Customer Reviews

Palace

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a fantastic book. I did some research and found out that the sequal 'Eyes of God - A Novel of the Pinch' by Mark Kreighbaum has not only been written but is also reportedly an excellent read. BUT it is already out of print without any one appearing to know it was ever written.

This is a sad loss. Does any one have an idea how I could get hold of a copy?

This is the first book that has inspired me enough to write a review. I loved the style of writing where there are no long boring descriptions - instead conversations are used to describe the world and it's social, political and technical systems. I took this book with me everywhere I went for 2 days until I had finished it. When can we get more about this world??? WE NEED MORE PALACE BOOKS!

I've been rather bored with books lately, there are too many that are too similar to each other, but this one really caught my interrest. It has an intricate, well thought-out plot, fascinating characters and a society which feels alive - but...! It left too many loose ends.

So I went to look for information about this book on the net, and behold, there is indeed a sequel. Though I'm glad there's more, I just whish I'd known beforehand it wasn't a stand-alone novel since who knows how long before I get my hands on the next one?

I truly recommend reading Palace, but make sure you have the sequel as well - this is a "to be continued"-book in my opinion.

Mark Kreighbaum adds some excellent spice to the skilled writing of Katharine Kerr. Many authors whose books I have seen in collaboration end up with fairly dull, long-winded essays through which I can hardly plough. This book is entertaining, philosophical, topical and techinical. I have recommended this book to almost all of my literate friends.

This is one of the best 4 or 5 fantansy novels that I've read in the last 3 or so years. The characters are interesting and engaging, and the world feels like it has layers of culture and history. Seems to be lots of material for additional novels. The main problem I spotted is that the main female character is so much a male fantasy that it might annoy female readers.

Vida, a girl raised from birth to become a prostitute, is suddenly revealed to be the long-lost heir to a very valuable noble family. She is betrothed immediately to the son of the First Citizen (aka president) and meanwhile has to dodge murder at the hands of an infamous assassin known as the Outlaw.

There never was a clear plot in this novel. What makes this book unusual is that there was never any particular goal that the main characters were striving towards - aside from Vida's goal to stay alive, of course. There was never a plan to save the world, win a war, rescue someone, escape from something, or anything like that. Rather, this book was more like a snapshot of a futuristic (but very primitive in many ways) society, shown from the viewpoints of many characters, of which Vida was only the most prominent.

I liked the setting of the book. There were certain details I picked up on quickly and wondered where they originated from - such as the fact that most character names seemed to originate from Spanish, and that gender-based titles had disappeared so that everyone was called "Se" (the 'se' from 'senor' or 'senorita'). There was also a fascinating history alluded to in little fragments here and there, including ancient religious wars called "schizms", a new religious order, other planets neighbouring this world, other intelligent races, and so on. Yes, as far as setting was concerned, it was very original.

But - and it's a big but - this originality was also, indirectly, the book's biggest flaw. The problem was that all these fascinating details weren't explained. There were whole segments of the book that I could only partially understand. Even though the terminology was possible to grasp from context after a while, there was a mountain of cultural information referred to that simply lacked enough context to be understood properly. It's as if the whole book was written for omniscient readers who already knew all about this universe. There were countless examples, so I'll just list some of the most prominent here:

1. The "Map". This seemed to be some kind of computer system, perhaps like the internet, but possibly also a virtual reality system. There was a whole swag of jargon associated with this that was very difficult to pick up, and no background information with which to put it into context. There were many pages devoted to hacking activities in the map, but they meant very little to me, because it was never explained what the purpose of the Map was. Was it a security system? A communications network? A purely economic thing for business and banking (which were briefly mentioned)? I have no idea. Apparently drugs were needed to access the Map - but again, no explanation why. It's an utterly bewildering example of how there could be chapters worth of information about something and yet I could still have no idea what it actually did. The best assumption I could make was that it was a place for storing information, like the internet - but it was horribly vague. Instead of technical jargon, a few paragraphs of basic explanation in layman's terms would have achieved so much more (and more efficiently).

2. History. Scraps of history kept being referred to - like the Schizm wars - but were never explained, even briefly, or explained in a way that used more obscure jargon than the original statement. (It's like looking up a new word in a thesaurus, only to find that you don't recognise any of the synonyms, either!) I wanted to know about religion, about the planets, about all the tempting little tidbits that were thrown my way - but nothing was ever offered, and thus I struggled through the book without really understanding the events in context.

3. The political system. Same as above.

4. The city/planet itself. The title of this book is called "Palace", which referred to the book's setting. However, even at the end of 430 pages, I am still unable to tell you whether "Palace" was the name of a city or the whole planet. I thought it was the name of the planet at first, though I had to make an assumption because this was never directly shown. But then there was a scene where characters were describing the "edge" of Palace; that it clearly had a border, which threw me off balance. So, is it a planet, or just a city on a planet? I honestly have no idea. This is seriously basic information that every reader should know, authors! Come on! Similarly, there was something called the "Pinch" (this book is "a novel of the Pinch", for instance), and I have no idea what that is, either. A union of planets is my best guess, but I don't know. Why were such vastly important details left out?

