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Banner of Souls
One of Spectra's most imaginative and talented authors now takes us on a phantasmagoric journey into a strange future fueled by haunt-tech: a technology which works by harnessing energy from of the realm of the dead. But who are the mysterious race known as the Kami who brought haunt-tech to earth? Saviors from another world, or something else entirely? And how does the child named Lunae who can manipulate time with a thought fit into the puzzle? It is up to the Martian warrior Dreams-of-War to answer these questions before life as she knows it comes to an end.
464 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 2004
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463 people want to read
About the author
Liz Williams
147 books266 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Liz Williams is a British science fiction writer. Her first novel, The Ghost Sister was published in 2001. Both this novel and her next, Empire of Bones (2002) were nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.[1] She is also the author of the Inspector Chen series.
She is the daughter of a stage magician and a Gothic novelist. She holds a PhD in Philosophy of Science from Cambridge. She has had short stories published in Asimov's, Interzone, The Third Alternative and Visionary Tongue. From the mid-nineties until 2000, she lived and worked in Kazakhstan.[2] Her experiences there are reflected in her 2003 novel Nine Layers of Sky. Her novels have been published in the US and the UK, while her third novel The Poison Master (2003) has been translated into Dutch.
Series:
* Detective Inspector Chen
* Darkland
Liz Williams is a British science fiction writer. Her first novel, The Ghost Sister was published in 2001. Both this novel and her next, Empire of Bones (2002) were nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.[1] She is also the author of the Inspector Chen series.
She is the daughter of a stage magician and a Gothic novelist. She holds a PhD in Philosophy of Science from Cambridge. She has had short stories published in Asimov's, Interzone, The Third Alternative and Visionary Tongue. From the mid-nineties until 2000, she lived and worked in Kazakhstan.[2] Her experiences there are reflected in her 2003 novel Nine Layers of Sky. Her novels have been published in the US and the UK, while her third novel The Poison Master (2003) has been translated into Dutch.
Series:
* Detective Inspector Chen
* Darkland
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
December 16, 2009
You very rarely encounter, even in science fiction, technology sufficiently advanced as to seem magic. Most of us use tools daily without understanding how they work, so a rocket-ship or laser-pistol isn't really very different, if you know what it does. [Book:Banner of Souls] is a bit like what might have happened if the person who interrupted Samuel Taylor Coleridge mid-way through Xanadu had given him two tabs of acid and sent him straight back to his desk.
The science in this book manages to seem horrifying, alien, grotesque, and magical, and I think I spent the first third of the book simply boggling and trying to build some kind of construct that would enable me to find some footing in the narrative. The book has decent characters, but I think its strongest feature is its world-building.
Williams never stops to explain. In the first chapter, you follow a woman named Dreams-Of-War as she has her ability to empathize re-activated to make her a more zealous bodyguard. Then she gets into something like a space-shuttle with a kappa, who has an actual depression on top of her head, and leaves Mars for earth. The kappa is a lab-tech, and Dreams-Of-War wears armour made out of a ghost. Listen, this is me trying to make it clearer.
I enjoyed this book, but it was a lot like watching The Cell with a high fever. I don't know if it was actually good or just stunningly vivid and highly confusing.
The science in this book manages to seem horrifying, alien, grotesque, and magical, and I think I spent the first third of the book simply boggling and trying to build some kind of construct that would enable me to find some footing in the narrative. The book has decent characters, but I think its strongest feature is its world-building.
Williams never stops to explain. In the first chapter, you follow a woman named Dreams-Of-War as she has her ability to empathize re-activated to make her a more zealous bodyguard. Then she gets into something like a space-shuttle with a kappa, who has an actual depression on top of her head, and leaves Mars for earth. The kappa is a lab-tech, and Dreams-Of-War wears armour made out of a ghost. Listen, this is me trying to make it clearer.
I enjoyed this book, but it was a lot like watching The Cell with a high fever. I don't know if it was actually good or just stunningly vivid and highly confusing.
