Customer Reviews

Ragamuffin (Sci Fi Essential Books)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Tobias Buckell has created a grand and fascinating universe within the pages of Ragamuffin. He clearly excels at universe-building and character creation; everything he details positively comes alive, whether it's a dying space habitat, a distant alien Satrap, or the sheer chaos of facing a copy of one's self and having a chat.

Surprises and revelations flow naturally and aren't used to artificially ratchet up the tension or bolster the pace. This means that if you figure something out in advance, it doesn't cause an anticlimax or rob the story of its momentum. The story is fast-paced and intriguing, and I had difficulty putting it down once I started (in fact I first picked it up during a lull in something else, and ended up putting that first activity aside because the book was too engrossing).

The characters are amazing and fascinating, every bit as much so as in Crystal Rain. In most authors' hands the League of Human Affairs would have been a one-dimensional organization, but in Buckell's hands even it comes alive with personality. We're reunited with John, Jerome, and yes, even Pepper, who are dealing with a whole new (and very different) invasion of Nanagada by the Teotl. Not only do we enjoy the presence of old friends, but we get to watch them grow and change in new and different ways as they face new difficulties.

Crystal Rain was an absolutely stunning debut, and Ragamuffin is a wholly worthy successor. It's a touch slower in places due to the background provided on some of the aspects of the world, but not enough to detract from the novel in my opinion.

Ragamuffin, the sequel to Crystal Rain, tells the story of Nashara, an enhanced human and living weapon who may hold the key to freeing humanity from the rule of the Satrapy. Ragamuffin takes the series in a new direction; Crystal Rain was largely a steampunk novel set on a world which had lost its technology. Ragamuffin shows us this universe from a different angle, from which we can see the technology that drives everything. Gone are the airships and trains of Crystal Rain; here we see space stations, orbiting habitats, and wormhole-jumping spacecraft. We see space battles, politics, and the shape of a galaxy in which humans are considered dangerous and are therefore enslaved or isolated.

All of the characters are very human and believable (even those who aren't, technically, human). Regardless of where a character falls on the antagonist/protagonist scale, everyone we meet is somehow a sympathetic character. The antagonists, who sometimes do horrible things, never act for evil ends; nobody here is a bad guy in his own eyes. Pepper makes a reappearance, and we get to learn more about him and see him in action again; I'm hoping he appears in Sly Mongoose, the next book in this series.

Ragamuffin deals with science in fun ways. Everything seems real, because the author never cheats with physics. Everything that's explained, is explained well, accurately, and -- importantly -- quickly (not in pages-long infodumps). Some things aren't explained, but because everything else makes so much sense, we take their workings for granted.

The author has many moments of cleverness in the book. I don't want to throw out any spoilers, but here are some highlights to look for as you read: an extremely low-tech computer; a spectacular action setpiece based on kinetics; the scene which is duplicated in almost-exact detail on the cover; an escape into vacuum; and an army of invisible soldiers. Clever, fun, and an entertaining read.

I had no clue that Ragamuffin was a story written in the Benevolent Satrapy universe. Tobias Buckell wrote a book that was set in the same universe entitled Crystal Rain. At first, I was confused as to what was going on. Yet as I read on, Buckell did a wonderful job at bringing the reader into the story. Thus, Ragamuffin could be read as a stand alone book. Buckell does a wonderful job of meshing Carib folklore with science.

Imagine a universe in which humanity is enslaved by an all powerful race called the Satraps. They rule the universe with an iron grip. Earth has been cut off from the rest of humanity by an enclosed wormhole. Each alien species under the Benevolent Satrapy is held in place by conditioned members of their own race. Yet there remain a group of ragtag smugglers called Ragamuffins who like their modern counterparts wear long locks and speak in patois.

Long ago, humans on earth placed one hard bet and created ten identical women from the DNA of a legendary hero who hid secret weapons in their wombs. They were able to penetrate the Earth wormhole and infiltrate the rest of the universe. It was a long shot but it was the best chance of overthrowing the Benevolent Satrapy. Nashara, the protagonist and the only survivor of the original ten must convince the Ragamuffins and other humans to join forces to overthrow the aliens once and for all.

As a sci fi head, I still find talk of wormholes to be way over my head. Buckell, however, explains the concepts of wormholes in layman's terms. The pacing of the book is slow which allows for character development. Ironically, Buckell keeps the Satrap a mystery as we learn that several humans do not realized that they are enslaved. This detail demonstrates Buckell's skill as a writer.

Buckell is adept at describing hand to hand combat as well as space battles in an exciting and realistic way. The good guys suffer losses as they fight against their oppressors. The writing is excellent. Buckell has a flare for story telling and keeps the reader clued to the pages. His characters easily entrance the readers.

The book is a wonderful demonstration of humanity's resilience to slavery. Again we find humanity enslaved due to it's own folly but again we see humanity's ability to overcome all odds to prevail. The climatic battle is worth the price of admission. This reader prays that this is not the last we hear from Nashara and the Ragamuffins.

