Fairyland by Paul J. McAuley
Warewolves Of Europe
A winner of the Philip K. Dick Award presents a work of high-tech science
fiction set in the near future about a renegade chemist and a child genius
who create a new race of beings that turns deadly.
Personal Review: Fairyland by Paul J. McAuley
I have read a few of the books by this gent and to my way of thinking, this
is the best. Published in 1995, it seems that everybody else is catching up
with it now. Alastair Reynolds has written of indoctrinal viruses, but did
they first appear in fiction between these covers?At the start we meet Alex
Sharkey, ex-con, nuaghty boy, but no ogre, no monster. Young Mr
Sharkey is mixed up with something hitech that he cooks up on the sly,
something that is about to become illegal. Then he meets the Little Miss
and everything changes. Alex becomes a target who survives by moving.
And Alex is not the old Alex anymore. The old Alex has already died and
woken back to a new life under heavy manners.Cut to years later in gay
Paree. Alex is treks through an altered Europe, looking for the Little Miss,
fomenting Revolution, fighting for his own life and those of his
confederates. The book throw off fountains of virtual reality, biological
technology, references to exotic Chemistry and Physics, the nuts and bolts
of Cyberpunk. There is a difference. I don't remember Gibson making
much of Biology. Ever heard of George Turner? I'll excuse you if you
haven't. He was the finest SF writer Australia ever produced. He said that
in the future there would be more horrors produced by Biology than
anything else and here McAuley proves him right. The artificial people, the
Fairies, he creates and inserts into the world are Capek's robots, a race of
servants who revolt and take over, change themselves and us, move the
bottom rail to the top as the slave becomes the master. Think of the huge
breakthroughs we might be on the verge of and ask how could they be
misued.Alex Sharkey pursues Fairyland, Utopia, his Little Miss, and it is all
like being stretched on the rack. How many people reach out for dreams
they cannot reach, wander off after a vision, a false hope? This book is
about Sharkey's journey and the fantasy of Fairyland, whether it be London
by night or Utopia. It is about the different fairylands that live inside
peoples' heads. And of course, my old favourites, Good and Evil.As SF,
this is marvellous. It is pure wonder and horror, just bloody excellent, just
as good the third time as the first.
For More 5 Star Customer Reviews and Lowest Price:
Fairyland by Paul J. McAuley 5 Star Customer Reviews and Lowest Price!