Cowboy Angels
by
Paul McAuley
America, 1984 - not our version of America, but an America that calls itself the Real, an America in which the invention of Turing Gates has allowed it access to sheaves of alternate histories. For ten years, in the name of democracy, the Real has been waging clandestine wars and fomenting revolution, freeing versions of America from communist or fascist rule, and extendin...more
Kindle Edition
Published
(first published 2007)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
323)
Chris King Elfland's 2nd Cousin
rated it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Fans of Alternate History, Spy Thriller Fans
NOTE: This review first appeared at The King of Elfland's 2nd Cousin on June 7, 2011. If you enjoy it, please check out the blog!
I first came across Paul McAuley's work sometime in the mid-to-late '90s with his genetic cyberpunk (genepunk? I've always thought this should be a term) masterpiece Fairyland. Since then, I've always kept my eyes open for new McAuley novels and have found far more hits than misses among them. While his books span a variety of sub-genres (space opera, alter...more
I first came across Paul McAuley's work sometime in the mid-to-late '90s with his genetic cyberpunk (genepunk? I've always thought this should be a term) masterpiece Fairyland. Since then, I've always kept my eyes open for new McAuley novels and have found far more hits than misses among them. While his books span a variety of sub-genres (space opera, alter...more
Alan
rated it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Steely-eyed adepts in tradecraft
Recommended to Alan by:
Uchronia (http://www.uchronia.net/bib.cgi/label.ht...), I think...
Man, this thing was like crack cocaine to me—a fast, hard hit that I could hardly put down, over too soon and, in retrospect, probably not all that good for me.
In this fast-paced novel, alternate universes are real—and in this one, the "Real" (so-called) got there first, opening the first Turing Gate (named after Alan Turing, natch, after he defected to the States) in 1969.
Unfortunately, the Real's crosstime operations are run by the Company, an outfit made up of th...more
In this fast-paced novel, alternate universes are real—and in this one, the "Real" (so-called) got there first, opening the first Turing Gate (named after Alan Turing, natch, after he defected to the States) in 1969.
Unfortunately, the Real's crosstime operations are run by the Company, an outfit made up of th...more
Cowboy Angels by Paul McAuley.
Cowboy Angels by Paul McAuley combines the genre of alternate history with thriller writing. The Real is an America where Alan Turing created the theories which led to gates to alternate histories called Turing gates. There are some wonderfully dry thoughts on Schrodinger's Cat in association with the Turing gates.
This is Paul McAuley's best book. I like the main character Adam Stone, an orphan who is recruited into the C...more
Cowboy Angels by Paul McAuley combines the genre of alternate history with thriller writing. The Real is an America where Alan Turing created the theories which led to gates to alternate histories called Turing gates. There are some wonderfully dry thoughts on Schrodinger's Cat in association with the Turing gates.
This is Paul McAuley's best book. I like the main character Adam Stone, an orphan who is recruited into the C...more
I really enjoyed this alternate-history/crosstime/spy-thriller pastiche.
What really surprised me is I know McAuley is from the UK, yet for the most part he made all the different United States of Americas (there are several) believable. He only dropped the juggled balls a couple of times. Once he tripped with the phrase "strips of Canadian bacon," because I guess as a Brit he wouldn't know Canadian bacon isn't strips at all, but round slices. There was another similar mist...more
What really surprised me is I know McAuley is from the UK, yet for the most part he made all the different United States of Americas (there are several) believable. He only dropped the juggled balls a couple of times. Once he tripped with the phrase "strips of Canadian bacon," because I guess as a Brit he wouldn't know Canadian bacon isn't strips at all, but round slices. There was another similar mist...more
I started this sort of randomly. I mean, I certainly intended to read it next, but I was on my way to the bathroom (tmi?) and saw it sitting there on my desk and just sort of brought it along. Then we had more than a foot of snow dumped on us so I kept reading. I don’t know what it is about the novel that prompted me to keep reading. I think that it had something to do with the sort-of wearied spy/two old soldiers talking dialogue early in the novel. There is a certain undeniable attraction...more
It's 1982, and the US government has spent the last fifteen years using Turing gates to send operatives - the Cowboy Angels of the title - to alternate iterations of America and nudge them (often violently) toward a favoured form of democracy. Now, however, a change of government has led to a drastic change in policy, and not everyone is happy about it.
Former Angel Adam Stone is happily retired and living in a "wild sheaf" - an iteration of America where civilisation has h...more
Former Angel Adam Stone is happily retired and living in a "wild sheaf" - an iteration of America where civilisation has h...more
At a recent science fiction writers panel someone asked why we avoid discussing alternate universes. The answer, as exemplified in spades by this book, was that it's almost impossible to tell a coherent, interesting story once you open that door. "Cowboy Angels" is an orgy of chaotic nonsense. I found it impossible to follow either the logic or the thread of the story, if, in fact, either actually exists. And the physics of quantum theory? Let's not even go there.
