Toujours à la poursuite des Démons Invisibles, responsables de la mort de ses parents, Andrea Cort se rend sur la lointaine planète Vlhan. Ses imposants habitants y pratiquent un rituel qui tient tout autant du spectacle de danse que du suicide collectif. Une fois, par le passé, le ballet a dégénéré, et les habitants de Vlhan se sont retournés contre les spectateurs présents pour les massacrer. Andrea est convaincue qu’élucider le mystère à l’origine de cette tragédie peut la mener à ses Démons Invisibles. Mais la disparition d’une jeune fille vient rapidement compliquer sa quête personnelle. Vlhan est une planète dangereuse et Andrea ignore à quel point elle s’apprête à danser avec la mort.
Adam-Troy Castro made his first professional sale to Spy magazine in 1987. Since then, he's published 12 books and almost 80 short stories. Among those stories are "Baby Girl Diamond" (nominated for the Bram Stoker Award) and "The Funeral March of the Marionettes" (nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 1998). "The Astronaut from Wyoming," a collaboration with Jerry Oltion, appeared in Analog and was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 2000, before winning the Seiun (Japanese Hugo) for best translation in 2008.
His "Of A Sweet Slow Dance in the Wake of Temporary Dogs" was nominated for the 2003 Nebula. His original short story collections include Lost in Booth Nine (published by Silver Salamander Press in 1993), An Alien Darkness and A Desperate Decaying Darkness (published by Wildside Press in 2000), Vossoff and Nimmitz (2002), and Tangled Strings (2003). He is also the author of the Spider-Man novels—Time's Arrow: The Present (written in collaboration with Tom DeFalco), The Gathering of the Sinister Six, Revenge of the Sinister Six, and Secret of the Sinister Six—as well as the nonfiction My Ox Is Broken! The Andrea Cort novels include, Emissaries from the Dead, The Third Claw of God, and a third installment currently in progress, tentatively titled The Fall of the Marionettes.
Castro, who married the divine Judi on 25 December 2002, lives in Florida with his wife and four cats: Maggie, Uma Furman, Meow Farrow, and the latest acquisition, Ralphie, an orphan of 2005's hellacious hurricane season.
This is a third and so far the last novel about Andrea Cort, a Prosecutor-at-Large, Judge Advocate’s Office, Diplomatic Corps, Hom.Sap Confederacy. This novel exists in English only as audio, which may lead to misspelling of names.
Andrea with her bodyguard/lover two-bodies-one-person arrives on a planet Vlhan. Local sapient life here, called Marionettes, are a ball with whip-like tentacles, which they use to communicate, emulating waves with whips. Their language is so hard that no single sapient race was able to decode it completely. They have a strange annual ritual that is half dance, half mass suicide. Other species captivated by performance join in up to their deaths. this includes thousands of humans.
This time performance turns into bloodbath, which reached spectators as well. Andrea runs for her life, trying to solve the mystery.
I liked this novel the least of the series. It is ok, but other two were better.
La première nouvelle éclaircit des zones d’ombres laissées par La Troisième Griffe de dieu, et est en lien direct avec La Guerre des Marionnettes.
Elle est absolument horrible, mais elle prépare bien au récit principal, qui pour le coup l’est tout autant : aucune pause, la peur est partout, la tension est palpable. Je me suis terriblement inquiétée pour les personnages, tout au fil du récit, beaucoup plus que dans les précédents tomes.
La dernière nouvelle ouvre une nouvelle perspective à Andrea, mais je pense que la conclusion reste prévisible et censée pour tout lecteur de la série : Andrea est toujours rattrapée par la réalité et la fatalité, il m’aurait semblé étrange qu’elle soit épargnée.
De manière globale, ce troisième tome est beaucoup plus sombre et pessimiste que les précédents. Andrea n’a presque pas le temps de faire preuve de son sens de l’humour mordant, tant elle a peu de temps pour ne serait-ce que sauver sa peau, ce qui est déjà bien.
