Customer Reviews

The Bones of Time

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ms. Goonan creates a hauntingly beautiful love story, a suspenceful high-tech thriller, and a policaly charged story of both the future and the history of Hawaai - all in one. Her power to weave seemingly seperate storylines, decades, even centuries apart is captivating. This is THE BEST historical Science Fiction book I've ever read. There is nothing like it. The closest would be "The Diamond Age" or "Lincon's Dreams". THE BONE'S OF TIME has the power to make me care deeply about a long dead Hawaain princess. It's the story of a math genius boy named Century who's in love with a girl seperated from him by time. It's also the story of a political struggle in future Hawaai, and cloning, and space travel, but ultimately it's a story about time; how it binds us and how we can break those binds.

I picked this book up because it was 20% off; I'd never heard of it or Ms. Goonan. It was a great find. Ms. Goonan is current on all of the cutting edge science - cloning, genetic manipulation, nanotech, and even the cutting edge super-string theory of physics, which implies the possibility of time travel. All of this could be incredibly boring, though, but Ms. Goonan hangs it all on a great plot populated by some memorable characters. The novel is set in Hawaii. Some of the characters are native Hawaiians, and members of the underground Homeland Movement; another is the Japanese daughter of the founder of Interspace, an organization with the lofty goal of settling the stars, but as corrupt and underhanded as any modern organization. The way all of these elements are tied together is really incredible. You'll have to read it to see for yourself

In "The Bones of Time" Ms. Goonan combines cutting edge science fiction with traditional Hawaiian culture in a suspenseful and captivating race against time itself. The pace of the novel will keep you glued to the page and the climax is as stunning as it is satisfying. One of the finest science fiction stories I have ever read.

...please tell me. "The Bones of Time" jumps back and forth between two plotlines. In one, a teen genius named Cen does brilliant mathematical work while carrying on a PG-13 relationship with a Hawaiian Princess who died a century before he was born (and they say tragic romance is dead!), while in the other a Japanese scientist and a clone flee from mysterious pursuit and try to acquire some of Chairman Mao's DNA. This book mentions a lot of scientific hypotheses. There's the idea that consciousness has a special metaphysical quality in our universe, which is somehow tied to a storyline about a gigantic spaceship being built in Hawaii. There's mention of potentially deadly nanotechnology, and efforts to analyze and duplicate the past's great leaders through their genes, and... But what is the meaning of all this? What consequences does it have for the human race? Goonan only touches lightly on those questions, with the big ramifications left unexplored.

Besides that, the book just plain lacks style. Particularly in the second storyline, where the characters flee all over southeast Asia while keeping one step sinister agents, it's all just way too boring. Been there, done that, let's move on please.

I was disappointed in this novel, not because it isn't good, it is and quite spellbinding at that, with a very interesting set of intuitions about consciousness, quantum physics and cosmological theory, but rather because I was expecting the ineffable magic of Queeen City Jazz. In QCJ you never know what will apear at each turn, at least not until late in the novel, after the author has led us along paths of masterfull indirection, suggesting evocatively yet always leaving something yet to be said, building up to realizations that stun, leave one both awed and intrigued, sad and strangely joyful, never ever predicting the plot. And that is just what i found myself doing in TBoT. It is linear, despite a major curlicue in the time line. It is traditional rather than fantastic, and I miss that magic, although I enjoyed the read.

This book has good intentions, yet it's pure nonsense. There's just too much complete garbage to take it seriously.

1) You would never base the world's only space port in Hawaii - on Oahu! Oahu gets very strong earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes. It's not sunny all the time, the clouds move in frequently and obscure the sky, shutting down the entire space operations. Oahu isn't very flat either and you wouldn't have the space to put the long landing strips necessary. Have you ever taken off from Honolulu airport? You look like you're about to fall into the water, yet you don't - barely. I love my home, but it's a lousy place to stick a space port.

2) The daughter and shareholder of the world's largest genetic corporation just happens to go jogging and just happens to have a random miscarriage just outside the house of a boy who is a clone of King Kamehameha. Riiiight. A whole week later she just happens to realize his life is in danger and just happens to show up right before the bomb goes off. Then he just happens to go with her - because people who would take the time to illegally clone the King wouldn't bother to take care of him or anything. Sure. Uh huh.

3) The entire miscarriage itself. I've had one. I have friends who've had one. It's like a bad period. Cramps, relatively normal yet heavy flow. It warrants an ultrasound at your doctors office, not a 911 call and a hospital stay. Rare, unusual complications? Maybe, but the book mentions none.

4) She gets shot and is "kill on sight" in China, so they decide to go deeper into China because Tibet is... "pretty." What? This book has a lot of long, wandering history. It even told us that China stopped being communist in 2002 (really? only 6yrs after the book was writen? no it didn't!), yet it never said how or when Tibet stopped being Chinese, since Hong Kong still is in the book. Besides, you don't go through China to get away from China. You go to India or Japan or Indonesia. Elsewhere.

I find it entirely impossible to trust the premise of the book when the details are so ridiculous. How am I supposed to get into cloned Kamehameha's and time travel and genetic manipulation/evolution if I can't trust the author to know what the hell she's talking about. Which I don't. I found her expositions on that subject narrow minded and simplistic.

This book should have been a short story. I picked it up sight unseen, based on the strength of her short fiction. The first major red flag was that the book was covered with praise for her previous book but there was nothing about this book on the jacket. No blurbs, no teaser, nothing. About a third of the way into the book it was clear why. This book is over-written, confusing, and boring. A disappointment.

I thought Bones of Time would be either really good or really bad. It turned out to be less than mediocre. It took me weeks to read it, sometimes I read another book at the same time and switched between them. It wasn't a time travel book although it sounded like it could be from the back cover; it was flash backs to an earlier time. There was just enough to hold my interest, wondering how it would end, to finish it. The ending was strange.

It made me feel bad to read how the United States finagled to get Hawaii from the Hawaiian rule. It reminded me of how the Indians were mistreated when their land was taken. However, although this subject was thrown in often throughout the book, it wasn't part of the plot.

Although it was interesting to read about locations on Oahu or the Big Island where I've been and get the author's concept of what they could be like in the future, it wasn't enough to reprieve the book. I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone, and it's going into my stack for trade-in at the local used bookstore.

This book has great characters; complex and just as inconsistent as real people. I particularly enjoyed the multi-disciplinary flavor. Who else would mix social politics, Hawaiian history, time travel physics/math, stir in a bit of conspiracy theory and round out the sauce with a dash of cyberpunk? All in all a fresh, rich effort.

Intriguing book, although rambling at times. Also, the author tends to build suspense and then drop the subject, leaving the reader hanging. Still, great characters, a fun and exotic setting, and an intelligent plot make this book well worth reading.