February 9, 2024
A Vancean science fantasy set in the very far future. The novel opens on a terraformed Mars, with an armored warrior preparing for a mission to Earth. Then, in rapid sequence, a short scene in an outer planet? habitat? The warrior arrives to a flooded Earth, battered from some past catastrophes. Travel between the planets is via a mysterious Chain, that we will never learn much about. Or about haunt-tech, which is near the center of the novel and we don’t learn much about it, either. It took 60 pages or more before I got into synch with the novel, which is, in outline, Heroes vs. Villains, with lots of old-fashioned action along the way. Sword fights! Ancient spaceships! Oh, and I forgot to mention, it's all women, all the time. They've eliminated the men as useless frippery, and besides they're all born in artificial wombs, with "improvements".
The book kept my attention until the ending, which I found rushed and arbitrary, and cost the book a half-star. Recommended for fans of fast-paced planetary adventures, who don’t mind being tossed into the deep end at the start. 3+ stars
Here’s the best review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... A much better review than this short summary. Clarke's Law is a key here: "Any sufficiently advanced tech is indistinguishable from magic."
The book kept my attention until the ending, which I found rushed and arbitrary, and cost the book a half-star. Recommended for fans of fast-paced planetary adventures, who don’t mind being tossed into the deep end at the start. 3+ stars
Here’s the best review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... A much better review than this short summary. Clarke's Law is a key here: "Any sufficiently advanced tech is indistinguishable from magic."
December 16, 2008
Excellent gothic-sf set in the Winterstrike universe but earlier timewise.
It was easier for me to get into this novel since I read first Winterstrike so I was familiar with haunt-space, kappas, the Matriarchies of Mars and the general setup of that universe.
While Earth is mostly water and relatively backward, the Matriarchy of Memnos on Mars is all powerful, though the distant, secretive and tech-advanced Nightshade planetoid at the edge of the Solar system is starting to meddle in the affairs of the inner planets after a century of mostly silence.
Yskatarina Iye is the niece of Elaki a ruler of Nightshade and she is sent to Mars and Earth to track down the long gone sisters of Elaki known as "Grandmothers" who are trying to breed a special child to oppose Nightshade's attempt at domination they foresee. Yskatarina is under a loyalty compulsion to Elaki and she is ordered to kill the women and the child.
Dreams of War is a tough Martian warrior bonded to a special
"haunt-tech" armor. She is also sent to Earth by the Memnos Matriarchy this time and to guard the special child. For this she is also psychologically conditioned, stripped of her warrior emotional block so she can bond to her ward.
Lunae is the child, though as the fabled children of our usual stories she grows in a year as others in ten or more.
Why is Lunae special and why are Yskatarina and Dreams of War sent to her form the slowly unfolding mystery at the heart of this novel, but there is much more, not the least the excellent world-building from the teeming remains of Earth's landmass, to its oceanic immensity as well as its under the sea mysteries, to the barren, dramatic landscapes of Mars
While it may take a little bit of patience to get into the flow of the novel with all its weirdness and strange terms, Banner of Souls is worth it. Highly recommended.
January 17, 2008
I love strong heroes, and Dreams-of-War will remain one of my favorites. She is skilled, determined, and armed with some of the coolest weaponry I've come across in fiction. Williams is so good at setting up adventure that I wonder where she's been all my life. She is one of the few writers that I can favorably compare to the likes of Iain M. Banks and Dan Simmons. Thus far, "Banner of Souls" is my favorite from her growing repertoire.
July 24, 2016
Really good, if really weird: http://blogendorff.ghost.io/book-revi...
November 24, 2015
Fabulous far-future science fiction with a feminist twist.
Liz Williams joins a fine tradition of authors exploring futures so distant they appear totally alien, blending SF, fantasy and the supernatural. Michael Moorcock, M John Harrison, and Gene Wolfe have all trodden this road, and with this story she is becoming worthy of following in their footsteps
In a time when men are an unpleasant memory, the Martian Matriarchy struggles to control the Solar System. Particularly fractious is Earth, a flooded world, whose rebelliousness is fostered by the planet Nightshade. Dreams-of-War, a Martian warrior, is despatched to Earth to protect a newly-created infant named Lunae, whose ability to manipulate time could save Earth. But the Nightshaders are also interested, and have sent their weapon, Yskaterina; while the alien Kami, benefactors of womankind and providers of the mysterious haunt-tech too have their goals.