5. "Revenants". Contrary to the name, which sounds like a mythological creature, it was clear that these creatures had something to do with computers ('the Map', that is). But as to what, I haven't a clue. They seemed like servants at first, or guides, but they might have been the computers themselves, or just part of computers... and there were different types (ancient, superior ones, and normal, modern ones), and the difference between those wasn't explained either.


Practically everything else in the book was like this, too. It was just vague, despite being full of detail. All the minor details were there, yes, but the major ones - the ones that make sense of everything and put it into the bigger picture - were completely missing. It's no use describing the habits of cats to an alien visitor if they don't know what a cat is to start with. First, you need to show that a cat is an animal, what it looks like, what its most important traits are, and so on. Without a context, the rest is useless information.

Back to the events of the story now, I mostly enjoyed them. There were many overused cliches in here, such as the long-lost heir (particularly with superior inherited traits), the dramatic rise to status and power all of a sudden, and the irredeemable villains who liked to torture and rape - but there were also some fascinating issues such as the impact of racism on various factions and the power plays of various groups to achieve their own profitable ends. Characterisation was mostly good, with the exception of Vida, a blatant Mary Sue (nicer than everyone else, outstandingly beautiful, superior genetics, nobility, brains, power, influence, charm, etc etc etc). I actually liked Vida, however, because she was very logical and practical about her situation, and did pretty much exactly what I would have done in her position. Most heroines lack any sense of rationality, but not her. She's one of the few Mary Sues I've read that actually comes across as the decent person she's set up to be.

One very overused cliche present in "Palace" was that of the unwilling arranged marriage (especially since the characters were basically the likewise overused equivalents of prince and princess). Normally this really puts me off a book, but I thought this one was handled well. For one thing, Vida wasn't all emotional and illogical like most stereotypical heroines (yay Vida!). She realised she had a lot to gain, that love wasn't the be-all-and-end-all, and she was actually accepting of the marriage (without being hardened and cynical, which was very refreshing).

Overall, however, this book was just far too vague. Although it was interesting and addictive, it was simply impossible to understand what was going on in anywhere near the depth I wanted. Basic infomation that should have been shown to the readers was completely missing. This could have been a great book, but without context I'll never have a hope of translating the jargon and setting into meaningful terms. What I want to know is basic things like: What IS the Map? What ARE revenants? What do they actually DO? What is their PURPOSE? Telling me that files are stored in a cache on a grid inside a Gate on the fifth level behind a meta that can only be accessed by a drug-using cybermaster in the form of an abstract concept or an ancient revenant with the das dev genotype of the L'Vars is complete gibberish without it. But that's the kind of thing you can expect from this book. If you can understand it, you're obviously much smarter than I.

I have to give this one two stars. I want to give it more, I really want to. There's a lot of potentially fantastic material in it, along with a great story. But what use is a great story when a reader can't understand it? Context is so important.

This is the best SF book I have ever read! The world of Palace is absolutely unique, the characters solid and believeable, the plot rich and exciting, and to crown it all, the actual writing is superb! I really love a story that depicts not only the events through the eyes of the characters, but also the ethical issues, the "good and evil". What is more is that there are no unnecissary people involved. Each character has a stake in the story, now or later in forthcoming novels: nothing is left over for slop. There is not a single character that I did not like, or at least empathize with (except Wan!), even Kata. I really hated him, yet one cannot help but feel with him! Vanna too. I absolutely cannot wait for the sequel (Eyes of God, unfortunately out of print. Mark Kreighbaum does have a few copies availible on his website for interested parties, by the way). What will happen to Vida and Rico? Pero, Damo and Barra? Not to mention Molos, Kata's brother. He knows more than he's telling! And of course Vanna. She's up to something! This book is a crowning achievement! I can only hope the series doesn't end with Eyes of God. I have a feeling it won't!

Usually indifferent to reading books written by more than one author, I was more than pleasantly surprised when I began Palace. This book flowed in a way that co-authorship does not usually allow.

Although the first two chapters made it harder to get into, once I perservered I found that this story was fantastic and I really enjoyed it - science fiction, action, romance, mystery all in one. Kerr and Kreghbaum do a great effort in making the story interesting and making me want to read more.

Kerr and Kreighbaum have captured the essence of an exciting SF novel. It is unusually well written for a corroboration between two writers and contains non of the blandness usually associated. I can't wait for the next book.

The relevance and premonitional qualities of this book are just incredible. The only thing that annoyed me was that there were so many issues UNRESOLVED!!! Who is Riva? What happens to the CyberGuild? What happens to the two lovers? Does she have a baby? What happens to the Lifegivers? PLEASE don't have a war in the sequel - can't we have a SMART sequel that enriches and informs, rather than destroys?