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Lotus Blue
Powerful war machines of the far-future collide across a barren desert world in this post-apocalyptic debut novel from award-winning Australian author Cat Sparks.
Seventeen-year-old Star and her sister Nene are orphans, part of a thirteen-wagon caravan of nomadic traders living hard lives travelling the Sand Road. Their route cuts through a particularly dangerous and unforgiving section of the Dead Red Heart, a war-ravaged desert landscape plagued by rogue semi-sentient machinery and other monsters from a bygone age.
But when the caravan witnesses a relic-Angel satellite unexpectedly crash to Earth, a chain of events begins that sends Star on a journey far away from the life she once knew. Shanghaied upon the sandship Dogwatch, she is forced to cross the Obsidian Sea by Quarrel, an ancient Templar supersoldier. Eventually shipwrecked, Star will have no choice but to place her trust in both thieves and priestesses while coming to terms with the grim reality of her past—and the horror of her unfolding destiny—as the terrible secret her sister had been desperate to protect her from begins to unravel.
Meanwhile, something old and powerful has woken in the desert. A Lotus Blue, deadliest of all the ancient war machines. A warrior with plans of its own, far more significant than a fallen Angel. Plans that do not include the survival of humanity.
Seventeen-year-old Star and her sister Nene are orphans, part of a thirteen-wagon caravan of nomadic traders living hard lives travelling the Sand Road. Their route cuts through a particularly dangerous and unforgiving section of the Dead Red Heart, a war-ravaged desert landscape plagued by rogue semi-sentient machinery and other monsters from a bygone age.
But when the caravan witnesses a relic-Angel satellite unexpectedly crash to Earth, a chain of events begins that sends Star on a journey far away from the life she once knew. Shanghaied upon the sandship Dogwatch, she is forced to cross the Obsidian Sea by Quarrel, an ancient Templar supersoldier. Eventually shipwrecked, Star will have no choice but to place her trust in both thieves and priestesses while coming to terms with the grim reality of her past—and the horror of her unfolding destiny—as the terrible secret her sister had been desperate to protect her from begins to unravel.
Meanwhile, something old and powerful has woken in the desert. A Lotus Blue, deadliest of all the ancient war machines. A warrior with plans of its own, far more significant than a fallen Angel. Plans that do not include the survival of humanity.
377 pages, Paperback
First published March 7, 2017
111 people are currently reading
1070 people want to read
About the author
Cat Sparks
56 books98 followersCat Sparks is a multi-award-winning Australian author, editor and artist whose former employment has included: media monitor, political and archaeological photographer, graphic designer, Fiction Editor of Cosmos Magazine and Manager of Agog! Press.
A 2012 Australia Council grant sent her to Florida to participate in Margaret Atwood’s The Time Machine Doorway workshop. She’s currently finishing a PhD in sci fi and cli fi.
Her short story collection The Bride Price was published in 2013. Her debut novel, Lotus Blue, was published by Skyhorse in March 2017.
A 2012 Australia Council grant sent her to Florida to participate in Margaret Atwood’s The Time Machine Doorway workshop. She’s currently finishing a PhD in sci fi and cli fi.
Her short story collection The Bride Price was published in 2013. Her debut novel, Lotus Blue, was published by Skyhorse in March 2017.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 107 reviews
December 21, 2016
Eight years ago, Ekaterina Sedia picked Cat Sparks’ short story “Sammarynda Deep” for her Paper Cities anthology, publishing an Aurealis Award winning story and seeding readers’ subconsciouses with the flesh-mesh inhabitants of Arabesque, post-apocalyptic ports.
In that time, I’ve waited patiently to relive the spine-shivering feeling of watching people changed by a technology so advanced that it might as well be magic, and in “Lotus Blue,” Sparks has again delivered in spades.
The point-of-view characters here are many and memorable: Star, the crunchy young protagonist whose childhood secrets are closely kept by her healer sister, Nene. Quarrel the Templar, an engineered pre-Ruin soldier, part organic and part machine, worshipped in places, reviled in others. Allegra, a rich girl from Fallow Heel, and her father, Mohandas, owner of Razael. Marianthe and her drones, a Templar too, keeping watch over old battlegrounds at the Temple of the Dish. Tully Grieve, a drifter and stowaway.
Last but not least, the General, also known as Lotus Blue, an uploaded mind, now military machine, recently reawakened.
Just as powerful as the characters are the rich settings. Including the Obsidian Sea, a flat, melted, black remnant of a pre-Ruin metropolis made dangerous and enticing by whale-like, sentient wild tankers; the toxic Dead Red Sands, reclaiming fertile farmland as far as the eye can see; and the Sand Road, dotted with safety-providing Sentinels, which lead caravans by warlord-controlled wells to trading towns such as Fallow Heel. There, red cedar tall ship Razael, set on castors and magnificently restored, berths beside junk heaps like the Dogwatch. Meanwhile, bunker cities Axa and Nisn hide their own intrigues.
The action of “Lotus Blue” satisfyingly blends prehistoric-like beasts and age-of-sail/space piracy with Tatooine-style shoot-em-up and futuristic battle toys gone feral. Also very pleasing are the Australianisms hidden everywhere in plain sight: The Parkes Dish is here, of moon landing fame, our Southern Hemisphere contribution to the space race. Great battles of history include Maratista, Crysse Plain, Crow Ridge and Woomera – yes, the South Australian Defence Force testing area the size of England named for Aboriginal spear-throwing technology. Not to mention the tasty salted roo, terrifying weaponised lantana and glossy ibis eggs.
Themes explored here are friendship and morality with a good dash of Gallipoli in all its wasteful, futile glory. Difficult to miss is the combined climate change and singularity worst case scenario. For all of that, I found it difficult to look away! Will read again, when I get my hands on a print copy. 4.5/5 stars.
In that time, I’ve waited patiently to relive the spine-shivering feeling of watching people changed by a technology so advanced that it might as well be magic, and in “Lotus Blue,” Sparks has again delivered in spades.
The point-of-view characters here are many and memorable: Star, the crunchy young protagonist whose childhood secrets are closely kept by her healer sister, Nene. Quarrel the Templar, an engineered pre-Ruin soldier, part organic and part machine, worshipped in places, reviled in others. Allegra, a rich girl from Fallow Heel, and her father, Mohandas, owner of Razael. Marianthe and her drones, a Templar too, keeping watch over old battlegrounds at the Temple of the Dish. Tully Grieve, a drifter and stowaway.
Last but not least, the General, also known as Lotus Blue, an uploaded mind, now military machine, recently reawakened.
Just as powerful as the characters are the rich settings. Including the Obsidian Sea, a flat, melted, black remnant of a pre-Ruin metropolis made dangerous and enticing by whale-like, sentient wild tankers; the toxic Dead Red Sands, reclaiming fertile farmland as far as the eye can see; and the Sand Road, dotted with safety-providing Sentinels, which lead caravans by warlord-controlled wells to trading towns such as Fallow Heel. There, red cedar tall ship Razael, set on castors and magnificently restored, berths beside junk heaps like the Dogwatch. Meanwhile, bunker cities Axa and Nisn hide their own intrigues.
The action of “Lotus Blue” satisfyingly blends prehistoric-like beasts and age-of-sail/space piracy with Tatooine-style shoot-em-up and futuristic battle toys gone feral. Also very pleasing are the Australianisms hidden everywhere in plain sight: The Parkes Dish is here, of moon landing fame, our Southern Hemisphere contribution to the space race. Great battles of history include Maratista, Crysse Plain, Crow Ridge and Woomera – yes, the South Australian Defence Force testing area the size of England named for Aboriginal spear-throwing technology. Not to mention the tasty salted roo, terrifying weaponised lantana and glossy ibis eggs.
Themes explored here are friendship and morality with a good dash of Gallipoli in all its wasteful, futile glory. Difficult to miss is the combined climate change and singularity worst case scenario. For all of that, I found it difficult to look away! Will read again, when I get my hands on a print copy. 4.5/5 stars.
June 18, 2017
Could have been four stars. Isn't.
Too many characters.
Quarrel, yeah maybe. But 2x size and many don't twig that he's unusual? Could anyone doubt that he was a Templar? Suppose an average man is 5'9" and 170 pounds. Shaquille O'Neal, 7"1" and at least 350 pounds, is not particularly close to twice that. Mountain from Game of Thrones is listed at 6'9", 403 pounds, still short of twice the size (even though both make it in weight). Andre the Giant, 7'4", 500 pounds. Still not there. Gotta be over eight feet tall at a minimum. So, you're out for a coffee and you see a guy who's eight inches taller than a giant --- are you going to think he's just another guy?
Allegra: this one was developed well, full marks for her, and likewise for some other mid-level characters who had believable faults mixed in with their individual skills.
Mohandas who wept for 100 pages; who was tied to a chair for two days but showed no sign of, er, logistical issues such as needing clean trousers?
Nene, who never told sis anything and ended up not mattering anyway. Indeed, there were far too many times when information was withheld unnecessarily, usually in the format A asks, B strides away. I longed for a collar grab and two tight slaps.
And Star, poor wimpy Star, who just floats around having stuff happen to her, only doing things when the plot demands that she provide a point of view. And when she finally makes a real decision it turns out not to matter ... "It won't notice me!" "Yes it will" [she's brave] [it does]. She's only 17 but still ...
A world that has a good foundation but had too much handwaving and skip-right-over. How and why are the tankers what they are? How are they controlled by some people reaching into them? What's inside them? One had vicious tentacles, another didn't.
Giant machines that don't work, except when they do. Everything's broken, except Warbird is just fine when it needs to be. Angels falling, at an increasing rate - and unless I missed something we never found out why.
And the sky. The pus-coloured sky (except once it was puss-coloured), the sky like snot, like an uncleaned litterbox, like the back of a dingo's den. Enough already, we got the message.
The boiling, nasty, flensing semi-sentient polyp storms. Please explain how even a Lotus Blue can remotely create and command a sentient storm, and how it can become sentient. Just an outline, we'll fill in the rest.
Also, I find it hard to forgive an author (and publisher) who think you stop a vehicle by applying its "breaks". Indeed, there are at least ten homonym errors in this book, all the kind you miss when your only spellchecker is automated. Its knot fare two dew this two yore audience.
One more rewrite and this would have been at least three stars. There's a good writer here, just needs to be uncovered. Every time I read a couple of really well-crafted paragraphs, there'd be another clunker that broke my rhythm.
I will look for this author's second novel, just on potential.
Too many characters.
Quarrel, yeah maybe. But 2x size and many don't twig that he's unusual? Could anyone doubt that he was a Templar? Suppose an average man is 5'9" and 170 pounds. Shaquille O'Neal, 7"1" and at least 350 pounds, is not particularly close to twice that. Mountain from Game of Thrones is listed at 6'9", 403 pounds, still short of twice the size (even though both make it in weight). Andre the Giant, 7'4", 500 pounds. Still not there. Gotta be over eight feet tall at a minimum. So, you're out for a coffee and you see a guy who's eight inches taller than a giant --- are you going to think he's just another guy?
Allegra: this one was developed well, full marks for her, and likewise for some other mid-level characters who had believable faults mixed in with their individual skills.
Mohandas who wept for 100 pages; who was tied to a chair for two days but showed no sign of, er, logistical issues such as needing clean trousers?
Nene, who never told sis anything and ended up not mattering anyway. Indeed, there were far too many times when information was withheld unnecessarily, usually in the format A asks, B strides away. I longed for a collar grab and two tight slaps.
And Star, poor wimpy Star, who just floats around having stuff happen to her, only doing things when the plot demands that she provide a point of view. And when she finally makes a real decision it turns out not to matter ... "It won't notice me!" "Yes it will" [she's brave] [it does]. She's only 17 but still ...
A world that has a good foundation but had too much handwaving and skip-right-over. How and why are the tankers what they are? How are they controlled by some people reaching into them? What's inside them? One had vicious tentacles, another didn't.
Giant machines that don't work, except when they do. Everything's broken, except Warbird is just fine when it needs to be. Angels falling, at an increasing rate - and unless I missed something we never found out why.
And the sky. The pus-coloured sky (except once it was puss-coloured), the sky like snot, like an uncleaned litterbox, like the back of a dingo's den. Enough already, we got the message.
The boiling, nasty, flensing semi-sentient polyp storms. Please explain how even a Lotus Blue can remotely create and command a sentient storm, and how it can become sentient. Just an outline, we'll fill in the rest.
Also, I find it hard to forgive an author (and publisher) who think you stop a vehicle by applying its "breaks". Indeed, there are at least ten homonym errors in this book, all the kind you miss when your only spellchecker is automated. Its knot fare two dew this two yore audience.
One more rewrite and this would have been at least three stars. There's a good writer here, just needs to be uncovered. Every time I read a couple of really well-crafted paragraphs, there'd be another clunker that broke my rhythm.
I will look for this author's second novel, just on potential.
December 29, 2020
I don't have much to say about this other then it simply didn't interested me, there where nothing really to sink my teeth into and I didn't care for anything in the book.
February 5, 2018
Tough to figure out what was going on for several chapters, but I kept going, and did enjoy this eventually. More to say later.
March 24, 2017
World building is the real star of Lotus Blue, the debut science fiction novel for Australian author Cat Sparks.
Very quickly in this novel Sparks creates a vision of a future Australia – an already ancient land – that’s further weighed down by centuries of environmental disaster, turmoil and wars so that the ‘present’ of the novel feels old and tired indeed.
Caravans wend their way across the land between scattered outposts as the red desert encroaches more and more on what semi-fertile land is left; towns ruled by bandits or merchants squat in the heat, their dirt walls studded with old and broken tech; deep beneath the ground others rich enough to be able to turn their back on the wars live in hermetically sealed arcologies reliant on failing machinery to keep them alive. Out in the desert battle machines called Tankers, running on corrupted programs, patrol the slagged remnants of the past, hunted by modern-day whalers crossing the wastes on jerry-rigged sandships. And then there are the cyborg Templars, genetically and mechanically enhanced human troops, the last of whom have all but lost touch with their humanity. It’s a monumental feat of imagination and the details build through the early chapters until you can see the ruin around you and understand the misery that created it.
The story of Lotus Blue is far more straightforward. Star is bored with life as an itinerant traveller on one of the many perpetual caravans and pushes against the constraints imposed by her elder sister Nene, who holds the important position of medic. Star dreams of running away to the settlement of Fallow Heel and reacquainting herself with Allegra, a rich merchant’s daughter she’d met last time their caravan passed through. But ancient forces are awakening beneath the desert and when a storm destroys the caravan, and those left alive have to walk to safety, she learns a secret about herself that changes her life forever. In Fallow Heel, she falls foul of a Templar called Quarrel and is forced into taking a sandship journey where she will confront what she is becoming and face the terrible truth of Lotus Blue.
Lotus Blue has a number of point-of-view characters through which the story unfolds. Star, of course, and Allegra, the proud daughter of Mohandas, Fallow Heel’s pre-eminent merchant; Quarrel and Marianthe, both Templars, and petty thief Tully Grieve. All of them help to build up a strong picture of the world and there’s a nice manipulation of their timelines, which may not all be synchronised with the main story arc. Some of these characters appear very infrequently, which made me question why the reader was asked to invest in them. But that’s a minor quibble.
Jack Dann has often said that novels and stories are conversations between authors working in the same genre. We read the work and it has an effect on what we in turn produce. Certainly there’s a strong sense of that in Lotus Blue, and in her afterword Sparks acknowledges the influence of Frank Herbert’s Dune, Terry Dowling’s Tom Rynosseros stories – influenced in part by JG Ballard’s Vermillion Sands collection, and featuring a more romantic view of sandships – and the ruined machine-punk world of Andrew Macrae’s Trucksong, reviewed in NRB a couple of years ago. It’s a gracious statement but Lotus Blue also stands on its own as an impressive piece of imaginative writing, and one you’ll enjoy from start to finish.
Very quickly in this novel Sparks creates a vision of a future Australia – an already ancient land – that’s further weighed down by centuries of environmental disaster, turmoil and wars so that the ‘present’ of the novel feels old and tired indeed.
Caravans wend their way across the land between scattered outposts as the red desert encroaches more and more on what semi-fertile land is left; towns ruled by bandits or merchants squat in the heat, their dirt walls studded with old and broken tech; deep beneath the ground others rich enough to be able to turn their back on the wars live in hermetically sealed arcologies reliant on failing machinery to keep them alive. Out in the desert battle machines called Tankers, running on corrupted programs, patrol the slagged remnants of the past, hunted by modern-day whalers crossing the wastes on jerry-rigged sandships. And then there are the cyborg Templars, genetically and mechanically enhanced human troops, the last of whom have all but lost touch with their humanity. It’s a monumental feat of imagination and the details build through the early chapters until you can see the ruin around you and understand the misery that created it.
Memory intruded as she stood there in the sun, eyes closed, soft winds teasing the hem of her skirts, sand skinks dodging around her shadow. Visions of great reliquaries of old tapping the deep, hot rocks beneath the ground. Blasting fissures in the brittle crust, sucking up their heat and oil and ore.
Clandestine bases swarming with quicksilver drones, zipping overhead to missions in far-off territories. Emblazoned with the insignia of nameless foreign corporations. Swarms of human misery moving from county to county, stripping and consuming greenery like locusts.
Big reds bred mean to patrol the razor wire perimeters. Replaced in time with barriers of lantana raze, a particularly virulent form of weaponised weed, coded feral when the government defaulted on suppliers. Genes programmed with a killer switch, once initiated, fated to grow forever, consuming everything in its path. The land became exhausted, eventually stopped giving and started taking back. So the white-coats panicked, manufacturing strange new plants and animals tailored specifically to suit the harsh terrain. New soldiers too. Stronger, tougher. Better. TEMPLARS, they called them—she couldn’t remember why, even though she knows she is one of them herself.
The story of Lotus Blue is far more straightforward. Star is bored with life as an itinerant traveller on one of the many perpetual caravans and pushes against the constraints imposed by her elder sister Nene, who holds the important position of medic. Star dreams of running away to the settlement of Fallow Heel and reacquainting herself with Allegra, a rich merchant’s daughter she’d met last time their caravan passed through. But ancient forces are awakening beneath the desert and when a storm destroys the caravan, and those left alive have to walk to safety, she learns a secret about herself that changes her life forever. In Fallow Heel, she falls foul of a Templar called Quarrel and is forced into taking a sandship journey where she will confront what she is becoming and face the terrible truth of Lotus Blue.
She had never set foot upon a ship before this day, either sand- or the ocean-going type, although she had once stood upon the cliffs of Usha and watched three ocean vessels bound for foreign lands.
Glorious and mighty, their sails had puffed out like chests, moving headstrong into the breeze, as if with a will and purpose of their own.
There was nothing glorious about this ship. The deck was made of ancient timbers meshed and mashed with other salvage. Old world metals, wire, and plastics. Broken doorways, window frames, and doors. Unsettlingly uneven. Construction that creaked and squealed with every slamming gust of wind. The railing rattled wildly beneath her grip, threatening to snap and send her hurtling over the side at any moment.
No part of the ship matched any other. The same could be said for the crew. The sailors were not uniformly large, nor uniformly male, as she had initially supposed. At first they had seemed alike as brothers, exposed flesh patterned with inkings that told her these men and women had crewed a lot of ships. They had hunted tankers and survived the experience.
