Rating: 
Summary: Irreconcilable differences
Review: I just finished re-reading Earth Made of Glass and then the third book in the series, The Merchants of Souls. Both are compellingly written and readable. The author is very good at telling stories through the viewpoint of the main character. Giraut's viewpoint is an interesting place to be. Giraut's marriage with Margaret is in trouble, and he doesn't understand why. Previous reviews characterized Margaret's behavior as irrational and irritating. It didn't strike me that way at all. She seemed to be behaving very reasonably by what was actually wrong: she didn't want to be married to Giraut anymore, but she still loved him as a friend, and she recognized that he still was in love with her, though she was insecure enough to consider that being in love with her was stupid of him. Both characters were very clearly of their cultures, which the author describes and delineates beautifully so that when they are being what we might think of as obtuse, they're using different cultural markers. It might have seemed obvious to us what Margaret was doing, and how everyone else knew, but in Giraut's culture it was a duel-worthy challenge (and worse, as he would put it, "ne gens") to doubt someone's word or faith. Not something he would willingly ever do. Also in his culture, women were expected to act irrational and flighty toward men whether or not that was their nature. So he didn't really see anything peculiar about how Margaret was acting; what had been strange was her earlier Caledonian candor and straightforwardness. If he'd thought of it, he would have realized she was acting weird; he didn't think of it because, to him, her behavior seemed natural. Barnes is a tremendous writer and I enjoy almost all his work. The sequence that Earth Made of Glass is part of is tied for my favorite of his series. I dislike star ratings but I can't bring myself to give the book less than 5 stars, although in an ideal world I'd be able to give it a less linear-scale rating or ratings on several axes of quality. I agree with earlier reviews that putting parentheses in characters' speech is jarring. I also think that in the edition I read, the grammatical errors were fixed: I didn't notice any.
Rating:
Summary: Irreconcilable differences
Review: I just finished re-reading Earth Made of Glass and then the third book in the series, The Merchants of Souls. Both are compellingly written and readable. The author is very good at telling stories through the viewpoint of the main character. Giraut's viewpoint is an interesting place to be. Giraut's marriage with Margaret is in trouble, and he doesn't understand why. Previous reviews characterized Margaret's behavior as irrational and irritating. It didn't strike me that way at all. She seemed to be behaving very reasonably by what was actually wrong: she didn't want to be married to Giraut anymore, but she still loved him as a friend, and she recognized that he still was in love with her, though she was insecure enough to consider that being in love with her was stupid of him. Both characters were very clearly of their cultures, which the author describes and delineates beautifully so that when they are being what we might think of as obtuse, they're using different cultural markers. It might have seemed obvious to us what Margaret was doing, and how everyone else knew, but in Giraut's culture it was a duel-worthy challenge (and worse, as he would put it, "ne gens") to doubt someone's word or faith. Not something he would willingly ever do. Also in his culture, women were expected to act irrational and flighty toward men whether or not that was their nature. So he didn't really see anything peculiar about how Margaret was acting; what had been strange was her earlier Caledonian candor and straightforwardness. If he'd thought of it, he would have realized she was acting weird; he didn't think of it because, to him, her behavior seemed natural. Barnes is a tremendous writer and I enjoy almost all his work. The sequence that Earth Made of Glass is part of is tied for my favorite of his series. I dislike star ratings but I can't bring myself to give the book less than 5 stars, although in an ideal world I'd be able to give it a less linear-scale rating or ratings on several axes of quality. I agree with earlier reviews that putting parentheses in characters' speech is jarring. I also think that in the edition I read, the grammatical errors were fixed: I didn't notice any.
Rating: 
Summary: It was good, but the ending stinks
Review: I like John Barnes, and I'm sure he had a reason for the ending he wrote, but I don't get it. But I'll be thinking about it for a while, so I guess that's worth something.
Rating: 
Summary: Characters need a good shake
Review: I liked Barnes work enough to get his entire catalog on the basis of Mother of Storms. Reading this made me consider never buying another one of his books again, as I cannot trust his endings. I found the background interesting, which is why it got two stars rather than one, but the moronic behavior of Margaret and the insipid behavior of Giraut turned an interesting pair of characters into a set piece in which you wanted to shake them both and demand that they grow up. Marital troubles are nothing to sneeze at, and well used, they can drive a story. He wrote the interaction well enough that I had a strong response, but the response was to want the characters, everyone they knew, and everywhere they went melted to slag. They were less interesting people than in the first book, and became progressively more annoying as time went on. I could have handled any of the uplifting ending possibilities where character growth took place. Depending on that growth, they could have either worked it out, or not. Instead, they came to a resolution that was thoroughly unsatisfying, leaving me to ask not only why I invested the time to read about these people, but why I spent the time to read the earlier book. I want those hours back! In consequence, I can reccomend neither as worth your time, since this is the resolution chosen to what was done the first time around.
