Mirror to the Sky [Paperback]

Mark S. Geston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1993

After years of silence, the enigmatic beings who have come to Earth to live among humanity decide to share with the humans their art--paintings and sculptures of such raw, visceral power that their unveiling plunges Earth into chaos. Reprint.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Returning to science fiction after a 20-year hiatus, Geston ( Lords of the Starship ) trots out a tried concept--the arrival on earth of godlike, apparently benign, aliens with a sinister secret agenda. These so-called gods are classically handsome, aristocratic and technologically advanced. They can travel faster than light and bring people back from the dead. And their art has the ability to drive people on earth insane. The plot, such as it is, concerns the search for some vague but horrible threat portended in one of the alien paintings, and an alien artist's efforts to paint a new masterpiece that would explain everything. Geston has a graceful style and a good ear for dialogue, but he seems to feel a faint contempt for his characters, both human and alien. Accordingly they fail to elicit much sympathy or interest. Even in the final chapters, as the world sinks into anarchy and the various intrigues comprising the plot begin to come together, the outcome never seems important.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Although claiming to come in peace to share their knowledge with humans, the godlike aliens who visit earth seem reluctant to offer more than cryptic hints of their superior technology--until a showing of their artwork sparks a wave of inexplicable violence. When the visitors from space decide to withdraw from the affairs of earth, defectors from both the alien and the human camps engage in an esoteric battle over a hidden agenda. Geston ( The Day Star , 1972. o.p.) begins with an intriguing premise but undercuts it with obscure writing and hazy characterizations. Large libraries, nevertheless, may want to consider.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (September 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380717034
• ISBN-13: 978-0380717033
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,283,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Geston still has the touch, May 25, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mirror to the Sky (Paperback)

I was prepared to dislike this book. It had been twenty years since Geston wrote a novel, and many of the reviews I had read had been lukewarm at best. To my surprise, I found myself enjoying it so much that I was obliged to read it in one sitting. I should have known better -- Geston's style appeals to a fairly narrow audience, but if you've read any of his other books and enjoyed them, as I have, you will not be disappointed by this one. I suspect that _Mirror to the Sky_ would actually appeal to a wider audience than his previous books.

_Mirror to the Sky_ seems at first to lack the overarching theme of cosmic menace and human futility which fairly screams from the pages of Geston's earlier novels. This is deceptive, however. It's all still there, but it is handled in a far subtler fashion, with the customary crushing defeat replaced by a chillingly empty victory that left me thinking about the book for hours afterwards.

Highly recommended for Geston fans, and probably the most accessible introduction to his work for new readers.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars mature work of an sf veteran, September 23, 2005

By 

Jacob Weisman (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mirror to the Sky (Paperback)

Mark Geston's fifth novel (and first in almost twenty years), takes an ordinary sf premise and transforms it into a dark brooding novel that refuses to give into the conventions of the genre. Mirror to the sky opens along similar lines to Arthur C. Clarke's classic Childhood's End. As in Clarke's novel, mysterious aliens from beyond our solar system make contact with our planet and appear willing to help mankind in their fashion. But whereas Clarke's aliens, santanic in appearence, ultimately enable mankind to reach transcendence with a cosmic overmind, Geston's aliens appear almost godlike in their perfection but, as time progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that they have their own agenda. Mirror to the sky functions as a fasacinating counter-aurgument to the optimism of Clarke's work. By contrast, Geston's future appears dilapidated and weary, but honest.