C’est avec grand plaisir que j’ai appris dans le préambule que l’auteur comptait écrire à nouveau sur ce personnage, il y a donc des chances pour que La Guerre des Marionnettes ne soit pas le dernier tome de cette série. À voir dans quelques années !
Enfin, j’aime énormément cette magnifique couverture, tout aussi belle que les précédentes.
La guerre des marionnettes constitue une nouvelle bombe. Tout, dans la série Andrea Cort, est une réussite. De l’univers imaginé par Adam-trop Castro, à l’intrigue haletante en passant, évidemment, par les espèces et personnages qu’il a créé, tout est formidable. Ce troisième volume haletant est terriblement accrocheur et constitue, encore une fois, une excellente lecture. Lisez la série Andrea Cort! C’est beaucoup trop bon pour passer à coté! Tous les textes existants avec Andrea Cort sont désormais disponibles en français: merci Albin Michel Imaginaire pour cette belle offre!
The third Andrea Cort novel (so far only published in German as a real book) offers one step forward and two steps back. I liked the first two novels in the series immensely, but hesitate to recommend this one.
Whereupon the first two novels took place in environments where the number of appearing characters was limited, WotM goes for a more epic style with a whole world full of different aliens and humans as the background (which I think is one reason the book fails, Andrea Cort novels seem to work best in small communities). Propelled by her AI masters, Andrea goes to the world of the Marionettes to make an important decision, not knowing what it entails.
What follows are four hundred pages (probably much less in the English original, but still too much) of massacres, death, and violence with the main character sinking ever deeper into misery. Despite the ending, it does feel like 98% of the whole book are a pointless waste.
Yes, the final decision of Andrea is interesting, how it re-shapes her connection to the all-mighty alien AI conglomerate. But for all that, it feels like X-Files all over again, endlessly taunting us with explanations, yet never providing any. We don’t really learn anything we didn’t already know.
Worst of all, the tendency of Andrea to get angsty and emo, something I only like in very small doses, went into overdrive here. I can read only so much self-pity before I get annoyed. We all have been at the bottom, but to remain there and decorate the place with your all-encompassing self-hatred and hatred at life in general, that’s no fun.
Maybe if the rest of book, the endless parade of atrocities, had been not so mind-numbingly dull (less is more comes to mind), I would have overlooked the endless self-pity. Harsh as it may sound, I don’t think those not able to read the third Andrea Cort novel miss out much.
Cet épais roman regroupe trois textes dans l'univers d'Andrea Cort. Le premier est une courte nouvelle dans laquelle un jeune homme (dont on imagine sans peine l'identité, en lien avec le précédent roman) accompagne sa copine qui se transforme pour danser avec les marionettistes, une espèce extra-terrestre incompréhensible. Le second est un épais roman dans lequel Andrea Cort se rend sur la planète des marionettes pour assister à cette danse, laquelle va devenir une guerre. Le troisième est une autre nouvelle, dans laquelle Andrea Cort et son couple d'inseps va participer à l'interrogatoire d'un autre insep ayant commis un meurtre avant de s'unir. Même si les nouvelles sont intéressantes, je vais me concentrer sur le roman, parce que je trouve toujours plus intéressant le développement d'une intrigue au long terme. Dans celui-ci, on retrouve ce qui a fait pour moi l'intérêt des précédents tomes. Andrea Cort reste une garce invivable (qui se déteste avec la dernière énergie). L'univers reste une version adulte et un peu plus sombre de celui de Valerian et Laureline : il y a des humains, des extra-terrestres, et tout le monde tente de cohabiter dans le vaste univers avec un minimum de bonne intelligence, et une règle simple : on ne tue pas les êtres sentients. Muni de cet environnement, de cette héroïne, l'auteur nous plonge dans un mystère typique de la SF à extra-terrestres : que veulent dire les marionettes ? Enfin, ça, c'est au début, parce que très vite, ça dérape. Et je dois le signaler, ça dérape salement. Une scène en particulier, riche en modifications corporelles non voulues constatées par une héroîne franchement diminuée, m'a parue peu soutenable. En ce sens, on peut dire que c'est une oeuvre authentiquement adulte : l'auteur a viré tout le