A triumph of the New Space Opera: fast, complicated, wonder-filled!
Hugo Award finalist and Robert A. Heinlein Award–winning SF writer Michael Flynn now turns to space opera with stunningly successful results. Full of rich echoes of space opera classics from Doc Smith to Cordwainer Smith, The January Dancer tells the fateful story of an ancient pre-human artifact of great power, and the people who found it.
Starting with Captain Amos January, who quickly loses it, and then the others who fought, schemed, and killed to get it, we travel around the complex, decadent, brawling, mongrelized interstellar human civilization the artifact might save or destroy. Collectors want the Dancer; pirates take it, rulers crave it, and they’ll all kill if necessary to get it. This is a thrilling yarn of love, revolution, music, and mystery, and it ends, as all great stories do, with shock and a beginning.
The January Dancer
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Acclaimed SF writer Flynn (Eifelheim)delivers an epic tale of adventure, intrigue, suspense and mystery. Forced to land for repairs on an unnamed, remote planet, Captain Amos January and crew discover a cache of artifacts left by a cryptic alien race long before humans went to space. They soon retrieve the Dancer, a shape-changing stone that defies analysis. Possibly the scepter of a legendary prehuman king, certainly unique, the priceless trophy is desired by diverse governments, military powers, plutocrats and cabals throughout human-settled space. Flynn knits a richly detailed story of hunters, bandits and patriots that will keep even the most diligent readers on their toes. The plot evokes old-school space opera with its whirlwind pace, immense scope and twist ending, but cutting-edge extrapolation breathes vivid life into this universe of scoundrels, heroes and romantics. This multi-layered story demands much of the reader, but offers more than equivalent rewards. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
A harper wanders into a bar on Jehovah, the focal point of an interchange on the spaceways, and asks for the story of the Dancer, a prehuman artifact discovered by the crew of a ship commanded by one Captain January, which set down for repairs on an empty planet. They lost it trading for a working ship, and it changes hands many times over the course of its story. It shows up again on civil war-wracked New Eireann, then makes its way to a pirate fleet. If the legends are true, it’s an artifact of great and terrible power, and among its seekers are the Fudir, a Terran; Little Hugh O’Carroll of the Eireannaughta; and the Hounds Bridget Ban and Greystroke. Through its story Flynn weaves the stories of the minstrel who asked about it and the man informing her, which are connected to a web of tales enveloping the Dancer. Flynn puts his world-building skills to good use, creating a context that begs to be further explored, whether by him or someone else. --Regina Schroeder
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
38 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
No question that the plot of The January Dancer has promise. A whiz-bang opening that consists of a spaceship crew discovering the remains of an abandoned and massive pre-human city, and escaping with an artifact with sentient qualities, hooks the reader early on. The unfolding of the remainder of the tale uses the device of a beautiful female harp player listening to the tale of the the artifact (the Dancer) being spun by a grizzled and scarred spacefarer.
As the story unfolds, the dedicated sci-fi reader will find many familiar way marks along the road: battles in space, a corp of highly trained super agents (the Hounds), competing empires, detailed descriptions of the physics of space travel, and a moderately twisty ending. Good ingredients, but does the final product thrill your literary palate, or leave you reaching for mouthwash? Depends on your tastes. Here are some of the flavors you'll have to choose from among.
If you like a story that is thoroughly embellished, and leisurely, you'll enjoy the book. Lengthy descriptions of local civilizations, local cuisine, local customs pervade this book. Fifty pages might be devoted to a civil war that in the end has no detectable relevance to the outcome of the story. If you get pleasure from the meticulous construcion of well fleshed out extraterrestrial civilizations and are patient with pace, you'll enjoy Michael Flynn's creation. If you prefer stories that are spare in detail and long on action, you'll conclude, and rightly so, that The January Dancer consumes roughly twice as much printer's ink as would be needed to tell the story coherently.
Two personal comments. First, I found Flynn's writing style to be a bit on the sonorous and ponderous side; florid is not too far a reach. Some people love their stories told with a baritone voice and in language that borders on flowery: if so, you'll love the telling of this tale. If you like your stories lean and muscular, I suspect you'll struggle with The January Dancer. Secondly, male/female relationships in this book fit in the caricature realm. Cold and hormonally driven, there was no more romance in Flynn's descriptions of lovers than there is in an exercise in planetary orbit mechanics. I'm sure there's not a Worst Wrought Romance category in Sci-Fi lit, but The January Dancer would be a contender.
As the story unfolds, the dedicated sci-fi reader will find many familiar way marks along the road: battles in space, a corp of highly trained super agents (the Hounds), competing empires, detailed descriptions of the physics of space travel, and a moderately twisty ending. Good ingredients, but does the final product thrill your literary palate, or leave you reaching for mouthwash? Depends on your tastes. Here are some of the flavors you'll have to choose from among.
If you like a story that is thoroughly embellished, and leisurely, you'll enjoy the book. Lengthy descriptions of local civilizations, local cuisine, local customs pervade this book. Fifty pages might be devoted to a civil war that in the end has no detectable relevance to the outcome of the story. If you get pleasure from the meticulous construcion of well fleshed out extraterrestrial civilizations and are patient with pace, you'll enjoy Michael Flynn's creation. If you prefer stories that are spare in detail and long on action, you'll conclude, and rightly so, that The January Dancer consumes roughly twice as much printer's ink as would be needed to tell the story coherently.
