Eclipse (A Song Called Youth - Book One) [Paperback]

John Shirley (Author)

Book Description

Series: Song Called Youth | Publication Date: November 1999

Book one of John Shirley's pre-holocaust series, A Song Called Youth.

The Russians didn't use the big nukes.

The ongoing Third World War leaves parts of Europe in ruins. Into the chaos steps the Second Alliance, a multinational eager to impose its own kind of New World Order.

In the United States ... in FirStep, the vast space colony ... and on the artificial island Freezone -- the SA shoulders its way to power, spinning a dark web of media manipulation, propaganda, and infiltration.

Only the New Resistance recognizes the SA for what it really is: a racist theocracy hiding a cult of eugenics.

Enter Rick Rickenharp, a former rock'n'roll cult hero: a rock classicist -- out of place in Europe's underground club scene, populated by "wiredancers" and "minimonos" ... but destined to play a Song Called Youth that will shake the world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Like many works defining the wild cyberpunk fringe in the 1980s, this depiction of a near-future dystopia, here revised and updated since its 1985 debut, seems almost acceptably mainstream today. But Shirley's spiky prose and edgy attitudes, which lately have cultivated a following among horror readers (Wetbones; Really, Really, Really, Really Weird Stories), still hook the reader's attention. Tapping anxieties about rising global nationalism, Shirley presents a Goya-esque vision of war-torn western Europe, bombed out and unstable in the early years of the 21st century from a resurgence of Russian militarism and the collapse of NATO. The Second Alliance, a government-sanctioned multinational police force, has rushed in to restore order and revealed itself a nightmarish incarnation of every fascist and fundamentalist power fantasy. The only defense against the Alliance's creeping totalitarianism is the New Resistance, a polyglot pick-up team of rebels that includes Rick Rickenharp, a tripping retro guitarist whose artistic and political sensibilities are sinuously intertwined, and John Swenson, a mole whose soul is blackened through his infiltration of the Alliance. Stitched together from vivid swatches of action and intrigue alternating kaleidoscopically between Earth sites and the orbiting FirStep space colony, the novel offers a thrashy punk riff on science fiction's familiar future war scenario and lays a solid foundation for the subsequent volumes of Shirley's "A Song Called Youth" trilogy. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

... beyond cyberpunk. -- William Gibson, author of Neuromancer

A complex, bizarre, and unique vision of the coming century, with a kaleidoscopic mix of politics, pop, and paranoid. -- Bruce Sterling, author of Distraction

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Babbage Press (November 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930235003
• ISBN-13: 978-1930235007
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,206,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shocking, intense, visionary: a work of genius, September 3, 2001

By 

Pascal Thiel - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eclipse (A Song Called Youth - Book One) (Paperback)

World War III started but no one used the big nukes. While the USA and the New Soviets agreed to fight on European battlegrounds (and on a space station halfway between Earth and Moon), fascist fundamentalist Christian forces - under the name Second Alliance - are gaining in influence worldwide. Only the New Resistance sees the destructive power of the Fascists and starts a bitter and seemingly hopeless fight.
As this is only the first part of the recently reissued trilogy, I don't know yet the outcome of the War, but one thing is for sure: John Shirley wrote one of the most intense future histories I have ever come across. The plot is based in the year 2029, and as this is a revised edition (the original version was released about 15 years ago), a lot of the historical background is real and does not only paint an imaginative dark future, but also shows the frightening doings of some actual American congressmen (Trent Lott and the racist Council of Conservative Citizens).
Shirley apparently has a strong dislike for WASPs (understandably), and together with the malleability of people's minds, he paints us a visionary picture of the future that could happen only just too easily.
Very graphic violence (nothing for the faint hearted), strong language and a shockingly surreal glimpse into the future will make sure that this book will have an everlasting imprint to your neurons.
Only one small point of criticism: for a "revised and updated" version, there were awfully many typos and especially misplaced periods and commas, but that doesn't take away one ounce of the intensity of this groundbreaking novel.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping possible future novel, August 21, 2002

By 

Larry Fausnacht "Max Bodycount" (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eclipse (A Song Called Youth - Book One) (Paperback)

After discovering John Shirley through his short horror fiction, I bought a copy of Eclipse and sat motionless for days to read it. In other words, I could not put it down. While this would be shelved in a store's science fiction section, it really is more than typical spaceships and lasergun fare. It falls more towards cyberpunk but exceeds it with a focus on characters instead of technology.

The basic premise of the rise of a neo-fascist "security" corporation during the starts of a limited nuclear war between the USA and Russia sets the background for the very believable characters, each with distinct personalities and flaws that come to life from the printed page. Mr. Shirley weaves a complex and intertwined tale of guerilla mercenaries, fading rock stars, and fasicst powermongers that would stand proudly with the great works on science fiction. If not for any other reason, his interpretation of developing cultural trends is at the same time illuminating and frightening.

Having only read the first book*, I am anticipating no less enjoyment from Penumbra and Corona, the second and third works in the series.

I recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a complicated read where each page yields a small reward.

* Sometimes I do need to spend a little time reading my college textbooks, too.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cyberpunk was built on this!, June 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Eclipse (Song Called Youth Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

I was a street punk the first time I read eclipse, and it changed my life. Smart and hard edged the eclipse series is the ultimate dark future tale, but does contain hope, and gritty realism!