Soldiers of Paradise [Paperback]

Paul Park (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1989

Where the seasons last for generations, hard winter makes for hard religion. The worlds of the solar system are the hells through which all souls must incarnate on their journey to Paradise; all, that is, but the Starbridges, nobles who serve to enforce the "divine will." In the lowest slums of the city-state of Charn, a Starbridge doctor and a drunken prince defy the law to bring medicine to the poor and hear the story-music of the refugee Antinomials, a wild people who shun words, infidels pressed to the edge of extinction. As a decades-long pitched battle approaches the city and the Bishop of Charn herself is condemned for impurity, the doctor and the prince will follow their compassion into the heart of a revolution, just on the eve of spring, with its strange and treacherous sugar rain.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The holy citystate of Charn carries on an endless fight against heretics, executing many outright while still others clog its vast prisons and fall before its genocidal military campaigns. But in this amalgam of Calcutta and Victorian London, dissatisfaction is inevitable, as the harsh caste system is reinforced by the theocracy. Clergymen tattoo babies at birth, assigning them their place in life and penance for sins of their past lives. Even the ruling class is imprisoned in its role, as Prince Abu Starbridge finds when he goes among the poor, and as his cousin, Doctor Thanakar Starbridge, learns when he tries to minister to prisoners and soldiers. Readers who get past the opening, a sentimental, portentous and extended Vietnam metaphor, will find that first novelist Park has a dark and powerful, if very romantic vision, recalling at times Brian Aldiss's Helliconia trilogy.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

On a world where seasons last for generations, lives are fixed from birth into rigid castes, and death is but the beginning of the soul's tedious journey through the Nine Hells to Paradise, two members of the elite Starbridge Clan descend from their mountain into the labyrinthine city of Charn and experience the hopelessness of the unprivileged. In sombre and vivid detail, Park's first novel depicts a culturally stagnant society on the brink of violent change. Recommended. JC
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 281 pages
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (December 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380705818
• ISBN-13: 978-0380705818
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,855,618 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing start to a series, April 25, 2011

By 

Jim53 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soldiers of Paradise (Paperback)

In this first volume of his Starbridge chronicles, Park introduces us to a world where seasons last a lifetime, privileged people have tattoos on their palms that compel others' obedience, and a bizarre religion attempts to preserve a rigid stratification of society. The initial narrative voice in the book is fascinating; it belongs to a member of an outcast society, meat-eaters who speak idiosyncratic languages and communicate largely through music and dance. Most of the rest of the book is told in third person and describes the activities and adventures of two of the ruling class, along with assorted secondary characters. Until the final quarter of the book, there was not a character that I found compelling, but the world (Park's city is called Charn, but we do not meet the Empress Jadis) is fascinatingly weird, and the style and language are both vivid and entirely appropriate to the weirdness of the world. I did not really see a structured story; the novel serves primarily to introduce us to the world and set up the sequel. I can't comment on the series yet, but I'm keeping an eye out for the next volume.

5.0 out of 5 stars An astounding feat of world-building., June 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Soldiers of Paradise (Starbridge Chronicles) (Hardcover)

The first of The Starbridge Chronicles and it gets off this underappreciated trilogy to an exhilirating start. The world of Paradise is so fully realized that the reader sometimes forgets that s/he is in this one. The world is very surreal and richly detailed, as are the characters that populate the grand drama that unfolds. At the end of the novel the world, the characters, and ultimately the reader have all undergone profound changes. If you dare to escape into this frightening world, you will be richly rewarded and you might even want to tatoo your hand with all kinds of archaic symbols.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Come Read the Best!, March 31, 2000

By 

Phil Jennings - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soldiers of Paradise (Starbridge Chronicles) (Hardcover)

An aging star begins to swell toward red giant stage. The "humans" of many worlds, all likely descendants of a common ancestor, the hypnogogic ape, ride from hot doom to the outermost world of the system, soon the only one habitable. The spaceship that rescues them over the millennia continues to fly its programmed rounds empty, while the "Starbridge" crew becomes top caste on a planet of centuries-long years and winters. The unique thing about this background to the Starbridge Chronicles is that you'll never discover it by reading the books -- and I say this to Paul Park's credit. He constructs a story so deep that it has roots you'll never know, whereas lesser authors like myself go around flashing our explanations for everything.

Park creates a rich fictional "charnal house" filled with all manner of mystery, decadence, death and rebirth. Meanwhile the great wheel of time rolls on, incapable of caring. But the reader has the pleasure and pain of caring very much what happens to many very imperfect people. (Who gives a damn about the perfect ones?)

Paul Park is a revolutionary. When he shows you that the great systems of the universe are heartless and wrong, he's also condemning the great systems we all live under. Some writers advance the revolution by envisioning better ways, but somehow the truths of human nature get in the way of utopia. Perverted utopias, perverted good deeds, and perverted religions are also part of Park's universe. As of ours.