Lotus Blue has a number of point-of-view characters through which the story unfolds. Star, of course, and Allegra, the proud daughter of Mohandas, Fallow Heel’s pre-eminent merchant; Quarrel and Marianthe, both Templars, and petty thief Tully Grieve. All of them help to build up a strong picture of the world and there’s a nice manipulation of their timelines, which may not all be synchronised with the main story arc. Some of these characters appear very infrequently, which made me question why the reader was asked to invest in them. But that’s a minor quibble.
Jack Dann has often said that novels and stories are conversations between authors working in the same genre. We read the work and it has an effect on what we in turn produce. Certainly there’s a strong sense of that in Lotus Blue, and in her afterword Sparks acknowledges the influence of Frank Herbert’s Dune, Terry Dowling’s Tom Rynosseros stories – influenced in part by JG Ballard’s Vermillion Sands collection, and featuring a more romantic view of sandships – and the ruined machine-punk world of Andrew Macrae’s Trucksong, reviewed in NRB a couple of years ago. It’s a gracious statement but Lotus Blue also stands on its own as an impressive piece of imaginative writing, and one you’ll enjoy from start to finish.
July 6, 2017
I am a judge for the 2017 Aurealis Awards. This review is my personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinator, or the Aurealis Awards management team.
Cat Sparks is a well-known figure in the Australian speculative fiction scene, both for her work as a prolific short story writer and editor. Lotus Blue is her much-anticipated debut novel.
Lotus Blue is set in a post-apocalyptic Australia, a land that has been ruined by both war and climate change. In this almost barren land, dominated by desert - the Dead Red Heart - people eke out a meagre existence in amidst the remnants of the technologies that were used to fight the wars that devastated the country.
There are many points of view in this novel - so many, sometimes, that I did find myself skimming over one or the other to get to the characters who interested me the most. Star, a seventeen-year-old who we meet travelling on a caravan with her healer sister, Nene, was the most compelling for me, along with Quarrel, a Templar - a warrior left over from the war, his body part organic and part machine. Star's journey is what ultimately shapes the main plot of the book, and it is what she discovers about herself along the way that kept me most enthralled as a reader.
This is a rich and complex world, and coming to the end of the book, it feels very much as though only the surface of the worldbuilding has been revealed. There is an almost cinematic realness to the pieces of this devastated Australia that we see - the ships that "sail" the Dead Red Heart, the warlord-controlled cities where people eke out their lives, and the technologies left over from the war - the bunker cities, the Tankers which roam the deserts and are hunted by the brave, the titular Lotus Blue.
There are going to be inevitable parallels drawn between Lotus Blue and other franchises - Sparks acknowledges that Dune was an influence, and anything set in a post-apocalyptic Australia is inevitably going to be compared to the Mad Max franchise. Neither of these comparisons really reveals the depth of Sparks' worldbuilding, or the strength of the characters which populate the book. All of them are human and flawed and heroic and as fascinating as the world.
I had high expectations for a debut novel from Cat Sparks, and Lotus Blue met them. There are some rough edges here and there, but nothing that detracts overmuch from the sheer wonder of the world that Sparks drops the reader into. If you're a fan of Sparks' short fiction, Lotus Blue is highly recommended. If you've not read anything by her before, this is a great place to start.
Cat Sparks is a well-known figure in the Australian speculative fiction scene, both for her work as a prolific short story writer and editor. Lotus Blue is her much-anticipated debut novel.
Lotus Blue is set in a post-apocalyptic Australia, a land that has been ruined by both war and climate change. In this almost barren land, dominated by desert - the Dead Red Heart - people eke out a meagre existence in amidst the remnants of the technologies that were used to fight the wars that devastated the country.
There are many points of view in this novel - so many, sometimes, that I did find myself skimming over one or the other to get to the characters who interested me the most. Star, a seventeen-year-old who we meet travelling on a caravan with her healer sister, Nene, was the most compelling for me, along with Quarrel, a Templar - a warrior left over from the war, his body part organic and part machine. Star's journey is what ultimately shapes the main plot of the book, and it is what she discovers about herself along the way that kept me most enthralled as a reader.
This is a rich and complex world, and coming to the end of the book, it feels very much as though only the surface of the worldbuilding has been revealed. There is an almost cinematic realness to the pieces of this devastated Australia that we see - the ships that "sail" the Dead Red Heart, the warlord-controlled cities where people eke out their lives, and the technologies left over from the war - the bunker cities, the Tankers which roam the deserts and are hunted by the brave, the titular Lotus Blue.
There are going to be inevitable parallels drawn between Lotus Blue and other franchises - Sparks acknowledges that Dune was an influence, and anything set in a post-apocalyptic Australia is inevitably going to be compared to the Mad Max franchise. Neither of these comparisons really reveals the depth of Sparks' worldbuilding, or the strength of the characters which populate the book. All of them are human and flawed and heroic and as fascinating as the world.
I had high expectations for a debut novel from Cat Sparks, and Lotus Blue met them. There are some rough edges here and there, but nothing that detracts overmuch from the sheer wonder of the world that Sparks drops the reader into. If you're a fan of Sparks' short fiction, Lotus Blue is highly recommended. If you've not read anything by her before, this is a great place to start.
September 19, 2018
Like I said in the update status this was a book with a very appealing setting for me.
It`s a post apocalyptic world ravaged from a long period of wars, long forgotten battles of advanced technology, in wich you could find only some remains of the civilisation before.
The zone where our action it`s depicted it`s mostly sandlike and there are often sandstorms (artificially created, most of the times) that could ravage in a minute whole areas of life.
These vast planes of destruction are populated by a vast range of AI creatures, some of them sustaining themselves without any human interference. Some of them are quite amazing, amazing creatures!
The main story it`s quite simple, a sophisticated war AI, Lotus Blue, cames to life, and wants to imposed his unhealty thoughts in this ravaged world.
There are other POV`s, not a lot of them, but in the beggining it takes time to know all of them, that will try to profit from this peculiar event or some of them will try to stop it.
The story it`s not so surprising, it has it`s upside downs, but goes smoothly and it`s a hell of a ride. There are some rushed moments, true, but not so often and it`s not a major breakdown to the main story.
The characters were nicely done, interesting and enjoyable enough to keep you turning those pages.
Overall, like I said before, the whole world building reminded me of The Bel Dama Apocrypha series, and it was the thing that stole the most of the show for me.
The novel finished, like I was expecting, with some hooks for future volumes, but it really didn`t matter much to me.
For a debut novel it was a very, very solid and amazing effort.
Five stars without any doubt.
It`s a post apocalyptic world ravaged from a long period of wars, long forgotten battles of advanced technology, in wich you could find only some remains of the civilisation before.
The zone where our action it`s depicted it`s mostly sandlike and there are often sandstorms (artificially created, most of the times) that could ravage in a minute whole areas of life.
These vast planes of destruction are populated by a vast range of AI creatures, some of them sustaining themselves without any human interference. Some of them are quite amazing, amazing creatures!
The main story it`s quite simple, a sophisticated war AI, Lotus Blue, cames to life, and wants to imposed his unhealty thoughts in this ravaged world.
There are other POV`s, not a lot of them, but in the beggining it takes time to know all of them, that will try to profit from this peculiar event or some of them will try to stop it.
The story it`s not so surprising, it has it`s upside downs, but goes smoothly and it`s a hell of a ride. There are some rushed moments, true, but not so often and it`s not a major breakdown to the main story.
The characters were nicely done, interesting and enjoyable enough to keep you turning those pages.
Overall, like I said before, the whole world building reminded me of The Bel Dama Apocrypha series, and it was the thing that stole the most of the show for me.
The novel finished, like I was expecting, with some hooks for future volumes, but it really didn`t matter much to me.
For a debut novel it was a very, very solid and amazing effort.
Five stars without any doubt.
December 23, 2021
One of my favourite Post-Apocalyptic tropes is when the people in the future use or hunt for the technology they no longer understand. If you also enjoy this, there is a lot of it in this book. Not only are people hunting for abandoned, non-functioning tech to sell or even reuse, but there are bionic or augmented super-soldier humans still running around, androids (like Terminators), AIs with human consciousnesses, and tanks with base AI rumbling about the desert (presumably on patrol). These aspects are really fun and engaging, albeit a lot of their visual appearance and function is left to your imagination.
I also liked the concept of the “vans”, which are caravans of repurposed trucks, boats, and/or wagons travelling from town to town in the wasteland.
Unfortunately, the prose left me a bit cold. It’s not like it wasn’t well-wrought, but it needed a bit more oomph to it. At times the perspective shifted from third person limited to omniscient, which was confusing and left the story disjointed. There were also a few moments when what would have been an interesting action scene was told in passing by another character. The action scenes we do get are very fun though.
Also, unfortunately, the characters, while easy to differentiate and understand, are simply too numerous, or their personalities shift in ways that aren’t consistent. For example, Star, while beginning as a rather self-assured young woman at the start of the novel, fluctuates in her personality quite a bit but there isn’t enough space to flesh out why this is the case (it felt less like a deliberate change to her than a continuity issue). There’s also a large focus on a betrayal that doesn’t feel resolved. In fact, she’s a very passive character that does little to drive the story - almost everything she does is reactive or the result of someone else’s decision. As a 17-year-old, she doesn’t have a real arc in terms of growing up or learning about herself, which would have given her journey more emotional resonance.
Another character, who seems to be minor at the start but ends up becoming more important later on, though I’d struggle to call him a main character, is also very unclear in his motives and his personality is all over the place. I couldn’t get a handle on him or why he even needed that much focus. There was also a very slight romance angle that felt very forced and unnatural given how one character treats the other.
There are also a few chapters focusing on minor characters but it’s unclear why their pov was included or what contributed to the plot. The novel either could have removed these sections or added a few more. I did like those chapters, but they felt unnecessary.
That being said, the star character of the novel is the world-building. It’s intricately wrought with numerous details and exposition that is provided as needed, not all at once. As such, you could picture the landscape and imagine it very clearly. It’s unfortunate the characters are so flat.
