter.blogspot.com.

Reviews

[Nate Dorward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard one to rate.... In terms of how original & memorable I found it, probably 4 or 5. But it's also completely impenetrable in terms of storyline and world. The outlines are clear--the book is centred around Daric, who is the nth generation clone of Darius, a formerly powerful "Leader"; several of the other characters (if that's the right word, in a book that is very much NOT character-driven) are also copies of Darius in different guises. Various kidnappings and intrigue among conflicting political interests eventually lead Daric to a secret bunker that his former self created for his use on Charon, and he's left with the choice of deciding whether to unleash Darius's military might all over again.

It's hard to describe the texture of the book--often more like a weave of voices and streams of information, especially in the first half when Daric is paired with a "shade", a ghostly 2nd consciousness. Your ability to infer and guess at the meaning of words and concepts is really set working, as there are very few moments where (even retrospectively) a straightforward explanation is offered. It's best to read (and reread) the book in the same frame of mind you'd approach a difficult, somewhat hermetic poem. Indeed, the characters really seem to have the weight of symbols rather than psychologically complex subjects--tellingly, they often have a habit of being transformed/encoded into the form of objects, such as the "century roses" that strew the narrative.

[Lonnie Veal · Rating 5 out of 5]

A weird tale of a future of the solar system that has undergone numerous poltical earthquakes so deep that the information itself takes on mythic proportions. It's an odyssey of a young man on Mars who awakens to his legacy as the former Ruler of the Solar System

[Aly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Visionario, contenuti interessanti e personaggi ben strutturati e ben pensata. Punto debole l'ambientazione che spesso risulta difficile da immaginare e il linguaggio che purtroppo resta criptico in molti passaggi. Consigliato agli amanti del genere.

[Anish · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. The plot is okish,and the seed of a great story is there,but the execution leaves much to be desired.Every 3rd sentence contains "Daric..."

[Ori !! · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up (because I was so confused for so much of this book plus that “ending”? But great otherwise!!)

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good yarn in the far future "indistinguishable from magic" Wolfe-ian mode, but nowhere near as dense. I've seen many people complain that it doesn't end and is just a set-up for a closing sequel that never appeared, but I disagree with that. I feel the novel ends both emotionally and thematically in a wholly satisfying manner. I think one possible problem is that plot-wise the book ends where a lot of old school space opera starts (such as Andre Norton's classic THE ZERO STONE), so perhaps it not scratching an expected genre convention itch left many readers unsatisfied, especially if they'd been anticipating it for quite some time. [I'm trying not to be specific here so I don't spoil anything.] I dunno.

The book worked for me, is what I'm sayin'. ;-)

[Matthew]

Strongly Wolfe-influenced. Daric is reminiscent of Tackie from "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories," or Nicholas from "The Death of Doctor Island," or Little Tib from "The Eyeflash Miracles"; and Daric's circumstances resemble Number Five's from Fifth Head of Cerberus.

The prose in Ceres Storm is frequently impressionistic and fragmentary. The effect of the space-mariner lines/points on Daric's augmented sensorium is like an ecstatic ritual chant or a prayer of supplication.

I wanted more character work, and more development of the spacial and historical vastness of the setting. I would love to see a continuation, and/or more SF from David Herter.

[Fayley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story is original, and completely consistent within itself. None of the people behave out of character or in a manner inconsistent with the established culture and setting - which i normally love - but it was terribly boring. Every time I though that it was getting started it would fizzle out again. I couldn't read more than a chapter at a time, and had to force myself to pick it up again. Skimming and jumping ahead didn't help because it was a complex story.