![]() ![]() ![]() well, they sort of do, but it's a bit odd, as the City doesn't seem to actually be a city or anything like one. ![]() So what I vaguely expected was for the human voyage to bring them to the City of the Dead as the novel proclaims, which. Although the prelude to the novel is a Mai-based vignette about a mythical El Dorado-type treasure trove they expect the humans to find for them, it's largely ignored for the rest of the book in fact, the ambush section doesn't make much sense in the light of the prelude, as it would completely frustrate the Mai's own plans. ![]() Perhaps I was naive, but I'd been reading this book as something genuinely different, a sci-fi novel about exploration and relationships, with something in common with Gerald Durrell or Attenborough novels about real-life travels and the incidents and friendships that they bring. ADF does a reasonable job of convincing me they're genuinely fond of each other, though, and I was interested in how things would turn out at the end their journey up the river is both an exploration of the planet and a chance to explore the status of their relationship, and I expected a decent emotional payoff.And that - the end - is really where things fell down for me. It is from the 1980s, so it's not all that surprising, and Lyra does get her turn at problem-solving too. Both the manifestations and the characters were a little gender-stereotyped: a logical male geologist who gets frustrated, is foolishly jealous, comes up with plans and does the last-minute rescuing an empathic female anthropologist who is passive-aggressive, is unreasonable in arguments, and loses her objectivity to fall in love with the native culture. I thought it did a decent job of portraying a couple whose relationship is strained after years of field research and planet-hopping, and the ways that might manifest. Now ADF doesn't go very deeply into their cultures, and the humans don't have enough knowledge to pick out subtle differences, so I can't hold it too strongly against him, but really the supporting cast don't get much in the way of characterisation.Just in passing, I liked that the humans are not automatically white Anglo-Saxon types, which is casually mentioned at the start without making it too pointed calling them Lyra and Etienne seems slightly odd if ADF was going for something different, but it's fine.I also enjoyed the way the journey let the relationship between Lyra and Etienne develop. Slightly on the other hand, all of the alien characters confirm rigidly to their cultural norms. He also defied my expectations by turning round the Tsla when they seemed bound for tired old stereotype territory. The monetary basis of the Mai culture was quite fun, and I loved the vertical division of cultures and the Topapasirut. I quite liked the alien races as well, though the Na were a bit cardboard for my taste.This book has some really nice ideas and concepts in it. This vagueness avoids leaving much open to scepticism, and given how little the humans know about the world in question, is also entirely appropriate. He sketches out the culture fairly quickly, giving enough information to read the story smoothly, but leaving things vague. ADF did a good job of worldbuilding the planet is novel and interesting, and though it's probably scientifically impossible, I didn't have any trouble suspending my disbelief. I read it pretty much in a single sitting over an afternoon, which says a lot. I haven't read any others, but I don't think it's affected my enjoyment of the book.Generally speaking, I enjoyed this book. not exactly a series, but a set of linked books. Spoilers, obviously.This is apparently part of a. ![]()
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