Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant capstone to an outstanding far-future epic
Review: Shrine of Stars concludes Paul J. McAuley's Confluence trilogy in very impressive fashion. These books have not quite got the notice I think they deserve, for a couple of reasons. Most important might be that the trilogy concludes with its strongest volume, for the best reasons.In the first volume, Child of the River, McAuley sketched a strange world with many wonders, and introduced an intriguing main character, Yamamanama (fortunately called Yama by most of the characters). This world, Confluence, is an artificial construct, built thousands of years ago at the behest of the Preservers (apparently descendants of Earth humans), by their servants the "Builders". The Preservers then populated the world with thousands of "bloodlines", apparently "uplifted" animals, as well as the "indigenous" races, apparently aliens of some variety. In the first volume all this is presented as mythic history, and the book has the feel of fantasy. Yama, it is hinted, is the last remnant of the bloodline of the Builders. He sets out on a journey up the huge River of Confluence to the capitol city, Ys, while a long war rages on between the Heretics and the established authority of Confluence. Over the first two books, Yama journeys to Ys, then back down the river to his home. He becomes involved in the war, and meets many of the bloodlines of Confluence, as well as remnants of humans from long before Confluence, and he learns much about his own, very considerable, powers. Many mysteries are introduced in the first two volumes, and they are slowly dispelled. But in Shrine of Stars, McAuley actually delivers on the implied promise of the first two books: the nature of Confluence, and the nature of Yama, and the answers to the mysteries of the first two books, are all revealed in logical and satisfying ways. In the end the three books are clearly, unambiguously, far future Science Fiction, in a way that for example such models as Jack Vance's The Dying Earth and Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun aren't, quite. This is both good and bad, but it seems to be entirely McAuley's intention. That is, the remaining mysteries, and the religious symbolism, of Wolfe's great tetralogy are a feature certainly intended by the author: and in many ways they enhance the book. It may be that that is the reason I still consider Wolfe's series better than The Book of Confluence, or it may be simply that as good a writer as McAuley is, and he's quite good, Wolfe is still better. But at any rate such comparisons, though inevitable, aren't quite fair to McAuley's work: in the end, he has written an individual work, with its own plan, its own intentions, and I think he succeeds marvelously. Shrine of Stars, thus, follows Yama and Pandaras after they are separated, as Yama begins to be possessed by a machine implanted in his body, and as Pandaras tries to find Yama, unwillingly bringing Prefect Corin back on Yama's trail. After many trials, Yama comes to full understanding of himself, and of his fate. There are very explicit religious echoes (including a plan for Yama to be executed on a structure of wood), but even as McAuley emphasizes these echoes, he provides rational and consistent explanations for them all. Finally Yama must make a journey off Confluence to another planet, and he must come to a solution to the problem of the future of the bloodlines of Confluence that deals with the apparent coming destruction of Confluence. His solution is satisfying, and McAuley neatly wraps up the series with an ending that is perhaps reminiscent of Charles Harness, only a bit more logical. This is one of the better extended works of SF in the last years of this century, in many ways a fine capstone for a long history of "far future" SF.
Rating: 
Summary: A mixed bunch
Review: The third book in McAuley's series is very different from the first two, especially in the last 100 pages. The author actually changes the subject pretty much, and because of this the book feels quite unpolished, like two stories mixed into one. The whole saga is not rounded to the reader's complete satisfaction, but it is interesting nevertheless.
The first part deals with Yama's imprisonment with the heretics and it gets 2-3 stars from me. It's a little bit too gory and bloody, like a B-movie.
I agree with the reviewers who have remarked that the bad guys don't stay dead at all and keep showing themselves, it gets irritating after a while.
Another aspect which bothered me were the overdetailed descriptions. It seemed like the author had a painting in front of him, with every little thing precisely shown, and wanted to accomplish the same descriptive level. But it was a little tiresome and boring. Also, since we now know that the 10000 bloodlines come from Earth's animals, it would be nice if they were identifiable... I suspect the author tried to do this -- Tamora was a fox? Pandaras a rodent? -- but it seems he didn't succeed.
That being said, we get to the finale, which in my opinion it was beautiful. (Note: I haven't read the Heinlein story referred to by one of he reviewers, so perhaps I was more inclined to feel that the concepts are original and intriguing.) True, a lot of information and concepts are crammed in, the pace changes, the ending is not quite what the reader expected... but this is acceptable in my opinion. It's even better that the story does not end in a classical way and that the hero doesn't quite find what he was looking for. I was also suspecting from the beggining that we wouldn't find out more about the Preservers and that not all questions will be answered.
I liked the cyclicity of everything, with every end representing a beginning.
What I didn't like was the character development throughout the entire series. The bad guys are one sided, and the good guys don't seem to evolve at all. Even Yama, all his revelations are external, he stays linear. You don't quite catch his depth.
There are influences not only from Gene Wolfe -- although I think any book that deals with characters in an artificial environment which have devolved from the knowledge on their forefathers will invariably be compared to his works -- but also from David Brin's uplift saga, the concept of species "raised" to sentience.
For all its shortcomings, the book was quite captivating and interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Ho Hum
Review: There is something to be said about "surprising" plot twists, but they are usually more interesting when they seem to have any connection to the rest of the story. Trying not to spoil what the "twist" is, I'll only say that in case it looks like an excuse to try and repeat a Heinlein short story concept, mainly because the conclusion seems tacked on and not integral to the story at all. What I'm trying to illustrate is that the individual elements aren't bad, but the whole is not blended together in a powerful or moving way, which is disappointing for a book with a theme of self-discovery. It just reads, to me, like a story that happened, not a story that drew me in and made me feel like I was living it, or that I'd ever ever want to read again. I'm surprised that the series gets such a strong rating. EDIT: Someone compared this series to the writings of Gene Wolf. Since I'd heard other good things about that author before, and was interested on seeing why they made the comparison, I read his "Book of the New Sun" series. Let me just say that how strong the New Sun series is just further points out how this series is lacking. What I criticize in in this series are the strengths (among others) of what Gene Wolf has written. That said, the similarities give me hope for Paul McAuley's future work.
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