Customer Reviews

Eyes of the Calculor (Greatwinter Series)

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

 

 

I'm slightly perplexed as to why Sean McMullen's excellent Greatwinter series hasn't achieved wider acclaim. I never hear fans speaking of McMullen. As of today, there are only 3 reader reviews on Amazon for a book that was released nearly a year ago. This lack of attention is especially frustrating given that McMullen is writing some of the most entertaining novels I've encountered in quite some time.

McMullen's series is set in the far future after a cataclysmic war that resulted in the abolition of all technology. The Earth returns to an 1800s level of technology. The main action in McMullen's novels occurs in Australia (or Australica) where a half-human, half-bird hybrid (aviads) have revolted against humanity. The underlying reasons and plots of books 1 & 2 are too complex to go into here.

Book 3 picks up where Book 2 left off. The aviads are increasing their campaign against the humans. But it seems as though the Aviad-Human conflict is only a backdrop for McMullen's larger human stories. McMullen focuses on about 5 or 6 characters throughout the novel. He has a deft touch for bringing subtle character issues to the forefront of the story. The combination of good characters and entertaining story make this novel a winner. _Eyes of the Calculor_ has all the flavor of the best space operas.

I've eagerly devoured each of McMullen's novels that has found print thus far. I've even gone so far as to track down copies of his earlier Australian novels (essentially Book 1 in the series). I eagerly look forward to each of his new releases. He is without question one of my favorite authors and one that I can highly recommend to you.

In "Souls of the Great Machine," McMullen exposed his readers to a world full of complex cities on the future Australian continent, and in "The Miocene Arrow," McMullen went a step further and took us around to the other side of the world, in a future Denver, USA society, full of chivalry and aircraft. Different sets of characters were introduced to us in each book - far too many to begin listing here - and each brings with him or her a unique contribution to the story that unfolds in "Eyes of the Calculor." Zarvora Cybeline, former Highliber of Libris is replaced by Dramoren, an astute and altruistic man of great worth must organize a new calculor, and Jemli Miderellen, the new prophet of Woomera Confederation speaks out against all fueled machines. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, American forces, after finally recovering from a disasterous war, fomented by the Aviads of Austrailia, begin island hopping to gather horses from Austrailia. Samondel, Airlord of American Bartolica executes her sound plan, using pilots Serjon and Bronlar Feydamor as her most important and trusted crew members. Things go awry, however, and the fates of all parties involved, as well as a great number of innocent and ignorant civilians, are forever changed.

At the same time, McMullen revives his older, once departed characters, only to have them inhabit bodies of the near-dead, catatonic characters found in Austrailia. This blend of old and new, as well as foreign and domestic, makes this fantasitc tale of future Earth both captivating and engrossing on very deep levels. Don't miss this adventure-romance, pregnant with lies, love, truth, mystery, faith and knowedlge. Buy this book, and read it!

Another wonderful story in the Greatwinter Trilogy, but unfortunately, it's the last one. McMullen is one of the freshest, most original authors to come along in a long time. All three of these books were written for the intelligent Sci-Fi fan who was looking for something more then the usual space opera junk and war novels that seem to dominate the market right now. Please don't read "Eyes of the Calculor" first, as it is the last book of a series that began with "Souls in the Great Machine" and continued with "The Miocene Arrow". These novels tell an original story of a futuristic earth in which machines are forbidden, librarians rule and death is a daily occurence. However, such a simple sentence does not do justice to the fascinating and imaginative world that McMullen created, from the deserts of Australia, to the isolation of the Rocky Mountains, McMullen has created cultures and personalities that are wholly original. Best of all, the tale does not take itself too seriously, and the author writes with a wonderful sense of humor which brings his characters alive in a way that only the best science fiction books can.

If you are like me and have been longing to read an innovative work that brings you back to that time in your life when Science Fiction was new and exciting, then this is the series for you. Why this series did not get more attention is only indicative of the sorry state that Science Fiction currently finds itself. I believe part of the problem stems from McMullen's Australian origins, but the real reason is that most book stores would rather carry yet another Star Trek Novel, or a Robert Jordan prequel then look for exciting, original material. I look forward to reading other works by McMullen (also only found on Amazon, if I may plug this website) and hope that more authors like McMullen are inspired by his effort. Keep up the good work.

I really wanted to like this book. The American airlord society that McMullen introduced in the second book was a fascinating read, and the connection with the Australian cultures was sure to be interesting as well.

But then it all went crazy. The cetaceans apparently evolved into a superior civilization in a couple weeks and then subjugated humanity via the sexual fantasies of a geek programmer (I'm not kidding). Then the two main characters become certifiably crazy and in the end, evil (fascinating in itself, but only barely believable). The worst thing though is that the story at times becomes totally unreadable because everyone seems to betray everyone at least once - and often in the space of a single paragraph without much further explanation.

At times you really have to read things several times over to make out whats hapening, and while this might be praise in some cases, it ain't here.

As it is, you won't regret reading it - it still is a great book - if you liked the ones before it. But you sure wish he had restrained himself in some cases or edited some areas more.

