The Voyage of Night Shining White [Deluxe Edition, Import] [Hardcover]

Chris & John Meaney (introduction) Roberson (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 84 pages
• Publisher: PS Publishing (2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904619703
• ISBN-13: 978-1904619703
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,103,976 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chris Roberson's novels include Here, There & Everywhere, The Voyage of Night Shining White, Paragaea: A Planetary Romance, X-Men: The Return, Set the Seas on Fire, and the forthcoming End of the Century, Iron Jaw and Hummingbird, and The Dragon's Nine Sons. His short stories have appeared in such magazines as Asimov's Science Fiction, Postscripts, and Subterranean, and in anthologies such as Live Without a Net, The Many Faces of Van Helsing, FutureShocks, and Forbidden Planets. Along with his business partner and spouse Allison Baker, he is the publisher of MonkeyBrain Books, an independent publishing house specializing in genre fiction and nonfiction genre studies, and he is the editor of the Adventure anthology series. He has been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award three times: once each for writing, publishing, and editing; twice a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer; and twice for the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History Short Form (winning in 2004 with his story 'O One').

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Diversion, April 27, 2008

By 

Rodney Meek (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This very slim volume is part of Roberson's Celestial Empire series, which has been explored in several short stories and a couple of novels, including "The Dragon's Nine Sons". The setting is an alternate near-future Earth in which the Western powers never rose to prominence because a powerful Imperial China beat them to the punch. Now, the empire is sending a ten-ship fleet to begin colonizing Mars, having achieved mastery of Earth (except for those pesky Aztecs of the Mexic Empire).

The plot is somewhat reminiscent of "The Cold Equations" in that something goes very wrong on "Night Shining White", a tiny and isolated spaceship completely on its own, and the solution involves a major human cost. It's nothing spectacularly original (and has basically been dealt with sooner or later in every long-running sci-fi TV series). The twist that Roberson brings to it is the Chinese characters, and how they came to be there, and how their varying philosophical backgrounds (Taoism, Confucianism, et cetera) come into play.

It's a reasonably interesting treatment on the theme, and a nice introduction to the setting developed further in later novels. Fans of Roberson will want to pick it up, but it's not quite striking enough to be recommended for your run-of-the-mill sci-fi reader.

5.0 out of 5 stars Master & Commander on the Way to Mars, March 7, 2007

By 

Lou Anders - See all my reviews

Fantastic. A Heinlein space adventure, by way of Master & Commander, set in a space-bound imperial China. One of my favorite stories of the year and one day, I'm sure, of all.