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Summary: The best new sci-fi book since I discovered David Brin
Review: A masterpiece. Set 2000 years hence, after a glocal ice age, the story takes place in Australia, where a new low-tech civilization has taken the place of the technology-driven world of today. Electrical technology has not redeveloped, and steam engines are banned for fear of causing a second greenhouse catastrophe. Zarvora Cybeline, the head librarian at a regional city, builds a new "calculor" -- a computer -- wherein hundreds of convicts skilled in math perform functions on abaci. Knowledge, and computational power, are the seeds of a new empire. As a librarian, I particularly enjoyed the depiction of the heroine of the novel as a strong, powerful figure in this future society. In what other works of fiction are librarians in positions of power? I look forward to future works by this author.
Rating: 
Summary: Different
Review: A strange vision of a post apocalypstic world (Australia), where a woman of genius is trying to set things right. It is sometimes hard to decide who is the protagonist, who is the villian, what is right and what is wrong. Good reading, thought provoking, but hard to get through.
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Summary: Great Ideas and Worldbuilding, Weak Characters and Plotting
Review: Almost every problem I have with science fiction is represented in this sprawling book-a ton of really interesting ideas poorly served by a rambling and disjointed plot populated by too many hastily drawn characters. I had greatly enjoyed McMullen's earlier book, The Centurion's Empire and was hoping he'd be able to exercise the same control he showed in that book, but this was a bit of a disappointment. The worldbuilding is quite impressive. Set almost two millennia from now, the world is still recovering from a nuclear winter. In Australia a low-tech civilization putters along, with power resting in the hands of librarians. A new head overlibrarian is elected and brings change, as she ruthlessly builds "The Calculator", a primitive computer using imprisoned people as circuits, and extends a series of communication towers across the various fiefdoms and emirates. The initial exploration of this is quite interesting, but as the overlibrarian's power grows, McMullen starts adding more and more storylines to the mix. It seems that an ancient sunshade being formed by nanotechnology is threatening to block out the sun and initiate a new Ice Age, unless the overlibrarian can do something. Then there's the barbarian horde being mustered by one of her former protégés-for reasons that are never really clear to me, other than the need to have a big war in the book. Then there's the mysterious force that sweeps across the land intermittently, causing all who aren't tied down to walk due south forever. Then there's a whole genetics subplot. Not to mention an awfully confusing series of romances and affairs, you really do need a scorecard to keep track of everyone. The ideas are all individually really interesting, it's just that there are too many of them at once and the characters are too flimsy to carry them. Coincidence comes into play all too often, as characters are constantly running into each other, and too many of them are cast from the same obsessive mold and act altogether arbitrarily. It doesn't help that there are abrupt leaps of time in the middle of chapters, out of nowhere will pop up the declaration that five years has passed, for example. Also, the book is badly in need of a map. Geography is an integral part of the plot, and without a map to clarify things, the reader is often literally lost. I salute the McMullen's imagination for ideas, but this book is just too long and haphazard to properly enjoy. I doubt I'll be seeking out it's sequels, The Miocene Arrow and Eyes of the Calculor.
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Summary: Couldn't put down -- and I read a lot of books
Review: As a librarian and sci-fi freak (especially of the steam punk, medieval-type combat and future history variety), this book fits my bill to perfection! Don't mess with your director or face a duel! Labyrinthine plot without tedium, lots of humour, and I can't wait to find out more of Greatwinter's world.
Rating: 
Summary: I wanted to like it...
Review: At first I was totally enraptured by the book with its innovative ideas and odd socio-political structure. However, the book wore me down over time because of two major problems which kept cropping up. 1) The author is constantly 'fast-forwarding' his story with no warning what-so-ever. One minute, two characters are entering a desert to find somebody. The next, one is some kind of monk and the other is a warlord. Say what?!?! 2) The coincidences are extraordinary. The characters are all doing their own things, wandering back and forth across the continent, yet every time one of them is in a city they manage to accidentally run into each other. I can't really go into the other coincidences without giving away parts of the story to those of you who want to read this. 400 pages into the book, I've decided to toss it aside and forget it. I would advise you to pass on this book before you even hit page one.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent entertainment
Review: Certainly one of the best scifi books published in the past few years. While I can't quite rate it a masterpiece, it is a wonderful adventure story, filled with fascinating ideas and images. Flaws: The book does drag somewhat at the end, as it reaches its not entirely satisfying conclusion. Some characters abruptly make life-altering decisions for no apparent reason. One poor character is described entirely in terms of her breasts, which seem to be mentioned about every three pages or so.
