I’m way behind the curve on this one, but then again I read almost nothing in the science fiction genre from roughly 2002 to 2010, so I’ll hold that out as an excuse for why I’m only now talking about Crystal Rain, a 2006 first novel by Tobias Buckell.

As I’ve mentioned before, I love adventure stories, and this is an all-out adventure with airships, steam-augmented sailing ships, spacecraft, war, a range of settings that includes city, ocean, jungle, arctic, and alpine, and great characters, some with their own mysteries that are gradually untangled.

(See that scene on the book cover over there on the right? That’s actually in the book!)

Whenever possible, I prefer to form my own opinions about a book before hearing what others have to say, so I went to look at the Amazon reviews after finishing this book. It well-deserves its four-star average, but the few who did complain seemed to be focused on a dislike of the Caribbean-derived dialect of the primary culture of Nanagada. Personally, I thought this was very well done. I’m a very “auditory” reader. I tend to hear the words in my head, especially dialogue like this, and it was like listening to actual speakers with a grammar and dialect different from mine.

I thoroughly enjoyed Crystal Rain. Ragamuffin is the next novel, and it’s on my “to read” list.

Posted on: Sunday, April 17th, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Categories: Reading, Recommended Reading.