Twenty-third century Earth, ravaged by climate change, looks backwards to the holy ideal of a pre-industrial Eden. Political power has been grabbed...
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reviews
Jan 28, 2011
Clay
rated it: 
Paul McAuley manages to make the familiar fun as he gives the traditional war in the Solar System genre a 21st century twist. “The Quiet War” (Pyr, $16, 403 pages) matches the pioneering “Outers” (those who have emigrated from a devastated Earth to the moons of Jupiter and beyond) against the domineering empire of Greater Brazil. Central to the narrative is the rivalry/hero worship of Sri Hong-Owen, a brilliant genetics’ researcher, with Avernus, an Outer genius. Hong-Owen, though from Earth, is
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Mar 23, 2010
John
rated it: 
I've enjoyed several of Paul McAuley's novels, and bought this book the instant I saw it. The back cover promised an exciting, intelligent story. After 70 pages I did something I rarely do--I put it back on the shelf. This book needed a strong editor.
If the following excerpt from page 68 excites you, or if you love Kim Stanley Robinson's novels, or if you have a lot of time and patience, you would probably like this novel.
"Soil was not a random mixture of inorganic, More...
If the following excerpt from page 68 excites you, or if you love Kim Stanley Robinson's novels, or if you have a lot of time and patience, you would probably like this novel.
"Soil was not a random mixture of inorganic, More...
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Feb 06, 2010
Paul
rated it: 
Back in the 1990's, I went through a spurt of reading the novels of Paul McAuley. His SF aligned perfectly with my tastes, from Fairyland to Pasquale's Angel to the Confluence Trilogy, one of my favorite SF series of all time.
I didn't read his SF techno-thrillers, but I am very happy that he has now returned to straight main-line science fiction with The Quiet War.
The Quiet War is set in a solar system after "The Overturn", when the 20th and 21st century geopoli More...
I didn't read his SF techno-thrillers, but I am very happy that he has now returned to straight main-line science fiction with The Quiet War.
The Quiet War is set in a solar system after "The Overturn", when the 20th and 21st century geopoli More...
May 19, 2009
Says io9:
Eco-political, frantic, and undeniably epic, Paul McAuley's latest novel The Quiet War was nominated for a Clarke this year. It's time to check out this hard science tale of gene wizards and posthuman separatists.
What is immediately and consistently engaging about The Quiet War is McAuley's ability to turn the hard sciences of bioengineering and synthetic ecosystems into the stuff of storytelling awesomeness. Reluctant hero Macy is a scrappy soil engineer who has More...
Eco-political, frantic, and undeniably epic, Paul McAuley's latest novel The Quiet War was nominated for a Clarke this year. It's time to check out this hard science tale of gene wizards and posthuman separatists.
What is immediately and consistently engaging about The Quiet War is McAuley's ability to turn the hard sciences of bioengineering and synthetic ecosystems into the stuff of storytelling awesomeness. Reluctant hero Macy is a scrappy soil engineer who has More...
Apr 22, 2010
Daniel
rated it: 
When I picked up The Quiet War, I was looking for an action packed space/sci-fi war book. What I got instead was a very scientific heavy book, which tries to explain how everything works. When I read About the Author, Paul McAuley, in the back of the book, it explained that he used to be a biologist before becoming an author. This becomes almost immediately apparent when reading the book, as all the main scientists who are responsible for nearly anything are biologists. Much of the book talks ab
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Sep 04, 2010
Tim
rated it:
I try to avoid spoilers but I gotta tell you - this book has a sequel, so don't expect a tidy wrap-up.
There are plenty of good ideas here, and lots of explanatory science if you like that sort of thing (I do, but there wasn't much that I hadn't seen before). Not a bad overall premise, either: the situation is believable enough to engage us.
But cardboard characters, mostly. Plenty of places where there was Too Much Detail. Too many very powerful characters pulling " More...
There are plenty of good ideas here, and lots of explanatory science if you like that sort of thing (I do, but there wasn't much that I hadn't seen before). Not a bad overall premise, either: the situation is believable enough to engage us.
But cardboard characters, mostly. Plenty of places where there was Too Much Detail. Too many very powerful characters pulling " More...
Feb 17, 2010
Terence
rated it:
Paul McAuley’s The Quiet War was the second course in my “Presidents’ Day Brain Candy” Weekend (see my review of The Caryatids: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33984...), and I wound up liking it more than The Caryatids. That despite the fact that it suffered from a very slow beginning – I almost gave up but the action picked up after section one and the info-dumping largely ceased. The info-dumping was the second factor that almost made me stop reading. One of the main characters, Macy Minno
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Nov 14, 2010
Paula
rated it:
I went through a phase a couple of years ago of not reading science fiction, preferring to concentrate on fantasy over on that side of the library, but I see I've missed all sorts of good stuff...
Here's an example - the basic premise of 'The Quiet War' is that it's set in a time after the Overturn, a time when the inhabitants of Earth were forced to make some tough decisions about how to save their environment while at the same time colonising elsewhere in the universe. As a result the More...
Here's an example - the basic premise of 'The Quiet War' is that it's set in a time after the Overturn, a time when the inhabitants of Earth were forced to make some tough decisions about how to save their environment while at the same time colonising elsewhere in the universe. As a result the More...
Apr 25, 2011
Will
rated it:
It's not a bad science fiction novel, but it's nothing you haven't seen before. The language is there to service the plot. The characters are there to service the plot. It's not a bad plot. It's the future. There's lots of technology, most of which you've seen before in other science fiction novels, apart from the biology based science which isn't really relevant. There's two groups of people that don't like each other. There's some politicians that try to work a deal, and some people who
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Jan 03, 2012
Really, really enjoyed this book, though i'm not sure if it's really because it's outstandingly good (it's definitely plenty good though) or because it hits all my favorite space opera buttons - lots of extra terrestrial geography, fleets of spaceships, varied quasi posthuman space colonization, etc. All of it is well written and well plotted, and I liked the characters too (look, lots of women and none of them are whores!) though sometimes it seemed as though their motivations and arcs were spe
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Mar 18, 2010
Ove
rated it: 
Quiet as in space no one can hear you scream quiet and also as in you can't detect it until its too late. It starts with the Callisto Biome Peace Project and a murder. Crafty young soil-engineer Macy Minnot is reluctantly drawn into the struggle for war or peace among the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. The title gives the result away...
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Blurb
From the teeming cities of earth to the scrupulously realized landscapes of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, The Quiet War, an exotic,
Dec 02, 2009
Adam
rated it:
I haven't read a good contemporary space opera in a while. Modern space operas, to me, began to seem more like upper level quantum physics courses instead of action packed, character driven adventures in space. My introduction to science fiction were books like these and I still love them.
I remember back in third grade, we got those Scholastic book order forms. How I loved those forms! The possibilities; the choices! Growing up, we didn't have much money, but one thing my parents wou More...
I remember back in third grade, we got those Scholastic book order forms. How I loved those forms! The possibilities; the choices! Growing up, we didn't have much money, but one thing my parents wou More...
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Oct 24, 2011
Nigel
rated it:
The Quiet War, by Paul J McAuley.
This was the book I read over Christmas, and I like McAuley, so that wan't a problem, but do you know what I prefer? For years I'd save books by a particular author for my Christmas book, the one I actually dipped into on Christmas Day, and lay about in front of the fireplace with on Stephen's Day, and that was Kim Newman. Paul McAuley won't mind, they're good mates. But there hasn't been a Kim Newman novel in years! Where's my new Kim Newman novel? Fair e More...
This was the book I read over Christmas, and I like McAuley, so that wan't a problem, but do you know what I prefer? For years I'd save books by a particular author for my Christmas book, the one I actually dipped into on Christmas Day, and lay about in front of the fireplace with on Stephen's Day, and that was Kim Newman. Paul McAuley won't mind, they're good mates. But there hasn't been a Kim Newman novel in years! Where's my new Kim Newman novel? Fair e More...
Feb 08, 2010
Jason
rated it:
(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.)
The more genre books I do critical reviews of, the more I'm coming to realize that one of the biggest things genre fans crave is the sort of consensual cloud of topics that all the writers in that genre will form at any given time, and how indeed this cloud eventually coalesces as to define an More...
The more genre books I do critical reviews of, the more I'm coming to realize that one of the biggest things genre fans crave is the sort of consensual cloud of topics that all the writers in that genre will form at any given time, and how indeed this cloud eventually coalesces as to define an More...
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Dec 23, 2009
Mike
rated it:
In a future where Earth has been ravaged by economical disaster humanity is split down two divergent paths. Down one path are the Outers, exiled first to the moon then to Mars and now settled on the moons surrounding Jupiter and Saturn they espouse the ideas of Ancient Greek Democracy and use genetic manipulation to modify their bodies in ways both practical and cosmetic. Meanwhile, on Earth the powerful Brazilian government, ruled by a class of powerful families, follows a nature based religio
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Jan 25, 2010
Aaron
rated it:
There aren't nearly enough good hard sci fi stories being written today. I'll take a good sci fi story (especially one set in our solar system) over an urban fantasy novel any day. How many books are there currently being published with a picture on the cover of the novel's female protagonist, looking over her shoulder, wearing a shirt that bares her midriff, and holding a sword? Too many if you ask me. The Quiet War delivers when it comes to the science of the story, especially genetic manipula
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Sep 02, 2009
Adam
rated it:
Soon to be released in the U.S. this book is definitely one of the science fiction books of the year. The third book by Mcauley I’ve read in a row, and I have found each more absorbing than the last. This is a space opera with all of the romanticism and swashbuckling removed. Playing almost like a nasty John le Carre spy thriller with the characters being drawn into increasingly claustrophobic situations as their societies plunge towards an idiotic war. A spare style that at first didn’t grip me
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Oct 31, 2008
Liviu
rated it:
Blockbuster hard sf/space opera in Mr. McAuley Greater Brazil future history
In the 2200's, a century after the big Overturn - an ecological and social catastrophe that left vast swaths of Earth disaster area - Earth is rebuilding under 3 big powers dominated by "Families" that rose with prominence with their "Green Saints"
The religion of Gaia is dominant though in Greater Brazil it is mixed with traditional Catholicism, in the EU with secularism and i More...
