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Death on Taurus
On Taurus, there's only one good way to die.
On the bullfighting planet of Taurus, in the far distant future, a genetically-engineered race of half-man, half-bull stages ritual blood sacrifices to the gods—human viewers light-years away. Vizzer, the high priest who presides over the daily slaughter, loathes the fights and wants to end them.
When news arrives that the humans have destroyed themselves in an interstellar civil war, he deposes the king and outlaws the fights. But not all the humans are dead. Carlos the Creator lies in stasis on Taurus itself. Vizzer comes face to face with an enraged and ancient god. And in so doing, he must also confront the truth of his own savage nature.
On the bullfighting planet of Taurus, in the far distant future, a genetically-engineered race of half-man, half-bull stages ritual blood sacrifices to the gods—human viewers light-years away. Vizzer, the high priest who presides over the daily slaughter, loathes the fights and wants to end them.
When news arrives that the humans have destroyed themselves in an interstellar civil war, he deposes the king and outlaws the fights. But not all the humans are dead. Carlos the Creator lies in stasis on Taurus itself. Vizzer comes face to face with an enraged and ancient god. And in so doing, he must also confront the truth of his own savage nature.
- GenresAmazon
300 pages, ebook
First published May 3, 2013
12 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 19, 2019
The concept of this book seems unique enough -- a planet where genetically modified bulls fight to the death to appease a watching audience, and the revolution sparked when one of them dares to question why they're doing this in the first place. But it's one thing to have a cool idea, and quite another to execute it. And "Death on Taurus," while a valiant effort, is a badly written slog with some huge gaps in logic, unlikable characters, and some very uncomfortable and squicky content.
On the planet of Taurus, bulls genetically engineered with high intelligence and extra, human limbs stage daily bullfights to appease their gods, especially their creator, the fabled Carlos. But one bull, Vizzer, the right-hand bull to Taurus' king, believes his people are capable of more than just mindless slaughter. When a message comes from deep space announcing that the gods -- humankind -- have destroyed themselves in a war, he thinks this will mean the end of the slaughter. But the bulls of Taurus are not keen on changing just because one bull says it's possible... and when Carlos himself is awakened from cryogenic slumber, it sparks a bloodbath that could destroy Taurus forever.
Great concept... but there are a LOT of questions raised by it. I have a hard time picturing the natives of Taurus when the author states that they look like regular bulls, just with human arms and legs protruding from their bull legs. So... spider-cattle? Also, technology from five thousand years ago is still in perfect working order without explanation, and plastic surgery apparently can be done in an afternoon without anesthesia and without recovery time necessary. I understand that this is a space opera and not hard sci-fi, and that not every soft sci-fi book has to explain just how the scientific and/or alien mumbo-jumbo is supposed to work, but still, there's a limit to what a reader can be expected to accept via suspension of disbelief.
This book is NOT for young readers! It's chock-full of bloody violence, sexual content, and strong language, and the author seems obsessed with bodily fluids of all sorts (from blood to excrement to... let's just say OTHER fluids). Also there's some uncomfortable ogling of underage bodies -- yes, these are genetically modified animals rather than humans, but it's STILL creepy to read about.
The story itself is uneven, grinding to a halt to provide exposition, then leaping ahead at breakneck pace. The writing alternates between flat workmanlike prose and florid "purple-prose" description, adding to the uneven-ness. And while usually good characters can make me forgive flaws in the writing, here every single character is either irredeemably evil, a complete idiot, or some combination of the two. Almost every character is obsessed with violence, sex, power-grabbing, or all three, and though Vizzer himself is not, he's still an unlikable character whose insistence on pacifism leads to him making stupid decisions...
Also, female characters get the shaft in this book. Women exist only to be bred with on Taurus, and are exiled or killed once they're no longer capable of breeding or if they show any sign of rebellion. I thought we'd come far enough to have female characters that don't just exist to give the heroes something to sleep with... There's a token effort to give us a couple rebellious females toward the end, but it felt like too little, too late to me.
"Death on Taurus" was a fascinating concept with dreadful execution, and it's turned me off from wanting to read anything else by this author. Don't waste your time with this one -- there are other sci-fi novels that are better worth the effort.
