Soldiers of Paradise

Rating:
Summary: Come Read the Best!
Review: An aging star begins to swell toward red giant stage. The "humans" of many worlds, all likely descendants of a common ancestor, the hypnogogic ape, ride from hot doom to the outermost world of the system, soon the only one habitable. The spaceship that rescues them over the millennia continues to fly its programmed rounds empty, while the "Starbridge" crew becomes top caste on a planet of centuries-long years and winters. The unique thing about this background to the Starbridge Chronicles is that you'll never discover it by reading the books -- and I say this to Paul Park's credit. He constructs a story so deep that it has roots you'll never know, whereas lesser authors like myself go around flashing our explanations for everything.

Park creates a rich fictional "charnal house" filled with all manner of mystery, decadence, death and rebirth. Meanwhile the great wheel of time rolls on, incapable of caring. But the reader has the pleasure and pain of caring very much what happens to many very imperfect people. (Who gives a damn about the perfect ones?)

Paul Park is a revolutionary. When he shows you that the great systems of the universe are heartless and wrong, he's also condemning the great systems we all live under. Some writers advance the revolution by envisioning better ways, but somehow the truths of human nature get in the way of utopia. Perverted utopias, perverted good deeds, and perverted religions are also part of Park's universe. As of ours.

Rating:
Summary: Come Read the Best!
Review: An aging star begins to swell toward red giant stage. The "humans" of many worlds, all likely descendants of a common ancestor, the hypnogogic ape, ride from hot doom to the outermost world of the system, soon the only one habitable. The spaceship that rescues them over the millennia continues to fly its programmed rounds empty, while the "Starbridge" crew becomes top caste on a planet of centuries-long years and winters. The unique thing about this background to the Starbridge Chronicles is that you'll never discover it by reading the books -- and I say this to Paul Park's credit. He constructs a story so deep that it has roots you'll never know, whereas lesser authors like myself go around flashing our explanations for everything.

Park creates a rich fictional "charnal house" filled with all manner of mystery, decadence, death and rebirth. Meanwhile the great wheel of time rolls on, incapable of caring. But the reader has the pleasure and pain of caring very much what happens to many very imperfect people. (Who gives a damn about the perfect ones?)

Paul Park is a revolutionary. When he shows you that the great systems of the universe are heartless and wrong, he's also condemning the great systems we all live under. Some writers advance the revolution by envisioning better ways, but somehow the truths of human nature get in the way of utopia. Perverted utopias, perverted good deeds, and perverted religions are also part of Park's universe. As of ours.

Rating:
Summary: Some cool ideas, but no coehesion
Review: Definitely dark and a bit surrealistic. The setting is very harsh (and I like that) but it seemed to me more like a string of events with no characters - all extras. I didn't care about the characters and they didn't care about themselves. There was no interaction. These ideas put together by someone like Iain Banks would be absolutely fabulous, but by himself it needs work.

Rating:
Summary: Some cool ideas, but no coehesion
Review: Definitely dark and a bit surrealistic. The setting is very harsh (and I like that) but it seemed to me more like a string of events with no characters - all extras. I didn't care about the characters and they didn't care about themselves. There was no interaction. These ideas put together by someone like Iain Banks would be absolutely fabulous, but by himself it needs work.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, Creative, And Very Refreshing
Review: It has been a very long time since I have read works of contemporary literature that displayed such creative imagination and mastery of the written word. The story unfolds on a planet that is very similar to Earth. And for all I know it could have been our Earth in some dark past or distant future.

Imagine, if you will, a planet that is exactly like ours, but with some traits blown out of proportion, like social order, religion, politics, weather, etc. Imagine a social system that permanently determines one's stature in life and in the after life upon his or her birth. Imagine a religion whose scriptures are based on ancient erotic poems. Imagine seasons that last for thousands of days, where a man born in summer is unlikely to see the winter of the same year. If it all sounds too hard to digest then be prepared to be pleasantly surprised as you'll find those themes and many others blended beautifully to form the backdrop of an epic saga of love, war and faith.

Among the folds of the story I found a harsh critique and dark satire on our own lives. To quote one of the characters: "Legends speak of a planet very much like our own, but where a year only lasts a few hundred days, and a man sees many seasons in his life. If such a planet exists, then there can no wars there." But consider that a bonus, as the story is very compelling on its own.

Rating:
Summary: Soldiers of paradise
Review: The book I read for free reading was Soldiers of paradise and it made the most of my time. It was wrtten by Paul Park which is also a very intresting man and his past life will amaze anyone. the book is like a fantasy in the distant future but alot of war and illeagel drugs is involved.This book was a great choice because there were always surprises that poped up from evey cornor when you least expected it. This book was like no other because none the action never stops, theres always something intresting going on. A qoute from Thankar explains how much he hates alot of people in his world because everyone has to be a real hard case to survive and he dosent want to be one " I know him and I always hated him. we'll hang him higher than any bird can fly". That explains how Thanker doesnt like anyone because he knows that his friends can even stab him in the back just to survive. The future is so bleak with war and drugs its explained as med-evil times because castles, tourture and death is just business in the world he has to suffer in. in conclusion the book was great and the ending is what you least suspect.

Rating:
Summary: An astounding feat of world-building.
Review: The first of The Starbridge Chronicles and it gets off this underappreciated trilogy to an exhilirating start. The world of Paradise is so fully realized that the reader sometimes forgets that s/he is in this one. The world is very surreal and richly detailed, as are the characters that populate the grand drama that unfolds. At the end of the novel the world, the characters, and ultimately the reader have all undergone profound changes. If you dare to escape into this frightening world, you will be richly rewarded and you might even want to tatoo your hand with all kinds of archaic symbols.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful written,
Review: This was a beautiful way of telling a story. Musical. I think the whole book should of been spoken the way the storyteller had spoken it. It may be hard to understand once you start reading it, but once you dove into it, it's hard to put down. I havn't finished it yet, but close to it, and so far it's beautiful, that 's all I can say. If you need a book just to pick up and read, try this one. Magical, ~Isirah~Weasel~