fun pour le remplacer par des moments parfois simplement tristes, parfois dérangeants, parfois authentiquement atroces. C'est d'ailleurs mon principal reproche : il n'est pas nécessaire d'enlever toute forme d'éclaircie, d'espoir, de gaieté, pour prétendre écrire pour des adultes. On me répliquera sans doute que les Porrinyard, l'insep qui accompagne Andrea Cort, sont là pour ça. Et ce sera sans doute vrai. Mais faire porter l'espoir sur uniquement un personnage me paraît compliqué. Néanmoins, c'est un roman qui arrive assez bien à porter l'urgence des enjeux, et je trouve que ça n'est pas courant. Andrea et les Porrinyard passent leur temps à essayer d'aller plus vite que les dangers qui les menaçent. Ca donne un récit très vivant, très enlevé, qui m'amène trop vite (en à peine 500 pages) à son second défaut. (attention, spoiler) Si les démons invisibles ont fait tout ça pour contraindre Andrea Cort à se soumettre à eux, je pense que le dialogue par lequel elle négocie sa reddition aurait gagné à être présenté directement, plutôt que raconté de seconde main par Andrea. D'accord, ça permet de remettre sa haine d'elle-même au centre du récit, mais je pense que les deux étaient possibles, et que ça aurait cristalisé cet espèce de climax qui est à mon avis loupé dans cette version. Notez bien que ça n'est pas pour moi und éfaut majeur, parce que le roman était déja riche de bien des merveilles. Mais ça gâche quand même les cinquante dernières pages. Autrement dit, ce roman est bien sur au moins 90% de sa longueur, et les deux nouvelles qui l'accompagnent sont du même accabit. Si vous aimez les extra-terrestres bizarres, les personnages torturés (et parfois la torture psychologique), c'est un livre pour vous.
Dernier roman (à ce jour ?) des aventures d'Andrea Cort, comme toujours accompagné de plusieurs novellas. Au final, bonne impression de cette série... qui, surprise, se termine mal, sur une victoire à la Pyrrhus. L'ambiance est assez sombre, avec de vrais moments de body horror. Le roman est un peu plus décousu que les précédents, mais je l'ai trouvé plus riche. L'ensemble du cycle est très agréable à lire, même si ça ne m'a pas fait sauter au plafond. J'ai passé un bon moment, ce que je recherchais et ce qui était promis !
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I really enjoyed this last book in the Andrea Cort universe. The plot was very exciting and had less of the murder mystery aspect and felt more like a full science fiction novel. I thought the aliens and their Ballet was really interesting as a plot. There were lots of exciting action scenes that made this particular book in series my favorite. I especially like seeing new aliens and what their cultures are like along with how humans and other aliens interact and interpret them. There is the added element of the AISource that are constantly fiddling with things and have their grubby digital paws in everything which makes things even more complicated for Andrea and her investigations. Overall I think this one was the best of the series with an overall rating of 4 out of 5 stars from me.
Maybe this was a let-down after I'd been randomly checking to see if this book was ever going to be available in English for, like, two and a half years, but this story just made me feel like shit by the time it was over. Also, the bizarre-delightful ideas that powered me through the first two books are starting to feel stale -- the strange grotesque body mods felt very Perdido Street Station and one of the characters might as well have been a Vulcan.
I was a little sad and worried since some of the reviews expressed love for the first two books and a feeling that this book was not nearly as good. I did not feel the same way, though the series did take a turn more towards plain science fiction and less to the who done it aspect. I definitely had the final mystery figured out very early on. Still loving this series and wishing desperately that there was more to read beyond what appears to be a scattering of short stories.
I liked this book, which was the third and seemingly final book in the Andrea Court series of novels. In this one she goes to a planet where strange sentient beings do not communicate by talking but rather through intricate waving of their arms that are 20 feet long. They do a bizarre annual ritual dance that results in them committing suicide. Other species are fascinated by it all and some are compelled to join, including a good number of humans who have their arms cut off and replaced by artificial alien whip arms.
