Customer Reviews

Burning Tower

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Burning Tower is the daughter of Whandall Feathersnake, the hero in the authors' previous book, 'The Burning City'. This is her adventure in a world filled with other facinating, lively characters, even an emperor who knows the meaning of "have a heart". There are many good things to say about the story; but, if I said more, it would ruin the surprise. What you really need to know is that the story gets more interesting with every page, draws you in, and keeps you turning pages until the very end.

Were it all true, the background material would be worth reading even without the story. The book includes a mosaic of different cultures presented in enough detail to be convincing. There is a description of Chaco Canyon that should increase the number of tourists visiting NW New Mexico. (The Nageezi Chamber of Commerce will want a copy of this book.)

The reader will learn a little about a lot of things from how to set a backfire to stop the spread of a wildfire to the use of chariots in battle, and more than one would expect about the terror birds that used to live in times past. Lovely creatures that will remind you of Kipling's line "Once we feared The Beast-when he followed us we ran" (The terror bird in this book is probably the Titanus Walleri.)

And, after reading this story, you will only want right-handed hummingbirds in your garden. I kid you not.

Yet there is a downside to this book, Niven and Pournelle have written a story that makes magic plausible leaving you with the guilty feeling you get from actually having liked a fantasy novel.

A reviewer above said these books [Burning City and Burning Tower] appeal only to hardcore Pournelle & Niven readers, and added that even they should only buy the books at discount.
I heartily disagree.

It's not Shakespeare, it's not Conrad, but it's not silly or poorly written. While the plots are not as tight as some English & writing teachers would strive for in a writing class, I would not call them haphazard at all. And while some characterization is weak, I'm willing to accept that given the relatively large cast of characters in this book (Burning Tower) and its prequal. I found the characterization for the major characters and the descriptive writing to be pretty good. For something really bad, try reading "1865". Or rather....don't read '1865' or, '1910' for that matter.

If the one or two poor reviews posted here have not dissuaded you from reading Burning Tower or Burning City, you might be interested in knowing that the background world is taken from a collection of stories titled "The Magic Goes Away". That book inspired a sequal "The Magic May Return".

As reviews here have mentioned, magic was once common, but went away because it was made possible only with the presence of "manna". So people literally used up the manna and the magic went away.

The first book (Burning City) tells the story of a young man who leaves a city that seems to be magic-poor, yet is still dominated by a fire-god and magic. He leaves the city has adventures and later returns. On one level it is a simple adventure/coming of age story. On another level it is about
how a city/society is changed when it is exposed to the greater world.

The second book (Burning Tower) is on one level a quest: Find out why the terror birds are attacking the caravans. On another level it is a love story about two people from different worlds. He is a Lord. She is a semi-nomadic trader. On an even higher level, it is about how people react when they realize a precious resource is going away. After you read this book, substitute the word "oil" for "manna" and then use your imagination.

I found both books interesting and fun to read. Note: while Burning Tower stands on it's own, it obviously helps the reader to have first read Burning City.

This "Unicorns and Magic" book is in realty a clever telling of folk legends from the days long before the coming of white people to Southern California and Western Mexico. My only quibble is this is disclosed in the after-words (Notes),and I would wish it a preface. Start there.

I want to read it again, but first I'll take in "The Burning City" the first book in this series. Events in the prior book in this series, are refrenced constantly in "Burning Tower." However modern movies and books jump timelines regularly. Modern storytelling references events never written all the time. It really doesn't matter which book brings you to this saga.

I had not previously read "The Burning City" when I picked up "Burning Tower." I was at Orycon and felt like buying something to read (imagine that!). Knowing nothing about this or the prior book, I knew that I trusted Pournelle and Niven to tell a tale worthy of my time. I trusted them as authors and editors, both alone and especially together. "On the gripping hand" is their words, and you hear that all the time outside of fandom.

I had misgivings about these authors doing a "Unicorns and Magic" book. Not my normal genre, nor I thought, theirs. Or so I thought. The first half of the book didn't pull me in, but didn't push me away either. The characters and situations were rich and textured, and I kept turning pages. The evil that the protagonists fight seemed a stretch but that was before I read the after-words in the "Notes" section.

How did Jerry and Larry handle this genre? Just fine. You will love the ending.

Legends are told and retold, heard and re-heard. That's what makes 'em legend. The wonderful discovery that these tales are based on real legends is significant. It is not necessary that you believe these stories. It is however vital that you understand: a hundred generations have.

"You don't know about me without you've read a book called" . . . Huck Finn's opening to his autobiography is particularly appropriate here. This book can't be enjoyed, almost not read, unless you have completed "The Burning City", its predecessor. For starters, your first question will be "what time period does this take place in?" A little research reveals you'll be many thousands of years off - in the wrong direction! Appearing at first like one of the standard post-nuclear holocaust fantasies, it turns out to be many millennia in the past. Niven and Pournelle have violated a guideline of trilogy writing. If you pick up this book assuming it's a "stand-alone" novel, you will be sadly disappointed. If you start it as a fantasy adventure story, you will find much excitement, adventure and, of course, travel. What's a fantasy story for if not to go on quests in distant lands? Well, that's not quite the case here.