Williams steers clear of the intellectual vanity of other exotic-future writers. Some are so enamoured of their own prose and philosophies they let both get in the way of their stories, and in this Williams is closer to early Moorcock than later Harrison. She occasionally slips into expository dialogue when puzzles would be best left to the minds of the reader, but if your name isn’t Gene Wolfe, then that’s difficult. It also lacks the wonderfully oppressive melancholy that other writers manage to conjure, the weight of years, the half-forgotten civilisations yet to be; so Banner of Souls can at times be a little flat, as if the world it inhabits does not exist outside of the immediate experience of Williams’s characters.
There’s also the issue of Williams’s feminism. There are few men in this book, other than gene-twisted leftovers who are deserving of nothing but death. Sex is also regarded as unpleasant. In fact, only the villain of the piece does it at all. But this seems intentionally tongue-in-cheek; there is no hint of a militant creed behind what she writes, no political agenda. She’s playing with””hat if’s…” It’s a personal fantasy, no more sinister than, say, gay author Ricardo Pinto filling his books with pretty men, but equally it means nothing, and comes across as a slightly childish, “because I can” rewriting of the world. Likewise the story loses some of its power towards the end. At first it appears to be setting up some kind of discourse on the duality of being human, but it rapidly becomes a traditional coming of age tale for Lunae.
Williams has managed to bring together a lot of intriguing SF concepts – eldritch technology, modified humans and a dying Earth – with a certain kind of feminism. It’s a fine read, and one day she may one day come close to emulating Ursula Le Guin’s success.
Liz Williams joins a fine tradition of authors exploring futures so distant they appear totally alien, blending SF, fantasy and the supernatural. Michael Moorcock, M John Harrison, and Gene Wolfe have all trodden this road, and with this story she is becoming worthy of following in their footsteps
In a time when men are an unpleasant memory, the Martian Matriarchy struggles to control the Solar System. Particularly fractious is Earth, a flooded world, whose rebelliousness is fostered by the planet Nightshade. Dreams-of-War, a Martian warrior, is despatched to Earth to protect a newly-created infant named Lunae, whose ability to manipulate time could save Earth. But the Nightshaders are also interested, and have sent their weapon, Yskaterina; while the alien Kami, benefactors of womankind and providers of the mysterious haunt-tech too have their goals.
Williams steers clear of the intellectual vanity of other exotic-future writers. Some are so enamoured of their own prose and philosophies they let both get in the way of their stories, and in this Williams is closer to early Moorcock than later Harrison. She occasionally slips into expository dialogue when puzzles would be best left to the minds of the reader, but if your name isn’t Gene Wolfe, then that’s difficult. It also lacks the wonderfully oppressive melancholy that other writers manage to conjure, the weight of years, the half-forgotten civilisations yet to be; so Banner of Souls can at times be a little flat, as if the world it inhabits does not exist outside of the immediate experience of Williams’s characters.
There’s also the issue of Williams’s feminism. There are few men in this book, other than gene-twisted leftovers who are deserving of nothing but death. Sex is also regarded as unpleasant. In fact, only the villain of the piece does it at all. But this seems intentionally tongue-in-cheek; there is no hint of a militant creed behind what she writes, no political agenda. She’s playing with””hat if’s…” It’s a personal fantasy, no more sinister than, say, gay author Ricardo Pinto filling his books with pretty men, but equally it means nothing, and comes across as a slightly childish, “because I can” rewriting of the world. Likewise the story loses some of its power towards the end. At first it appears to be setting up some kind of discourse on the duality of being human, but it rapidly becomes a traditional coming of age tale for Lunae.
Williams has managed to bring together a lot of intriguing SF concepts – eldritch technology, modified humans and a dying Earth – with a certain kind of feminism. It’s a fine read, and one day she may one day come close to emulating Ursula Le Guin’s success.
November 18, 2008
This was.... an ambitious story - possibly too ambitions - but I will give it this: It's the first time I have ever seen a man-hating, racist, genderist, speciesist, bad humored, standoffish woman portrayed successfully as a
heroic
character.