Rating:
Summary: There were too many neat ideas for me to actually dislike it
Review: I expected something...different that what I found. The premise alone was enought to make me by the book. I started it three times and had to almost force myself to continue. The various vignettes seemed part of the story but the action did not proceed linearally, The idea of desperately needing technology when it is not allowed sounded like a great plot yet the pace was too slow, the actions too disjointed to appreciate. Perhaps there was something else. When action occurs in the far future it is imperative that the author use discretion in establishing a whole new society with new terms, names and mores. Understanding and digesting the society was a task as big as following the story line. This idea has great potential.
Rating:
Summary: Was I the only one thinking it difficult to read?
Review: I expected something...different that what I found. The premise alone was enought to make me by the book. I started it three times and had to almost force myself to continue. The various vignettes seemed part of the story but the action did not proceed linearally, The idea of desperately needing technology when it is not allowed sounded like a great plot yet the pace was too slow, the actions too disjointed to appreciate. Perhaps there was something else. When action occurs in the far future it is imperative that the author use discretion in establishing a whole new society with new terms, names and mores. Understanding and digesting the society was a task as big as following the story line. This idea has great potential.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing SF ideas, disjointed plot
Review: I found Sean McMullen's Souls in the Great Machine a difficult book to evaluate. On the one hand it has some wonderful, sense of wonder-inducing ideas, and some exciting action and colourful characters. But the "colours" of the characters are a bit garish, certainly unrealistic, as they act out the author's whims. And the plot, action-filled as it is in places, also drags in other places, and is somewhat creakily structured. On the whole, though, I recommend this novel for the neat stuff, with a warning that it is far from perfect. Many years after a disaster called Greatwinter destroyed human civilization, people in what was once Australia live in smallish city states. Technology includes fairly ingenious mechanical devices, and guns, but no electricity or electronics. A central feature of local civilization is the libraries, where intelligent men and women seem to maintain what records of the past they can. The most important library, called Libris, is in Rochester, and a new leader, Zarvora Cybeline, has just been appointed. She establishes a curious project: a huge calculating machine, the Calculor, in which the individual components are human slaves. Add to this intriguing setup a culture which places great emphasis on personal combat -- duels. And one more odd feature -- a mysterious Call, to which every animal larger than a cat, including humans, is subject. Into this mix Sean McMullen throws Lemorel, a young provincial woman and a talented mathematician, whose ambition has led her into several duels. She ends up at Libris, with many other talented mathematicians, supporting the Calculor. There is also Zarvora, the odd genius who has invented the Calculor, and who has some mysterious use for it besides simply improving communications and tax collection. And Lemorel's talented but untrustworthy sometime lover, John Glasken. And Dorian, the mute linguist who befriends Lemorel. And Ilyire, a strange man from beyond the deserts at the edge of civilization, with an even stranger talent. And more, as the book continues. The ideas behind this book are truly fascinating and original. I was kept reading simply by curiosity about things like the Call, and the real reason for the Calculor, and the cause of Greatwinter, and so on. And it must be said that McMullen mostly delivers in this area. The rationale for his future -- the source of the Call, the reason electronics cannot be used, the origin of Greatwinter -- all these are given explanations that work well within the context of the book (although some of the explanations are a bit far-fetched scientifically). But I still have considerable reservations. My problems with the book were in two main areas: characters and plot. The characters are a strange set of, basically, obsessed madmen and madwomen. When the plot requires it, they are happy to fall instantly in love with a stranger, and commit murder, start wars, whatever, to resolve their relationship problems. Moreover they are all essentially immoral. For example, Zarvora, perhaps the closest thing to an overall heroine in the book, kidnaps and imprisons people for years to make the Calculor work. Lemorel has killed something like a dozen people before the book starts. Similar things can be said of many other characters. Indeed, heroes become villains and vice-versa with some regularity. This can be made to work, but not when it is done arbitrarily, as seemed the case here. As for the plot, it is discursive and disjointed. Long stretches dragged alarmingly towards the middle of the book. At times, the author resorts to summary, and authorial voice explanations of tricky bits, in order to advance us to where we need to be. On balance, I do recommend reading Souls in the Great Machine. It has definite faults, but also definite good points. The ending is rousing and fairly satisfying. Even though the characters are not very believable, they are interesting. And the book is marked by a definite exuberance that makes it a fun read.
Rating:
Summary: dueling librarians
Review: I purchased this book after reading a synopsis of the story. The idea of dueling librarians caught my attention and I was not disappointed in the least. This is one of the best books I have read. I congratulate the author on his imagination in creating a future that is different from other 'sci-fi' books. His characters are well developed especially the women which are refreshingly strong willed, smart, resourceful and indeed are the main characters in this story. I found myself wanting to continue following them in their journeys after I completed the book. I only hope their is a followup book.
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