I still recommend it to the most stolid of post-apoc fans though, as it really is post-apocalyptic in every sense of the word.
I also liked the concept of the “vans”, which are caravans of repurposed trucks, boats, and/or wagons travelling from town to town in the wasteland.
Unfortunately, the prose left me a bit cold. It’s not like it wasn’t well-wrought, but it needed a bit more oomph to it. At times the perspective shifted from third person limited to omniscient, which was confusing and left the story disjointed. There were also a few moments when what would have been an interesting action scene was told in passing by another character. The action scenes we do get are very fun though.
Also, unfortunately, the characters, while easy to differentiate and understand, are simply too numerous, or their personalities shift in ways that aren’t consistent. For example, Star, while beginning as a rather self-assured young woman at the start of the novel, fluctuates in her personality quite a bit but there isn’t enough space to flesh out why this is the case (it felt less like a deliberate change to her than a continuity issue). There’s also a large focus on a betrayal that doesn’t feel resolved. In fact, she’s a very passive character that does little to drive the story - almost everything she does is reactive or the result of someone else’s decision. As a 17-year-old, she doesn’t have a real arc in terms of growing up or learning about herself, which would have given her journey more emotional resonance.
Another character, who seems to be minor at the start but ends up becoming more important later on, though I’d struggle to call him a main character, is also very unclear in his motives and his personality is all over the place. I couldn’t get a handle on him or why he even needed that much focus. There was also a very slight romance angle that felt very forced and unnatural given how one character treats the other.
There are also a few chapters focusing on minor characters but it’s unclear why their pov was included or what contributed to the plot. The novel either could have removed these sections or added a few more. I did like those chapters, but they felt unnecessary.
That being said, the star character of the novel is the world-building. It’s intricately wrought with numerous details and exposition that is provided as needed, not all at once. As such, you could picture the landscape and imagine it very clearly. It’s unfortunate the characters are so flat.
I still recommend it to the most stolid of post-apoc fans though, as it really is post-apocalyptic in every sense of the word.
March 6, 2017
Centuries ago, wars ruined the earth, destroying cities and wrecking the environment. But humanity remains as people struggle to survive in the harsh world that remains. But an ancient and powerful war machine, Lotus Blue, has awaken in the desert, and what’s left of the world may be at risk.
Lotus Blue has a variety of POV characters, but the protagonist is clearly Star, who has far more sections than anyone else. Star and her sister Nene live and travel with a caravan of traders, heading up and down the Sand Road. But unfolding events have a cataclysmic effect upon the caravan, drawing Star into the quest to stop Lotus Blue.
Here’s the biggest problem with Lotus Blue: Star had absolutely no impact on the outcome of the book. She could have died in the very beginning and the ending would have been the same. I noticed about half way through that Star was a passive protagonist who lacked agency – she tends to react rather than be proactive. But I’d assumed that in the end she would make some plot relevant action. I assumed wrong.
When I said there were a lot of POV characters, I meant it. First off, there’s Star. Then there’s Kian, a boy trying to find Lotus Blue for his one glory. His cousin also gets sections. Same goes for a wealthy merchant’s daughter, an aging female super solider, a battle scared male super solider, Lotus Blue itself, a random girl in a watchtower, and a scrappy stowaway. Here’s the thing… all but two or three of them could have disappeared from the book and the end result regarding Lotus Blue wouldn’t be much different.
Having such a mass of characters negatively impacted characterization. I never really connected with any of them. At one point a side character died, and it was being treated like an emotional moment. Only I actively didn’t care because he had no characterization or personality.
One other disappointment was that I picked up Lotus Blue because I saw it on a list of SFF about sisters. It’s not really a book about sisters. Nene disappears halfway through and never returns.
On the bright side, I did enjoy the setting. The world Cat Sparks imagines is one of an ever growing desert, with mad mechas blazing through the sand and reckless humans hunting them for parts. There’s a certain Mad Max feel to it, helped by the post-apocalyptic Australian setting. The world really came alive, and I loved the details such as the sand ships, towers, and immortal super soldiers.
If there’s a there’s a sequel to Lotus Blue (and based on the ending, I think there will be), I am not going to read it. While I liked the world building, it was not enough to make up for the problems in structure and characterization.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review.
Lotus Blue has a variety of POV characters, but the protagonist is clearly Star, who has far more sections than anyone else. Star and her sister Nene live and travel with a caravan of traders, heading up and down the Sand Road. But unfolding events have a cataclysmic effect upon the caravan, drawing Star into the quest to stop Lotus Blue.
Here’s the biggest problem with Lotus Blue: Star had absolutely no impact on the outcome of the book. She could have died in the very beginning and the ending would have been the same. I noticed about half way through that Star was a passive protagonist who lacked agency – she tends to react rather than be proactive. But I’d assumed that in the end she would make some plot relevant action. I assumed wrong.
When I said there were a lot of POV characters, I meant it. First off, there’s Star. Then there’s Kian, a boy trying to find Lotus Blue for his one glory. His cousin also gets sections. Same goes for a wealthy merchant’s daughter, an aging female super solider, a battle scared male super solider, Lotus Blue itself, a random girl in a watchtower, and a scrappy stowaway. Here’s the thing… all but two or three of them could have disappeared from the book and the end result regarding Lotus Blue wouldn’t be much different.
Having such a mass of characters negatively impacted characterization. I never really connected with any of them. At one point a side character died, and it was being treated like an emotional moment. Only I actively didn’t care because he had no characterization or personality.
One other disappointment was that I picked up Lotus Blue because I saw it on a list of SFF about sisters. It’s not really a book about sisters. Nene disappears halfway through and never returns.
On the bright side, I did enjoy the setting. The world Cat Sparks imagines is one of an ever growing desert, with mad mechas blazing through the sand and reckless humans hunting them for parts. There’s a certain Mad Max feel to it, helped by the post-apocalyptic Australian setting. The world really came alive, and I loved the details such as the sand ships, towers, and immortal super soldiers.
If there’s a there’s a sequel to Lotus Blue (and based on the ending, I think there will be), I am not going to read it. While I liked the world building, it was not enough to make up for the problems in structure and characterization.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review.
Read
March 30, 2017DNF - after over a week and less than 100 pages read, I had to throw in the towel. The world was fascinating but the amount of characters thrown at the reader throughout the first few chapters made it very hard to actually understand or become submerged in that world. I never did get drawn into the story.
May 14, 2017
Just didnt excite me. Main character was an observant. Writing and world building were great. Story and plot was quite slow for me.
February 13, 2017
https://koeur.wordpress.com/2017/02/1...
Publisher: Skyhorse
Publishing Date: May 2017
ISBN: 9781940456706
Genre: Dystopian/SciFi
Rating: 4.0/5
Publishers Description: Seventeen-year-old Star and her sister Nene are orphans, part of a thirteen-wagon caravan of nomadic traders living hard lives travelling the Sand Road. Their route cuts through a particularly dangerous and unforgiving section of the Dead Red Heart, a war-ravaged desert landscape plagued by rogue semi-sentient machinery and other monsters from a bygone age.
Review: I really cannot believe that this novel was “read now” on the book site. Meaning the publisher is handing it out to anyone who asks. This was one of the best novels I have read in a long time. Great characters, constant movement and epic world building. So lets get to the meat of it, shall we?
Initially Star stole the show with her gumption, grittiness and guile. All her flaws are out there to see. She is extremely self-centered which makes sense coming from living in a wasteland where everyone is more likely to stab you than give you a hand up. She has base instincts that she acts upon (sex), has regrets and hopes for a better life somewhere other than where she is. I like that Star grew within the movement but the time compression in order to realize this was not real believable. She goes from a badass wall climbing, knife wielding hell-cat to needing help in every dire situation while burying her head in anyone’s manly chest. I exaggerate but her decline from independence was noticeable as she traverses the wasteland.
Much like the latter part of Star’s tale, the storyline towards the end tended to drag on a bit. It is hard to make a wasteland interesting but the storms keep you on your feet and the beasties that could have added a dash of suspense were sadly absent. This was a solid 4 stars and I would not hesitate to read any of this author’s subsequent novels as the world building was great as were the supporting cast and all the tech.
Publisher: Skyhorse
Publishing Date: May 2017
ISBN: 9781940456706
Genre: Dystopian/SciFi
Rating: 4.0/5
Publishers Description: Seventeen-year-old Star and her sister Nene are orphans, part of a thirteen-wagon caravan of nomadic traders living hard lives travelling the Sand Road. Their route cuts through a particularly dangerous and unforgiving section of the Dead Red Heart, a war-ravaged desert landscape plagued by rogue semi-sentient machinery and other monsters from a bygone age.
Review: I really cannot believe that this novel was “read now” on the book site. Meaning the publisher is handing it out to anyone who asks. This was one of the best novels I have read in a long time. Great characters, constant movement and epic world building. So lets get to the meat of it, shall we?
Initially Star stole the show with her gumption, grittiness and guile. All her flaws are out there to see. She is extremely self-centered which makes sense coming from living in a wasteland where everyone is more likely to stab you than give you a hand up. She has base instincts that she acts upon (sex), has regrets and hopes for a better life somewhere other than where she is. I like that Star grew within the movement but the time compression in order to realize this was not real believable. She goes from a badass wall climbing, knife wielding hell-cat to needing help in every dire situation while burying her head in anyone’s manly chest. I exaggerate but her decline from independence was noticeable as she traverses the wasteland.
Much like the latter part of Star’s tale, the storyline towards the end tended to drag on a bit. It is hard to make a wasteland interesting but the storms keep you on your feet and the beasties that could have added a dash of suspense were sadly absent. This was a solid 4 stars and I would not hesitate to read any of this author’s subsequent novels as the world building was great as were the supporting cast and all the tech.
