Customer Reviews

The Marriage of the Living Dark

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I haven't read sci-fi on a regular basis since my pre-teen days, but when sombody suggested this series to me I gave it a shot. The first seven books of this series are excellent. I think Wingrove did a fantastic job developing 3-D characters and playing on concepts of political intrigue and moral issues. His obvious familiarity with Chinese history is put to use in modelling a Chinese dynasty on the brink of downfall. However, when I arrived at Book VIII, I was extremely dissapointed.

First off, he glossed over too many plot developments. What went on in the American Empire after Li Yuan re-emerged as a key player? How did he deal with Old man Egan? And knowing what he knew of the future, why did he bother?

Although we are given a brief glimpse into Shephard's change of heart, he is glossed over for the final chapters of the novel. His once intense personality is now transformed through a few words of regret and realization. His character is too analytical and intense for that type of trite simplistic self realization.

I, like most of the reviewers here, was very disappointed with the whole factured universe concept. It had no correlation to any of Kim Ward's previous theories despite, Wingrove's desperate attempt to justify it in a conversation between Tuan Ti Fo and Ward. When presented with a new chapter and long dead characters are resurrected and playing the stock market I thought I picked up the wrong book. Is this Wingrove's way of foreshadowing an alternate series based in this new world?

I thought that this series was successful for it's political intrigue, depth of plot and it's historical understanding of the rise and fall of empires. This last book was a grand departure from those themes. I agree with one of the above reviewers in that I would have rather the series end in chaos after book VII, than this failed attempt at a conclusion.

It seems almost as if Wingrove was pressured by a deadline or just finally ran out of creative steam and settled on an old Michael Moorcock premise (the multiverse) to get himself out of trouble.

After a spectacular build up, fascinating characters and an intricate but coherent plot carefully stretched out over the first 7 books this was a massive anticlimax. The ending made no real sense in terms of what had happened before, the characters suddenly behaved in incomprehensible manners and the final plot twists were just ridiculous. What a waste of a terrific series.

What Happened? There has to be a very interesting story behind how this book came into existance. It seems at times to be intentionally bad. This is a great series and I highly recommend it through book VI. Book VII is also good if not quite as good but unfortunately in introduces new characters and ideas which are not resolved. This will tempt you to read book VIII, but be warned _Marriage of the Living Dark_ does not continue the plot threads begun in book VII.

Book VII ends foreshadowing big things for its new characters--Josef and Coffin Filler. But these characters are almost abandoned in _Marriage of the Living Dark_ and are not the slightest bit important to this story. Ben Shepard's obsession with death continues as he makes arrangments with Devore to get subjects for his experiments, but this plot line is soon forgotten. Instead, Part I of this book introduces yet another character Daniel and describes his battles in Eden, a "training ground" for Devore's boy army where they battle artificial insects. The purpose of this is never fully explained but has something to do with Devore's plans for molding mankind which was foreshadowed at the end of book VI. However, by part II this story thread is also abandoned and the only thing from part I to have any baring on the rest of the book is Daniel himself, a character who serves no purpose other than to be a great soldier who continually saves the other characters from danger.

Part II introduces much termoil in American where young Egan has to deal with a military defeat in the West, another enemy coming up from the South, the threat of Devore attacking from Europe, treachery from his own officials, and the return of his grandfather and his bid for power. Wingrove merely sets up this conflict and then forgets about it. Later the resolution to all of these problems is revealed in a one page account of these events by Li Yuan: An entire novel worth of story is condensed to a single page!

The book contiues to jump from idea to idea having conflicts resolved and main characters killed "off-camera" only to have these events tersely recounted to the reader after the fact. Finally, we reach the final chapter where Wingrove's multi-dimensional subplot introduced earlier becomes increasingly bizarre until we reach the last five sections of the last chapter which are the worst pages of incomprehisible and pointless dreck that I have ever read.

Then things go down hill--as if that where still possible--with an epilogue that COMPLETELY ignores the end of the book! The epilogue's inclusion in the book is so bizarre that it is the chief reason I suggest this book may be intentionally bad.

But worst of all, in addition to all of these problems (perhaps because of them), Marraige of the Living Dark fails to draw the reader in like the preceding books. It is a lifeless account of pointless events without emotional depth which fails to connect with the reader.

A real disappointment all around. I'm giving it two stars because I still loved these characters from what I'd read about them in the previous books, many individual sections are well written even if they don't fit together, and (believe or not) I have read worse books.

This has been a great series and I do not mind stories taking new directions, but this one took a universe-sized detour. This is just not what made this series so enjoyable. Previous volumes were just enough sci-fi to make them interesting, but that was not really the best part. The best part was all of the intrigue, action, and romance. This world felt truly alive until this novel. I am glad I do not have to read anymore of these books after this one. A bad ending to an otherwise great series.

ESP? Alternate universes? Aliens? Immortals? seeing into the future? plants that think?

Did I miss something? I thought this was a series about a Chinese controlled world system.

Yuck!

If you've read and enjoyed the rest of the Chung Kuo series (like me), my advice to you is to skip this last book, as well as its predecessor. I read the last 2 books in their British editions, and I really wish I hadn't gone to the trouble. Whatever ending you imagine for these characters is far more satisfying than what is actually written. What made this series great was the many wonderful characters, the political and social intrigue, and the interesting analyses of the Chinese-dominated future. Though its sci-fi, its pretty grounded in realism. But in this book, (and its predecessor actually), Wingrove moves away from all that made the series good, while introducing unsatisfying new characters and completely unnecessary "alternate reality" junk that manages to undermine and cheapen all that has gone before. I won't spoil it for you who do read it, but he actually kills off 2 of the book's most important characters "off camera" - their deaths have almost no emotional impact on us. After getting interested in these characters over so many books, I really hoped for more. So, I advise you to read the Chung Kuo series, but skip the last 2 installments. The end of book 6 is much more appropriate and satisfying. I just don't know what got into Wingrove that he felt the need to switch gears so dramatically and so unnecessarily.

This book was very well done, as was the series. I guess I'm the only person who liked the ending of this book. I can understand the point of view that it goes way beyond the scope of the previous seven novels, but this is science fiction, what did you expect? The style of prose is consistent with the rest of the series, which made this book a very enjoyable and satisfying read.

I tracked down the last volume of the Chung Kuo series in a bookshop in Amsterdam. Too bad I found it. I thought the seven previous volumes of the series were magnificent. The last book was confusing and bizarre. It felt as though the end of the book was suddenly rushed, that Wingrove was told the volume had to be a certain number of pages, so he cut and abbreviated. Or perhaps he was merely tired about writing about his fantastic world. Great series, poor finale.

I loved this series so much, that I order this book from Europe. I couldn't wait. Let me say, this isn't the way to wrap up an epic! David answers only a couple of unresolved questions and these feeble answers are not in the spirit of Chung Kuo. It felt like he experimented with an ill-formed crazy idea, trying to end the whole thing with a bang. The ending didn't fit, and it didn't work. Many new questions and loose ends were created. (I've got a list of over 10 major questions begging for an answer!) It was really sloppy and inconsistent and down right stupid. And then the epilogue, his chance to sum up the point of the series! Flop. More stupidity. I'm hoping that the US release is being delayed due to a massive rewrite. I still enjoyed the book immensely, but I was let down in the end.

I was introduced to this series several years ago and eagerly read each sucessive novel. The series was so imaginitive and fresh, not to mention complex and intriguing... I couldn't wait any longer for the publication of each US edition - I ordered this edition from the U.K. - excited to see where this series would end.

Well, it didn't end the way i thought it would... that is not a bad thing in and of itself. What is a bad thing is the apparent lack of direction and drift this novel displays. It was as if the author grew tired of the series and wrapped it up in a fit.

Conclusions should come logically from the story that proceeded it, but this seemed to take the hard sci-fi underpinnings of the series and devolve it into metaphysical fantasy. I felt betrayed not only by this denouncement, but by a complete lack of respect for characters that I had been following for books and years...

A truly brillant idea, stained by an internally illogical ending.