Location questions are dispelled by the maps provided. The story takes place in Southern California. In what's now called the Los Angeles Basin, there exists a multi-layered society. There are Lords and Ladies, Lordkin, who seem to be minor aristocrats, and the kinless - the bottom of society. As with today, bushfires are a matter of concern in this arid environment. A fire sets off this story in revealing the rivalry within the aristocrat clans and threats from other clan groups. Ameliorating this rather medieval scene are the merchants' wagon trains. To keep commerce flowing, wagon trains are pretty much left in peace, except by bandits - and "terror birds".

The terror birds, which almost elude physical description, become the core of the story. They seem to be an archaeopteryx with an attitude. Having attacked the merchants' wagons, they've also destroyed whole villages and besieged a town. Having upgraded from solitary attacker to group assault, the birds are clearly becoming a serious threat. Are they being guided using magic? Lord Sandry joins the Feathersnake caravan to find out. He encounters the gypsy beauty queen Burning Tower [you never learn the source of the name] and romance flares. Oh, yes. As a virgin, Tower is allowed a "bonehead" - a unicorn - for a mount. It's all quite genre stuff. Sandry, the Hero of this tale, doesn't have a quest. He's just riding shotgun for the commercial travellers. Still, he's allowed some heroic activity with a bit of help from his [girl]friends.

The framework of this fantasy fable is that "there's gold in them thar hills". Gold is one of the sources of "manna" [magic] that makes things happen in this rather disjointed tale. So is petrified wood. The problem with magic is that once introduced by an author[s], there are no limits to its use. Magic is available to certain types who use others as pawns in power struggles. In this bizarre Southern California environment, it is gods who wield that power most significantly. Unless they are turned into myths, which depletes their prowess. Magic, like gold in a later age, is being depleted. Dire predictions for the future permeate this story, and the result will surely be depicted in the next volume. However, i will not be learning the accuracy of the predictions. I haven't yet worked out how Atlantis found it's way to the Pacific Ocean before sinking, as this novel implies. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

As Prometheus gifted us with fire Messrs. Niven and Pournelle, ever the consumate collaborators, bring us into a world where magic refuses to die and the gods themselves can be held to answer for their acts. Perhaps Science Fiction's most creative team and certainly ranked amongst the greatest for their individual contributions, the Larry and Jerry act again bring us novelty and continuity in their "Lordshills" series.

Thousands of years ago, the magic is running out. Although the firegod Yangin-Atep has 'gone mythical,' and manna is slowly seeping back into Tep's Town, throughout the world, manna is being used and once used, it cannot be replenished. But a few sources remain--and trade in manna-enabled objects remains central to the economies of the cities of what is now California. When huge birds begin attacking caravans and cutting off this trade, the leaders of Tep's Town send Sandry, a young lord, along with Burning Tower (the woman he loves), her half-sister and coyote-sired Clever Squirrel, as well as some mercenaries and a couple of 'Lordkin' to determine the source of the problem and to re-open the vital trade in magic.

Terror birds had been known to caravaneers for ages, but never before had they organized. Clever Squirrel determines the only possible solution--they are being controlled by a god. But what god would want to destroy the profitable trade in manna-enriched items? And what can their trading party do against the power of a god? Their journey takes them across California and what is now the southwest U.S. to the mythical city of Aztlan--from whence Aztec culture descended. There's plenty of action and some clever plot twists along the way.

Authors Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle continue the saga begun in THE BURNING CITY. The 'end of magic' motif adds poignancy to the story--and creates a bit of moral ambiguity as Sandry and Burning Tower learn the motives behind the terror bird attacks.

BURNING TOWER is a solid and enjoyable adventure. I did think that the relationship stuff felt a bit like an add-on, designed to make the book appeal to the teenaged girl audience. It was easy enough to tune out, though, and didn't detract from the story.

Three Stars

I read The Burning City (the first book in the series) and enjoyed it and pre-ordered this book. When it came, I spent a couple of late nights reading it. It is a fantasy set in somewhat familiar territory in pre historic Southern California. It combines magic, unicorns, Aztec legends and other elements in a highly entertaining, readable form. Highly recommended.

These 2 books are fantasy novels set in a human prehistory in which magic exists. The twist to this idea is that magic is based on a naturally occurring but non-renewable resource called manna (what else). In some ways, this is an attempt at an allegory of contemporary dependence on petroleum products. Against the backdrop, Niven and Pournelle set a series of stories about a period when manna is really drying up. The first book, The Burning City, is a bildungsroman about a young man growing up in a relatively magicless community with an unusual social structure and his later adventures in the greater world. The second book, Burning Tower, is a quest story in which the heroes, related to the heroes of The Burning City, search for powerful wizards manipulating magic in a malignant way.
These are not particularly well written books. Plots are haphazardly developed, characterization is weak, and good descriptive writing is conspicuous by its absence. The Burning City, in particular, is marred by some poorly developed allegory. Neither Niven nor Pournelle are gifted writers though some of their previous work, both individually and in collaboration, is considerably better than either of these books. Neither of these books come close to matching their best work, The Mote in God's Eye, a very good novel.
Given these deficiencies, the books succeed or fail on the authors' ability to weave traditional mythology and prehistory into their premise. Here, they are only modestly successful. Their use of mythic elements is relatively superficial. I can recommend these books only to hard core Niven-Pournelle fans, and then only if they purchase these books at a discount.