May 20, 2019
So much is great about this book that I would never know where to start. The author blends a desert post-apocalyptic setting with elements of cyberpunk and dieselpunk in such a seamless manner that the world is pulsing with life, despite being very dead. It’s grand in scale while being a personal journey. It’s an adventure. It’s just so good in so many ways.
March 9, 2017
Set in an amazing world, but somewhat lacking in character
July 3, 2017
Fairly interesting setting but the book is clumsily written, lacks interesting characters and gives away it's surprises before you invest in the mysteries.
June 1, 2017
Dear legislators, bioengineers, and the team who built that robot leopard;
Please, please don't make the mistakes your counterparts did in Lotus Blue. Although a solid read, evoking wonder and excitement, it presents an appalling future where all our ingenuity has run amok in the name of war.
In Lotus Blue, most of the world has been reduced to toxic ruin, inhabited only by such plants and animals as were genetically modified for use as guards, and semi-sentient tankers, preying upon each other for spare parts. Few still comprehend what brought humanity to this pass—all has become myth, dictating the ritual use of unreliable technological relics. Such as Quarrel.
I'm certain that creating cyborg soldiers with superhuman strength and endurance may seem a wonderful idea. But consider them lingering on, centuries after the conflict they were designed for. Quarrel makes for a brilliant character, as prickly as he is driven, but the pathos of his situation is well-nigh unbearable. Above all else, never, ever create an "Old Blue"--a Lotus General.
If left to themselves, the remnants of humanity may indeed adapt to this situation. They may become warlords, carving out their petty fiefdoms along the Great Sand Road or they may become traders, driving caravans along its length. Healers and shamans may come to fill the needs formerly addressed by doctors and priests. But "Old Blue" filled a different kind of need, and leaving humanity to itself is not part of the plan.
To read the full "letter", please go to http://tabula-rasa.info/AusHorror/Lot...
Please, please don't make the mistakes your counterparts did in Lotus Blue. Although a solid read, evoking wonder and excitement, it presents an appalling future where all our ingenuity has run amok in the name of war.
In Lotus Blue, most of the world has been reduced to toxic ruin, inhabited only by such plants and animals as were genetically modified for use as guards, and semi-sentient tankers, preying upon each other for spare parts. Few still comprehend what brought humanity to this pass—all has become myth, dictating the ritual use of unreliable technological relics. Such as Quarrel.
I'm certain that creating cyborg soldiers with superhuman strength and endurance may seem a wonderful idea. But consider them lingering on, centuries after the conflict they were designed for. Quarrel makes for a brilliant character, as prickly as he is driven, but the pathos of his situation is well-nigh unbearable. Above all else, never, ever create an "Old Blue"--a Lotus General.
If left to themselves, the remnants of humanity may indeed adapt to this situation. They may become warlords, carving out their petty fiefdoms along the Great Sand Road or they may become traders, driving caravans along its length. Healers and shamans may come to fill the needs formerly addressed by doctors and priests. But "Old Blue" filled a different kind of need, and leaving humanity to itself is not part of the plan.
To read the full "letter", please go to http://tabula-rasa.info/AusHorror/Lot...
March 9, 2017
Really good Science Fiction read!
June 3, 2017
Fantastic, interesting use of nano-technology.
A post-apocalyptic tale that is a bit different.
A post-apocalyptic tale that is a bit different.
July 15, 2017
Lotus Blue is the story of future generations struggling to survive in a world ruined by their ancestors. Set in Australia, where climate change and centuries of high-tech war have turned the land into dead red dust — where the privileged enjoy prosperity in underground settlements, and others eke out a living above ground — an ancient and deadly AI awakens.
Although humanity had at some stage possessed the expertise to mitigate climate change, it chose instead to fight over the world’s dwindling resources. The malfunctioning remnants of this fight continue to terrorise the survivors, eg, orbiting weaponry that is still capable of conflict, deadly polyp storms that turn the sky sickly green, biomecha (vat grown machine-human soldiers and metal-flesh vehicles), an obsidian sea (a “flat black tongue” of melted skyscrapers) populated by a variety of genetically engineered predators.
The descriptions of this bleak world are painted with vivid brush strokes. Although the world is teetering on the brink of death, and its skies are controlled by forces that have long outlived their usefulness, there is also a sense of hope, but only for those who have the strength and courage to act on it.
The characters are richly drawn, introduced at opportune points in the text, allowing the reader time enough to engage with them. The most notable were:
Star, a teen who has yet to discover her place in the world, but has grand ambitions.
Quarrel, an ancient, barely functioning Templar, vat grown part human, part machine, haunted by past wars and yearns for the world to be put right again. He once protected the people who now barely survive in the desert, but is despised by them for what he is.
Marianthe, an equally ancient Templar who longs for a lost lover and hides her true identity in order to protect the farming community who depend on her.
Tully Grieve, opportunistic by necessity, but too kindhearted to stay out of trouble.
The General, a powerful and deadly AI that dreams of pre-war Earth and of battles long since lost, but is unable to separate fantasy from reality, or enemy from friend.
The text is complex and there is a lot going on at once, so this is not a book to relax with. Having said that, it is a rewarding read and an intelligent addition to the genre of post apocalyptic fiction.
Four and a half stars.
17/5/17 edit: I am a judge for the 2017 Aurealis Awards. This review is my personal opinion and does not reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinators, or the Aurealis Awards management team.
Although humanity had at some stage possessed the expertise to mitigate climate change, it chose instead to fight over the world’s dwindling resources. The malfunctioning remnants of this fight continue to terrorise the survivors, eg, orbiting weaponry that is still capable of conflict, deadly polyp storms that turn the sky sickly green, biomecha (vat grown machine-human soldiers and metal-flesh vehicles), an obsidian sea (a “flat black tongue” of melted skyscrapers) populated by a variety of genetically engineered predators.
The descriptions of this bleak world are painted with vivid brush strokes. Although the world is teetering on the brink of death, and its skies are controlled by forces that have long outlived their usefulness, there is also a sense of hope, but only for those who have the strength and courage to act on it.
The characters are richly drawn, introduced at opportune points in the text, allowing the reader time enough to engage with them. The most notable were:
Star, a teen who has yet to discover her place in the world, but has grand ambitions.
Quarrel, an ancient, barely functioning Templar, vat grown part human, part machine, haunted by past wars and yearns for the world to be put right again. He once protected the people who now barely survive in the desert, but is despised by them for what he is.
Marianthe, an equally ancient Templar who longs for a lost lover and hides her true identity in order to protect the farming community who depend on her.
Tully Grieve, opportunistic by necessity, but too kindhearted to stay out of trouble.
The General, a powerful and deadly AI that dreams of pre-war Earth and of battles long since lost, but is unable to separate fantasy from reality, or enemy from friend.
The text is complex and there is a lot going on at once, so this is not a book to relax with. Having said that, it is a rewarding read and an intelligent addition to the genre of post apocalyptic fiction.
Four and a half stars.
17/5/17 edit: I am a judge for the 2017 Aurealis Awards. This review is my personal opinion and does not reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinators, or the Aurealis Awards management team.
May 1, 2017
I love the setting of this book: a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland populated by ancient cyborgs, intelligent machines, enclosed residents of buried sanctuary cities and desperate survivors scraping a living by scavenging machine parts among the sands.
There are, if I counted correctly, eight POV characters including a rebellious young woman who's grown up crossing and re-crossing the desert with her doctor sister, a warlike artificial intelligence, the cyborg leader of a refugee colony and a trader's daughter who's more savvy than she first appears. This multiplicity of POVs, coupled with the extremely short chapters, is a problem because you repeatedly spend three pages in someone's head, then hurtle off into someone else's. This means that you never really get to know any of the characters well and so emotional moments towards the end of the book feel unearned.
There's also a frustrating amount of characters not telling each other much-needed pieces of information, dialogue that mostly feels like nothing a real person would ever say, and exposition delivered by POV characters thinking in detail about events that have happened 'off-screen.'
I still loved the setting by the end, I just wish the author could have done more with it.
There are, if I counted correctly, eight POV characters including a rebellious young woman who's grown up crossing and re-crossing the desert with her doctor sister, a warlike artificial intelligence, the cyborg leader of a refugee colony and a trader's daughter who's more savvy than she first appears. This multiplicity of POVs, coupled with the extremely short chapters, is a problem because you repeatedly spend three pages in someone's head, then hurtle off into someone else's. This means that you never really get to know any of the characters well and so emotional moments towards the end of the book feel unearned.
There's also a frustrating amount of characters not telling each other much-needed pieces of information, dialogue that mostly feels like nothing a real person would ever say, and exposition delivered by POV characters thinking in detail about events that have happened 'off-screen.'
I still loved the setting by the end, I just wish the author could have done more with it.
October 1, 2018
Lotus Blue was ok but in desperate need of a good editor! Started out well, good world building and a ton of characters which required a little brain power to sort out. But getting to the finish became a slog of momentous proportions especially with three or more different viewpoints. I think an editor could have helped to clean up the mire a bit and get us their a little faster... And a love interest at the 11th hour is a bit of a stretch for me. The writing was good - enough to have me reach the end but if the next book has Star and company charging off to find other coloured Lotuses - I will gently decline the offer.
November 30, 2016
Cat's trademark lush description and scrappy characters make a seamless transition from short form to long. Quirky AI and cyborg personalities are an easy way to my heart, but these are magnificent. A glorious oil painting of a novel.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Cat is my dear friend and mentor; this review is of a pre-publication version that I obtained for free (unless you count my ceaseless pestering).
FULL DISCLOSURE: Cat is my dear friend and mentor; this review is of a pre-publication version that I obtained for free (unless you count my ceaseless pestering).
November 26, 2017
What is this book about?
Set in an apocalyptically barren and hostile desert landscape crawling with half-mech, semi-sentient machinery and other monstrosities, Lotus Blue presents a bleak depiction future ravaged by war to almost extinction.
