Deserted Cities of the Heart [Mass Market Paperback]

Lewis Shiner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1989

"With surpassing skill, Shiner creates a milieu of corruption, decay, and ultimate redemption--populated with a cast worthy of Robert Stone. This savagely written novel is a total original." --James Ellroy, author of LA Confidential Years ago, Eddie Yates disappeared into the rainforests of the Yucatan, a burned-out visionary in search of cosmic truth. A mysterious photo sends Lindsey, his ex-wife, on a quest to bring him back and puts her on a collision course with Eddie's brother Thomas, whose desire for her has never faded. Their search leads them to the ruined Mayan temples of NaChan, deep in the jungle, where mushrooms grow that can send you back through time--or kill you. NaChan is sacred to the Landon Indians, and their enigmatic shaman Chan Ma'ax. But the ruins have also become a nexus for the political forces that are tearing Mexico apart. Lindsey, Thomas, and Eddie are soon caught between Carla's rebel army and the secret US paramilitary group known as the Fighting 666th as they face off in the first battle of the end of the world.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Shiner begins this novel realistically in a contemporary Mexico where Rolling Stone reporter John Carmichael has been drawn in his search for news, and anthropologist Thomas Yates has come to search for his missing brother, rock musician Eddie. Eventually, they meet among the ancient Mayan ruins where Eddie has gone on a pilgrimage with the Mayan descendants among whom he now lives. There, while trapped between Cuban backed insurgents and a clandestine American force, Eddie pursues his experiments with mushrooms. He claims that instead of psychedelic visions, they actually transport him back in time to his own past and to the great days of Mayan culture. Although well written and occasionally thoughtful, the narrative, whose opening reminds one of warmed-over Robert Stone, moves to fulfill the cliched apocalyptic aspirations of the title.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

An anthropologist and his alienated brother reunite in a Mexico torn apart by earthquakes and revolution to reenact an ancient Mayan myth of the end of the world in this surrealistic fantasy by the author of Frontera . Shiner captures the complexities of both modern and ancient reality in a story that should appeal to general as well as fantasy audiences. Recommended. JC
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Spectra (February 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553279750
• ISBN-13: 978-0553279757
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,544,236 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Music, Mexico, Mayans, Mushrooms, July 4, 2010

By 

The Yawning Horror (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Deserted Cities of the Heart (Paperback)

I wouldn't describe this adventure as science-fiction or fantasy - 'magic' is only present in the form of mushrooms. This is a quick, gripping read, with a narrative that switches between the four main characters. Shiner paints a vivid picture of the small towns, jungles, and ruins of Mexico, and manages to make all his characters recognizably human, even the 'bad guys', a band of New Age mercenaries that would be right at home in a Tom Robbins novel. Deserted Cities is a much straighter book than Robbins' work, however - great, well-written entertainment but not off-the-wall brilliant. Notable features include convincingly writing about music and its production, and finely detailed settings based on a list of reference material in the endnote.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Beginning of the End of the World, December 30, 2009

By 

Jym Cherry "Writing Under The Influence of Ro... (Wheaton, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Deserted Cities of the Heart (Paperback)

There's been a lot of talk lately about the end of the world in 2012 based on the Mayan calendar ending it's last cycle. In Deserted Cities of the Heart, Lewis Shiner was ahead of the game when he wrote in 1988! As the Indians in the book say, the end of the world has to start some place.

Deserted Cities is something like you'd get if you mixed Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan, with Burroughs/Ginsburg's The Yage Letters, and a bit of Paddy Chayefsky's Altered States thrown in. Deserted Cities is about rock star Eddie Yates who disappears from public life. With the help on an Indian shaman he discovers a psychedelic mushroom that sends you on a literal trip, it will take you to the past. Your past, or to the ancient Mayan past. Eddie is followed by his brother Thomas Yates who is an anthropologist and Eddie's ex-wife, Lindsey who try to rescue Eddie from self-destruction. It`s a story of sex, drugs, rock `n' roll, time travel, Mexican revolutionaries, and the Mayan end of days.

Shiner's early novels have been described as cyberpunk, whose best known adherent is William Gibson. I'm don't really understand the label in this case. Deserted Cities is a well written pretty traditionally formatted novel. The action cinematically, ramping up the action for a climatic ending.

Deserted Cities is Shiner's second novel. It was originally published in 1988. Although it uses the political situation in the plot, none of the story or action feels dated. I guess the more politics changes, the more it stays the same. With the talk of the end of the world in 2012 courtesy of the Mayan calendar it's a good time for a republication of Deserted Cities. If you've read a lot of Shiner's later novels, as I have, it's interesting to see his subconscious already working with some common elements, a time traveling protagonist whose trips to the past aren't very healthy for him, disappearing rock stars, Jimi Hendrix, which are precursors of his later works such as Glimpses. In using these elements you can see the evolution of Shiner as a writer.

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book, October 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Deserted Cities of the Heart (Hardcover)

This book transcends the normal run of the mill sci fi. it tells a story that reads like a great film, with concepts no filmmaker can portray about the inter relations of humans, and what we do to each other. its also a story that involves time travel, albeit in a strange manner. if you can find this book you should get it.