In a world where the male half of just about every species is considered obsolete and unnecessary, several women journey out to save humanity in a mind bendingly alien world. If you can last long enough through the alieness, I found the story to be quite gripping, if also at times off putting due to some of the imagery and the attitudes of the very strongly opinionated characters. It works, though. It works well.
Unfortunately, like many of Liz William's other books, which tend to have a secondary connected plot stream running parallel to the main story, I found myself almost ignoring half of the going ons with the one disconnected girl who was running around on a quest of her own. I kept a close enough eye on her part of the story to get a sense of what was going on - which turned out to be a good idea over skipping entirely - as both threads built up momentum and collided spectacularly with each other.
Then, just as I got to the explosive climax - as I also felt with many of her other books - I was left with the sense that the ending was a bit too convenient, even if it worked well with the story. That was a little disappointing.
Still, I think it is worth the read.
In a world where the male half of just about every species is considered obsolete and unnecessary, several women journey out to save humanity in a mind bendingly alien world. If you can last long enough through the alieness, I found the story to be quite gripping, if also at times off putting due to some of the imagery and the attitudes of the very strongly opinionated characters. It works, though. It works well.
Unfortunately, like many of Liz William's other books, which tend to have a secondary connected plot stream running parallel to the main story, I found myself almost ignoring half of the going ons with the one disconnected girl who was running around on a quest of her own. I kept a close enough eye on her part of the story to get a sense of what was going on - which turned out to be a good idea over skipping entirely - as both threads built up momentum and collided spectacularly with each other.
Then, just as I got to the explosive climax - as I also felt with many of her other books - I was left with the sense that the ending was a bit too convenient, even if it worked well with the story. That was a little disappointing.
Still, I think it is worth the read.
February 9, 2013
This is a fascinating, complicated book with an interesting story and some excellent world building. The way Williams tosses the reader into the world she has created and then slowly reveals its complexities as the tale progresses is beautifully done.
However, for me there was something lacking. I'm not exactly sure what it was, but I think I'll have to go with 'soul' or 'emotion'. That's what got it a relatively low rating from me.
All the same, I recommend it to others for the spectacular world building and realise that they may find it not to be lacking in anything at all.
[Copied across from Library Thing; 9 February 2013]
However, for me there was something lacking. I'm not exactly sure what it was, but I think I'll have to go with 'soul' or 'emotion'. That's what got it a relatively low rating from me.
All the same, I recommend it to others for the spectacular world building and realise that they may find it not to be lacking in anything at all.
[Copied across from Library Thing; 9 February 2013]
Read
October 21, 2007http://nhw.livejournal.com/377382.html[return][return]Basically very good. Teetered on the edge of being too complex for late-night reading (I seem to have spent most of the last week feeling very sleepy) but I managed. Far future setting, almost all characters are women (hardly any men left alive), vibrant Mars vs failing Earth, nanotechnology, advanced military tech and also raising the dead. Will buy more by her.
July 27, 2013
Goodie. In the hospital it brought me healing ... removing me entirely from my circumstances. How cool is that?
May 18, 2018
I ended up liking this book quite a bit, but it really took a long time to get started. The world of the book is very interesting -- far future; radical changes in human society and genetics resulting in the elimination of men and various genetically engineered monsters; "haunt tech," which is technology powered by ghosts -- and the author does a pretty elegant job of setting it up. It was also necessary to get to know the three main characters. I tend to enjoy some good world building, so I liked the start of the book up to a point.
But it wasn't until p. 290 that what the plot was about came into focus, which was more than two-thirds of the way through. From that point it moved really quickly and paid off a lot of the stuff that was set up earlier. Still, that balance seems off. Some of the earlier stuff could have been trimmed or integrated into the central plot more clearly.
But it wasn't until p. 290 that what the plot was about came into focus, which was more than two-thirds of the way through. From that point it moved really quickly and paid off a lot of the stuff that was set up earlier. Still, that balance seems off. Some of the earlier stuff could have been trimmed or integrated into the central plot more clearly.
September 29, 2019
Un buen libro de fantasía con demasiados momentos predecibles pero aún así una novela llena de lore y aunque en ningún momento explica su significado sigue siendo un libro trabajado y se hace disfrutable mientras avanza la historia.
