What do you think?
Rate this book
In the Time of the Sixth Sun #2
House of Reeds
In five short centuries, the mighty Empire of the Méxica, descendants of the ancient Aztecs allied with Imperial Japan, has spread out to conquer the Earth, left the homeworld, and set its sights on the stars. But the universe is a dangerous place, filled with hidden powers and the relics of ancient civilizations. The Méxica are only the latest of the great Imperial powers to reach for the stars.
But that doesn't stop Imperial Méxica from claiming control.
Xenoarcheologist Gretchen Anderssen had hoped to enjoy her well-earned vacation. She hadn't seen her home-world or her children for many months. But the Company has other plans for her - when she checks in for her transport, she finds new orders for her team. It looks like only a small diversion - a quick trip to the Planet Jagen, to investigate reports of a possible First Sun artifact. She doesn't have to run an excavation, or even gain possession of the artifact. Just file a report. But it smells bad, says Gretchen's Hesht companion, Magdalena. David Parker, the Company pilot assigned to Anderssen's analysis team agrees. And they are so right.
Gretchen, Magdalena, and Parker find themselves in very dangerous territory indeed. Because, unbeknownst to anyone at the Company, the Imperial Méxican Priesthood has decided to wage a war on Jagan - a war not of conquest or defense, but a "flowery war", planned and fomented for the purpose of blooding the Emperor's youngest son. Gretchen and her team are headed right into the middle of the battle.
It may be a War of Flowers, but many people will die, and blood will flow in the streets.
But that doesn't stop Imperial Méxica from claiming control.
Xenoarcheologist Gretchen Anderssen had hoped to enjoy her well-earned vacation. She hadn't seen her home-world or her children for many months. But the Company has other plans for her - when she checks in for her transport, she finds new orders for her team. It looks like only a small diversion - a quick trip to the Planet Jagen, to investigate reports of a possible First Sun artifact. She doesn't have to run an excavation, or even gain possession of the artifact. Just file a report. But it smells bad, says Gretchen's Hesht companion, Magdalena. David Parker, the Company pilot assigned to Anderssen's analysis team agrees. And they are so right.
Gretchen, Magdalena, and Parker find themselves in very dangerous territory indeed. Because, unbeknownst to anyone at the Company, the Imperial Méxican Priesthood has decided to wage a war on Jagan - a war not of conquest or defense, but a "flowery war", planned and fomented for the purpose of blooding the Emperor's youngest son. Gretchen and her team are headed right into the middle of the battle.
It may be a War of Flowers, but many people will die, and blood will flow in the streets.
544 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
7 people are currently reading
136 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Harlan
20 books93 followersFantasy, alternate-history and science fiction writer Thomas Harlan is the author of the critically acclaimed Oath of Empire series from Tor Books. He has been twice nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Author (in 1999 and 2000). In May of 2001, he received the SF^2 Award for Best New Fantasy Author. His first novel, The Shadow of Ararat was selected as one of the Barnes & Noble Top 20 Best SF&F Novels of 1999. The sequel, Gate of Fire, was chosen as both a B&N Top 20 book and placed on Locus Magazine’s Recommended Reading list for the year 2000. The third and fourth Oath of Empire novels, The Storm of Heaven and The Dark Lord were released in May of 2001 and 2002. A new series followed the cataclysmic end of Oath; an alternate-history science-fiction archaeological/combat series called In the time of the Sixth Sun. The first book, Wasteland of Flint, was published in 2003 and received a starred review in Kirkus. House of Reeds followed in 2004, and Land of the Dead in 2009.
Thomas has published a variety of very well received short fiction in Dragon magazine, as well as the largest adventure module ever published in Dungeon.
Twenty years of game design have produced a number of play-by-email systems, of which the long-running and increasingly complex Lords of the Earth is the best known. Lords is a historical simulation game, encompassing the whole of the Earth, modeling political, economic and military conflict from the early Iron Age to the late 1800’s. There are over forty Lords of the Earth campaigns currently in progress, in English, Spanish, and Italian. The initial campaign has been running for over twenty years and has chronicled the period from 1000 AD to 1770 AD. Lords of the Earth was nominated for an Origins/GAMA award for Best PBM Game of the Year in 2003.
Thomas was born in Tucson, Arizona on February 25th, 1964. He was raised by archaeologist – dendrochronologist – botanist parents and traveled widely throughout the American southwest and overseas as a result. A steady diet of Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings), Herbert (Dune), Herge (Tintin), Goscinny & Uderzo (Asterix), John Buchan (Greenmantle, The Thirty-Nine Steps, etc.), Talbot Mundy (The Nine Unknown, Jimgrim, King of the Khyber Rifles), Edgar Rice Burroughs (John Carter of Mars), Kenneth Bulmer (Prescot of Scorpio) and other purveyors of the fantastic inform his literary background. An excessively long stay in college provided him with a moderate background in creative writing, history, art and other sundry skills helpful to a novelist.
