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Souls in the Great Machine (Greatwinter Trilogy) Paperback – May 12, 2000

by Sean Mcmullen (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars 55 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Series: Greatwinter Trilogy (Book 1)
  • Paperback: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (May 12, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312872569
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312872564
  • Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,818,564 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsIntriguing SF ideas, disjointed plot
By Richard R. Horton on December 22, 2000
Format: Paperback
I found Sean McMullen's Souls in the Great Machine a difficult book to evaluate. On the one hand it has some wonderful, sense of wonder-inducing ideas, and some exciting action and colourful characters. But the "colours" of the characters are a bit garish, certainly unrealistic, as they act out the author's whims. And the plot, action-filled as it is in places, also drags in other places, and is somewhat creakily structured. On the whole, though, I recommend this novel for the neat stuff, with a warning that it is far from perfect.
Many years after a disaster called Greatwinter destroyed human civilization, people in what was once Australia live in smallish city states. Technology includes fairly ingenious mechanical devices, and guns, but no electricity or electronics. A central feature of local civilization is the libraries, where intelligent men and women seem to maintain what records of the past they can. The most important library, called Libris, is in Rochester, and a new leader, Zarvora Cybeline, has just been appointed. She establishes a curious project: a huge calculating machine, the Calculor, in which the individual components are human slaves. Add to this intriguing setup a culture which places great emphasis on personal combat -- duels. And one more odd feature -- a mysterious Call, to which every animal larger than a cat, including humans, is subject.
Into this mix Sean McMullen throws Lemorel, a young provincial woman and a talented mathematician, whose ambition has led her into several duels. She ends up at Libris, with many other talented mathematicians, supporting the Calculor. There is also Zarvora, the odd genius who has invented the Calculor, and who has some mysterious use for it besides simply improving communications and tax collection.Read more ›
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3.0 out of 5 starsThe Machine is great but ...
By N.R. Joe Chip on October 25, 2000
Format: Paperback
Souls in the Great Machine is an epic novel set in Australia of the distant future. An unspecified disaster and extended winter has erased most traces of world of the 21st century. Electricity is a memory, steam engines are forbidden, and a siren "Call" of unknown origin periodically lures untethered people and large animals to their death.
This is an ambitious book and the first half of the story is well told as we follow the ruthless librarian Zevora's struggle to build her beamflash network and Calculator. The Calculator is a primitive computer where the "circuits" are actually people who have been pressed into service. The development of the beamflash system and Calculator mirror the modern development of the personal computer and internet and you do get the feeling that such as system could be built without electricity and silicon.
After this promising start, the novel begins to unravel. Characters are constantly bumping into each other by chance as they travel around the interior of Australia. The coincidental meetings become more and more annoying as credibility is stretched. Eventually, one of Zevora's lieutenants, Lemorel, breaks away from her service and rallies what amounts to a barbarian horde which she uses to attack the cities under Zevora's control. This is a major plot point and the fighting occupies much of the novel. Unfortunately, Lemorel's motivation for starting her rebellion is not convincing and she plunges an entire continent into war for little apparent reason other than the author wanted to have the war occur.
The ending of the book feels rushed as too many characters and plots are wrapped up very quickly.Read more ›
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2.0 out of 5 starsTrain Wreck
By Paula Gaffney on January 12, 2002
Format: Paperback
Souls in the Great Machine is a big book filled with lots of great big Science Fiction ideas. Enough ideas to make the average sci-fi fan drool in anticipation.
Big Idea One: Humanity in post-apocalyptic Australia is regularly beset by The Call, a strange siren call that makes everything larger then a small dog drawn to the south like lemmings are drawn to the sea.
Big Idea Two: Something is going on in outer space. Some sort of intelligence is building a structure in Earth orbit designed to reflect light away bringing on the next Greatwinter.
Big Idea Three: Despite a complete lack of technology, a huge computer is being designed and built. Not with circuit boards and transistors, but with kidnapped human beings armed with abacuses.
And there is a whole lot more that goes on. Human powered galley trains, networks of light towers transmitting coded messages across the continent, and so on.
But the focus is in this book is on the technology. Granted, it's cool technology, but after a while it really gets tiresome. By the time I was finished, I knew more then I ever wanted to know about post-apocalyptic trains. In fact, this story could have been call Souls Riding the Great Trains. Ultimately, I cared more about the machines in this book then the people.
And here is the big problem. The characters act in an illogical and inconsistent manner. The author suffers from a God complex. Need a war in the West? So-and-so will start one. Why did so-and-so do that? Because the author made them do it. The characters are not evil, they are written that way.
Once the characters start to careen off track, the story follows. What begins as compelling story-telling, ends as a train wreck of inconsistencies. Even the Big Ideas get wasted (the source of The Call is just plain stupid and disappointing). For me, this is not Book One in the Greatwinter Series, it's Book Only.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsKnowledge is power, and some power comes out of the barrel of a gun

Nice treatment of a post-apocalyptic society where librarians are armed and dangerous.

Published 6 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsThe Greatwinter Triology—Librarians rule (at last!)

Librarians rule!

Published 10 months ago by Gerald M. Furi
5.0 out of 5 starsWonderous Fun, and Dark Conflict

Absolutely loved this novel. It has whimsy, intrigue, horror, betrayal, and conflict on an ever rising scale. Read more

Published 12 months ago by Cody Hatfield
2.0 out of 5 starsMediocre, at best

Disjointed, no cohesiveness, bland characters. I did my best, but dropped it after 200 pages. If you're going to make a statement, do it up front. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Jewels
4.0 out of 5 starsUnique and Imaginative Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi

It is ~1500 years from the modern day in post-apocalypse Australia. Human civilization has recovered to some extent but several factors inhibit further development. Read more

Published 23 months ago by Steve King
5.0 out of 5 starsA very interesting apoalyptic series.

Get the first book in the series and read them all.
I highly recommend this. Some of the best sci-fi I have read
with a very interesting primative high-tech twist. Read more

Published on April 17, 2014 by Craig M. Houck
5.0 out of 5 starsAn engrossing, very fun read

Somewhat foolishly, I read a number of reviews on this book before starting it. I did so despite knowing that I already wanted to read it, and that it had been on my reading list... Read more

Published on June 13, 2013 by Iain Mavro Coggins
5.0 out of 5 starsmisplaced stars

Incomprehensible that such a cohesive, well-imagined, and consistently entertaining epic would rate anything lower than a five star here. Befuddled, I am.

Published on June 6, 2013 by Richard W. Keeney
1.0 out of 5 starsNot popcorn

i thought this was a bag or caramel popcorn. it turned out to be a book. i would have preferred popcorn. or maybe some cinnamon candy. or a puppy. Read more

Published on May 22, 2013 by William Hirsch
3.0 out of 5 starsProceed With Caution

This is a book of terrific ideas driving a moderately well thought out storyline and loaded with characters who act completely incoherently within the events they are living. Read more

Published on May 5, 2013 by Michael A. Mercurio II

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