Andrea starts the book by going to this planet at the behest of the AISource which tells her that things are going to go wrong and result in interspecies war that will wipe out humans. While there she and the Porrinyards - the psylinked pair of Ocean and Sky - who are her lovers and her protectors -- have adventures when everything goes wrong.
Throughout the book she is hassled by the "unseen demons" who are the segment of the AISource artificial intelligence who do not want to die and are battling against the main AISource. The unseen demons are who took over her body when she was 7 and caused her to kill her family. She hates them with a passion but at the end she makes a deal with her unseen demons who use their powers to put an end to the battle on the planet just before the human military does something that would have immediately triggered full war.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Please read Goodreads summary above. Note I did not listen to the audio book, I read the Kindle edition (see reference to that below). A bleak disappointment. The first two books in the Andrea Cort series were quite compelling, and the development of her character was always progressing in a positive direction, moving away from her horrific childhood. Everything took a step backward here including Andrea Cort-and mankind. I got really distracted by Cort calling herself a "tough bitch" in almost every chapter. We've established that in Cort books #1 and #2-time to move on. Enough! Of course life is too short to read mediocre books, and I think it is also too short to spend much time explaining my opinion as to their mediocrity. Important note: the Kindle edition has quality issues with numerous typographical errors. Obviously, such errors interrupt the continuity of the narrative. I will complain to Amazon when I get to it and update this post when I do. I wonder: did the author change editors or take a less hands-on approach? It seems like something went astray with this installment of the trilogy in terms his writing and QA as to the actual published book..
Not my favorite of the Andrea Cort books, I was super intrigued by the Vlhani at the beginning, and throughout, but the end didn't turn out quite as I hoped. But, hey, they can't all. Still a very well-written great read. I would LOVE a Cort collection of all her short stories. Awesome character, and I'll read anything she's in,
After the stationary plot of The Third Claw of God, War of the Marionettes takes us on a death-defying chase through a war zone. We also get some strange and mysterious aliens again.
This is still grim dark, very dark very grim. No one is innocent there are no angels.
Will Andrea be able to save humanity? Is it worth saving? At what cost?
I enjoy the Andrea Cort stories, and this 3rd novel was a good read. I would give it 5 stars, but I found it had dozens of typos and errors, that were jarring and would take me out of the moment. I assume this was due to the process of translating the novel from German to English, but it could definitely have used a passover from an editor.
I liked this installment better than the second because of the story, but I really hated the way the main character evolved. Thank god it's over (even if the ending seems like the epitome of cowardliness).
Weakest of trilogy, but still fun to have another novel in the series. But why so many, many typos, missing words, duplicated words, and grammar errors? Needs tons of copy editing.
Ce livre ne marque pas véritablement la fin du cycle. Quelques questions restent en suspens, et je ne serais pas étonné mais ravi de voir un quatrième tome pointer le bout de son nez
I was worried at first that this one would turn out to be episodic, which is kind of how I felt about the 2nd Andrea Cort Book (although the who-dunnit focus and Agatha Christie homage of book 2 was very enjoyable), but was pleasantly surprised to find Book 3 reach brutally into the overarching plot of all three books and directly blast the 3 (or should i say 2?) main characters with the darkness that haunts Cort et al. Still a lot of the detective elements in there of who did what and why such, but didn't pull us away from the major horrors of Cort's past and present. And the end tied everything up well while clearly leaving a lot of shit about to hit the fan. More is definitely welcome.
Another excellent installment in the Andrea Cort series. Unfortunately it is, for now at least, the last of them.
The world building, action sequences, and inner conflict are once again, excellent! Andrea Cort is a very complex and interesting character. Now if I could only find out how the overreaching story arc carried through the three books of this series will end...
I think I enjoyed this the best of this series. Like in the first novel, Castro creates a fascinating world occupied by multiple species with rich cultures. The larger story-arc of the trilogy and Cort's personal mystery of her past and her unseen demons is unfolded in this novel. And in this novel we see from Cort's companion's perspective for the first time.