Aside from his literary career, Thomas spent too many years in the information technology industry as a developer, manager and architect for government, education and healthcare. He currently lives in Salem, Oregon.
Thomas has published a variety of very well received short fiction in Dragon magazine, as well as the largest adventure module ever published in Dungeon.
Twenty years of game design have produced a number of play-by-email systems, of which the long-running and increasingly complex Lords of the Earth is the best known. Lords is a historical simulation game, encompassing the whole of the Earth, modeling political, economic and military conflict from the early Iron Age to the late 1800’s. There are over forty Lords of the Earth campaigns currently in progress, in English, Spanish, and Italian. The initial campaign has been running for over twenty years and has chronicled the period from 1000 AD to 1770 AD. Lords of the Earth was nominated for an Origins/GAMA award for Best PBM Game of the Year in 2003.
Thomas was born in Tucson, Arizona on February 25th, 1964. He was raised by archaeologist – dendrochronologist – botanist parents and traveled widely throughout the American southwest and overseas as a result. A steady diet of Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings), Herbert (Dune), Herge (Tintin), Goscinny & Uderzo (Asterix), John Buchan (Greenmantle, The Thirty-Nine Steps, etc.), Talbot Mundy (The Nine Unknown, Jimgrim, King of the Khyber Rifles), Edgar Rice Burroughs (John Carter of Mars), Kenneth Bulmer (Prescot of Scorpio) and other purveyors of the fantastic inform his literary background. An excessively long stay in college provided him with a moderate background in creative writing, history, art and other sundry skills helpful to a novelist.
Aside from his literary career, Thomas spent too many years in the information technology industry as a developer, manager and architect for government, education and healthcare. He currently lives in Salem, Oregon.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
June 12, 2010
This is the second book in Harlan's action SF trilogy set in an alternate future where an Aztec-Japanese alliance repulsed the European invasions and the Mexica eventually rose to world domination. (The first is Wasteland of Flint.) The books are set in a standard human-led interstellar empire based on Old Earth, but the Aztec pre-history allows for some unexpected plot elements. One of those is the basis for this book: in order to blood the sons of the Mexica nobility in combat, a secretive order of priests engineers brushfire wars on alien worlds. One of these Flower Wars gets complicated by the appearance of several unplanned antagonists, including a mysterious shape-shifting alien.
One of the cool things about Harlan's setting is the way he mixes occult psychic/religious elements from the neo-Aztec mythos with flashy high-tech SF toys. It's like Dan Brown and Alastair Reynolds smashed together, with a dose of William Gibson's Japanophilia tossed in. Really, there's something here for pretty much everyone.
The book starts off a little slow, with a great deal of exposition to get all the characters, politics, and resources in place. But this careful stage setting pays off when all the pieces start smashing about in an incredibly satisfying way. Near the end of the book, there's a scene where three factions engage in a pitched battle on a runaway train. This Old West/Mission: Impossible set piece literally had me holding my breath; it's one of the best pieces of action writing I've ever read. It turns out that adding aliens, flechette guns and orbital fire support to a Robert Ludlum-esque thriller makes it even more awesome.
The third book in the series is Land of the Dead.
One of the cool things about Harlan's setting is the way he mixes occult psychic/religious elements from the neo-Aztec mythos with flashy high-tech SF toys. It's like Dan Brown and Alastair Reynolds smashed together, with a dose of William Gibson's Japanophilia tossed in. Really, there's something here for pretty much everyone.
The book starts off a little slow, with a great deal of exposition to get all the characters, politics, and resources in place. But this careful stage setting pays off when all the pieces start smashing about in an incredibly satisfying way. Near the end of the book, there's a scene where three factions engage in a pitched battle on a runaway train. This Old West/Mission: Impossible set piece literally had me holding my breath; it's one of the best pieces of action writing I've ever read. It turns out that adding aliens, flechette guns and orbital fire support to a Robert Ludlum-esque thriller makes it even more awesome.
The third book in the series is Land of the Dead.
March 16, 2016
The second installment really upped the ante.
It's at a slightly more macro level, politics, warfare, and that sort of thing. Which I really appreciate, the first book felt just a bit too narrow in scope. This one is much more expanded. We also get several new characters which are hard to keep track of at first but are all very interesting and fun to follow. New alien races and technologies that the author describes very well, I also really like how attuned he is to how such theoretical alien races would use different metaphors and semantics than we do, and how the human characters pick up on that.
It has a really spectacular ending which kept me up all night reading through it, and left me immediately starting the 3rd book. 5 stars.
