Rating: 
Summary: Components RULE!
Review: McMullen has written a spectacular novel with "Souls in the Great Machine". Not only does he do a good job with character development and plotting, but his world concept is amazing. His (minor spoiler) human-powered calculator is something i've imagined before, but never seen in a story. This book is a step above any other post-apocalyptic novel i've ever read largely for that reason: his novel approach to replacing technology without electronics or gas-powered engines is very well thought out and interesting. Try to imagine how you would deal with the limitations put on his characters ... I doubt I could have come up with nearly as effective solutions. So come back and tell me, after reading this ... don't YOU want to be a component? Hmm? Add 3 ... Push ...
Rating:
Summary: Components RULE!
Review: McMullen has written a spectacular novel with "Souls in the Great Machine". Not only does he do a good job with character development and plotting, but his world concept is amazing. His (minor spoiler) human-powered calculator is something i've imagined before, but never seen in a story. This book is a step above any other post-apocalyptic novel i've ever read largely for that reason: his novel approach to replacing technology without electronics or gas-powered engines is very well thought out and interesting. Try to imagine how you would deal with the limitations put on his characters ... I doubt I could have come up with nearly as effective solutions. So come back and tell me, after reading this ... don't YOU want to be a component? Hmm? Add 3 ... Push ...
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Read, but Cluttered
Review: Mr. McMullen re-invents the post-apocalyptic SF novel for the 90's substituting an Environmental disaster for the Nuclear war scenario of the 50's and 60's. A good read, but like most writers of a epic, he has enough characters that you almost need to use note cards to remember who they are. A few less characters and plot turns would have made this a more enjoyable book. If you want a good tight post-apocalyptical novel, A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller Jr is still the best and is regarded as a great work of literature in its' own right.
Rating: 
Summary: logically inconsistent rambling story
Review: Sean's story describes a society with highly specialized members and a huge number of administrative personnel. At the same time the tech level of this society is very low. Sean invents all kinds of tricks to justify this artifically low tech level. He has for example EMP satellites that still work after thousands of years and still fry any and all electric circuits on the planet. What really bothered me with this setting is that a basically agricultural society can't afford to have so much specialization. He also describes computers with human 'components' that are used for example to direct forces in battles. I'm sorry but this is not plausible. Computers do well in games that have distinct states and clear rules but are useless in loosely defined scenarios like medieval battles. Let's not even go into the response times of humans doing the calculations on paper. Besides the logical inconsistencies of the setting there are problems with the writing too. A large number of storylines ramble randomly without much progress. I kept wondering why one character or the other is followed when nothing relevant happens to him. I think it'd have been possible to write a good book along the lines of Sean's basic idea. Sean unfortunately failed to deliver that book.
Rating: 
Summary: Sophisticated, powerful, and satisfying
Review: Souls in the Great Machine at times feels like a medieval novel with guns (it's similar in some ways to H. Beam Piper's novel Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen), but it's also satisfying as a work of science fiction since its premises are reasonable and explained. It's one of those settings where high-tech is simulated with low-tech, with some additional high-tech beyond the control of the characters thrown in. At its core, though, it's the story of three people and the quests that drive them: Zarvora Cybeline, who wants to save the world from a threat from space; Lemorel Milderellen, who wants to be loved and valued; and John Glasken, the rake, who wants to enjoy himself but is thwarted at every turn by powerful enemies he collects. Thematically, Zarvora's and Glasken's quests and redemptions are complicated and thought-provoking (and often very sexually charged, although the use of sex is not generally gratuitous). Lemorel's story is less successful, as she begins with a redemption of sorts, and then goes downhill for little apparent reason. McMullen juggles all of these threads expertly, and does an impressive job of building a world living under some serious constraints that we don't have today. And the over-arching threats are not neglected, either. It is, however, a very dark and tense novel with characters who are sometimes difficult to support or relate to. But to some degree, that's what makes it interesting. It's well worth the effort to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Train Wreck
Review: Souls in the Great Machine is a big book filled with lots of great big Science Fiction ideas. Enough ideas to make the average sci-fi fan drool in anticipation. Big Idea One: Humanity in post-apocalyptic Australia is regularly beset by The Call, a strange siren call that makes everything larger then a small dog drawn to the south like lemmings are drawn to the sea. Big Idea Two: Something is going on in outer space. Some sort of intelligence is building a structure in Earth orbit designed to reflect light away bringing on the next Greatwinter. Big Idea Three: Despite a complete lack of technology, a huge computer is being designed and built. Not with circuit boards and transistors, but with kidnapped human beings armed with abacuses. And there is a whole lot more that goes on. Human powered galley trains, networks of light towers transmitting coded messages across the continent, and so on. But the focus is in this book is on the technology. Granted, it's cool technology, but after a while it really gets tiresome. By the time I was finished, I knew more then I ever wanted to know about post-apocalyptic trains. In fact, this story could have been call Souls Riding the Great Trains. Ultimately, I cared more about the machines in this book then the people. And here is the big problem. The characters act in an illogical and inconsistent manner. The author suffers from a God complex. Need a war in the West? So-and-so will start one. Why did so-and-so do that? Because the author made them do it. The characters are not evil, they are written that way. Once the characters start to careen off track, the story follows. What begins as compelling story-telling, ends as a train wreck of inconsistencies. Even the Big Ideas get wasted (the source of The Call is just plain stupid and disappointing). For me, this is not Book One in the Greatwinter Series, it's Book Only.
Rating:
Summary: The Machine is great but ...
Review: Souls in the Great Machine is an epic novel set in Australia of the distant future. An unspecified disaster and extended winter has erased most traces of world of the 21st century. Electricity is a memory, steam engines are forbidden, and a siren "Call" of unknown origin periodically lures untethered people and large animals to their death. This is an ambitious book and the first half of the story is well told as we follow the ruthless librarian Zevora's struggle to build her beamflash network and Calculator. The Calculator is a primitive computer where the "circuits" are actually people who have been pressed into service. The development of the beamflash system and Calculator mirror the modern development of the personal computer and internet and you do get the feeling that such as system could be built without electricity and silicon. After this promising start, the novel begins to unravel. Characters are constantly bumping into each other by chance as they travel around the interior of Australia. The coincidental meetings become more and more annoying as credibility is stretched. Eventually, one of Zevora's lieutenants, Lemorel, breaks away from her service and rallies what amounts to a barbarian horde which she uses to attack the cities under Zevora's control. This is a major plot point and the fighting occupies much of the novel. Unfortunately, Lemorel's motivation for starting her rebellion is not convincing and she plunges an entire continent into war for little apparent reason other than the author wanted to have the war occur. The ending of the book feels rushed as too many characters and plots are wrapped up very quickly. Despite the multitude of characters populating this story the most interesting "character" is the Calculator itself. It seems more real that most of the people we meet because so many characters are introduced that we never really get to know any of them in any detail as one person blurs into another. Much of the great promise of the first half of the novel is dissipated in the hurried conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: A new master of sf
Review: Souls in the Great Machine is literally a wonderful book - it is full of wonder. Set 2000 years hence, it is set in a meticulously created society with limited technology, complex political and religious battles, well drawn characters and lots of humour. All told with great facility. And it's also a real page turner. Sean McMullen is a new master of sf, and Souls in the Great Machine is Highly Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, fascinating, but flawed by its epic scope
Review: The world of this book is wonderful, a post-apocalyptic wasteland and all that, but one with a number if unique twists. A strange "call" draws people, lemming like, to self destruction. Any technological (read "electrical") device destroys itself in a shower of sparks if operated. Pistol duels are commonplace. The story, the characters, and the writing are all excellent. Unfortunately, the book out-scopes itself, particularly towards the end. It is as if, in order to complete the tail, a few too many characters are introduced, a few too many settings, and all seem to wash the story out.
Rating:
Summary: a top notch story with appealing characters
Review: This book grabs you right away and keeps on going. The combination of excellent storyline and character developement is all too uncommon. What really amazed me was the way Mcmullen was able to switch from one main character to another. The last fourth of the book seemed to lose direction a little bit and did not live up the the rest of the book. Nontheless, this is really not a major flaw. McMullen has joined the very short list of authors whose books I will continue to buy in hardback>
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