We pick up in a not too distant future from where "Crystal Rain" left off but in a far distant corner of space. Our new hero Nashara completed a necessary task in order to obtain the funds she needs to continue her ongoing travels towards a distant planet many worm holes away where she intends to complete here real mission against the Benevolent Satrapy. Her latest task however has brought her to the attention of the wrong people and now the Gahe are now looking for her and the Hongguo might be as well...

New Anegda; a decades has passed since the war with the Azeteca and negotiations continue between the two people and trade routs have opened up. Pepper still awaits the healing of the only space ship on the planet so that he can leave New Anegada before the worm hole re-opens and Teotl pour out re-igniting the Azteca and starting the war all over again. He is too late however as the worm hole re-opens and to the horror of many Teotl start to emerge and the Azteca are once again warring on the people of New Anegada with the help of the Teotl's space ships and technology...

"Crystal Rain" was ok, so I decided to give the next book in line a chance hoping that the glaring holes in Buckell's writing game may have been filled with gained experience. I was however disappointed yet again as it appears that Tobias has not grown as a writer since his last at bat.

The Good: Buckell has some solid original ideas regarding technology, culture and universe and world building. The problem I found is that he lacks in execution department.

The Bad: Buckell's prose leaves something to be desired. Buckell's writing so often lacks continuity as the characters jump from event to event in the matter of a sentence. He also seems to be lacking in the description department as tons of names are thrown at us such as Hongguo, Gahe, Satrapy, Hungguo Feng, Nesaru etc. I have finished the book and I am still not really sure what any of these are. Are they aliens? Cultures? Planets (aka Earthlings)? Nationalities from planets? Humans controlled by aliens? I have ideas in certain instances but am really not too sure about most. The history regarding Buckell's universe is also very vague. How did the humans end up in such a deficit? They have been able to create beings like Pepper for over 300 years (which seem to destroy Teotl by the handful) but still haven't managed to bridge the technological gap at all?

Overall: Skip this one. Buckell seems to have the potential but he still has some maturing to do as a writer.

I stuck with this book for nearly 200 pages before giving up, and was largely confused the whole time. Like other reviewers on here, I agree that the book had an interesting premise and some wonderful world-building. I thought the character of Nashara was intriguing, along with many of the other characters, but nothing ever felt fully fleshed out. Perhaps it would have made more sense if I had read "Crystal Rain" first, but I really didn't understand what the point of it all was, other than the simple premise that the human race was fighting for freedom from their alien overlords. The plot was clunky and disorganized at times. I usually don't give up on books when I'm so far into them but this just didn't seem worth the trouble.

I read this after finishing Sly Mongoose, the next novel in the series. On the plus side, Buckell weaves a solid story. Each book can stand on its own (I hate it when authors feel the need to write "trilogies" that are really just one book broken into three pieces). His plotting is top notch.

On the downside, as others have mentioned, his execution is flawed in a number of ways. Too fast, not developed enough, not really sure what's going on or what is being described. The BIGGEST pain though is the lack of proof-reading. I don't know who dropped the ball while editing this thing but it is BAD. I'd say at least once in every three pages there is a serious grammatical mistake that completely slows the whole story down while your brain tries to figure out what word he intended instead of what he wrote. "The ships all stared firing..." vs. "The ships all starTed firing..." for instance. Really annoying to read. And such an easy catch. Seriously, did ANYONE proof-read this?

Do you enjoy space opera with a little Caribbean flavor? Do wormholes and rum sound like the perfect mixture for a good time? If you are like me (and let's hope you are not, that could be messy), you likely have no standard in which to answer these questions. I could count on one hand how many Caribbean-flavored space operas I've read, and still be sporting a closed fist at the end. Yes that's right, zero Caribbean space operas for me. I suddenly feel so sheltered.

Luckily, Tobias Buckell decided to enlighten me and write "Ragamuffin", a Caribbean-styled space opera extravaganza (minus the singing and dancing). I can honestly say it is the best one I've ever read, but that doesn't add to this discussion. "Ragamuffin" takes place in the same universe Buckell created in his fine debut novel, "Crystal Rain". However, it is not a straight sequel, but more of a standalone with a few recurring elements. The characters of John deBrun, Pepper and Jerome, introduced in "Crystal Rain", return in "Ragamuffin", but the story is not a direct continuation of the storyline from the previous novel.

The universe which is a collection of forty-eight worlds connected by a network of wormholes is ruled by the mysterious Benevolent Satrapy (not like we would expect them to name themselves the Malevolent Satrapy). The Satrapy employ the Hongguo as their military arm, using them to curb the development of technology. Humans are treated as a lower caste in the universe, relegated to a various collection of their own colonies and habitats. Nashara is on the run after killing a Gahe breeder at Pitt's Cross. Barely escaping the planet, Nashara is trying to stay one step ahead of the Hongguo. She finally finds refuge on a Ragamuffin ship. The Ragamuffins are pirates and rebels that maintain their own free society near a dead wormhole. Eventually, Nashara and the crew of Ragmuffins will uncover the insidious plans of the Benevolent Satrapy and the Hongguo.