June 14, 2017
Tremendously weird futuristic book, but oddly compelling to read. I enjoyed it, but it definitely fits a particular mood.
June 5, 2021
DNF 60%
Horrendous character development. Flat.
Horrendous character development. Flat.
October 9, 2013
El universo creado por Liz Williams es complejo y extraño. La historia ocurre en un futuro lejano, en el que el ser humano ha conquistado todo el Sistema Solar y ha evolucionado (o mutado) en forma artificial, al punto que ya casi no existen hombres ni nacimientos "naturales": gran parte de las humanas se gestan en cámaras de incubación y hay una gran variedad de cruces entre humanas y animales (muchos de ellos extintos).
El Sistema Solar es regido con mano de hierro por el matriarcado marciano. El Matriarcado está compuesto por una casta de guerreras que se entretiene cazando los pocos machos mutantes que aún habitan el planeta rojo, y ejerciendo una cómoda tiranía a distancia sobre una Tierra devastada por el cambio climático y el crecimiento de los mares. La tecnología más avanzada mezcla espíritus de muertos con ciencia para crear armas, armaduras y naves espaciales, y su misterioso origen es uno de los ejes de la historia.
En este ambiente, una oscura casta de exiliadas en "Noche Sombría" (que parece ser Plutón y/u otros planetas enanos) trata de destruir el Matriarcado y matar a la elegida que podría frustrar sus planes de conquista. Mientras tanto, Sueños-de-guerra, una guerrera marciana, es enviada a la Tierra para proteger a Lunae, la Hito-Bashira, la elegida que puede doblar el espacio-tiempo y evitar el desastre universal.
La novela no es fácil de leer: la autora juega a introducir conceptos, culturas, costumbres y elementos extraños en forma constante, dejando que el lector los aprehenda de a poco, a medida que se van repitiendo. La cantidad de nombres propios que nos resultan extraños llega a marear, y la sociedad que nos describen es tan distinta a todo lo que conocemos (y hemos leído), que me sentía permanentemente a la deriva, tratando de encontrar alguna clave, algún ancla con el mundo que conocemos (o cualquier otro mundo de ficción que he leído).
Creo que esto ya es un problema grave del libro: una novela debería entenderse por sí misma, sin necesidad de un manual o de foros de discusión. Hay muchos autores que juegan a introducir elementos extraños sin describirlos previamente (pienso en Philip K. Dick o Dan Simmons), pero las sociedades y los personajes con los que trabajan son lo suficientemente familiares como para que el lector enganche con la historia mientras deja para más tarde el entender lo que es un "Órgano de Ánimos Penfield".
Pasando por alto este asunto (que podría ahuyentar a algunos lectores potenciales), también tengo problemas con el desarrollo de la trama y de los personajes: excepto por Sueños-de-guerra (que cumple con todo lo que uno puede esperar del estereotipo de la guerrera dura y noble), los demás personajes tienen motivaciones que están más al servicio de la trama que de ellas mismas. Lunae, Yskatarina (la antagonista) y la kappa parecen plegarse a las necesidades de la autora para construir una sucesión de viajes y aventuras, pero sus motivaciones siempre quedan en un discreto segundo plano. Lunae es una adolescente bonachona, "rebelde", con un poder demasiado grande, la kappa parece quererla mucho y desea protegerla, pero más allá de eso, apenas parece tener conexión con su pueblo y sus deseos personales (si los hay). E Yskatarina, que en un principio parece ser llevada por sus ambiciones de poder e independencia, acaba siendo arrastrada (y olvidada) por los eventos. Nunca parece lo suficientemente amenazante, ni lo suficientemente ambiciosa, y sus objetivos son tan vagos que ni siquiera podemos sentir algo de empatía con ellos.