Star and Nene are two orphan sisters travelling with desert-roaming nomads in a thirteen caravan procession that survives day-by-day in an inhospitable and unpredictable environment. Star has always yearned for something more than the life of a nomad, but when the caravans witness the fall of an ancient relic satellite, it sets off a series of events that will throw her head-first into a chaotic adventure to save what’s left of the world from the rise of an ancient, deadly war machine.
Why is it boring?
The world-building is simultaneously the redemption and the downfall of this book. Sparks has imagined a compelling world that sounds like a fantastic basis for some hair-raising adventures, but I found myself disappointed by the relatively small window that was explored compared to all the aspects frequently referenced.
An ensemble cast of characters is a risky endeavor and really relies on the author’s capacity to give each character ample limelight for individual growth and development. Unfortunately, Sparks didn’t quite succeed at this. I found myself often frustrated by scene changes introducing new characters with perspectives I didn’t think were valuable or enlightening enough to warrant including. This left me feeling robbed of opportunity to grow attached to the main characters, and I was left with very little investment in even the protagonist. In my experience brilliant characters can carry a dull novel with even the most unoriginal of premises, but the reverse doesn’t always work. I was left unsatisfied and almost relieved when the novel finally ended. Some people died, some people survived, and I found myself not really caring either way.
Who would you recommend it to?
A wicked setting with a brilliant and intriguing concept of a world run to ruin by high-end technological war that outstripped the ambition and expectations of humanity, I was very taken by the world-building and careful consideration that had gone into the creation of this novel. The sheer possibility of it all is what really makes a science fiction novel that much more brilliant to me. The projection was an original and alarmingly foreseeable one. Machines taking over is nothing new to the sci-fi genre, but the war-focused aspect of it rung really close to home considering the tense and security-paranoid atmosphere of society. This novel was a terrible insight over the implications of the folly and ambition of man, presenting a world where we created machines to fight the wars for us and they did the job... Just a little too well.
Why should I read it if it's boring?!
I was mostly intrigued by the fact that the author was Australian, and I couldn’t wait to see what she came up with coming from a country where driving a few hours out of any city will give you all the inspiration you’d ever need to write a desert-based post- sci-fi novel. There was a lot of likening to the ‘Mad Max’ franchise, which I thought was a bit of a reach. I admit, though, that’s probably the second biggest reason I picked this book up, hooked by such a comparison. Unfortunately I wasn’t the biggest fan of this novel in the end. I love stories with a lot of focus on the characters and that to me was one of the major failings of Lotus Blue – Star, the protagonist, was more an observer than a participant in the events – but I’ve read some rave reviews about this book and am self-aware enough to concede that just because Lotus Blue didn’t tick my boxes, it won’t tick someone else's.
Rating: 1.5/5
written by Tharuka Fernando
Set in an apocalyptically barren and hostile desert landscape crawling with half-mech, semi-sentient machinery and other monstrosities, Lotus Blue presents a bleak depiction future ravaged by war to almost extinction.
Star and Nene are two orphan sisters travelling with desert-roaming nomads in a thirteen caravan procession that survives day-by-day in an inhospitable and unpredictable environment. Star has always yearned for something more than the life of a nomad, but when the caravans witness the fall of an ancient relic satellite, it sets off a series of events that will throw her head-first into a chaotic adventure to save what’s left of the world from the rise of an ancient, deadly war machine.
Why is it boring?
The world-building is simultaneously the redemption and the downfall of this book. Sparks has imagined a compelling world that sounds like a fantastic basis for some hair-raising adventures, but I found myself disappointed by the relatively small window that was explored compared to all the aspects frequently referenced.
An ensemble cast of characters is a risky endeavor and really relies on the author’s capacity to give each character ample limelight for individual growth and development. Unfortunately, Sparks didn’t quite succeed at this. I found myself often frustrated by scene changes introducing new characters with perspectives I didn’t think were valuable or enlightening enough to warrant including. This left me feeling robbed of opportunity to grow attached to the main characters, and I was left with very little investment in even the protagonist. In my experience brilliant characters can carry a dull novel with even the most unoriginal of premises, but the reverse doesn’t always work. I was left unsatisfied and almost relieved when the novel finally ended. Some people died, some people survived, and I found myself not really caring either way.
Who would you recommend it to?
A wicked setting with a brilliant and intriguing concept of a world run to ruin by high-end technological war that outstripped the ambition and expectations of humanity, I was very taken by the world-building and careful consideration that had gone into the creation of this novel. The sheer possibility of it all is what really makes a science fiction novel that much more brilliant to me. The projection was an original and alarmingly foreseeable one. Machines taking over is nothing new to the sci-fi genre, but the war-focused aspect of it rung really close to home considering the tense and security-paranoid atmosphere of society. This novel was a terrible insight over the implications of the folly and ambition of man, presenting a world where we created machines to fight the wars for us and they did the job... Just a little too well.
Why should I read it if it's boring?!
I was mostly intrigued by the fact that the author was Australian, and I couldn’t wait to see what she came up with coming from a country where driving a few hours out of any city will give you all the inspiration you’d ever need to write a desert-based post- sci-fi novel. There was a lot of likening to the ‘Mad Max’ franchise, which I thought was a bit of a reach. I admit, though, that’s probably the second biggest reason I picked this book up, hooked by such a comparison. Unfortunately I wasn’t the biggest fan of this novel in the end. I love stories with a lot of focus on the characters and that to me was one of the major failings of Lotus Blue – Star, the protagonist, was more an observer than a participant in the events – but I’ve read some rave reviews about this book and am self-aware enough to concede that just because Lotus Blue didn’t tick my boxes, it won’t tick someone else's.
Rating: 1.5/5
written by Tharuka Fernando
November 22, 2017
While this may not be a uniquely Australian perspective on the future - other places have deserts - there's still definitely a strong Australian flavour running through this world. The Dead Red Heart, the dust and sand, the mad tankers (Sparks acknowledges a debt to Andrew Macrae's Trucksong), the caravans, the grim survival in the face of crappy odds. Also the place names that occasionally gave me a giggle, to see them cropping up in this devastated future.
Cat Sparks is a friend... but she'd never expect anything but the truth from me, so don't worry; this is definitely a fair review.
So it must be pointed out that you shouldn't come to this book hoping for a happy post-apocalypse world, or a happy post-apocalyptic story. That is not how Sparks rolls. There is unpleasantness and violence and maiming and death and loss and lots and lots of hideous sand. This is a world where human survival relies on following rules that enable communities to survive even if you don't understand them; where groups have to be wary of other groups because even though helping each other is a good idea, sometimes my group against yours might mean we survive at your cost. Did I mention the sand? There's a lot of sand. Life is hard and for most people, requires hard work and sacrifice. Well, for most people... and that (naturally) is one of the tensions that Sparks works through here.
This is a world after global conflict, some indeterminate period in the world's past, that involved soldiers created by humans - robots, cyborgs, and all manner of variations on the theme. Exactly what happened in the past is never spelled out; I got the feeling that a whole bunch of conflicts got conflated and thus, a thoroughly mangled world - which isn't unimaginable. But the history itself doesn't matter so much, except insofar as the remnants can be either helpful or harmful to the humans still making their way. Coming off Isobelle Carmody's Obernewtyn series, this is refreshing, and I liked it: for most of the population survival is more important than history, and that makes sense.
The novel is made up of a large and varied cast, whose stories eventually intertwine. There's an adolescent on a caravan in the desert fed up with her life; a supersoldier reawakened; an old, old woman eking out the end of her life; a grifter; and representatives of those doing better than everyone else, come to see what the rest of the world is like. It was good to read the variety of perspectives and remember that human survival will mean a diverse range of experiences.
The story at its most basic is a straightforward one. But the thing that really made this stand out was the world building. It helped that I happened to be reading this in a blast of hot days, but even if it had been the middle of winter I would have felt hot, felt parched, felt distressed by the unrelenting nature of the world - this is a world that really can't support humans very well anymore. But humans are determined and bloody-minded, and that comes through too.
One thing that annoyed me was in the proofreading. There were a number of instances where commas were in weird places. And of course I can't now find an example because I forgot to mark them, so it looks like I'm complaining out of turn. But they were definitely there: commas as though there were three adjectives but there was only two, for instance. Not a problem with the story, but something that threw me a few times.
Overall this is (I can't believe) a great debut novel from Sparks. I hope she has more vices stories in her after she finishes her PhD...
Cat Sparks is a friend... but she'd never expect anything but the truth from me, so don't worry; this is definitely a fair review.
So it must be pointed out that you shouldn't come to this book hoping for a happy post-apocalypse world, or a happy post-apocalyptic story. That is not how Sparks rolls. There is unpleasantness and violence and maiming and death and loss and lots and lots of hideous sand. This is a world where human survival relies on following rules that enable communities to survive even if you don't understand them; where groups have to be wary of other groups because even though helping each other is a good idea, sometimes my group against yours might mean we survive at your cost. Did I mention the sand? There's a lot of sand. Life is hard and for most people, requires hard work and sacrifice. Well, for most people... and that (naturally) is one of the tensions that Sparks works through here.
This is a world after global conflict, some indeterminate period in the world's past, that involved soldiers created by humans - robots, cyborgs, and all manner of variations on the theme. Exactly what happened in the past is never spelled out; I got the feeling that a whole bunch of conflicts got conflated and thus, a thoroughly mangled world - which isn't unimaginable. But the history itself doesn't matter so much, except insofar as the remnants can be either helpful or harmful to the humans still making their way. Coming off Isobelle Carmody's Obernewtyn series, this is refreshing, and I liked it: for most of the population survival is more important than history, and that makes sense.
The novel is made up of a large and varied cast, whose stories eventually intertwine. There's an adolescent on a caravan in the desert fed up with her life; a supersoldier reawakened; an old, old woman eking out the end of her life; a grifter; and representatives of those doing better than everyone else, come to see what the rest of the world is like. It was good to read the variety of perspectives and remember that human survival will mean a diverse range of experiences.
The story at its most basic is a straightforward one. But the thing that really made this stand out was the world building. It helped that I happened to be reading this in a blast of hot days, but even if it had been the middle of winter I would have felt hot, felt parched, felt distressed by the unrelenting nature of the world - this is a world that really can't support humans very well anymore. But humans are determined and bloody-minded, and that comes through too.
One thing that annoyed me was in the proofreading. There were a number of instances where commas were in weird places. And of course I can't now find an example because I forgot to mark them, so it looks like I'm complaining out of turn. But they were definitely there: commas as though there were three adjectives but there was only two, for instance. Not a problem with the story, but something that threw me a few times.
Overall this is (I can't believe) a great debut novel from Sparks. I hope she has more vices stories in her after she finishes her PhD...
December 19, 2017
I recently read, with great enjoyment, this hot new post-apocalyptic novel. I’m a sucker for the genre, and this novel has shades of
Dune
, Mad Max,
A Canticle for Leibowitz
, and the works of Roger Zelazny – yet is not derivative. As a fan of the trans-Australia World Solar Challenge, I particularly liked the caravan of solar trucks on the cover. The cover also shows the falling satellite which marks the emergent threat to the world of the novel.
While opening with a solar-powered trading caravan, the novel has a few flashbacks to the three centuries of war that created the dystopian world of the story: “Mighty tankers were on the move, travelling in tight formation grids. Working together, not attacking each other. Not something you saw every day. Those mechabeasts had once roamed wild and free, following their own whims, their own flights of fancy. But something had changed. Something had gotten hold of their minds. Synchronous rhythm locked them into step. For Marianthe, the sight brought on a stream of flashbacks: glory days, when command and strategy spiked through her arteries like a virus. Like a drug. A platoon full of hearts beating in syncopation. You could feel your brother and sister soldiers, know they had your back, your breath, your sweat.” I’m trying to avoid spoilers, but of course that savage past collides with the protagonist’s present, and that’s where the adventure begins.
Some readers seem to have found the world, and the range of characters, somewhat confusing; I thought the level of complexity of the novel was just about perfect. I enjoyed both the characters and the world in which they were set. This book has had a fair bit of revision and polishing before hitting the shelves, and it shows (although a plethora of typos suggests some rather poor final editing). My only real complaint was that, although I liked Star, the 17-year-old protagonist, I would have liked to have seen more of her older sister Nene, the healer (why does Nene just vanish from the story?). With luck, this novel will have a sequel or two.
The novel does seem to meet the definition of a young adult (YA) novel, although it has not been specifically marketed as such. What that means is that it suits the age range from 14 up to and including adult (as opposed to, say, Great North Road , which is written for adults only). Having said that, for the benefit of parents of younger readers, I should point out that there is some bad language, but that the only mention of sexuality is 25 words on page 3: “Remy. Star should never have slept with him. He’d been hanging around her ever since, as if she would ever make the same mistake again.” And Star has quite a clear sense of what is, and is not, the right thing to do.
For me, this novel ended with a “Planet of the Apes” moment, since Cat Sparks has set part of the novel in the vicinity of her home town of Canberra, Australia. Calling one of the fortress cities “Nisn” was a clue I missed first time around – but I could hardly miss the reference to the Brindabella Range. I also finished this book with a strong sense of wanting to read more from this author. Lotus Blue was one of the best books I’ve read this year.
While opening with a solar-powered trading caravan, the novel has a few flashbacks to the three centuries of war that created the dystopian world of the story: “Mighty tankers were on the move, travelling in tight formation grids. Working together, not attacking each other. Not something you saw every day. Those mechabeasts had once roamed wild and free, following their own whims, their own flights of fancy. But something had changed. Something had gotten hold of their minds. Synchronous rhythm locked them into step. For Marianthe, the sight brought on a stream of flashbacks: glory days, when command and strategy spiked through her arteries like a virus. Like a drug. A platoon full of hearts beating in syncopation. You could feel your brother and sister soldiers, know they had your back, your breath, your sweat.” I’m trying to avoid spoilers, but of course that savage past collides with the protagonist’s present, and that’s where the adventure begins.
Some readers seem to have found the world, and the range of characters, somewhat confusing; I thought the level of complexity of the novel was just about perfect. I enjoyed both the characters and the world in which they were set. This book has had a fair bit of revision and polishing before hitting the shelves, and it shows (although a plethora of typos suggests some rather poor final editing). My only real complaint was that, although I liked Star, the 17-year-old protagonist, I would have liked to have seen more of her older sister Nene, the healer (why does Nene just vanish from the story?). With luck, this novel will have a sequel or two.
The novel does seem to meet the definition of a young adult (YA) novel, although it has not been specifically marketed as such. What that means is that it suits the age range from 14 up to and including adult (as opposed to, say, Great North Road , which is written for adults only). Having said that, for the benefit of parents of younger readers, I should point out that there is some bad language, but that the only mention of sexuality is 25 words on page 3: “Remy. Star should never have slept with him. He’d been hanging around her ever since, as if she would ever make the same mistake again.” And Star has quite a clear sense of what is, and is not, the right thing to do.
For me, this novel ended with a “Planet of the Apes” moment, since Cat Sparks has set part of the novel in the vicinity of her home town of Canberra, Australia. Calling one of the fortress cities “Nisn” was a clue I missed first time around – but I could hardly miss the reference to the Brindabella Range. I also finished this book with a strong sense of wanting to read more from this author. Lotus Blue was one of the best books I’ve read this year.
January 31, 2019
Picked this novel from the library shelves on the basis of its evocative cover. The author cites 'Dune' as an influence, but I did not see that connection.
Instead, the story is of a world ravaged and almost destroyed by the relentless advancement of military technology. The Dead Heart of Australia has become the Dead Red Heart, and the lands are reduced to fortress cities, hardscrabble trading towns and caravans of traders moving across the dangerous hinterlands. The currency of trade is in relics. Relics from the semi-autonomous wild and mutant war machines, with their cyborg brains and deadly weaponry. Electronic barriers protect the trade routes, but they are still at risk of attack by mutated wildlife, or by remnant super-soldiers, known as Templars, who are haunted by their dreams of past battles, and by their betrayal by those who created and dispatched them to their fates. Most of all danger will come from the marauding battle machines known as Trucks, which, when not fighting each other, are only to happy to crush humans who come into their paths.
The story is told from the POV of Star, a young woman of uncertain ancestry, whose life is cast into chaos by the destruction of her caravan by a very unnatural storm. Star yearns for an exciting new life beyond the monotony of the regular trade routes. She gets much more than she bargains for as a she is flung headlong into danger, with a chancy company of mercenary treasure hunters, opportunistic thieves and an unreliable rich girl friend, on a chance to recover or destroy the most dangerous incarnation of the proliferation of insane weapons of mass destruction.
Cat Sparks paints eloquent word pictures of the magnificent desolation and terror of the world as it has become. There is a clarion warning of the foolishness of spending big on ever more advanced machineries of death and destruction. She is also able to imbue her half a dozen main characters with qualities and flaws which let the reader care about their various fates.
Instead, the story is of a world ravaged and almost destroyed by the relentless advancement of military technology. The Dead Heart of Australia has become the Dead Red Heart, and the lands are reduced to fortress cities, hardscrabble trading towns and caravans of traders moving across the dangerous hinterlands. The currency of trade is in relics. Relics from the semi-autonomous wild and mutant war machines, with their cyborg brains and deadly weaponry. Electronic barriers protect the trade routes, but they are still at risk of attack by mutated wildlife, or by remnant super-soldiers, known as Templars, who are haunted by their dreams of past battles, and by their betrayal by those who created and dispatched them to their fates. Most of all danger will come from the marauding battle machines known as Trucks, which, when not fighting each other, are only to happy to crush humans who come into their paths.
The story is told from the POV of Star, a young woman of uncertain ancestry, whose life is cast into chaos by the destruction of her caravan by a very unnatural storm. Star yearns for an exciting new life beyond the monotony of the regular trade routes. She gets much more than she bargains for as a she is flung headlong into danger, with a chancy company of mercenary treasure hunters, opportunistic thieves and an unreliable rich girl friend, on a chance to recover or destroy the most dangerous incarnation of the proliferation of insane weapons of mass destruction.
Cat Sparks paints eloquent word pictures of the magnificent desolation and terror of the world as it has become. There is a clarion warning of the foolishness of spending big on ever more advanced machineries of death and destruction. She is also able to imbue her half a dozen main characters with qualities and flaws which let the reader care about their various fates.
October 12, 2023
If you're an SF fan, particularly if you're an Australian SF, fan you really must read Lotus Blue .
Cat Sparks is a hell of a worldbuilder and her post-apocalyptic Australia drips with atmosphere, tension and great ideas.
Wheeled sailing ships navigate a black sea of glass that was once a city, caravans of hard-bitten traders crawl across the blasted deserts, and the lethal relics of conflicts past both litter and roam the landscape, still taking lives centuries after their creation.
Star is a young woman living on one such caravan, riding its rocking wagons across the endless wastelands between the remaining human settlements. SHe's bored with her life of travel with her medico sister, and has plans to abandon the caravan at its next stop, to seek a life that is more than helping her sister bandaging hurt caravaneers.
While Star wrestles with how and when to abandon her travelling family, at a distant underground city - a relic of the pre-war times - a battered Templar supersoldier is being sent on a mission, his war-wracked and ancient body driving him forward on one final mission.
Another ancient is waiting out her many years at an old communications base, tending to a flock of followers that have gathered around her while wondering if she will ever see her equally old lost lover again.
All of them will find themselves facing a terrible threat of awesome power. An ancient war machine has reawakened, and its malevolent growth will draw all to it, where the future of the dark future could be decided.
