Customer Reviews

The Merchants of Souls

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

 

 

Unlike the other reviewers of this book, I found the obviously deeply personal involvement in the plot of this book to parallel the attitudes and observations of our hero, Giraut. There is a deep synergy, to me, between the writing style, the character's emotions, and the plot of the book. Very different from the first book of the series and similar in style to the second, I was amazed at the depth and clarity provided by the dual personalities in the main character and the time spent reviewing what made the protagonist who he was. Certainly not typical sci-fi, it may be hard-to-swallow for a person looking for futuristic adventure. As existential fiction, however, it seemed right-on.

My biggest problem with this third installment in the Giraut series was the nebulous plot. Initially Barnes spends a majority of the prose characterizing Occitan's unique culture and the friendship between Giraut and his psypyx/dead jovent friend Raimbaut who's been revived, ostensibly to testify before the Council of Humanity about the potential 'abuse by entertainment' of these stored souls, essentially attempting to grant citizenship to them. Fine and dandy.

The second half of the book seems to focus almost exclusively on the inexplicable young love between Raimbaut and Laprada, a member of the Council and a freshly recruited OCP agent to boot, as well as a chronically depressed, bipolar mess of a person. This whole plot 'twist' seemed contrived and muddled to me. It overshadows the supposed climax of the book, which in its entirety, takes place in a mere twenty pages at the conclusion of the book. Very hurried, and nothing like the Caledony story seen in A Million Open Doors, for example.

Overall, while I can't say that this book was a disappointment (I did buy the uncorrected proof before it actually came out in hardback!), I would consider it the weakest of the three. The Thousand Cultures is a fasinating milieu, and other Barnes efforts such as Candle proove that he's one of the most creative sci-fi authors out there. Let's hope he uses this book as a stepping stone for bigger and better things for Leones in the future!

This is the third in the series, and the weakest entry so far. It begins immediately after the end of the second book, with the OSP having to deal with the political ramifications accompanying the shocking loss of an entire world, and with Giraut having to deal with being used by his friend and boss, Shan -- although Giraut seems to react pretty emotionally for an intelligence agent. In fact, only the last third of the book contains any amount of action or plot. The first two-thirds is divided between back-story -- how Giraut acquired his close group of friends in boarding school, plus a series of isolated anecdotes (mostly involving his wife, Margaret) set in the decade between the first and second books -- and a deep psychological dissection of what it's like to have a dead friend's personality living in the back of your brain for a couple of years while his cloned body is grown and made ready for his reoccupation. Barnes also uses the rather thin ostensible plot -- protecting these "canned" personalities from commercial exploitation for entertainment purposes -- as an excuse to explore Earth's own society, and to show that it's just as bizarre as any frontier world in human-occupied space. While all this is fascinating in itself, it doesn't make for much of a story. And when the real action begins, with a very public assassination, the plot that unfolds turns out to have had nothing whatever to do with anything we were told earlier in the book. Talk about left field!

Another wonderful read by John Barnes. His books are always enjoyable and fun to read and never take themselves too seriously. ... it was quite good and told an interesting story, although I will say the ending was a little too silly for me. Don't read this book without first having read, "A Million Open Doors" and "Earth Made of Glass", in that order. These books introduce us to the world of the 1000 Cultures and Giraut Leones, the first person protagonist of all the novels. They are also enjoyable stories, set in a very believable futuristic world.

Anyone who doubts Barnes "predictions" for Earth 900 years from now, just has to watch a kid play X Box or talk to those people who live in their role playing computer worlds. Barnes just takes this desire of people to want to live in a fantasy world to its logical conclusions. I enjoyed this book very much and can't wait for the next one in the series.

John Barnes has written books that appeal to a variety of tastes, but this 3rd entry in a projected 5 book series ought to attract readership from a wide audience. I hate to say that I doubt this, given the popularity of Trek, * Wars, B5, etc., and the prejudice of "serious mainstream" readers against SF. I strongly encourage anyone with an interest in the future of humanity to read these books!

Start with "A Million Open Doors": the series goes uphill from there (and I am amazed that Barnes keeps upping the ante). Anyone who thinks that hard SF can't have a heart will find that the emphasis is on the interior emotional life of the viewpoint character. Bravo to John Barnes!!

This book is just marvelous and should be rewarding to those who have read the first two books in the series. I greatly enjoyed the fleshing out of Giraut's childhood and the formation of his campanho. The history of the earth and all of the various wars (a very believable possible Earth future), the Rising of the aintellects, and the relationship of the inner sphere to the Thousand Cultures are all very well-done and require very little suspension of disbelief. "Another round for humanity and one more for the good guys."

I read this book some time ago, and didn't write a review because existing reviews already covered this book's flaws well enough - Half the book is vignettes about Giraut's youth, largely unrelated to the plot, which is pretty weak this time around. But now the sequel is out, Armies of Memory. Having read that, I can tell you that what plot there is in Merchants is a direct setup to events in Armies, so don't skip this one - it will ultimately be well worth the read.

The plot summary for this book is very misleading. Folks looking for an in-depth discussion of the "psypyx" and various scenarios involving the misuse of recorded personalities should look elsewhere.

Instead, Barnes has created a less than impressive, highly predictable, space soap opera set against a very loosely defined sci-fi backdrop.

Interested in reading about the pain of a messy divorce? Enjoy reading about bi-sexual threesomes? Find the endless rehashing of "Romeo and Juliet" a thrill? Waiting anxiously for a futuristic version of "Days of Our Lives?" If so, Merchants of Souls is the book for you. 352 pages of boredom awaits!

Notions of nihilism, ultimate entertainments, and cyber consciousness are touched upon from an slightly unusual perspective.

Despite being focused on the characters, there is little character development , except for the protagonist, and the book ends without us having much sense of who they are and why they matter. Even with regard to the protagonist, although we get a lot of biographical detail there is less reality to this character that other authors masterfully develop in a paragraph.

Among the Thousand Cultures that make up the galaxy, earth already has a decadent reputation for misusing things. The latest movement on earth involves what most other worlds would say are the misuse of the recordings of the psypyx. Most of the worlds relish sharing their minds with the recordings of the deceased, but on earth the push is to place the recordings into games as virtual toys. The outrage among the Thousand Cultures and the earthlings' ignorance of this reaction could lead to war.

Girault Leones vowed never to work for the Office of Special Projects, especially with Shan, because their last disastrous collaboration led to the destruction of the planet Briand and his own divorce from Margaret. However, circumstances makes Girault realize never say never because he knows the galaxy needs him to influence the decisions on earth. He volunteers to try to keep the planet from taking actions that could lead to war.

The third Thousand Cultures tale, THE MERCHANTS OF SOULS, is an exciting science fiction tale that contains several intriguing premises especially the concept of sharing brain cells. The story line is overloaded so pivotal events are passively discussed between characters as having happened rather than actively described. Still, John Barnes shows why he is an award-winning author by making his futuristic realms seem authentic while fostering some novel ideas.

Harriet Klausner