Metal of Night

Rating:
Summary: antidote to feelgood war
Review: Here's a new(?) author for your up and coming list. Mark Tiedemann is that anachronism in writing today, an author who won't bore you with shallow characters or a thinly veiled space opera plot. This guy really does his homework on Metal of Night, the much awaited 'second' to Compass Reach in his Secantis series. As he draws you into his universe, his storytelling ability will remind you of Asimov, for whom he recently penned a new Robot Mystery Trilogy(Mirage, Chimera & Aurora) Check him out, you know you want to!

Rating:
Summary: Look at this!
Review: Here's a new(?) author for your up and coming list. Mark Tiedemann is that anachronism in writing today, an author who won't bore you with shallow characters or a thinly veiled space opera plot. This guy really does his homework on Metal of Night, the much awaited 'second' to Compass Reach in his Secantis series. As he draws you into his universe, his storytelling ability will remind you of Asimov, for whom he recently penned a new Robot Mystery Trilogy(Mirage, Chimera & Aurora) Check him out, you know you want to!

Rating:
Summary: great read
Review: I picked this book up after reading compass reach, although it deals with different charaters it is a great companion to the first novel. It expands the universe and makes me want to read more.

Rating:
Summary: sf for adults
Review: Thoughtful, intelligent storytelling by a writer who envisions a future full of complex and diverse beings - beings who continually question their world and who, thereby, continually evolve.

Tiedemann not only gives us a female protagonist with "dark skin like polished wood," but allows Cira and others to question the classism and isolationism that (unfortunately) still pervade their time.

And, if you're not in the mood for deep thoughts, Metal of Night works just fine as a "...to the wind" action/adventure story.

Rating:
Summary: antidote to feelgood war
Review: Too much military SF glories in body count and massive destruction and is ultimately pretty much a lie about what war is really like. Of course, in science fiction I guess you can make up anything and who's to say you got it wrong. But if you're going to write about human beings truthfully, then you have to be honest about how things are.

When I saw that METAL OF NIGHT was military fiction I almost put it down. But I really enjoyed COMPASS REACH and I thought maybe this wouldn't be the standard fare.

It's not. I don't know if Mark W. Tiedemann was ever in combat--I've never been--but his prose comes across like the real thing. This is a novel about civil war, basically, and the inhuman things people do in the name of causes. It's about how much chaos and calamity really come out of war. It's about costs and consequences. And the thing is, it holds you because you really care about these characters. They aren't cardboard cutouts like--well, like a lot of others in SF.

It's also about the remarkable kindnesses that can happen and the sacrifices people make under the toughest circumstances and the power of the human spirit to survive and flourish even in what is essentially hell.

And it follows on logically from COMPASS REACH--it's the revolt after the disaster. The thing is, he makes it personal. He focuses on a few people--on both sides of the conflict--and tells the story from inside their heads. You rarely see this.

And the universe just gets better. He's making it complex and interesting and tantalizing.

This might be a good book to read given the current state of the world. It takes the shine off all the fake heroics we usually get in milSF. I can't wait for his next one. This is a writer to follow.