Rating:
Summary: Characters need a good shake
Review: I liked Barnes work enough to get his entire catalog on the basis of Mother of Storms. Reading this made me consider never buying another one of his books again, as I cannot trust his endings. I found the background interesting, which is why it got two stars rather than one, but the moronic behavior of Margaret and the insipid behavior of Giraut turned an interesting pair of characters into a set piece in which you wanted to shake them both and demand that they grow up. Marital troubles are nothing to sneeze at, and well used, they can drive a story. He wrote the interaction well enough that I had a strong response, but the response was to want the characters, everyone they knew, and everywhere they went melted to slag. They were less interesting people than in the first book, and became progressively more annoying as time went on. I could have handled any of the uplifting ending possibilities where character growth took place. Depending on that growth, they could have either worked it out, or not. Instead, they came to a resolution that was thoroughly unsatisfying, leaving me to ask not only why I invested the time to read about these people, but why I spent the time to read the earlier book. I want those hours back! In consequence, I can reccomend neither as worth your time, since this is the resolution chosen to what was done the first time around.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating tale of cultures and marriage under stress
Review: I started to read this, saw how good it was, stopped so I could read "A Million Open Doors" first (wise decision) and then went on. The two books together gave me tremendous pleasure. "Earth Made of Glass" was a page turner for me, partly because I became very engaged with the troubled, interesting characters - Giraut, Margaret, Kapilar. The book also draws a fascinating portrait of a prophet -- Ix -- although he was almost too saintly to believe, I could understand him and the power he had over others. These two books put John Barnes on my "must read" list.
Rating:
Summary: Painful tale of marriage, planet set to explode
Review: In Earth Made of Glass, a sequel to A Million Open Doors, Giraut and Margaret are sent to the hostile planet Briand, where two artificial human cultures have been forced to live together. One is based on Tamil literature, the other on Mayan culture. The two peoples hate each other bitterly. Giraut and Margaret's team try to work with some of the "good people" with the on-planet culture, people who are trying to work for peace. But at the same time serious stresses are showing in Giraut and Margaret's marriage. The two crises come to a head at much the same time. The novel is full of neat inventions, and the cultures are intriguingly portrayed. I also felt that the depiction of a decaying marriage was very well done, and very believable. I found the depiction of the cultural difficulties a bit less believable: dependent on people established as good acting quite evilly. Perhaps I am simply too much of an optimist, but I was not convinced. Interesting, ambitious, but not quite successful.
Rating:
Summary: Painful tale of marriage, planet set to explode
Review: In Earth Made of Glass, a sequel to A Million Open Doors, Giraut and Margaret are sent to the hostile planet Briand, where two artificial human cultures have been forced to live together. One is based on Tamil literature, the other on Mayan culture. The two peoples hate each other bitterly. Giraut and Margaret's team try to work with some of the "good people" with the on-planet culture, people who are trying to work for peace. But at the same time serious stresses are showing in Giraut and Margaret's marriage. The two crises come to a head at much the same time. The novel is full of neat inventions, and the cultures are intriguingly portrayed. I also felt that the depiction of a decaying marriage was very well done, and very believable. I found the depiction of the cultural difficulties a bit less believable: dependent on people established as good acting quite evilly. Perhaps I am simply too much of an optimist, but I was not convinced. Interesting, ambitious, but not quite successful.