If you liked the first book or even thought it was just okay, I would definitely recommend reading this second installment.
It's at a slightly more macro level, politics, warfare, and that sort of thing. Which I really appreciate, the first book felt just a bit too narrow in scope. This one is much more expanded. We also get several new characters which are hard to keep track of at first but are all very interesting and fun to follow. New alien races and technologies that the author describes very well, I also really like how attuned he is to how such theoretical alien races would use different metaphors and semantics than we do, and how the human characters pick up on that.
It has a really spectacular ending which kept me up all night reading through it, and left me immediately starting the 3rd book. 5 stars.
If you liked the first book or even thought it was just okay, I would definitely recommend reading this second installment.
March 16, 2023
Thomas Harlan's House of Reeds has some interesting concepts in it--the background is an alternate history future in which Aztecs and Japanese are the dominant humans--and Harlan is pretty good in the way he drops cultural hints into the narrative without belaboring them, but he doesn't write it all in a particularly compelling way. Few of the characters really come alive--though I appreciate that one of the ones who does is actually a lizard-like alien--and parts of the novel seriously sag. A few parts are intensely involving... but then it's back to something you can't care about. I kept putting the book down. Also, the end doesn't really feel like an end. Suddenly things are just over.
In other weirdness, given the history posited, the humans who get the most airtime are mostly white: Swedish, Skawts, Anglish, and Èirish.
My final impression is one of disappointment. I kept waiting for the book to live up to its potential.
(Note: I didn't read the previous book in this universe, Wasteland of Flint.)
In other weirdness, given the history posited, the humans who get the most airtime are mostly white: Swedish, Skawts, Anglish, and Èirish.
My final impression is one of disappointment. I kept waiting for the book to live up to its potential.
(Note: I didn't read the previous book in this universe, Wasteland of Flint.)
March 28, 2020
This was a really good read.
And it could have easily been a four star book for me, but in my opinion it is in dire want of a capable editor with the courage to chop off a few dozens of pages. On the other hand this kind of verbosity or vastness renders the story undeniable authenticity... maybe that's the price for an overflowing narrative? So, even it doesn't entirely reach four stars, I still rate it this way, simply it's more four than three stars.
Apart from that, there are only a few minor issues I find worth mentioning: The Jehanans appear way too human as if be credible aliens. Other aliens are truely alien as one would expect from non-human beings. And that's one of small issue the moments of sheer wonder and alieness are a little too scarce for my taste.
And compeltely irrelevant for the attentive reader is to keep Gretchen and Greta apart. And these days I believe Greta is the more known Swedish name.
If you read the first part and enjoyed it, you can savely pick up this one and enjoy it too.
And it could have easily been a four star book for me, but in my opinion it is in dire want of a capable editor with the courage to chop off a few dozens of pages. On the other hand this kind of verbosity or vastness renders the story undeniable authenticity... maybe that's the price for an overflowing narrative? So, even it doesn't entirely reach four stars, I still rate it this way, simply it's more four than three stars.
Apart from that, there are only a few minor issues I find worth mentioning: The Jehanans appear way too human as if be credible aliens. Other aliens are truely alien as one would expect from non-human beings. And that's one of small issue the moments of sheer wonder and alieness are a little too scarce for my taste.
And compeltely irrelevant for the attentive reader is to keep Gretchen and Greta apart. And these days I believe Greta is the more known Swedish name.
If you read the first part and enjoyed it, you can savely pick up this one and enjoy it too.
November 14, 2011
Huh? Expecting a continuation of book One, which left several threads hanging, we go to a whole different plant and are introduced to the insanity and malevolence of the Mexica empire. Lots of battles and weaponry. Not much plot development. A sinister thread left dangling at the end. Not half as scary and intriguing as #1, although some interesting new characters. And some humor, grimly lacking in #1.
July 19, 2009
Re-read in 2009 after original read twice on publication in 2004; after reading volume 3 which was superb, I started re-reading volumes 1 and 2 before I could leave this wonderful universe and this one was also as good as i remembered though not quite at volume 1 or 3 level being more of a side novel in the series; same superb writing and world building though
February 18, 2023
A pretty cool universe that the author invented here. The first book hinted at the background, but this one definitely fleshed out the cultural situation going on in the human corner of the galaxy. The "what if the ancient Japanese ran into the ancient Mayans and became trade partners/allies" historical alternate fiction side of it was explored more, as was the multi-species amalgam of society around an ancient planet. Similar to the last book, I didn't really feel satisfied at the end, though the First Sun artifact we explored in this one was more direct/intense than the previous. The xenoarcheologist arc didn't move evolve much though she did dabble in her nascent shamanistic powers a few times which is honestly the coolest parts of the book and couldn't happen often enough. Most of the second half of the book involved lots of close scenes from different sides of a rebellion/uprising, which involved plenty of good military scifi and weaponry. I'll probably read the 3rd book in the series, but I don't own it, so I think I'll take a little break first.
August 13, 2016
House of Reeds felt a lot like the mid-point of a trilogy to me, though it's actually quite self-contained and requires little or no knowledge of what happened in Wasteland of Flint, because while the characters return, that's about it. However, the plot feels like it's explicitly designed to set things up for the future, what with the long-term threat to the Méxica Empire from a mysterious alien race from elsewhere and the continued mention of First Sun artifacts and ruined alien civilizations.
Though actually, the book made me dislike the Empire a lot and wonder if it's even worth preserving. The main plot, which you learn pretty early on even when it takes the entire rest of the book to unfold, is basically an elaborate shell game with multiple operators. The Fleet wants to set up a simple provincial rebellion, which they can swoop in at the nick of time and squash, thus gaining prestige and easy commendations for the officers who participated in it. The Mirror wants to use the operation to stir up enough chaos to flush out what they think is some kind of alien spy trying to infiltrate the Empire. The Imperial household wants to throw Prince Tezozómoc, the most dissolute son of the Light of Heaven, into the crucible and hopefully get some good propaganda footage of a heroic Imperial Prince of the Méxica out of it. And they're willing to sacrifice hundreds of Imperial citizens, tens of thousands of civilians on Jagan, an Imperial light cruiser, and anyone else who needs to in pursuit of these goals. Also, apparently slavery is legal in the Empire, at least judging by some offhand comments by Tezozómoc. There were a lot of characters I was pretty sad survived, because the most just result would have been for them to have been captured by the Jehanan and executed.
Since Gretchen Anderssen is a character in the book, it deals with xenoarcheology, but not enough for my taste. The conflict between the light of science and humanity living on a placid isle of ignorance evident in Wasteland of Flint is completely in absence, and the archeology consists of Anderssen showing up at the titular House of Reeds, finding a First Sun artifact, stamping nope.jpg all over the room and explosively isolating it. Then the rest of the book is all explosions and car crashes and people firing on full auto into the camera while yelling, and that's quite disappointing to me. It almost felt like there were a couple chapters missing near the end, but it might just be that the narrative weight wasn't placed where I wanted it to be.
I wrote in the last review that the aliens were basically people in rubber suits which undermines the whole sense of humanity being alone in a hostile Lovecraftian universe, and that problem continues here. The Jehanan are a bit more odd than the Hesht are, but they're still basically lizard people. And not even that much of lizard people--when the book talks about Magdalena, it emphasizes her claws and her fur and her talking about kits and hunting and packs and so on, so she's literally just an Earth great cat given sapience and made an alien. Most of the time when the book was mentioning Jehanan, I didn't think of them as aliens at all. I don't even have a clear view of what they look like, other than having scales and tails and claws.
Also, I have to rant here about the way Japanese is used in the book. "はい,卿" does not mean "yes, sir." It's nonsense. 卿 means Sir in the sense of "Sir Lancelot," and furthermore, it can't be used on its own--it has to be attached to a name as a suffix, much like "-san." Sure, you could say that this is an alternate history and it's possible that Japanese would evolve differently than the real world, influenced by contact with Norman and Nahuatl, or that Admiralty Japanese has specialized terms that would make no sense in standard Japanese, but there isn't enough Japanese given in the book to determine that and therefore it's indistinguishable from being wrong.
I did like the feel of Jagan. At least before everything goes to hell, there's time put into the notion of Jagan as an old world, with continuous civilization of one sort or another for almost a million years. The Jehanan aren't originally from there, but their civilization has risen and fallen multiple times over the years. The world is metal-poor, with almost all the accessible metal in the crust having been used at one point or another over the aeons. There's even other sapient species there that also aren't native to Jagan. Unfortunately, that's only really dwelt on for the first half of the book until the conspiracy makes its move.
House of Reeds wasn't a bad book, but after the way I loved Wasteland of Flint I was hoping for more. Maybe it will become better in light of later books, when the plotlines set up here have more time to play out, but take singlely it's merely okay. I didn't come to In the Time of the Sixth Sun for the explosions and car chases, but for the Lovecraftian implications and the xenoarcheology and the conflict between science solving problems and Things Man Was Not Meant to Know, and that's just not the focus here.
Previous Review: Wasteland of Flint.
Next Review: Land of the Dead.