Two personal comments. First, I found Flynn's writing style to be a bit on the sonorous and ponderous side; florid is not too far a reach. Some people love their stories told with a baritone voice and in language that borders on flowery: if so, you'll love the telling of this tale. If you like your stories lean and muscular, I suspect you'll struggle with The January Dancer. Secondly, male/female relationships in this book fit in the caricature realm. Cold and hormonally driven, there was no more romance in Flynn's descriptions of lovers than there is in an exercise in planetary orbit mechanics. I'm sure there's not a Worst Wrought Romance category in Sci-Fi lit, but The January Dancer would be a contender.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Michael Flynn is one of those rare writers who can pack big themes into smallish books; create something new while alluding to classic influences; and entertain the reader on every page. The dust jacket describes this novel as space opera, and very entertaining space opera it is, but it is much more. The pleasure of reading the book is greatly enhanced by glimpses of history, art, language, culture, religion and technology, that suggest that the universe described has substance much greater than what is necessary for the rousing chase/shoot-em-up yarn that this is. I am frankly puzzled by the reviewer who put this book down, and considered the characters shallow. I couldn't put it down, and I found the characters, while deliberately archtypical, were also interesting and sometimes sympathetic. The names alone were entertaining. The relationship and history between Little Hugh and Handsome Jack, and the brutal civil war on New Eireann, a small subplot in this book, is more interesting than many whole books I have read and enjoyed. This book was easily as creative as Elfenheim, and a lot more fun. When I brought January Dancer back to the library, I picked up The Wreck of the River of Stars, and I am going to start reading it today.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
. . . which does not disappoint.
"The January Dancer" is classic space opera. It is a wonderful tale, well told, about a priceless artifact the the many and varied people, organizations, and governments who desire it. The characters are real, flawed -- and believable. The mystery is tightly wound with a classic surprise -- and very satisfying -- ending. Honestly, it left me wanting more!
Other reviewers have noted, correctly, that the sheer number of characters is overwhelming. I, too, found myself occasionally referring to the list of the Dramatis Personae in the beginning of the book. But this did not lessen my enjoyment of the story. Many novels of broad scope and grand vision have similar lists, for similar purposes.
This is a dense, tightly written book. It's not "light reading". It is for the serious lover of "story" and is told as one. I found the setting of the Scarred Man and the Harper extremely effective.
Not for the faint of heart, but certainly well worth the effort.
Very highly recommended.
"The January Dancer" is classic space opera. It is a wonderful tale, well told, about a priceless artifact the the many and varied people, organizations, and governments who desire it. The characters are real, flawed -- and believable. The mystery is tightly wound with a classic surprise -- and very satisfying -- ending. Honestly, it left me wanting more!
Other reviewers have noted, correctly, that the sheer number of characters is overwhelming. I, too, found myself occasionally referring to the list of the Dramatis Personae in the beginning of the book. But this did not lessen my enjoyment of the story. Many novels of broad scope and grand vision have similar lists, for similar purposes.
This is a dense, tightly written book. It's not "light reading". It is for the serious lover of "story" and is told as one. I found the setting of the Scarred Man and the Harper extremely effective.
Not for the faint of heart, but certainly well worth the effort.
Very highly recommended.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Too many missteps in "The January Dancer"
Sometimes a title, as with John Birmingham's "Without Warning", can tell a potential reader quite a bit about the book; other times, however, as with "The January Dancer" (Tor,... Read more
Published 27 days ago by Clay Kallam
4.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining but not hard scifi
This is a really entertaining book with extremely well drawn up characters. All of them are interesting and multi-faceted but the Fudir and the scarred man especially so. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Firdaus Janoos
3.0 out of 5 stars
So-So Far Future Space Adventure
Slow read because of a multitude of complicated characters and character development (all the main characters have 2 or 3 aliases), and also because of the frequently slow pace,... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Stewart Teaze
4.0 out of 5 stars
Review of the January Dancer
A fun science fiction adventure that in many ways heartens back to the Golden Age of science fiction, it has an interesting premise and future civilization, and while the story is... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kyle
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great novel, shoddy publisher
Great space-opera novel (and I'm totally not a sci-fi-type reader) -- that is, until about page 285 of my papaerback copy, which which point the pages jumped back to page 167 .... Read more
Published 4 months ago by eric schwab
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous space opera
The January Dancer is a highly interesting blend of space opera, mystery, thriller, and old Irish tunes. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Oleg
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hard to Read Much?????!!!
So I started reading this and its a very unique space opera. Example:
Scene: An assassin is chasing a mark down some alleys. Read more
Scene: An assassin is chasing a mark down some alleys. Read more
Published 4 months ago by David A. Roberts
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Sci-Fi saga, almost an alegory
The January Dancer story is really an old-fashioned saga. Once again we have an adventure around the reluctant hero of several names, "scarred man", Fudir, Donovan. Read more
Published 7 months ago by J. C. Danko
4.0 out of 5 stars
A science fiction universe drawn in a complex weave
Some reviewers have noted that Michael Flynn is not an easy read. His stories are complex weaves of different characters, frequently in different places. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Ian Kaplan
2.0 out of 5 stars
Did not finish
I have read a lot of sci-fi books. Some are of the "pulp" level and others are the really deep ponderous fiction like Dune. Read more
Published 10 months ago by compressor man
