McAuley, Paul J. Books - Page 2

Pasquale's Angel

Paul J. McAuley

List Price: $22.00 By: William Morrow & Co Amazon Marketplace: 20 new & used starting at $0.24

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Those wacky alternate histories 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I don't know enough about Italian history (which is probably sad, being that I'm Italian) to say definitely where history went wacky and we got this book but I can say that this is definitely a book that can be worth your time. McAuley has turned into one of the more versatile and consistent authors around, especially in SF. He may not be world shatteringly exceptional but he rarely repeats himself and his writing is clear and concise, not relying on complicated narrative structure or knotted sentences. Here he presents a gritty, almost industrial age Italy where Da Vinci didn't really go into art but instead made lots of engineering feats and kick started a whole lot of things before they should have been kicked into starting. Pasquale is a young artist who happens to be drawn into the murder of one of the assistents of the "immortal" (ignore the book jacket when it says that, he's as mortal as everyone else) Rapheal. He is joined by a reporter who used to be a noted political figure before his downfall (I won't even try spelling his name) and together they try to piece together what turns out to be a large conspiracy that is apparently everywhere. McAuley does a great job of churning out a first rate murder mystery, plots and suspects rebound with apparent ease and your head is spinning by both his great attention to period detail and almost left field plot twists. However, at some point the conspiracy gets so complicated that it stops making sense at all and towards the end you're probably going to start scratching your head and wondering what the heck is going on. Don't fret, buckle down and keep going and while everyone might not be explained to your satisifaction, McAuley manages to pull a resolution out that makes everyone mostly worthwhile. McAuley's an author that instead of stunning us with one far out book, has steadily and swiftly built up a solid record of varied and entertaining science-fiction/fantasy, and if this book is any indication, his track record should hold long into the future.

Editorial Review:

In an alternate historical Renaissance Florence, an apprentice artist considers his master work in the light of his rivals, Raphael and Michaelangelo, and turns detective when a murder takes place.

Reality Dust (Gollancz S.F.)

Stephen Baxter, Paul J. McAuley

List Price: $10.35 By: Gollancz Amazon Marketplace: 5 new & used starting at $19.73

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good but available in a bigger collection 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Baxter's novella is an important part of his ongoing "Xeelee sequence"; if you are into the whole Xeelee thing then you MUST read this story!.

I bought a Gollancz book with 2 stories in it, this one
"Reality Dust" by Stephen Baxter, back-to-back with "Making History" by Paul McAuley. Both stories are very good (and are apparently both available as very short standalone books on their own).

However, later I found another book, "Futures: Four Novellas"
with these same 2 stories in it, PLUS 2 more good stories!
("Watching Trees Grow" by Peter F. Hamilton, and
"Tendeleo's Story" by Ian McDonald)....

So I would suggest getting the "Futures" book with all 4 novellas in it, if you can, over either volume with just Baxter's and/or Hamilton's ...

Editorial Review:

A brand new short novel, lavishly praised by Greg Bear, from the internationally bestselling author of THE TIME SHIPS; an epic story of a far future war that shows Baxter at the top of his game. Paired with MAKING HISTORY, a new short novel from the Arthur C. Clarke award-winning Paul McAuley.

Eternal Light

Paul J. Mcauley

List Price: $22.00 By: William Morrow Amazon Marketplace: 48 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Hypercomplicated and awesome 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Criminally out of print, this was the book that catapulted McAuley into the science fiction spotlight, I believe this was preceded by two books (making this the third of a trilogy) that were entertaining but mediocre genre SF and indeed there are several references to events that I can only assume happened in previous books but you really don't notice. Just start reading and dive in. Attempting to describe the plot is probably pointless because there are so many threads and details, needless to say it deals with the center of the galaxy and god-like intelligences and the people who want to use that sort of stuff for their own benefits. And science. Lots of it. These people all do weird things that seem to defy science and McAuley has no problem making it all seem probable. Heck his science seems to make sense so I guess he knows what he's talking about. Go figure. Basically you just let yourself get carried along, the characters are fairly memorable (if a tad flat at points) and frankly he drags out the ending just a little bit, the book should have ended about fifty pages before it actually does but he needs to wrap it up somehow I guess. Alas, it's close to the peaks already set by hypercomplicated science freaks Dan Simmons (read Hyperion! Now!) and Peter Hamilton but their books hang together a little better and don't depend as much on the visceral rush of reading the book. Nevertheless this was a major leap for McAuley and one of the best SF books of the decade easily. You won't be sorry for tracking this one down.

Editorial Review:

McAuley takes us on a sweeping "hard science" epic, while at the same time maintaining a focus on a set of intriguing interesting characters. He holds our interest throughout his escalation to a completely "cosmic" finale without becoming incredible.
--Jed Harris

Confluence (SFBC, Science fiction)

Paul J McAuley

By: EOS/HarperCollins Amazon Marketplace: 52 new & used starting at $0.01

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Editorial Review:

3 short novels in one volume. Confluence-a long, narrow man-made world, half fertile river valley, half crater-strewn desert. It is a world at the end of its time, a place of savagery, bureaucracy and war, inhabited by countless flying micro-machines and ten thousand bloodlines ruiled by devotion to absent gods. This is the home of a singular young man named Yama. An infant who was discovered in a bier on the river, he was raised by the prelate of Aeolis until it was learned that his ancestry was unique. Yama appeared to be the last remaining scion of the Builders, closest of all races to the worshipped architects of Confluence. Now, awed and fearful of his increasing ability to awaken the machines the Builders left behind. Yama searches for his identity and a history that is both his and his world's.

The Invisible Country

Paul J. Mcauley

List Price: $13.50 By: Eos Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $0.52

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A coherent world changed by nanotech 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

This book of short stories was my first experience with McAuley -- which meant that I experienced severe cognitive dissonance. McAuley is one of those writers (like C.J. Cherryh, in her decades-old "Faded Sun" series) who creates a world so different from the one we presently live in that it's sometimes hard to understand what's going on. But after a few stories, one becomes accustomed to the terminology and the ideas, and the plots and philosophies start to become clear. Indeed, the work shortly becomes compelling.

I'm not sure that this was the best introduction to McAuley, but I'm glad I read it. I must confess, however, that I particularly enjoyed the stories that were not in the "dolls and fairies" milieu, such as the story about Dr. Pretorius (which I found eerily fascinating, and very reminiscent in tone, if not in content, to Tim Powers's work). I am now very much looking forward to reading "Children of the Confluence" and McAuley's other novels.

Editorial Review:

In these nine exraordinary tales, acclaimed author PAUL J. MCAULEY--winner of the Philip K. Dick, British Fantasy Society, John W. Campbell Memorial, and Aruthur C. Clarke Awards--explores the wonders and dangers of biotechnology and its creations in stories whose settings careen from a distant alternate past to a breathtaking far-flung future. In a sixteenth-century Venice, transformed by a premature Industrial Revolution, a physian mourning his daughter's passing meets a mountebank with the power to raise the dead. In a tomorrow of raw and terrible beauty, revolutionaries struggle to free genetically engineered creatrues fated to die in combat games and violent sexual encounters. And ten million years in the future, on an artificial world orbiting an immense black hole, a civilization of awesome strangeness and complexity created--and abandoned--by the Godlike Preservers is about to meet the human ancestors of its makers.

In Dreams

Paul J. McAuley

List Price: $11.95 By: Gollancz Amazon Marketplace: 7 new & used starting at $3.00

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Editorial Review:

An anthology of science-fiction, fantasy and horror stories which celebrates the subversive glories of the seven-inch pop record. The authors include Jonathan Carroll, Ian McDonald, Lewis Shiner, Greg Egan, Ian MacLeod, Ian Watson, Gwyneth Jones, Stephen Baxter, Graham Joyce and Lisa Tuttle.

Making History

Paul J. McAuley

By: PS Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 6 new & used starting at $20.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Good but available in a bigger collection 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Good novella.

I bought a Gollancz book with 2 stories in it, this one "Making History" by Paul McAuley, back-to-back with "Reality Dust" by Stephen Baxter. Both stories are very good (and are apparently both available as very short standalone books on their own).

However, later I found another book, "Futures: Four Novellas"
with these same 2 stories in it, PLUS 2 more good stories!
("Watching Trees Grow" by Peter F. Hamilton, and
"Tendeleo's Story" by Ian McDonald)....

So I would suggest getting the "Futures" book with all 4 novellas in it, if you can, over either volume with just Baxter's and/or Hamilton's ...

Of the Fall

Paul J. Mcauley

List Price: $3.95 By: Del Rey Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $0.01

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Second Skin (Great Science Fiction Stories)

Paul J McAuley

Amazon Price: $10.99 List Price: $10.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: AudioText

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Editorial Review:

The spy fell toward Proteus in a thin transparent bubble of carbon, wearing a paper suit and trussed up in a cradle of smart cabling like an early Christian martyr. Somewhere down there was Ben Lo's wife. But he musn't think of that. If he did... No, he couldn't remember. Something bad, though. This space opera is part of the author's Quiet War series. This story, part of the publisher's GREAT SCIENCE FICTION STORIES audio series, is approximately 64 minutes, on one audio CD, and is read by Jared Doreck.

Red Dust

Paul J. McAuley

List Price: $22.00 By: William Morrow & Co Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $0.27

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Excellent 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

McAuley combines hard SF detail with an ambitious picaresque tale for a novel that feels unique. Very satisfying

Talk about changing plot lines... 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book took me longer to read that any other recently, mostly because every chapter or so everything seem to change - new characters etc..). Lots to digest - thoroughly enjoyable... J

Don't Bite the (Red) Dust 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 6 people found this review helpful.

A book about Mars, should be interesting, right? Wrong! This book starts slow, stays slow and coasts to a stop at turtle speed. It takes the reader awhile to catch on to the social and political climate of the solar system since McAuley doesn't straight out tell you until later. Everyone is chasing Wei Lee because he's a threat to their plans. Gee, really exciting! As you can probably tell, there's not much of a plot. I congratulate myself for the willpower to stay with this book for 400 pages without throwing it in the trash. The book is tedious, very tedious. I recommend it only for insomniacs. A sure cure!

Editorial Review:

A lonely exile on a farming community on Mars rescues a fallen space traveler, falls in love, and is set on a journey to meet his long-lost father, ignite a Martian revolution, and rescue a civilization from turmoil.