Though actually, the book made me dislike the Empire a lot and wonder if it's even worth preserving. The main plot, which you learn pretty early on even when it takes the entire rest of the book to unfold, is basically an elaborate shell game with multiple operators. The Fleet wants to set up a simple provincial rebellion, which they can swoop in at the nick of time and squash, thus gaining prestige and easy commendations for the officers who participated in it. The Mirror wants to use the operation to stir up enough chaos to flush out what they think is some kind of alien spy trying to infiltrate the Empire. The Imperial household wants to throw Prince Tezozómoc, the most dissolute son of the Light of Heaven, into the crucible and hopefully get some good propaganda footage of a heroic Imperial Prince of the Méxica out of it. And they're willing to sacrifice hundreds of Imperial citizens, tens of thousands of civilians on Jagan, an Imperial light cruiser, and anyone else who needs to in pursuit of these goals. Also, apparently slavery is legal in the Empire, at least judging by some offhand comments by Tezozómoc. There were a lot of characters I was pretty sad survived, because the most just result would have been for them to have been captured by the Jehanan and executed.
Since Gretchen Anderssen is a character in the book, it deals with xenoarcheology, but not enough for my taste. The conflict between the light of science and humanity living on a placid isle of ignorance evident in Wasteland of Flint is completely in absence, and the archeology consists of Anderssen showing up at the titular House of Reeds, finding a First Sun artifact, stamping nope.jpg all over the room and explosively isolating it. Then the rest of the book is all explosions and car crashes and people firing on full auto into the camera while yelling, and that's quite disappointing to me. It almost felt like there were a couple chapters missing near the end, but it might just be that the narrative weight wasn't placed where I wanted it to be.
I wrote in the last review that the aliens were basically people in rubber suits which undermines the whole sense of humanity being alone in a hostile Lovecraftian universe, and that problem continues here. The Jehanan are a bit more odd than the Hesht are, but they're still basically lizard people. And not even that much of lizard people--when the book talks about Magdalena, it emphasizes her claws and her fur and her talking about kits and hunting and packs and so on, so she's literally just an Earth great cat given sapience and made an alien. Most of the time when the book was mentioning Jehanan, I didn't think of them as aliens at all. I don't even have a clear view of what they look like, other than having scales and tails and claws.
Also, I have to rant here about the way Japanese is used in the book. "はい,卿" does not mean "yes, sir." It's nonsense. 卿 means Sir in the sense of "Sir Lancelot," and furthermore, it can't be used on its own--it has to be attached to a name as a suffix, much like "-san." Sure, you could say that this is an alternate history and it's possible that Japanese would evolve differently than the real world, influenced by contact with Norman and Nahuatl, or that Admiralty Japanese has specialized terms that would make no sense in standard Japanese, but there isn't enough Japanese given in the book to determine that and therefore it's indistinguishable from being wrong.
I did like the feel of Jagan. At least before everything goes to hell, there's time put into the notion of Jagan as an old world, with continuous civilization of one sort or another for almost a million years. The Jehanan aren't originally from there, but their civilization has risen and fallen multiple times over the years. The world is metal-poor, with almost all the accessible metal in the crust having been used at one point or another over the aeons. There's even other sapient species there that also aren't native to Jagan. Unfortunately, that's only really dwelt on for the first half of the book until the conspiracy makes its move.
House of Reeds wasn't a bad book, but after the way I loved Wasteland of Flint I was hoping for more. Maybe it will become better in light of later books, when the plotlines set up here have more time to play out, but take singlely it's merely okay. I didn't come to In the Time of the Sixth Sun for the explosions and car chases, but for the Lovecraftian implications and the xenoarcheology and the conflict between science solving problems and Things Man Was Not Meant to Know, and that's just not the focus here.
Previous Review: Wasteland of Flint.
Next Review: Land of the Dead.
November 26, 2020
The universe grows
One more book left in this series, wish there were many more. Harlan has created a fascinating universe with many mysteries, my only concern is that we will not see the full fruition of the possibilities. Harlan writes self contained stories with large hints of greater mysteries which is both wonderful and frustrating. Reminds me a bit of the Babylon 5 television series. Interesting characters.
One more book left in this series, wish there were many more. Harlan has created a fascinating universe with many mysteries, my only concern is that we will not see the full fruition of the possibilities. Harlan writes self contained stories with large hints of greater mysteries which is both wonderful and frustrating. Reminds me a bit of the Babylon 5 television series. Interesting characters.
April 27, 2018
This is the 2nd book in the series, and story gets more complicated as we go. The mystery deepens, with a few eye-openers. There is a bit more military action involving the Imperials, but the characters are still good, some new ones, too.
March 23, 2021
The sequel to Wasteland of Flint, our Xenoarcheologist can't escape the Smoking Mirror as she unravels another elder mystery. Except now, one of the mysteries are not quite comfortably dead. I couldn't put this book down!
September 29, 2018
Excellent alt-history
Contains one if the most evil humans I've read about in the creator of the Flower War. Looking forward to the third book.
