In the Courts of the Crimson Kings (Hardcover)

by S.M. Stirling (Author) "The third life-bearing world of the solar system, Mars is less Earthlike than Venus, although like Earth and unlike Venus its rotation is counterclockwise, and..." (more)
Key Phrases: ruby throne, invisible crown, wet world, Thoughtful Grace, Real World, Prince Heltaw (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Stirling's charming second pastiche of 1930s planetary romances (after 2006's The Sky People) moves from Venus to Mars, where different Terran factions vie to pick up the pieces of the Tollamune emperor's shattered realm. Archeologist Jeremy Wainman, sent by the U.S. Aerospace Force to explore the lost city of Rema-Dza, promptly falls in love with Martian mercenary Teyud za-Zhalt; no surprise that she turns out to be heir to the long-vanished Crimson Dynasty, or that they rush off to thwart an attempt to usurp the Ruby Throne. Soon they find themselves fighting a pack of feral airship engines and questing after the invisible crown of the first emperor. Stirling successfully creates a truly alien environment (Rugs crawled to envelop the feet), and his flair for the dramatic and obvious affection for the Mars of Burroughs, Brackett and Bradbury almost make up for his inclusion of pirates with eye patches, heavily armored guards riding fat-tired, self-propelled unicycles and other moments of near-parody. (Mar.)
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Review

“Rollicking…. A terrific premise.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) on The Sky People

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (March 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765314894
• ISBN-13: 978-0765314895
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #162,388 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another excellent book by Stirling, March 19, 2008

By	Daniel S. Palter "Scott Palter" (Waterloo IA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Second volumes in series are often a disappointment. This is actually MUCH better than the five star first one. Then again it is less a second volume than another story set in the same universe and somewhat later in time [think Cherryh's Company Wars where the books are clearly stand alone]. Stirling's world builidng was always one of his major assets and it just gets better with time and practice. This is a Mars that never was but you wish could be. The world is beautifully thought out and conveyed without annoying data dumps. The characters are great, the action non-stop [think the best dungeon crawl you ever saw but without the boring on the road parts]. This is what adventure fiction should be and very seldom is. In an era of door stopping books on often mind numbing lengths this book actually leaves you wishing the author had taken 200 more pages to reach the end. Once can only hope the series continues.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, March 21, 2008

By	R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This book is a clever updating of Burroughs' A Princess of Mars. The basic plot is identical; athletic, intelligent Earthman is transported to Mars, meets beautiful and talented Martian princess in exile, romance and adventure ensue, they end up on the throne. The background of the story, used also in Stirling's entertaining The Sky People, is a solar system in which Venus and Mars were seeded with life, including humans, from Earth after considerable planetary engineering. Mysterious forces (The Lords of Creation) are responsible for the large scale manipulation of the Solar System. Stirling has done a nice job of imagining Mars and Martian society, though his Mars owes more to Leigh Brackett's superior planetary romances than to Burroughs. Stirling's Mars has a longstanding Imperial tradition, a highly stratified society, and impressive technology based on genetic manipulation. His fleshing out of Martian society and biology is systematic and imaginative. Plotting in this book is solid, and character development is significantly better than The Sky People.
For experienced SF readers, a particularly enjoyable dimension is Stirling's frequent references to quite a bit of prior SF work.
The book concludes with a parallel worlds theme that sets the stage for the sequel.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Echo's of Classic Science Fiction, March 18, 2008

By	Michael T. Rohde - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you like Ray Bradbury, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven and or Jerry Pournelle then you want to own, In the Courts of the Crimson Kings. If I read more of the science fiction greats besides Burroughs I would list there names too.

This is the squeal to, The Sky People, but you do not need to have read that book first. As they take place on different worlds and years apart, there are some references to the earlier book but it's not critical.
The Lords of Creation series like most books has a central "what if" so to speak. What if magic was real, what if humanity had faster than light travel, etc. The what if of this series is what if an alien race had been manipulating our solar system and human destiny for 100's of millions of years? Venus is a hot steaming jungle world filled with fantastic creatures from Dinosaurs, Neanderthals, creatures of the Megafauna period, modern humans and many other terrain native creatures all seeded from earth by the aliens. Mars while a dry, harsh and unforgiving world supports life, but strange and alien life. Between the pressures of trying to survive a slowly drying and freezing world and massive genetic manipulation by the human derived Martians Mars is populated by strange and alien creatures.

The technology of Mars is almost totally based on organics. The Martian Humans have guns, vehicles and binoculars but they are all living organisms. This is the result of culture that is 10's of thousands of years old. And while the Martians ability to manipulate the building blocks of life is almost without limitless they have nothing like our electronics or metallurgy. So you have a strange combination of bows, swords and deadly beyond belief creatures.

While old and in many ways powerful Mars is a dyeing world. Once Mars had a world wide empire, the Crimson Dynasty, but that has long ago fallen into feuding city states. If anything is a high art form of Mars it is intrigue.

Into this strange mixes are added explores from earth in search of the secrets of Mars. Read the book and find out what the hidden secretes of the red planet are.
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