For some reason, I didn't discover this was actually the last in a trilogy until halfway through the book, when it became clear that there was a complicated plot that had occured earlier. However, this did not at all stunt my enjoyment of Eyes of the Calculor, but perhaps it did limit it.

McMullen definately has his own magnificent and very readable style, combining a sense of humour with wonderfully endearing yet complex characters, politics, religion and society, magic, technology and science, all set just under two thousand years in the future. The plot is complicated enough to allow an immediate re-reading, and many "Oh!" moments, where everything clicks into place.

Although Eyes of the Calculor was fabulous as a stand alone book, I recommend it be read in sequence, in order to clean up issues of history and organisation of the society (which is quite complicated and worth understanding).

If you're looking for something light and funny and completely new and unlike most other science fiction, this is the book (and series) for you. 4.5 stars.

Let me be clear here: this is not a jumping on point. For some reason the books aren't numbered as a trilogy of sorts but that's basically what they are . . . McMullen is decent at giving exposition but being I read the first two in the series I'm probably a poor judge of how well he brings people up to speed.

Though, with that said, it may not be as difficult as all that as a lot of the concepts that powered the first book are gone, as well as most of the characters (while some folks have carried over, he's generally introduced an entirely new cast every time) . . . the end of the second book marked a bit of a sea change for the status quo, with one of the Big Concepts, the Call, being resolved entirely. The problem is that unless you've read the previous books you're not going to realize exactly how big a deal this is and how McMullen has been slowly shifting the overall direction over the course of the three books and stripping away what you thought were the core concepts before they could become gimmicks, which while not groundbreaking, at least shows a willingness to mess with his own rules.

Anyway, as the first book showed us Australia and the second book put us in North America, the last book here starts to let the cultures mingle, with the flyers and the librarians getting almost equal time. Also, the Avians become a bigger force in the novel as they don't have to worry about getting shot in the face every time they poke their heads up. Like the other novels there is a lot going on and also like those other novels there's probably too much going on. Nobody can accuse McMullen in lacking ideas and the plots spin and collide and parallel each other like he expects to be dead by the time the book is over and has to get it all down now. This can be a bit disorienting, as it means the story moves too quickly and some of the deeper character motivations tend to get lost in the shuffle as you start to question why exactly people are doing the things they're doing.

The kickoff event for all of this is Mirrorsun (don't ask) shorting out all the electronics on the planet for some reason, throwing everything into a bit of chaos. From there situations escalate, although with all the political manuevering and fighting it gets hard to tell exactly what the stakes are or who is on what side unless you start keeping a scorecard. The characters are mostly memorable, although there's so much to keep track of that nobody really gets to stick around in a scene for very long. There are some returning faces, including a few surprising ones. Some of the characters (I can think of two in particular) appear to have gone some radical personality changes in between books, which might be a little off-putting and not everyone is totally developed beyond "He's good at math and clever" . . . but the constant shifting about tends to alleviate that issue. If it's even an issue.

But his dialogue remains sharp and funny at times, the ideas are bursting out all over and everything is juggled well enough that it takes a while before you start wondering where this is all going. Yes, it gets resolved and chances are we won't see these people again. Which I'm okay with, by this point I think he's taken the story as far as he can in this setting and just based on these books I'd be curious to see what else he can do.

You don't hear too much about McMullen in the circles of SF and that's a shame because purely judging by these novels he's inventive and is able to imagine futures that are interesting without being totally depressing. Hopefully he's becoming more known outside of Australia but if you're looking for SF that isn't a bit off the beaten path without going radically experimental, this isn't a bad place to check out.

In the final Greatwinter book the emerging technology is zapped by Mirrorsun, EMP-style. This forces fallback to the old human powered/slave conscript calculors full of scientists and mathematicians.

With no Call, the aviad societies are now a lot more vulnerable to human expansion, not being able to move around in safety in Call times. The aircraft no longer work, so the horses available in Australia become an important resource the North Americans want to gather.

Multiple threads in this book.

I was very disappointed by this book. Souls in the Great Machine is a wonder of invention, characterization and cleverness. A highly recommend book. And the second book is also a pretty good read. So I was disappointed by this conclusion to the epic. I wanted to learn a lot more about the Mirrorsun and Great Winter and human calculators, but things get all muddled. Even the war isn't too clear. I guess my disappointed is so big because the first two books set such a high standard, so this third effort doesn't measure up.

Sean McMullen is a fellow Aussie but I won't let that cloud my judgment. The book is a page turner from the begining. It is fast paced and broad in scope. Sean has a rich imagination and has created a fascinating and very dangerous post apocalyptic (is there such a word?) Australia.

This is one of a 3 part series. The other two novels are equally as good and if you read the first one you will have to get the others.

Also read "The Centurians Empire" and "Voyage of the Shadowmoon" by the same Author.

Captivating and daring, original and alien. McMullen's 'GreatWinter Trilogy' is destined to be regarded as one of the most powerful and provocative SF trilogies of the new millennium... Gary S. Potter Author/Poet