Contains one if the most evil humans I've read about in the creator of the Flower War. Looking forward to the third book.
June 23, 2023
Not my usual kind of book but figured I'd give it a shot. It wasn't bad but the pacing was off- it felt slow to start and then it was quick to finish.
September 6, 2024
In this book, the author adds some humor to alternative history, space opera and hard sci-fi.
Xenoarcheologist Gretchen Anderssen, accompanied by her staff (including an alien who looks like a big cat and prefers to be called Magda), travels between the stars in search of artefacts left behind by vanished civilisations. This time she travels to the planet Jagen to investigate reports of a possible artefact from the First Sun period.
If you haven't read the first book, I should remind you that the Sixth Sun series are books about a very different future. In this future, the Aztec Empire survives and triumphs, even fighting aliens in space.
A diplomatic mission has been sent to the same planet, Jagen, led by Prince Tezozómoc, the youngest son of the ruler of the Méxica Empire and a disgrace to the entire imperial family. This prince likes to hang out with pretty girls and drink. At the head of an important mission on another planet, he looks particularly foolish. His poor bodyguards (including a middle-aged Eagle Knight who is also Scottish and bookish) have to act as his babysitters.
To be honest, His Highness Tezozomoc reminded me most of Prince Edmund from the first season of the old TV series BlackAdder with Rowan Atkinson. At the beginning of the book, he is kidnapped by a gang of beautiful Russian terrorists, and then he travels to Jagen, not really knowing why or where he's traveling.
But then Prince Edmund from the first season of BlackAdder suddenly turns into a real Hamlet. First of all, Tezozómoc has a very sad reason for behaving the way he does. Secondly, he's also a doomed prince, since the attack on him and his companions is planned as an excuse for the Méxica Empire to attack Jagen.
Nevertheless, there is a lot of humor in this book. But to recount the funny episodes and jokes would be a fool's errand. Better read House of Reeds yourself and smile a few times!
Xenoarcheologist Gretchen Anderssen, accompanied by her staff (including an alien who looks like a big cat and prefers to be called Magda), travels between the stars in search of artefacts left behind by vanished civilisations. This time she travels to the planet Jagen to investigate reports of a possible artefact from the First Sun period.
If you haven't read the first book, I should remind you that the Sixth Sun series are books about a very different future. In this future, the Aztec Empire survives and triumphs, even fighting aliens in space.
A diplomatic mission has been sent to the same planet, Jagen, led by Prince Tezozómoc, the youngest son of the ruler of the Méxica Empire and a disgrace to the entire imperial family. This prince likes to hang out with pretty girls and drink. At the head of an important mission on another planet, he looks particularly foolish. His poor bodyguards (including a middle-aged Eagle Knight who is also Scottish and bookish) have to act as his babysitters.
To be honest, His Highness Tezozomoc reminded me most of Prince Edmund from the first season of the old TV series BlackAdder with Rowan Atkinson. At the beginning of the book, he is kidnapped by a gang of beautiful Russian terrorists, and then he travels to Jagen, not really knowing why or where he's traveling.
But then Prince Edmund from the first season of BlackAdder suddenly turns into a real Hamlet. First of all, Tezozómoc has a very sad reason for behaving the way he does. Secondly, he's also a doomed prince, since the attack on him and his companions is planned as an excuse for the Méxica Empire to attack Jagen.
Nevertheless, there is a lot of humor in this book. But to recount the funny episodes and jokes would be a fool's errand. Better read House of Reeds yourself and smile a few times!
July 13, 2016
The House of Reeds is the sequel to Wasteland of Flint, a book I thought very highly of and gave five stars to in this review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
In this current book, xenoarcheologist Gretchen Anderssen and her team return and are sent to the planet Jagen – just to file a report, for big money, which must mean something bad. Also, in this book, we find Imperial cruiser, the Henry R. Cornuelle, has been sent to the same location (Jagen), again captained by Captain Hadeishi Mitsuharu of the Imperial Méxica Navy. Why?
On the planet Jagan, there are unusual aliens who have some definite ideas about humans and self-rule and a few other things and there are some with a few scores to settle. And it just may happen that there may be some others out there who are stirring up a hornet’s nest, unbeknownst to Anderssen or Hadeishi or any of a number of other Imperials who are about to be impacted.
In this novel, the Emperor’s youngest son, a foppish screw up if I’ve ever seen one, and one I desperately kept hoping would grow the hell up, is sent to this planet with a few bodyguards to either take credit for putting down a major uprising, ideally with holos of him in blood spattered battle armor and weapons standing over dead enemy bodies, or dying heroically in battle. It’s a win either way for the Emperor. Of course, only certain people know this, obviously none of the aforementioned people. But as soon as he sets foot on the planet, the dandy creates a nightmare for everyone around him and gets himself into impossible situations so that you feel so.very.sorry for his bodyguards.