Rating:
Summary: Good but not his best
Review: It sounds cliched but this probably isn't the best place to start with John Barnes. He seems to excel at smaller novels, probably because he can present the idea, write an interesting situation around it and throw in some characters and jumble the plot around and everything just works out fine because he keeps it nice and simple. When he shoots for the more complex stuff though, he doesn't make out as well. Case in point, this here novel . . . itself a sequel to the excellent A Million Open Doors, this makes a valiant attempt to deepen and further the scenario given in that book, and for the most part succeeds. Barnes has to be given credit for ambition, because what he attempts here is to give a in depth look at manufactured cultures and deep seated hatreds and tries to find solutions. However his ambition tends to outstrip him here, unfortunately. He brings back the Giraut and Margaret from the first book, now married and when the book starts their marriage is beginning to fall apart. Again, he gets credit for broaching the subject in SF, a place generally not associated with such things . . . but he tends to beat the subject to death. In the beginning of the book every scene they have together turns into childish bickering and Margaret is even worse . . . I don't remember her that clearly from the first book but I don't remember her being this annoying, she acts completely unreasonable, starts fights for no reason, all while a confused Giraut basically stands back and wonders, "What did I do?" . . . which is the same question the reader has. Instead of making the reader sympathetic to their marriage, you're left wondering halfway through the book why he just doesn't give her the heave-ho (her "revelation" is blatantly to anyone even remotely paying attention and when it's revealed you want to shout to Giraut "What are you, blind?" especially since hints are dropped like every other page). So that drags the book down a little simply because the main characters act immature but Barnes' depiction of two cultures who think they are the Universe's gift to everything is absolutely fascinating, his world building skills are in full effect and the conflicts are detailed realistically . . . it does look pretty hopeless. It's so hopeless that Barnes nearly writes himself into a corner and winds up resorting to having the Maya create a quasi-mystical "prophet" (and that really comes out of nowhere) who preaches love and gets people to listen mostly because he's, uh, a quasi-mystical prophet. However, unlike a lot of others who feel the ending is too downbeat, I felt it was completely realistic given the circumstances and about the only logical outcome, anything else would have required the book to be even longer (and nearly multi-generational) or devolving into a "deus ex machina" solution. The way it turns out is sobering, but I give him credit for going with the not so happy ending (Scottish SF writer Iain Banks, also highly recommended, has a habit of doing the same thing), even if it does come off as rushed. Still can't see why Giraut keeps Margaret around though. Maybe another sequel will explain that one. All told, it's entertaining, if not exactly cheerful reading and shouldn't be your first choice, go with one of his more compact works and if those thrill you, head here next. Just don't prepare to be as delighted, even if you have to give him a lot of credit for trying.
Rating:
Summary: Good but not his best
Review: It sounds cliched but this probably isn't the best place to start with John Barnes. He seems to excel at smaller novels, probably because he can present the idea, write an interesting situation around it and throw in some characters and jumble the plot around and everything just works out fine because he keeps it nice and simple. When he shoots for the more complex stuff though, he doesn't make out as well. Case in point, this here novel . . . itself a sequel to the excellent A Million Open Doors, this makes a valiant attempt to deepen and further the scenario given in that book, and for the most part succeeds. Barnes has to be given credit for ambition, because what he attempts here is to give a in depth look at manufactured cultures and deep seated hatreds and tries to find solutions. However his ambition tends to outstrip him here, unfortunately. He brings back the Giraut and Margaret from the first book, now married and when the book starts their marriage is beginning to fall apart. Again, he gets credit for broaching the subject in SF, a place generally not associated with such things . . . but he tends to beat the subject to death. In the beginning of the book every scene they have together turns into childish bickering and Margaret is even worse . . . I don't remember her that clearly from the first book but I don't remember her being this annoying, she acts completely unreasonable, starts fights for no reason, all while a confused Giraut basically stands back and wonders, "What did I do?" . . . which is the same question the reader has. Instead of making the reader sympathetic to their marriage, you're left wondering halfway through the book why he just doesn't give her the heave-ho (her "revelation" is blatantly to anyone even remotely paying attention and when it's revealed you want to shout to Giraut "What are you, blind?" especially since hints are dropped like every other page). So that drags the book down a little simply because the main characters act immature but Barnes' depiction of two cultures who think they are the Universe's gift to everything is absolutely fascinating, his world building skills are in full effect and the conflicts are detailed realistically . . . it does look pretty hopeless. It's so hopeless that Barnes nearly writes himself into a corner and winds up resorting to having the Maya create a quasi-mystical "prophet" (and that really comes out of nowhere) who preaches love and gets people to listen mostly because he's, uh, a quasi-mystical prophet. However, unlike a lot of others who feel the ending is too downbeat, I felt it was completely realistic given the circumstances and about the only logical outcome, anything else would have required the book to be even longer (and nearly multi-generational) or devolving into a "deus ex machina" solution. The way it turns out is sobering, but I give him credit for going with the not so happy ending (Scottish SF writer Iain Banks, also highly recommended, has a habit of doing the same thing), even if it does come off as rushed. Still can't see why Giraut keeps Margaret around though. Maybe another sequel will explain that one. All told, it's entertaining, if not exactly cheerful reading and shouldn't be your first choice, go with one of his more compact works and if those thrill you, head here next. Just don't prepare to be as delighted, even if you have to give him a lot of credit for trying.
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