On the planet of Taurus, bulls genetically engineered with high intelligence and extra, human limbs stage daily bullfights to appease their gods, especially their creator, the fabled Carlos. But one bull, Vizzer, the right-hand bull to Taurus' king, believes his people are capable of more than just mindless slaughter. When a message comes from deep space announcing that the gods -- humankind -- have destroyed themselves in a war, he thinks this will mean the end of the slaughter. But the bulls of Taurus are not keen on changing just because one bull says it's possible... and when Carlos himself is awakened from cryogenic slumber, it sparks a bloodbath that could destroy Taurus forever.
Great concept... but there are a LOT of questions raised by it. I have a hard time picturing the natives of Taurus when the author states that they look like regular bulls, just with human arms and legs protruding from their bull legs. So... spider-cattle? Also, technology from five thousand years ago is still in perfect working order without explanation, and plastic surgery apparently can be done in an afternoon without anesthesia and without recovery time necessary. I understand that this is a space opera and not hard sci-fi, and that not every soft sci-fi book has to explain just how the scientific and/or alien mumbo-jumbo is supposed to work, but still, there's a limit to what a reader can be expected to accept via suspension of disbelief.
This book is NOT for young readers! It's chock-full of bloody violence, sexual content, and strong language, and the author seems obsessed with bodily fluids of all sorts (from blood to excrement to... let's just say OTHER fluids). Also there's some uncomfortable ogling of underage bodies -- yes, these are genetically modified animals rather than humans, but it's STILL creepy to read about.
The story itself is uneven, grinding to a halt to provide exposition, then leaping ahead at breakneck pace. The writing alternates between flat workmanlike prose and florid "purple-prose" description, adding to the uneven-ness. And while usually good characters can make me forgive flaws in the writing, here every single character is either irredeemably evil, a complete idiot, or some combination of the two. Almost every character is obsessed with violence, sex, power-grabbing, or all three, and though Vizzer himself is not, he's still an unlikable character whose insistence on pacifism leads to him making stupid decisions...
Also, female characters get the shaft in this book. Women exist only to be bred with on Taurus, and are exiled or killed once they're no longer capable of breeding or if they show any sign of rebellion. I thought we'd come far enough to have female characters that don't just exist to give the heroes something to sleep with... There's a token effort to give us a couple rebellious females toward the end, but it felt like too little, too late to me.
"Death on Taurus" was a fascinating concept with dreadful execution, and it's turned me off from wanting to read anything else by this author. Don't waste your time with this one -- there are other sci-fi novels that are better worth the effort.
August 17, 2022
Surprisingly (because the premises are so odd) I really enjoyed the book! It's about more than getting to know about another species, its ruling class and its religion. It’s about humanity (the good and the bad, mostly the bad), about one’s nature, about change (the struggle to change, the acceptance of change). It asks questions about god. For example the “crosses” (a race created from a mixture of human and cattle DNA) were made by a human scientist named Carlos. But at some point in the book they ask the question of who made Carlos…the god of a god. I found that a very interesting perspective especially coming from a considered inferior species to mankind, a species mainly driven by fighting, mating and eating sweet grass :). And there are more ideas like this spread throughout the entire book where you just want to stop the reading for a bit and ponder about the great philosophical questions of life, its purpose (do we have a purpose? What if that purpose would be for you to die to amuse the gods? How would you feel? What would you do? Would you even be aware of the cruelty or would you find that to be normal because, after all, that is the only life you know?), death, the existence of god and even meeting him (would meeting your creator make you happy or sad? Would it take away from the mystery of life and creation or would it give purpose? Will it make you feel like an experiment or a very wanted child?). I, for one, really liked the book. It’s entertaining. Well written. It has a good pace. The characters are a bit annoying at times but all in all I do recommend reading the book!
September 26, 2023
A little different
Took me a while to get into it, but once I started wanting to see what came next it got better. Interesting as a subgenre of the traditional scifi story I have read for years, I'd like to read of this type of scifi books.
Took me a while to get into it, but once I started wanting to see what came next it got better. Interesting as a subgenre of the traditional scifi story I have read for years, I'd like to read of this type of scifi books.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews