Crystal Rain (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "Brown vines dried and crumbled along the village Refojee-Ten's edges..." (more)
Key Phrases: Capitol City, Wicked Highs, Mother Elene (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

John deBrun, an amnesia victim with a hook instead of a left hand, must save his adopted society on the planet Nanaganda by recovering a lost technological artifact, the Ma Wi Jung, in Buckell's at times overly violent but enjoyable SF debut. John, living happily with his wife and son, has suppressed the memories of everything before his rescue from a watery grave 27 years earlier. When one group of native humans along with alien beings invade John's town, he winds up captured by the planet's other human society, the Azteca, whose culture is based on ritual sacrifice. Ruled by bloodthirsty, genetically engineered aliens called the Teotl, the Azteca have tunneled through the mountain range that separates the two human societies. Only the heroic efforts of John and acquaintances from his murky past can stop the ruthless Azteca. For a first-timer, Buckell handles his interlocking narratives well and his characters retain their humanity (even the slightly alien ones). Unusual for the genre, the many victims of torture and death are evenly divided between males and females. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

John DeBrun lives, mostly peacefully, on Nanagada with his wife, Shanta, and son, Jerome, troubled only by the fact that he remembers nothing of his past. War is brewing, however, with the Azteca preparing to finally cross the Wicked High Mountains in search of new sacrifices for their gods, the teotl. As the mongoose-men, defenders of Nanagada, struggle to hold out, John discovers that what he has forgotten may hold the secret to saving Nanagada. Pepper, clearly one of the mysterious old-fathers--wonder-workers from a distant planet who fought a war that left the land devastated and deprived of functional metal technology--claims to have known John long ago. Haidan, leader of the mongoose-men, and Dihana, prime minister of Capitol City, coerce John into leading an expedition to find Ma Wi Jung, which, according to the Loa--godlike beings who interfere with human affairs--is their only hope for defeating the Azteca. Buckell's first novel conjures a vividly imagined world, spiced with intrigue and adventure that unfolds at a breakneck pace. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Tor Science Fiction (May 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765350904
• ISBN-13: 978-0765350909
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #351,030 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Adventure Novel, July 18, 2007

By	Lou Anders - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crystal Rain (Hardcover)

I've read stories of the cut-off colony that forgets its roots before, but what makes this one so interesting to me is that most of such tales are set untold centuries after, when no one remembers the way things were or recognizes the bits of mystical ancient machines for the high tech they were. In Crystal Rain, however, there are characters still around from those days, people (and things!) born with the benefit of genetic engineering and biotech, who have lived the 300 or so years since the break with galactic civilization. These are people who have gone on to have children, knowing that the children will be born sans benefit of these technologies, will age and die at the "normal" rate. So you have parents outliving their kids and their grandkids. Maybe its being a relatively new parent at a relatively late age myself, but I find this really poignant and intriguing both. Equally welcome was the much-touted Caribbean culture. Airship battles with Aztec warriors doesn't hurt either. Though it was the quiet moments between the ailing General Hayden and Prime Minister Dihana that were the stand-out bits for me as I look back. This was a high action adventure novel that gave me some new twists on old ideas. Bottom line: Toby can really write! I'm in for the ride on this series (of related stand-alone's it looks like.)

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Developed World - Compelling Characters - Fascinating Story, February 17, 2006

By	Kenneth R. Austin (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Crystal Rain (Hardcover)

I picked this up with no advance knowledge about the author based on the cover -- the cover evoked some of the old Edgar Rice Burroughs stuff I love so much.

Wow! What a great surprise. I was hooked from the very first chapter. I purchased it, took it home, and almost read it in one sitting. The world and its inhabitants are so well developed and so lovingly described that I was completely involved in the story. And, as its cover suggests, it did in places evoke the best that the pulps had to offer (the airship chase, for example).

First novel? I'm impressed. One of the best books I've ever read, period.

One minor, miniscule complaint: The dialect spoken by the natives of this world was difficult reading for me at first. Early on in the story, I found myself re-reading some of the dialogue to make sure I understood what they were saying.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read! Warning Spoilers, June 15, 2006

By	Jason Andrew (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Crystal Rain (Hardcover)

Crystal Rain is an interesting science-fiction novel written with fantasy conceits. The novel starts off very much like a typical fantasy novel introducing a world inhabited mostly by people of Caribbean descent in a peninsula nation called Nanagada. John LeBrun is an amnesiac who washed ashore a couple of decades previously and is quite different than the people he lives with. He is white, speaks differently, and doesn't seem to age. Despite this, he is accepted and marries a local woman and has a teenaged son.

Across a mostly impassable mountain range are the Azteca. The Azteca are an Aztec-derived culture that oddly follows the historical Aztecs to be more than coincidence. The action begins when the Azteca complete a tunnel through the mountain range and invade in the name of their gods. At first, John doesn't want to get involved, he just wants to live his life. When he is separated from his family by the invasion, he starts taking action.

Here is where the twist comes in. The gods of the Azteca are real, but they are aliens. They have created the Azteca as a way to enslave the human race. The humans on this world are colonists. Some of the first colonists, called "Old Fathers" were very powerful and had the "nana" to keep them young. The Nanagada have alien allies called "the Loa," but they are temperamental and mostly stay hidden. One thing I really liked is that Buckell uses advanced technology in the story, but as far as the colonists are concerned it is magic.

Once the Azteca invasion is in full force, John leads a quest to find an ancient weapon left by the Old Fathers to stop the invasion. Typically, this sort of quest would be dull and repetitive and the main character is simply the Chosen One. Buckell dodges this bullet by providing reasons that John needs to take this quest and is the only one that complete it based on previous actions of the character and the character's history. These motivations very much inform the character and explain his actions in the beginning of the book.

I found the novel a good read; however, it is not without problems. The Caribbean descendants of the planet speak in a Caribbean doggerel. Doggerel speech can work well when used sparingly, for example Yoda from the Star Wars movies. On the other hand, it can be used very poorly as witnessed by the horror that was Jar Jar Binks. The Caribbean characters in the book come off somewhere in between. It is my understanding that Buckell has first hand experience with Caribbean cultures and I have no doubt that the dialog is accurate, but it was difficult to read at times.

That said, I enjoyed reading Crystal Rain. How could I not enjoy a novel that ends with one of the characters saying "I am the man your gods will have nightmares about for the next fifty years."