Million Open Doors [Import] [Paperback]

John Barnes (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Cassell military; New Ed edition (June 2, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857981499
• ISBN-13: 978-1857981490
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)

More About the Author

My thirtieth commercially published novel will be coming out in spring 2012. I've published about 4 million words that I got paid for. So I'm an abundantly published very obscure writer.

I used to teach in the Communication and Theatre program at Western State College. I got my PhD at Pitt in the early 90s, masters degrees at U of Montana in the mid 80s, bachelors at Washington University in the 70s; worked for Middle South Services in New Orleans in the early 80s. I do paid blogging mostly about the math of marketing analysis at TheCMOSite and All Analytics. If any of that is familiar to you, then yes, I am THAT John Barnes.

There are also many Johns Barneses I am not. I am not the British footballer, the Australian rules footballer, the former Red Sox pitcher, the Tory MP, the expert on ADA programming, the biographer of Eva Peron, the authority on Dante, the mycologist, the travel writer, the guy who does some form of massage healing that I don't really understand at all, the oil executive, the film historian, or that guy that Mom said was my father. I do wish I'd written that book on titmice, though.

I used to think I was the only paid consulting statistical semiotician for business and industry in the world, but I now know four of them. So now I have a large market share of a growing field.

Semiotics is pretty much what Louis Armstrong said about jazz, except jazz paid a lot better for him than semiotics does for me. If you're trying to place me in the semiosphere, I am a Peircean (the sign is three parts, ), a Lotmanian (art, culture, and mind are all populations of those tripartite signs) and a statistician (the mathematical structures and forms that can be found within those populations of signs are the source of meaning). The branch in which I do consulting work is the mathematics and statistics of large populations of signs, which has applications in marketing, poll analysis, and annoying the literary theorists who want to keep semiotics all to themselves.

I have been married three times, and divorced twice, and I believe that's quite enough in both categories. I'm a hobby cook, sometime theatre artist, and still going through the motions after many years in martial arts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Million Open Doors, June 9, 2000

By 

"hmc3rd" - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Million Open Doors (Paperback)

I'd recommend to anyone who feels like reading older-feeling hard sci-fi novel that is still modern enough for one to not be embarassed by the author referring to events of the late 20th century that obviously never happened. One review on the actual book cover calls Barnes "one of Heinlein's spiritual descendents" and that review is very accurate. I also saw another review here on Amazon.com that called this a "cultural sci-fi novel." All true. Barnes does something very rare among modern sci-fi writers (that I have seen, I must admit I haven't had time to read a lot recently)...he makes a story based on cultures interesting and truly engrossing.

When I was reading the book I couldn't decide when it was written. It feels like a 50's era sci-fi novel because so much importance is placed on the culture. But then there would be a reference to a technological idea that was obvious very current (such as "growing" buildings using nanomachines). I guess the true beauty of this novel is the refreshing way that technology--while believable and realistic enough--is not the centerpiece, instead it supports and compliments the plot. Very refreshing to read a novel about the integration of technology and culture that doesn't spend time belaboring the internet and information technology.

Finally, a quick plug for Amazon.com. Although I did buy this book at my local Barnes & Nobles store, their Internet site was clueless on John Barnes. Glad to see that Amazon.com has a better selection so I can explore other works by this author. I can't wait to do so (apparently there is now a sequel to "A Million Open Doors").

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heinlein who?, April 13, 1998

By 

Michael Battaglia - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Million Open Doors (Paperback)

Much has been made of the similarities between Heinlein and Barnes, at least it seems to me. Most copies of the paperback I've seen have some reviewer or other touting Barnes as the "new Heinlein" which I think can be misleading. Much of what Heinlein did was similar, granted, but Heinlein tended to take more of a . . . shall we say radical bent toward his topics, which put off more than one reader. The difference between Barnes and Heinlein is that while a typical Heinlein book had revolution plastered all over it (and at his best the man was good enough to keep it from being distracting), the work of John Barnes, and especially of A Million Open Doors is more of a quiet, understated revolution. Instead of hitting the reader over the head with it, Barnes takes us through the tale of a boy finally learning to be a man on a world totally unlike his own. In the process he shows us both worlds and shows us what is wrong with those worlds and why. In this way, I think Barnes can make readers think without forcing them to think, which seems more like Ursula K. Le Guin than Heinlein. Either way, from this book it's clear that Barnes, while maintaining some vestiges of both Heinlein and Le Guin, is quickly on his way to becoming neither of them, instead he is becoming the next John Barnes. That's revolution enough.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A "cultural SF" novel, June 2, 2000

By 

joe_n_bloe (Ester AK USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: A Million Open Doors (Paperback)

A Million Open Doors is a well-crafted "cultural science fiction" novel in the vein of Jack Vance. The protagonist Giraut is a young epee-wielding "jovent" from Nou Occitan. Jovent culture apparently lies somewhere between that of 18th century aristocracy and that of Alex and his droog buddies in A Clockwork Orange.

Dissatisfied and dishonored, Giraut leaves his world through a "springer" (an instant teleportation device) to become an Ambassador for the Thousand Cultures. The world on which he lands contains two polar cultures: Caledon, where money becomes a holy arbiter of value, and austere St. Michael. Both cultures are deeply religious and theocratic although opposite in just about every other respect.

When the springers come for the first time to each of the Thousand Worlds, a "Connect depression" ensues. Giraut and the other ambassadors are there to help Caledon and St. Michael re-enter interstellar human culture ... but it turns out to be a challenge.

A Million Open Doors doesn't have a well-defined linear plot, per se. At the least, it is a coming-of-age story for Giraut, who grows out of his jovent ways as the story progresses. If you like atmospheric science fiction with interesting scenery and well-developed characters, you should find this book to your liking.