Meanwhile, John deBrun, Pepper and Jerome are living on Nanagada, when a wormhole above the planet reopens. The Teotl, the alien gods worshipped by the Azteca, have returned, and enlist John, Pepper and Jerome to help them. The Teotl's survival is in jeopardy, and outside help is needed. Can the Ragamuffins help? Will Nanagadans save the Teotl? Will Nashara escape the Hongguo? And can the Ragamuffins survive the advancing Hongguo onslaught?

The uniqueness and creativity of Buckell's universe cannot be understated. The universe is vividly imagined and developed. The story is more mature than "Crystal Rain", as more complications evolve over the course of the novel, and the overall depth of story is more comprehensive. Short chapters of only a few pages keep the action moving for a fast-paced and enjoyable read. Buckell's character development has also matured from his debut novel. The characters are not as flat, and harbor more complicated motivations for their actions. I still would like to see more world-building in Buckell's novels; he has so many interesting ideas that I would love to see explored further. But at this point, Buckell appears satisfied in writing fast-paced enjoyable action novels. Still, this is a strong sophomore effort.

Last Word:
"Ragamuffin" is a solid step forward for Tobias Buckell. Showing a maturing sense of story and character development, Buckell has written a tremendously engaging space opera with a slew of turns and twists along the way. If Buckell continues to show the same rate of improvement, his future looks extremely bright.

Crystal Rain was a truly enjoyable and well written science fiction debut novel. I am very happy to report that I just read Ragamuffin (Sci Fi Essential Books), and it is a very worthy followup book.

While Crystal Rain took place on one planet, Ragamuffin shows us what has been going on in the galaxy - and the lot of humans in that galaxy is not a good one. Slavery, reservations, and pethood to alien races are just not good ways to live; the Benevolent Satrapy is not a benevolent place for humans to exist.

But some humans are fighting back. We get to see that fight, and then we get to return to Nanaganda when the fight travels to that world, where we get to see what happens to some of the Crystal Rain characters. Lots of well written action scenes; people fighting for something very worthwhile.

Great stuff, and I am really looking forward to the third book, Sly Mongoose.

Time to get all mongoose-man space opera on our alien overlords.


Buckell has done something good here : improved with a second book in the series. The writing is better, and you are thrown into the story straight away. Where the previous book just scraped in for a 4, this is a solid 4 all the way, and maybe a little bit more.

The main character to begin with is an enhanced human, and has been imprisoned for anti-alien activities. First thing to do when you get out of jail is to kill one of 'em, of course, and hence she needs to get away fast.

More than one human faction wants to do something about the ruling Satrapy and things accelerate when the Satrapy decides that they would rather have humans not be alive anymore.

The main character Nashara is even more surprising than she seems, and as the action bails into space things become a little Peter F. Hamilton.

There's a wormhole network that functions a little like a cross between a freeway and a railway, and with the introduction of this element you begin to realise how this novel will tie into the previous book, which it does around half way through that makes it all more clear.

Hopefully this does well, as Buckell has a normal length novel here, not an animal killer sized series. If he can help show people will still buy those, along with people like Scalzi and Williams and others, then this is a good thing.

He could have actually thrown a few extra pages in at the end perhaps, but I think this is a case of keeping you keen to find out what is going on and wanting more, so possibly deliberate, having given you glimpses of his future history.

All in all, very entertaining.

The Crystal Rain story of the planet New Anegada is continued in this volume from an external perspective, many light years away. Much backstory is elaborated and many strands, each with several povs are introduced, sometimes a little confusingly.

"Crystal Rain" had a fascinating and magical (in a figurative not literal sense) setting that evoked the Anglo African Caribbean world wonderfully yet made it profoundly different in this science fiction setting. Ragamuffin by reaching to the stars brought all of this to earth, or at least the rest of the human universe long cut off from ancient Earth by the nonhuman satrapy, and while much of the history is carefully laid out in a nicely non-explicatory way, I found it much more difficult to suspend disbelief. The world of Ragamuffin is by no means as completely realized a world as "Crystal Rain's" Nanagada, and many of the fun and clever allusions to the modern afro-caribbean world seemed forced when previously they had seemed fresh and a nice seasoning of the plot. The use of dialect while reduced from in "Crystal Rain" is not as beautifully handled here, and less enjoyable.

I feel kind of bad to give this book three stars but at several points I had a real desire to put it down and when the action finally reaches New Anegada, somewhere near the halfway point, it barely perks up. Right now I am chalking this up to a sophmore effort, after an absolutely brilliant freshman debut, and am looking forward to his next effort.