Este débil desarrollo de personajes trata de ser compensado por un conflicto épico: el fin del universo como lo conocemos. El fracaso de Sueños-de-guerra y Lunae podría ser tan catastrófico, que no la autora nos obliga a tomar partido por ellas en desmedro de las habitantes de Noche Sombría. Y eso me molesta bastante: la novela trabaja mucho con la ambigüedad moral de los personajes, cuestiona la tiranía y el racismo del Matriarcado, muestra todos los mundos como decadentes. En este escenario, un conflicto tipo fin del mundo resulta poco atractivo, porque le da superioridad ética a uno de los bandos. Creo que la historia habría funcionado mejor con menos épica y más conflictos personales; menos ciberchamanismo y más política; menos batallas y más chantajes.
En resumen: una ambientación exótica y atractiva, pero confusa, para una historia que se acerca más a Las crónicas de Narnia que a Endymion.
El Sistema Solar es regido con mano de hierro por el matriarcado marciano. El Matriarcado está compuesto por una casta de guerreras que se entretiene cazando los pocos machos mutantes que aún habitan el planeta rojo, y ejerciendo una cómoda tiranía a distancia sobre una Tierra devastada por el cambio climático y el crecimiento de los mares. La tecnología más avanzada mezcla espíritus de muertos con ciencia para crear armas, armaduras y naves espaciales, y su misterioso origen es uno de los ejes de la historia.
En este ambiente, una oscura casta de exiliadas en "Noche Sombría" (que parece ser Plutón y/u otros planetas enanos) trata de destruir el Matriarcado y matar a la elegida que podría frustrar sus planes de conquista. Mientras tanto, Sueños-de-guerra, una guerrera marciana, es enviada a la Tierra para proteger a Lunae, la Hito-Bashira, la elegida que puede doblar el espacio-tiempo y evitar el desastre universal.
La novela no es fácil de leer: la autora juega a introducir conceptos, culturas, costumbres y elementos extraños en forma constante, dejando que el lector los aprehenda de a poco, a medida que se van repitiendo. La cantidad de nombres propios que nos resultan extraños llega a marear, y la sociedad que nos describen es tan distinta a todo lo que conocemos (y hemos leído), que me sentía permanentemente a la deriva, tratando de encontrar alguna clave, algún ancla con el mundo que conocemos (o cualquier otro mundo de ficción que he leído).
Creo que esto ya es un problema grave del libro: una novela debería entenderse por sí misma, sin necesidad de un manual o de foros de discusión. Hay muchos autores que juegan a introducir elementos extraños sin describirlos previamente (pienso en Philip K. Dick o Dan Simmons), pero las sociedades y los personajes con los que trabajan son lo suficientemente familiares como para que el lector enganche con la historia mientras deja para más tarde el entender lo que es un "Órgano de Ánimos Penfield".
Pasando por alto este asunto (que podría ahuyentar a algunos lectores potenciales), también tengo problemas con el desarrollo de la trama y de los personajes: excepto por Sueños-de-guerra (que cumple con todo lo que uno puede esperar del estereotipo de la guerrera dura y noble), los demás personajes tienen motivaciones que están más al servicio de la trama que de ellas mismas. Lunae, Yskatarina (la antagonista) y la kappa parecen plegarse a las necesidades de la autora para construir una sucesión de viajes y aventuras, pero sus motivaciones siempre quedan en un discreto segundo plano. Lunae es una adolescente bonachona, "rebelde", con un poder demasiado grande, la kappa parece quererla mucho y desea protegerla, pero más allá de eso, apenas parece tener conexión con su pueblo y sus deseos personales (si los hay). E Yskatarina, que en un principio parece ser llevada por sus ambiciones de poder e independencia, acaba siendo arrastrada (y olvidada) por los eventos. Nunca parece lo suficientemente amenazante, ni lo suficientemente ambiciosa, y sus objetivos son tan vagos que ni siquiera podemos sentir algo de empatía con ellos.
Este débil desarrollo de personajes trata de ser compensado por un conflicto épico: el fin del universo como lo conocemos. El fracaso de Sueños-de-guerra y Lunae podría ser tan catastrófico, que no la autora nos obliga a tomar partido por ellas en desmedro de las habitantes de Noche Sombría. Y eso me molesta bastante: la novela trabaja mucho con la ambigüedad moral de los personajes, cuestiona la tiranía y el racismo del Matriarcado, muestra todos los mundos como decadentes. En este escenario, un conflicto tipo fin del mundo resulta poco atractivo, porque le da superioridad ética a uno de los bandos. Creo que la historia habría funcionado mejor con menos épica y más conflictos personales; menos ciberchamanismo y más política; menos batallas y más chantajes.