Gretchen befriends an alien in a hostile alien city and finds a First Sun relic, what they’ve been after, and gains immense knowledge and power, without anyone really finding out, but has to escape with the help of this alien and as the planet explodes around them, the bulk of the book takes place with everyone trying to escape to other places, looking for safety, even with Mitsuharu and his crew trying to get to and from and to the ship again, even though it has been violently attacked and partially destroyed.
The book is almost as good as its predecessor, but I’ve got to knock it down a notch from five stars to four for one major reason: it’s too damn complicated! That’s not to say I’m a complete dumbass. I don’t think I am. I’m not one of the smartest, I know, but I’ve got a fairly decent IQ and I read a lot (95 books by mid-July this year) and I usually understand most books (having read Sartre’s Being and Nothingness, which was one of the hardest ever), but this book is ridiculous. First, there are way too many characters to keep track of. So many, that it’s almost as bad as a David Weber novel, which is saying something. But at least Weber puts a list of his characters at the end of his books so you can look them up. This just leaves you hanging, wondering who the hell they are. More importantly, as you jump from chapter to chapter, from passage to passage within chapters, you just start to get confused, because there are so many different scenes taking place in so many different locations at once, that you’re just lost, at least I was until the very end of the novel. It took me forever to catch up and figure out who was where, when, and at what point. Call me dumb, but I thought it was needlessly difficult. I’ve read harder, but those books have been what I view as intentionally intellectually more difficult and more stimulating. This book is simply supposed to be an intriguing, entertaining, action/adventure/mystery within a sci fi genre without making you bang your head against the wall five times. At least, that was my expectation.
Anyway, I mostly enjoyed it, frustrations aside. I think it’s a good series. Ambitious at times, but good. An interesting story. It’ll be interesting to see what Harlan does with the third book. Four stars for what could and should have been a five star book. Recommended.
In this current book, xenoarcheologist Gretchen Anderssen and her team return and are sent to the planet Jagen – just to file a report, for big money, which must mean something bad. Also, in this book, we find Imperial cruiser, the Henry R. Cornuelle, has been sent to the same location (Jagen), again captained by Captain Hadeishi Mitsuharu of the Imperial Méxica Navy. Why?
On the planet Jagan, there are unusual aliens who have some definite ideas about humans and self-rule and a few other things and there are some with a few scores to settle. And it just may happen that there may be some others out there who are stirring up a hornet’s nest, unbeknownst to Anderssen or Hadeishi or any of a number of other Imperials who are about to be impacted.
In this novel, the Emperor’s youngest son, a foppish screw up if I’ve ever seen one, and one I desperately kept hoping would grow the hell up, is sent to this planet with a few bodyguards to either take credit for putting down a major uprising, ideally with holos of him in blood spattered battle armor and weapons standing over dead enemy bodies, or dying heroically in battle. It’s a win either way for the Emperor. Of course, only certain people know this, obviously none of the aforementioned people. But as soon as he sets foot on the planet, the dandy creates a nightmare for everyone around him and gets himself into impossible situations so that you feel so.very.sorry for his bodyguards.
Gretchen befriends an alien in a hostile alien city and finds a First Sun relic, what they’ve been after, and gains immense knowledge and power, without anyone really finding out, but has to escape with the help of this alien and as the planet explodes around them, the bulk of the book takes place with everyone trying to escape to other places, looking for safety, even with Mitsuharu and his crew trying to get to and from and to the ship again, even though it has been violently attacked and partially destroyed.
The book is almost as good as its predecessor, but I’ve got to knock it down a notch from five stars to four for one major reason: it’s too damn complicated! That’s not to say I’m a complete dumbass. I don’t think I am. I’m not one of the smartest, I know, but I’ve got a fairly decent IQ and I read a lot (95 books by mid-July this year) and I usually understand most books (having read Sartre’s Being and Nothingness, which was one of the hardest ever), but this book is ridiculous. First, there are way too many characters to keep track of. So many, that it’s almost as bad as a David Weber novel, which is saying something. But at least Weber puts a list of his characters at the end of his books so you can look them up. This just leaves you hanging, wondering who the hell they are. More importantly, as you jump from chapter to chapter, from passage to passage within chapters, you just start to get confused, because there are so many different scenes taking place in so many different locations at once, that you’re just lost, at least I was until the very end of the novel. It took me forever to catch up and figure out who was where, when, and at what point. Call me dumb, but I thought it was needlessly difficult. I’ve read harder, but those books have been what I view as intentionally intellectually more difficult and more stimulating. This book is simply supposed to be an intriguing, entertaining, action/adventure/mystery within a sci fi genre without making you bang your head against the wall five times. At least, that was my expectation.
Anyway, I mostly enjoyed it, frustrations aside. I think it’s a good series. Ambitious at times, but good. An interesting story. It’ll be interesting to see what Harlan does with the third book. Four stars for what could and should have been a five star book. Recommended.
October 7, 2024
I won't lie, I picked this one up because of the illustration on the jacket. I checked it out of the library because the idea of an alternate future where a South American hegemony called Mexica rules a multi star-system empire sounded pretty fascinating.
I was hooked after the first chapter, where the commander of a valiant but aging light cruiser receives unwelcome news and surrepetitiously (and illegally) trashes it and fakes a malfunction to cover it up.
The alien cultures, the intrigue, the fascinating worldbuilding (Scots (Skawts) body-guards for a wastrel Mexica prince! Danish/Finnish agents-provocateurs!) kept me reading pretty much straight through the book. As I went I realized that this was the 2nd volume of the series and there was a 1st and a 3rd volume.
The author does a good job of (re)introducing you to the characters, making you care about them (in both positive and negative ways) and then thoroughly putting them through the wringer. Unlike some other space operas, the technology seems lived in, the weapons still recognizable, the enemies both alien and yet perfectly understandable, even sympathetic...especially when they are contrasted to the true enemy which is slowly revealed through the course of the book.
The book concludes with something of a cliff-hanger. While the action appears to be temporarily halted, lives still hang in the balance and important questions are unresolved.
I was hooked after the first chapter, where the commander of a valiant but aging light cruiser receives unwelcome news and surrepetitiously (and illegally) trashes it and fakes a malfunction to cover it up.
The alien cultures, the intrigue, the fascinating worldbuilding (Scots (Skawts) body-guards for a wastrel Mexica prince! Danish/Finnish agents-provocateurs!) kept me reading pretty much straight through the book. As I went I realized that this was the 2nd volume of the series and there was a 1st and a 3rd volume.
The author does a good job of (re)introducing you to the characters, making you care about them (in both positive and negative ways) and then thoroughly putting them through the wringer. Unlike some other space operas, the technology seems lived in, the weapons still recognizable, the enemies both alien and yet perfectly understandable, even sympathetic...especially when they are contrasted to the true enemy which is slowly revealed through the course of the book.
The book concludes with something of a cliff-hanger. While the action appears to be temporarily halted, lives still hang in the balance and important questions are unresolved.
April 11, 2016
This book is much more interesting than the introductory novel, Wasteland of Flint. The aliens are much more easy to relate to than in the first novel, though the Lengian is still 'alien' and off-putting and still a bit of a mystery and might be connected to aliens in first novel. The pace and action is very good, especially post midway. There are hints of hidden connections among major characters which makes further reading compelling. The start may have been a little slow, but sometimes it takes time to develop a good backdrop. This book was so much better than the first novel that if the third novel, Land of the Dead, follows same pattern then it will truly be an outstanding read. Look forward to reading it. Overall, a very good book and highly recommend it.
July 18, 2010
Another great read by Mr. Harlan. I wish there was more of the "powers" from Green Hummingbird, that Gretchen possesses, used throughout the story. I, yet again, feel sorry for Gretchen and her crew for not getting something that grants them some sway with "The Company" and puts some quills in their pockets; but there's the next adventure...
July 16, 2012
I read the first book in this series and really enjoyed it so I went out and got this second book. I didn't enjoy it quite as much. There seemed to be too much jumping around from character to character. The black 'cat' is what kept me going. I kept waiting and waiting for the third book, but by then, I had forgotten enough about the first two books that I didn't ever get the third book.
April 15, 2014
Overall, this is a stronger effort than his Oath of Empire series. I enjoyed OoE, but those books gave me the impression the guy had bitten off a bit more than he was able to chew as far as keeping his narrative free from problems and holes. So far, this series is tightly written, exciting, and I immediately moved on to the book three.
November 22, 2011
Mr Harlan creates a wonderful alternate history and an amazing future for the reader to explore. His. Characters are novels and make you want to know more about them. The story's are rich in detail, complexity, and make a great read!
October 30, 2013
Adventure, action, and intrigue thicken the plot and continue to develop the relationships between characters while opening up new cultures and glimpses of the broader universe. A satisfying read that begs for further exploration and the attendant adventure.
August 8, 2012
First book in the series was better over all, but this one had a better narrative flow that made it easier to finish in a shorter time.
December 30, 2014
Thomas Harlan'ssecond instalment of Aztec SciFI is just as good as first one. You do not drop the book until done, although you can find some characters a bit inconsistent.
November 17, 2018
Lovely indeed
December 2, 2016
worth buying, a good read. Entertaining while not taking itself too seriously.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews