Rating: 
Summary: Promising beginning, no real insights
Review: Like the initial novels of so many Sci/Fi series, Chung Kuo begins extremely well. The setting is richly detailed, the characters are well-drawn and the plot line clear. This is a contest between the static, sterile world-vision of the "Seven" Chinese rulers of a united Earth, and the attempts of their political and social enemies to alter their vision and overturn their power. The author has undertaken an ambitious task: to show how this struggle could take place from the eyes of nearly everyone who participates. From the rulers comfortable in their lofty heights, to the poorest of the poor, he attempts to trace the conflict in fine detail: what are the issues, the turning points, the motives. Its all too much. By the middle of the series, the reader is so bogged down in details that he/she has lost track of the major themes. The whole series needs to be cut by 50%. Even so, its worth reading. As a piece of literature, it stands head and shoulders above the dross the comprises most of the genre. Few novelists writing science fiction have the author's knowledge of Chinese culture, and fewer still have the technical skill to weave such a huge cast of characters and events into anything resembling a cohesive whole. The wonder is not that the author failed, but that he came so close.
Rating:
Summary: Promising and highly addictive, but...
Review: The opening book of the series has proven to be both fascinating and disappointing. Assuming that you like extremely twisted plotlines, it can result a supremely inmersive experience, due to the fine writing and the thorough knowledge of the chinese culture exhibited page after page by the author. The book is ambitious in its own somptuous way and sometimes a reminder of the great classical russian novels, as it portrays dozens of caracters interacting, appearing and disapperaing, with multiple parallel threads. Some had compared it to Dune and the Foundation series, but that is basically unfair: in many ways Chung-Kuo is a much better novel, at least as a sheer piece of literature. However, the richness of detail does not compensate entirely for the hollowness of contents. The background information is delivered in homeopathical doses and the action progresses so slowly a pace that one cannot avoid to be intimidated by the thought of the remaining six books. In comparison with the magnitude of the work, the underlying plot appears extremely thin and the psychological insight is very unidimensional, too. For these reasons, unless you are a passionate lover of the oriental Shogun-like stuff, Chung-Kuo can be, despite all the valuable elements put into play, essentially unrewarding.
Rating: 
Summary: why the weird/violent sex?
Review: An amazingly complex world is created by Wingrove. Very inventive. It's a page turner - a book that will keep you up past your bedtime. But why, Mr. Wingrove does so much of the sex have to be perverse and/or violent? It turned me off to an otherwise fantastic read.
Rating:
Summary: absolutely great
Review: This novel is really fantastic, you are taken into aa new world after a few pages and you can't stop reading... buy this book if you are interested in SciFi or in China or in great storys...
Rating:
Summary: Masterful writing that hasn't existed since Dickens....
Review: This Series is an instant classic.Disclaimer:If you aren't looking to immerse yourself completely into another world, I suggest that you get out of this series ASAP. If, however, you are looking for action, adventure, romance and history blended with possibility, read on (then read the series!) Wingrove has taken an exciting slant upon science fiction and made it so intense as to be real. The characters cannot be organized into good/evil, but must rather be called HUMAN. Even the most diabolical characters seem to have nicer sides, and the most pure characters have seeds of doubt within. Beyond characterizations, Wingrove also weaves a tale that draws you into a world that is just around the corner. The technologies are possible and believable, a rare thing in some modern science fiction (David, if you read this, how much reseach went into this stuff?). Furthermore, if you are looking for realistic human interactions, both in terms of one-on-one conversations and in terms of mass effects of decision makers, this is THE series for you. Politics, racism, intrigue, plot-twists GALORE, status changes and upper/lower class interactions are key to this series. Characters that mean nothing in one sequence become vital in another, and plots weave in and out like real life. An outstanding series overall. (Keep writing them, David.)
Seamus Hartmann
Rating:
Summary: Wingrove an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10 among Sci Fi writers
Review: I read all 6 available D.Wingrove books like a man thirstyafter a long walk through a bleak wasteland of unimaginative books.The Chung Kuo series is not only interesting but also correct in it's depiction of the oriental culture. These books are not novels. They are an epic. This is for those who love a writer who can surprise and amaze them with his plot's twists and turns, while building a future world that draws the reader in. What books! Sick of the same old stuff? This is it. You'll thank me later ( :
Rating:
Summary: A great start to one of the best series I've run into
Review: The Chung'Kuo(mean China in the Wade Giles romanization ofChinese) series is one of the best thought out and most entertainingserries I have ever had the good fortune to read. In addition to providing a monstrous blockbuster of a story, the books provide a body for some interesting philisophical ideas. I truly enjoy reading Mr. Wingrove's books, and find myself cursing the wait between books, while praying that the next book is not the last in the series. BUY IT! READ IT!
Rating:
Summary: SF THRILLER SERIES
Review: CHUNG KUO IS EXCELLENT START TO A PROMISING SERIES. WINGROVE
TAKES US INTO A EXOTIC WORLD FILLED WITH SEX, VIOLENCE,
POLTICAL INTRIGUE AND TECHOLOGICAL WONDERS AS ONE REVIEWER HAS SAID IT'S A COMBINATION OF DUNE AMD SHOGUN.
Rating:
Summary: intricate characterization and twists you wouldn't believe
Review: Wingrove manages to produce the most "human" characters I've seen in a very long time. He delves into the psyche of each and makes you wonder just how much you have in common with them... and he tells in stark details what you would think if you were in the same situation, even if you won't admit it to yourself. Each charcter is both weak and strong, loyal and foolhardy, dark and light... just like the rest of us.
As far as the plot, what truly intrigued me was how me manages to navigate you through all social classes and professions, and show you the ways of each in such seamless clarity. Being an artist, for instance, I took fondly to the chapters invovling the art students in the second book. He takes into the lives and minds of the aristocrats, the politicians, the rulers, the servants, and the revolutionists... and gives each of them true motives that you could identify with.
Wonderful complex plots, twisted imagery at times, and disects and disects the inner workings of the mind and what desperation could bring a human to.
Scary, insightful, fulfilliing. One of the first series that hasn't bored me yet, and I'm almost done with the sixth book.
Especially in this time and age... it makes you wonder, "who exactly is right anyway?"
Rating:
Summary: A great alternate world in the mid future
Review: It took me about sixty pages to get into this book, but once I did, look out! I had to get the rest. Believable, complex characters, some who do not show up for
hundreds of pages, but are always welcomed on their return. It reignited my interest in Go, as well as providing an oriental flavoring
which is refreshing in the world of S.F. If you are a science fiction lover, and revel in huge sagas, then this is
a series for you!
|