This is a real page turner of a novel, with a pace that never slackens and an engine of imaginative ideas that brings to mind the best of dystopian SF. There are scenes of violence and grimness, but they never overwhelm the underlying sense of hope that leavens the bleak bread of Sparks' apocalypse, and makes this novel much more than just another post-apocalyptic SF dirge. Sparks can write, and she pulls the reader along through the story, raising the stakes and keeping the tension high, all the while showing us the wonderfully vivid world she has created.
Grab a copy, and shelve it next to Sean William's Metal Fatigue and T.R Napper's 36 Streets. Lotus Blue fits well among the best of Australian Science Fiction.
Five limping but still deadly supersoldiers out of five.
Cat Sparks is a hell of a worldbuilder and her post-apocalyptic Australia drips with atmosphere, tension and great ideas.
Wheeled sailing ships navigate a black sea of glass that was once a city, caravans of hard-bitten traders crawl across the blasted deserts, and the lethal relics of conflicts past both litter and roam the landscape, still taking lives centuries after their creation.
Star is a young woman living on one such caravan, riding its rocking wagons across the endless wastelands between the remaining human settlements. SHe's bored with her life of travel with her medico sister, and has plans to abandon the caravan at its next stop, to seek a life that is more than helping her sister bandaging hurt caravaneers.
While Star wrestles with how and when to abandon her travelling family, at a distant underground city - a relic of the pre-war times - a battered Templar supersoldier is being sent on a mission, his war-wracked and ancient body driving him forward on one final mission.
Another ancient is waiting out her many years at an old communications base, tending to a flock of followers that have gathered around her while wondering if she will ever see her equally old lost lover again.
All of them will find themselves facing a terrible threat of awesome power. An ancient war machine has reawakened, and its malevolent growth will draw all to it, where the future of the dark future could be decided.
This is a real page turner of a novel, with a pace that never slackens and an engine of imaginative ideas that brings to mind the best of dystopian SF. There are scenes of violence and grimness, but they never overwhelm the underlying sense of hope that leavens the bleak bread of Sparks' apocalypse, and makes this novel much more than just another post-apocalyptic SF dirge. Sparks can write, and she pulls the reader along through the story, raising the stakes and keeping the tension high, all the while showing us the wonderfully vivid world she has created.
Grab a copy, and shelve it next to Sean William's Metal Fatigue and T.R Napper's 36 Streets. Lotus Blue fits well among the best of Australian Science Fiction.
Five limping but still deadly supersoldiers out of five.
March 16, 2018
I think I saw a tweet from N.K. Jemisin recommending this book, and I can see why. The imagination and world that Sparks creates is easily 4 stars. Unfortunately, I found the execution of the story to be more of a 2. But I still liked it, thus the 3 star rating.
Ok, so the world: what was Australia, in the super future (at least 200 years+ from now). What remains is almost unending desert, melted cities, highly guarded underground enclaves and an assortment of "mecha" - half living, half mechanical beings. Some of these include wild trucks and tankers just driving around on their own out in the desert - cool!! As readers we are given tantalizing pieces of information about the world, bit by bit, and mostly have to come to our own conclusions about what happened and what's left. I could easily have kept reading to learn more about these things. And I kept finding myself wishing this was a movie! (With Mad Max as an obvious inspiration, in a good way.)
But the story is going off in a different direction. Some old war tech - called Lotus Blue - is waking up, and we're following this consciousness as well as an assortment of characters converging on it for myriad different reasons. And when I say "assortment" - yeah. It's a bit tough to keep up, especially at first, with all the different perspectives. And yet they're each part of the puzzle of what's going / went on, and toward the middle of the book the story really hits its stride - the connections are coming together and the story is shaping up.
However, the end... Sigh. Feels a bit rushed and anti-climactic. I kept noting how plot elements didn't quite connect. Some recognizable tropes from adventure movies show up that aren't necessarily earned. Satisfying depth of character is never quite fully achieved. It kinda felt like a trilogy-length story was smashed into a single book.
Despite this, I really did like the book - the creative wonder of the setting is consistent throughout. The writing itself, sentence-level, is very strong - sparse and poetic. I would read more by Cat Sparks. I hope she continues to build and improve on the promise of this debut novel.
Ok, so the world: what was Australia, in the super future (at least 200 years+ from now). What remains is almost unending desert, melted cities, highly guarded underground enclaves and an assortment of "mecha" - half living, half mechanical beings. Some of these include wild trucks and tankers just driving around on their own out in the desert - cool!! As readers we are given tantalizing pieces of information about the world, bit by bit, and mostly have to come to our own conclusions about what happened and what's left. I could easily have kept reading to learn more about these things. And I kept finding myself wishing this was a movie! (With Mad Max as an obvious inspiration, in a good way.)
But the story is going off in a different direction. Some old war tech - called Lotus Blue - is waking up, and we're following this consciousness as well as an assortment of characters converging on it for myriad different reasons. And when I say "assortment" - yeah. It's a bit tough to keep up, especially at first, with all the different perspectives. And yet they're each part of the puzzle of what's going / went on, and toward the middle of the book the story really hits its stride - the connections are coming together and the story is shaping up.
However, the end... Sigh. Feels a bit rushed and anti-climactic. I kept noting how plot elements didn't quite connect. Some recognizable tropes from adventure movies show up that aren't necessarily earned. Satisfying depth of character is never quite fully achieved. It kinda felt like a trilogy-length story was smashed into a single book.
Despite this, I really did like the book - the creative wonder of the setting is consistent throughout. The writing itself, sentence-level, is very strong - sparse and poetic. I would read more by Cat Sparks. I hope she continues to build and improve on the promise of this debut novel.
March 30, 2021
The setting of "Lotus Blue" is a far-future Australia devastated by a horrifying world war. Satellite weapons still circle the Earth; vast regions of desert have been transformed into fused glass, rather like the Trinitite formed by atomic bombs but on a monumental scale. Caravans of lumbering wagons travel between forsaken towns, guarded by men on camels.
Some people escaped by burrowing underground into cities now dependent on salvaged technologies, since the skills and knowledge to build computers has been lost. The machine intelligences, the Lotuses of the title, which directed the war, are in stasis. But one, the Blue, awakens, and spreads destruction and terror as it seeks to reassert its power and reconquer the world.
Sparks brings together a cast of characters whose separate lives eventually converge on Lotus Blue in uncoordinated efforts either to stop it or to seize its powers for their own uses. The point of view alternates among these characters chapter by chapter, till in the end they come together at the Blue's underground fortress.
The plot is well-conceived and the characters appealing and believable. While some convergences are predictable (all my guesses turned out right), that doesn't detract too much from the fun. Right up till the end I thought Sparks was writing a stand-alone novel, but then, through what are unfortunately hard-to-swallow devices, she sets herself up for a sequel. To the best of my knowledge, that hasn't yet appeared.
One thing did strike me here: unless I am completely mistaken, and if so I am very sorry, there is not a single Indigenous character in the book. The Australian desert without its people seems strange and empty.
Some people escaped by burrowing underground into cities now dependent on salvaged technologies, since the skills and knowledge to build computers has been lost. The machine intelligences, the Lotuses of the title, which directed the war, are in stasis. But one, the Blue, awakens, and spreads destruction and terror as it seeks to reassert its power and reconquer the world.
Sparks brings together a cast of characters whose separate lives eventually converge on Lotus Blue in uncoordinated efforts either to stop it or to seize its powers for their own uses. The point of view alternates among these characters chapter by chapter, till in the end they come together at the Blue's underground fortress.
The plot is well-conceived and the characters appealing and believable. While some convergences are predictable (all my guesses turned out right), that doesn't detract too much from the fun. Right up till the end I thought Sparks was writing a stand-alone novel, but then, through what are unfortunately hard-to-swallow devices, she sets herself up for a sequel. To the best of my knowledge, that hasn't yet appeared.
One thing did strike me here: unless I am completely mistaken, and if so I am very sorry, there is not a single Indigenous character in the book. The Australian desert without its people seems strange and empty.
July 12, 2018
Lotus Blue is a post-apocalyptic book set in the expansive Australian outback. It's a fascinating world that Cat Sparks has created, where the surviving humans exist any way they can in a barren and often hostile environment.
The main character is a 17 year old girl called Star who lives with her sister and extended pseudo-family on a convoy of trucks travelling the sands. But it is a "coming of age" story, and the life Star feels comfortable with soon begins to shift and change around her.
The Lotus Blue after which the book is named, is an AI army General who revives after a lengthy period of dormancy and is keen to resume destruction.
Sparks does a superb job of world-building, and all her characters are realistic, whether likeable or not. I particularly liked the lightly-sketched mechabeasts, sentient machines that roam like feral animals across the landscape. That the reader thinks they instantly know what these creatures look like on a minimalist description reminded me of Terry Dowling's ability to similarly ignite the reader's imagination with as brief a description as possible.
Lotus Blue is well paced. Sparks doesn't take her foot off the accelerator once - the story keeps unfolding, and this reader happily kept following the path to the end.
I found Lotus Blue a very enjoyable read
.
The main character is a 17 year old girl called Star who lives with her sister and extended pseudo-family on a convoy of trucks travelling the sands. But it is a "coming of age" story, and the life Star feels comfortable with soon begins to shift and change around her.
The Lotus Blue after which the book is named, is an AI army General who revives after a lengthy period of dormancy and is keen to resume destruction.
Sparks does a superb job of world-building, and all her characters are realistic, whether likeable or not. I particularly liked the lightly-sketched mechabeasts, sentient machines that roam like feral animals across the landscape. That the reader thinks they instantly know what these creatures look like on a minimalist description reminded me of Terry Dowling's ability to similarly ignite the reader's imagination with as brief a description as possible.
Lotus Blue is well paced. Sparks doesn't take her foot off the accelerator once - the story keeps unfolding, and this reader happily kept following the path to the end.
I found Lotus Blue a very enjoyable read
.
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