En resumen: una ambientación exótica y atractiva, pero confusa, para una historia que se acerca más a Las crónicas de Narnia que a Endymion.
May 21, 2020
Lunae, a special child vat-grown to manipulate time and abort an alien conquest of the solar system, must journey into a strange realm fueled by haunt-tech (harnessed energy from the dead), accompanied by her Martian guardian, the woman warrior Dreams-of-War, and her sea-dwelling kappa nurse.
December 22, 2008
I'd been meaning to read Liz Williams's Banner of Souls for quite a while now, and only now just got around to it. It was worth the wait, by and large.
The most attention-getting thing about the book is definitely the fact that it's set in a distant future where the solar system is populated by an entirely female society--but that isn't even the point of the plot, so don't go in expecting it to be an anti-male screed. It isn't. What the plot is about is how the Martian warrior Dreams-of-War must journey to Earth to become the guardian of Lunae, a young woman destined to become "the woman who holds back the flood", and how Dreams-of-War must prevent another woman, Yskaterina Iye, from killing her.
I've seen reviews that compare Williams' prose to Ursula K. LeGuin, and while I've read less LeGuin than I'd like, I can kind of buy this. Like LeGuin, Williams makes her prose both substantial and lyrical. This went a very long way towards balancing out the small nitpicky problems I had with the book: one, that the intriguing hints of backstory (such as, why aren't there any men in this society? What happened to them?) never became more than hints, and two, that the ending came across as a bit too pat and convenient.
But all in all, a satisfying and interesting read, one that left me eager to find more of Williams' novels. Four stars.
The most attention-getting thing about the book is definitely the fact that it's set in a distant future where the solar system is populated by an entirely female society--but that isn't even the point of the plot, so don't go in expecting it to be an anti-male screed. It isn't. What the plot is about is how the Martian warrior Dreams-of-War must journey to Earth to become the guardian of Lunae, a young woman destined to become "the woman who holds back the flood", and how Dreams-of-War must prevent another woman, Yskaterina Iye, from killing her.
I've seen reviews that compare Williams' prose to Ursula K. LeGuin, and while I've read less LeGuin than I'd like, I can kind of buy this. Like LeGuin, Williams makes her prose both substantial and lyrical. This went a very long way towards balancing out the small nitpicky problems I had with the book: one, that the intriguing hints of backstory (such as, why aren't there any men in this society? What happened to them?) never became more than hints, and two, that the ending came across as a bit too pat and convenient.
But all in all, a satisfying and interesting read, one that left me eager to find more of Williams' novels. Four stars.
December 5, 2016
Una novela extraña -aunque novedosa, y eso se agradece- que nos introduce una serie de conceptos y fundamentos culturales muy diferentes a los habituales: un Sistema Solar dominado por el género femenino en el que la fusión con la tecnología es tal que los hombres no son para nada necesarios.
En Almas en guerra asistimos a una aventura de persecuciones y traiciones en una sociedad que convive en unos paradigmas opuestos a los nuestros, y es precisamente en ese punto donde tal vez mucha gente que lea la novela pueda perderse o confundirse en su lectura, pues la autora se esfuerza en intentar imaginar una sociedad tan distinta a la nuestra que resulta difícil adentrarse en ella. Por momentos la obra deambula a medio camino entre la pura sci-fi y una suerte de ensayo sociológico teórico sobre un posible futuro matriarcal. Es sin duda el punto fuerte del libro y a la vez el más débil, una extraña contradicción que añade más originalidad.
Si te gusta la ciencia-ficción este libro es un excelente ejemplo de algo distinto en un género que últimamente parece ser algo homogeneizado.
En Almas en guerra asistimos a una aventura de persecuciones y traiciones en una sociedad que convive en unos paradigmas opuestos a los nuestros, y es precisamente en ese punto donde tal vez mucha gente que lea la novela pueda perderse o confundirse en su lectura, pues la autora se esfuerza en intentar imaginar una sociedad tan distinta a la nuestra que resulta difícil adentrarse en ella. Por momentos la obra deambula a medio camino entre la pura sci-fi y una suerte de ensayo sociológico teórico sobre un posible futuro matriarcal. Es sin duda el punto fuerte del libro y a la vez el más débil, una extraña contradicción que añade más originalidad.