What'...more
What'...more
I must admit that I am not a fan of alternative history novels. There is first the problem how alternative history differs from fiction in general. The answer usually turns on a single event turning out differently that is in fact the case. To look a recent and painful incident, authorities might have connected the proverbial dots and foiled the 9/11 plot. Going back further, image that on August 23, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. came down with laryngitis, or more happily that he did not go...more
Parallel Universes - Good.
Time Travel - Also Good.
Time Travel between Parallel Universes - More beer please.
McAuley's novel pulls a Reece's two great tastes that taste great together. Its an unusual pairing considering the paradoxes involved with each and the narrative problems that they create, but the problems are handled well and woven into the story naturally enough not to be boringly expository.
The multiverse he creates is original enough to be distinct without be...more
Time Travel - Also Good.
Time Travel between Parallel Universes - More beer please.
McAuley's novel pulls a Reece's two great tastes that taste great together. Its an unusual pairing considering the paradoxes involved with each and the narrative problems that they create, but the problems are handled well and woven into the story naturally enough not to be boringly expository.
The multiverse he creates is original enough to be distinct without be...more
This is a high-tech science fiction novel set... in the 1980s.
Back in the seventies, scientists find a way to open gates to alternate universes, usually either one fairly similar to their own, or else ones where human civilization never developed. Being the US, they immediately start to intervene in alternate Americas to create a 'Pan-American' alliance. You can get the feel for the attitude when the universe that developed this technology is referred to as the 'Real'.
But...more
Back in the seventies, scientists find a way to open gates to alternate universes, usually either one fairly similar to their own, or else ones where human civilization never developed. Being the US, they immediately start to intervene in alternate Americas to create a 'Pan-American' alliance. You can get the feel for the attitude when the universe that developed this technology is referred to as the 'Real'.
But...more
I picked up this one at the library after I read and liked something else by this author (The Quiet War) late last year.
The basic premise behind 'Cowboy Angels' is around the existence of what are called Turing Gates, essentially devices that allow people and things to travel into alternate universes. Each universe, usually described as a 'sheaf', has differentiated itself from the one we know in some way - the main place we see, calling itself the Real, is very clearly not the US we...more
The basic premise behind 'Cowboy Angels' is around the existence of what are called Turing Gates, essentially devices that allow people and things to travel into alternate universes. Each universe, usually described as a 'sheaf', has differentiated itself from the one we know in some way - the main place we see, calling itself the Real, is very clearly not the US we...more
A good liberal sci-fi allegory for America's wars around the world. In this book, set in the early Eighties, a parallel universe version of America that calls itself the Real invented inter-reality travel in the Sixties and has spent the time since turning alternate, less fortunate Americas into client states. The result isn't necessarily pretty. Our own reality (or one very close) also figures in as well.
The ending wasn't strong and this isn't a character novel, but as a thriller i...more
The ending wasn't strong and this isn't a character novel, but as a thriller i...more
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
This is my third book now by science-fiction veteran Paul McAuley (all of them courtesy of our friends at Pyr); and like the other two, this latest is based on a really great if not overly familiar premise -- basically, that humans invent a "quantum gate" that lets them travel between...more
This is my third book now by science-fiction veteran Paul McAuley (all of them courtesy of our friends at Pyr); and like the other two, this latest is based on a really great if not overly familiar premise -- basically, that humans invent a "quantum gate" that lets them travel between...more
Paul McAuley is quickly becoming one of my favorite SF authors. This is only the third book of his that I've read, but I have really liked all three (Quiet War and Gardens of the Sun are the other two).
This one is a spy/thriller novel set across several iterations of America in the multiverse. Our main character, Adam Stone (was McAuley being ironic with that name?), is a former undercover agent for the Company (his home universe's equivalent of the CIA), infiltrating other univers...more
This one is a spy/thriller novel set across several iterations of America in the multiverse. Our main character, Adam Stone (was McAuley being ironic with that name?), is a former undercover agent for the Company (his home universe's equivalent of the CIA), infiltrating other univers...more
If you aren’t paying attention, you might forget that Paul McAuley’s new novel, Cowboy Angels, is science fiction. Don’t get me wrong: there’s no doubt that it is science fiction. But McAuley has written a clever, quick, and fast moving novel that has all the elements of a great spy thriller, too. It’s a blend of genres that McAuley pulls off brilliantly, and it makes for an exciting and fast ride, a page turner perfect for a summer vacation or a rainy weekend indoors.
Before I found sc...more
Before I found sc...more
Paul McAuley takes the concept of United States domination and occupation to a whole new level in his latest and excellently titled Cowboy Angels. In 1963 the first Turing gate was opened; three years later a gate was made large enough to allow the first person to travel into another world: an alternate history to the one we know. Thus begun a series of events under different presidents that led to our United States playing a supposed importantly role in helping shaping these alternate histor...more
Imaginem que existiam portais que nos permitiam “viajar” para realidades alternativas do nosso país. De momento, dava um grande jeito viajar para um Portugal alternativo, onde não houvesse crise económica, não dava? Pois é com esta realidade que se deparam as personagens deste livro. A descoberta dos portais Turing, em 1963, permitiu que fossem encontradas várias outras Américas alternativas, para além da Real, que divergiram da mesma em determinado ponto do tempo, durante o último século. O des...more
A real page-turner. I had glimpsed a somewhat negative review of this a few weeks ago and went into it with lowered expectations, so I liked it a bit more than I thought I would. Parallel universe adventure with more than a slight nod to Jack Womack's Ambient novels. The relentless violence had me thinking Hollywood action movie at times, but that might have been part of the point, given that it's also a novel of American imperialism taken to a whole new extreme. Ending felt like the set up for ...more
I liked this book for the adventure of it. Wasn't so into the relationship between the hero and his friend. I could never tell if they were friends or what. There were a couple points where I felt like the author lost his way and then just made up a bunch of stuff to get the story going again. A few of the chapters started with this real literary description of the setting and then just dropped into the story and the style seemed to change.
I'd give it a two for the adventure part. A ...more
I'd give it a two for the adventure part. A ...more
It's a great action-packed story. Fascinating idea, opening gateways to alternate Americas and freeing them from tyranny/communism/fascism/anything-we-don't-consider-free whether they like it or not. And of course, the real world is just one of the "alternate" sheafs explored by the protagonists from the "Real" America in the book. (We're referred to as the Nixon sheaf)
One thing that annoyed me: the author is British, but the characters are all American and the a...more
One thing that annoyed me: the author is British, but the characters are all American and the a...more
Good characters, if a bit lurch-y, good pacing, great world-building with its quantum sheaves that divide into different worlds and a 100% cop-out ending. Reading another of his to see if he does it again. If so, that's it but if not, could be very good.
I like it so far. The main character and concept are interesting and I like the way the back story got told. I wasn't sure I'd enjoy this one, since I'm not really into the whole CIA espionage/conspiracy/military type plots, but I like the sci-fi twist of the Turing Gates and alternate parallel Americas.
There is a small amount of intrigue weighed down by an enormity of exposition and next-to-nil character development. There is less science fiction here and more suspension of disbelief than anything else, present in this particular novel.
Decent Sci-fi book. The plot was rather twisting (even for sci-fi) and it was hard to keep the worlds straight the whole time. Also, the ending left something to be desired (cliffhanger for a second book, Yay!). All in all though, not bad.
See my reading notes, on the whole a good read. But ended too quickly, without really tieing up all loose ends. Read like a book of the film, somewhat similar in tone to bourne, crossed with timecop or similar... tom waverley should be played by bruce willis in film, adam stone by someone like nicholas cage...
Despite some clumsy info-dumping at the beginning, a classic rip-roaring SF tale of covert action across parallel universes. Clever, tightly plotted, fairly unpredictable and nonstop fun.
Wow!! What can I say to describe this book?! Start with a future time period, add a techno-thriller, add "Stargate" (gates to alternate Earth universes), and throw in time travel. And somehow it all works. The book is left open for a sequel.
I am a sucker for the cynical special forces agent who has realized that the government they have killed for has gone too far or the deadly-man-who-regrets-killing. Richard K. Morgan rocks this archetype in the Takeshi Kovacs novels and hits it again in Black Man.
Cowboy Angels has a rocking premise with all kinds of fun alternate history toys to play with but it drags on and takes too long to solve the damned mystery. I wanted that moment when the protagonist has all of the pieces ...more
Cowboy Angels has a rocking premise with all kinds of fun alternate history toys to play with but it drags on and takes too long to solve the damned mystery. I wanted that moment when the protagonist has all of the pieces ...more
I picked this books up today at Border's going-out-of-business sale. Loving it so far. Great premise, well written. I'm already hooked and thinking of the RPG possibilities.
So now I'm finished and I enjoyed the book all the way through. Believable explanation of why all the parallel worlds were either "wild" or basically pretty close to each other. A good melding of espionage and sci-fi.
So now I'm finished and I enjoyed the book all the way through. Believable explanation of why all the parallel worlds were either "wild" or basically pretty close to each other. A good melding of espionage and sci-fi.
Very enjoyable time-travel/alternate reality story. Nothing ground breaking but well written with enough plot twists to keep me turning the pages.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »



















view 2 comments






















