The Mirrored Heavens (Mass Market Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A crackling cyberthriller. This is Tom Clancy interfacing Bruce Sterling. David Williams has hacked into the future."—Stephen Baxter, author of the Manifold series

"The Mirrored Heavens presents an action-jammed and audacious look at a terrifyingly plausible future. By comparison to Williams' future, the present mess surrounding the Iraq conflict seems almost benign. Highly recommended for politicians, not that most would wish to see where their actions could easily lead."—L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

“The Mirrored Heavens is a complex view of global politics in time of crisis.  Williams understands that future wars will be fought as much on-line as off.  It's also rousing adventure with breathless, non-stop action—Tom Clancy on speed.  And you will NOT be able to guess the ending.”—Nancy Kress, author of the Probability trilogy 

"Explodes out the gate like a sonic boom and never stops. Adrenaline bleeds from Williams' fingers with every word he hammers into the keyboard. The razors of The Mirrored Heavens would eat cyberpunk's old-guard hackers and cowboys as a light snack."—Peter Watts, author of Blindsight

“The Mirrored Heavens presents an action-jammed and audacious look at a terrifyingly plausible future. By comparison to Williams' future, the present mess surrounding the Iraq conflict seems almost benign. Highly recommended for politicians, not that most would wish to see where their actions could easily lead.”—L. E. Modesitt, Jr., bestselling author of the Saga of Recluse series, the Spellsong Cycle series, and the Corean Chronicles series

"The Mirrored Heavens is a 21st century Neuromancer set in a dark, dystopian future where nothing and no one can be trusted, the razors who rule cyberspace are predators and prey, and ordinary human life is cheap. It sta... --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Review

"A crackling cyberthriller. This is Tom Clancy interfacing Bruce Sterling. David Williams has hacked into the future."—Stephen Baxter, author of the Manifold series

"The Mirrored Heavens presents an action-jammed and audacious look at a terrifyingly plausible future. By comparison to Williams' future, the present mess surrounding the Iraq conflict seems almost benign. Highly recommended for politicians, not that most would wish to see where their actions could easily lead."—L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

“The Mirrored Heavens is a complex view of global politics in time of crisis.  Williams understands that future wars will be fought as much on-line as off.  It's also rousing adventure with breathless, non-stop action—Tom Clancy on speed.  And you will NOT be able to guess the ending.”—Nancy Kress, author of the Probability trilogy 

"Explodes out the gate like a sonic boom and never stops. Adrenaline bleeds from Williams' fingers with every word he hammers into the keyboard. The razors of The Mirrored Heavens would eat cyberpunk's old-guard hackers and cowboys as a light snack."—Peter Watts, author of Blindsight

“The Mirrored Heavens presents an action-jammed and audacious look at a terrifyingly plausible future. By comparison to Williams' future, the present mess surrounding the Iraq conflict seems almost benign. Highly recommended for politicians, not that most would wish to see where their actions could easily lead.”—L. E. Modesitt, Jr., bestselling author of the Saga of Recluse series, the Spellsong Cycle series, and the Corean Chronicles series

"The Mirrored Heavens is a 21st century Neuromancer set in a dark, dystopian future where nothing and no one can be trusted, the razors who rule cyberspace are predators and prey, and ordinary human life is cheap. It starts out at full throttle and accelerates all the way to the end." —Jack Campbell, author of The Lost Fleet: Courageous

“Calling to mind Clint Eastwood and Dirty Harry more than Humphrey Bogart and Philip Marlowe, The Mirrored Heavens' action is wild and relentless…. In a welcome respite from noir stereotyping, Williams' female protagonist is neither killed nor kidnapped. A subject, not an object, Claire Haskell moves and shakes her dystopic world.”—Seattle Times

"Non-stop action propels the reader forward. Like William Styron's Sophie's Choice, characters face horrific decisions involving mass destruction of innocents and murder of close friends and allies.”—Sfrevu.com

“A powerful, rapid-fire sf adventure/intrigue story with echoes of cyberpunk.”—Library Journal




From the Trade Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Spectra; Reprint edition (January 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553591568
• ISBN-13: 978-0553591569
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #242,179 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Harder, denser, faster cyberpunk with more guns, politics, and head-churning twists, May 24, 2008

By	Derek Zumsteg "DMZ" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Mirrored Heavens (Paperback)

I picked up Mirrored Heavens and almost fifty pages later I realized I'd lost an hour and was staring at my book with my jaw a little open. I felt like someone had stomped an accelerator pedal connected to a part of my brain that hadn't fired up in years. It's almost dizzying.

It's amazingly fast-paced, engrossing, too plausible, scary, thrilling, and a little bit joyous as it runs as fast as it can.

This book is for you if:
- You long for a good cyberpunk tone, like Burning Chrome, or Glass Hammer, if you know what I'm talking about
- You like a good techno thriller
- You want to read a distinctive new scifi voice
- You like the tangled political landscapes of a La Carre novel

It may not be for you if:
- You prefer the tone and pace of a Foundation novel over Neuromancer - you're not going to get clear, broken-out exposition, for instance
- You need chapter breaks
- You don't like present tense

I wanted to be able to buy the next one immediately after finishing this book -- I liked it that much.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A fast fun read by easily forgotten, January 30, 2009

By	Robi Sen "robi" (falls church, va, usa) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I enjoyed Mirrored Heavens especially the authors roaring pace but routinely found myself wish for some more depth, a deeper plot, cultural or historical background, and some character development. My other complaint is that technology and understand of Electronic Warfare and Cyber Warfare seemed drawn from bad 1980's fiction and are often silly. Still this is a great book for a long flight and I would recommend it for anyone who wanted some run, action oriented, light Sci-Fi.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Almost Good., July 31, 2008

By	TheAdlerian (Philly, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mirrored Heavens (Paperback)

I just finished the book and trust me, I don't think that this review needs a "Spoilers" warning for the reader, and I'll tell you why.

Before I do, I have to say that the story has a lot of action if you're in the mood for it and some interesting settings. However, I can't provide spoilers because I have no clear idea about what happened. Of course, I know WHAT happened but I'm not sure WHY it happened.

That's because the book is narrated as if the events were viewed by a person living in another dimension. As if they have no concept of the players, their philosophies, their technology, or their motivations. We just get scene after scene of interesting, yet fairly meaningless, activity. It's as if a cowboy from the 19th century decided to tell you his impression of the Mideast war as seen through a crystal ball.

It was vague to the extreme---but still interesting.

The author, if he plans on writing more, needs to bore us with the details. Without a little bit of world building the story borders on dull and hard to care about. I was having trouble figuring out who to like in the story, and one guy, I still don't know who he is.

I'd like to say that I have several grad degrees in a complex verbally oriented subject, so I know how to read and comprehend. The author made it tough to do that.

Although I'm saying negative things, seemingly, I'm actually asking the author to do a better job. He clearly has a good concept in mind, and I'd like him to tell us about it.

Cyberpunk:

Get rid of that.

You're writing something more like "cyberpro" and it needs to sound like it.

Cyberpunk frequently features uneducated outcast types who "know cyberspace" and so their narration is like that of a laconic teenager chewing gum, or something along those lines.

The text of this book was written like that with short sentences and the repeated use of "says" after the dialogue, much like a kid would say. However, the subject isn't about that, and has to do with super highly trained people, some of which may never have been exposed to pop culture.

The "punk" needs to be fixed.