Si te gusta la ciencia-ficción este libro es un excelente ejemplo de algo distinto en un género que últimamente parece ser algo homogeneizado.
February 9, 2011
A good read, and less confusing, in many ways, than Winterstrike which I've just finished. I do take issue with Williams'less than appropriate knowledge of machinery and weapons- and Earth being flooded to the extent that Tibet is an island simply isn't realistic- there isn't enough water on the planet, with all the icecaps melted, to submerge the continents. Parts of Australia have never been under water in the entire history of the Earth, 4.6 billion years. How can the European Alps turn into a tidal swamp? Why would advanced humans design and utilise ornithopters, which are very inefficient?
The fact that almost all men have been eliminated is an interesting development, although how primitive human societies (and more so- the "Changed") can breed without access to the science and "designer baby" vats of the Matriarchy is a mystery.
The fact that almost all men have been eliminated is an interesting development, although how primitive human societies (and more so- the "Changed") can breed without access to the science and "designer baby" vats of the Matriarchy is a mystery.
July 3, 2024
2.5 ⭐️
Took me a while to get into & figure out what was going on w/ the switching back & forth between perspectives & planets, with different technologies, gender-elimination/sexism & characters on each, etc. There's a complexity to the world building & the way the narrative is told that I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of. But the ending was well worth it & the payoff for learning this "world" was there. The final 3rd is when it finally became something I couldn't put down but until then... I was left trudging through.
Took me a while to get into & figure out what was going on w/ the switching back & forth between perspectives & planets, with different technologies, gender-elimination/sexism & characters on each, etc. There's a complexity to the world building & the way the narrative is told that I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of. But the ending was well worth it & the payoff for learning this "world" was there. The final 3rd is when it finally became something I couldn't put down but until then... I was left trudging through.
June 18, 2012
Weird but good book about far, far off future with the inhabitants of Mars and Earth being all female. Dream of Wars is the warrior from Mars with the sentinent armor that protects her but is also connected somehow to “haunt tech” the technology from Nightshade that is never really explained in the book.
April 9, 2010
A bit uneven book but still different enough world,characters to be a good read.
Not the best choice if you haven't read Liz Williams before. She shows still potential with the two books of her i have read.
Not the best choice if you haven't read Liz Williams before. She shows still potential with the two books of her i have read.
August 1, 2010
Although I liked this book. I found it was a hard read. I was constantly putting it down for days on end to read other books, only coming back to it when I was done the others. Knowing now that there are other books based in this "universe", I'm not sure if I will return to it again or not.
November 1, 2010
Recommended for a book group I'm in, I had to bail out at page 78. I didn't care about the one dimensional characters - I was forcing myself to pick it up and taking great pleasure in putting it down. Life's too short.
April 26, 2008
Hard to get into. Too descriptive- sort of Farscape kind of super alien stry. Too many ailiens to keep track of without a golossery or something.
February 12, 2012
Couldn't be bothered finishing it. I have trouble reading books where I don't find the characters appealing. There wasn't any depth or enough feeling.
March 17, 2008
Very cool book. All female worlds. Travel between earth and mars.
May 1, 2017
It has has been a long time since I've found such a new, interesting universe. The mutated humans have an exoticism I find familiar to those in Perdido Station. While most of the characters are female, and heterosexuality is an exotic peversion, that is really just part of the background of "Changed" humanity rather than a screed against males as another reviewer has claimed. As in other such books where the worlds and modifications to humanity allows a reader a fascinating wallow in new sensations, the individual characters are not deeply drawn or interactive, but that is the usual tradeoff in science fiction. The character Dreams of War is, however, a well drawn combination of obtuse courage and humorous implacability - a classic soldier. Unfortunately, as a British writer, her earlier books are not on Kindle and hard to come by. I was lucky to find this book in an old fashioned hunt through library stacks. I'll seek out her other work to be sure.
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