In the 2200's, a century after the big Overturn - an ecological and social catastrophe that left vast swaths of Earth disaster area - Earth is rebuilding under 3 big powers dominated by "Families" that rose with prominence with their "Green Saints"
The religion of Gaia is dominant though in Greater Brazil it is mixed with traditional Catholicism, in the EU with secularism and i More...
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May 23, 2010
Alec
rated it:
I found this book really hard to get into, with my restarting the book three times. I honestly don't think i would have bothered finishing it if i'd borrowed it, but I paid good money for it so i pushed on through.
I didn't establish a sympathetic rapport with a single character in this book which is what i think made it such a hard read.
The futurist vision painted by McAuley of cataclysmic climate change, biotechnologies, genetic manipulation and colonisation of the moons of Saturn a More...
I didn't establish a sympathetic rapport with a single character in this book which is what i think made it such a hard read.
The futurist vision painted by McAuley of cataclysmic climate change, biotechnologies, genetic manipulation and colonisation of the moons of Saturn a More...
Dec 27, 2009
Kevin
rated it:
This is the first book in a long, long time that I made it 3/4 of the way through and was too uninspired to finish. I kept hoping it would get... interesting... at all. As a sci-fi book it's kind of generic. The social ideas aren't as interesting as Superluminal/Metaplanetary nor is it interesting from a purely tech standpoint as Rainbows End or... anything my Neal Stephenson. It also lacks in the war category when compared with Iain Banks.
Nothing to see here; move along.
Nothing to see here; move along.
Jan 21, 2010
Pilars
rated it:
Very oldschool (but not dated at all!) science fiction with some fantastic world building. Had a slow burn on the entertainment value but was overall very enjoyable. I didn't really feel like there was enough resolution at the end of the book. I'd be pissed if I didn't know there was a sequel... but now I have to decide whether to import it or wait for the US release. The marketing for the book was a little off as it was described as space opera-ish. I'd say this was more of a hard science ficti
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Nov 19, 2010
Linda
rated it:
This was a very uneven book. The characters are wooden, not sympathetic or believable. The plot is slow considering that it is about the beginning of a galaxy war! The scientific wordage and lists of things are boring, But, and it is a big but, the descriptions of the worlds and moons and life on the them are worth it all. I took quite a while to read this first book in a new series, and despite it all I want to someday read the second one!
Apr 07, 2011
Dev
rated it:
Nothing really new here. Some exotic biology, a diaspora to the outer planets, and rather forced characters that though ambiguously pleasing at times all seem rather bloodless. The stories background of a Great Overturn from global warming feels far to contemporary(and of course wrong) in the same way that facile sci-fi of the 80's had apocalyptic upheavals caused by a nuclear exchange between America and the Soviets. (2.6)
Jul 31, 2010
Ryun
rated it:
McAuley’s solar-system-spanning political thriller farms the space-opera fields normally tended to by the likes of Iain M. Banks. From high-level diplomats to rank-and-file “caught in the political whirlwind” normal people, the disparate actions of the characters in THE QUIET WAR slowly, but inexorably sow the seeds for war.
More: http://www.bookgasm.com/features/5-best-...
More: http://www.bookgasm.com/features/5-best-...
Feb 02, 2011
Peter
rated it:
The war turned out to be a little too quiet. The setup of the plot was good, and I enjoyed the political machinations.. On the down side though: I felt like the characters kept being defined one way but then acting slightly out of character. I guess I felt like I got to the end of the book a little too quickly.. Like a chapter or two was missing from the end.
Jan 13, 2011
Joshua
rated it:
Some people don't like this kind of detail, but it was a trade off I liked in this case to the detrement of character development, but the scientfic believability of it all was impressive. The ideas of vacuum organisms, how the city states of the outer system behaved, and the overall technical progress (or lack thereof) of the earth was very well done.
May 30, 2011
There's a good story in here somewhere. Unfortunately, I couldn't get past the writing. Massive run-on sentences, dense passages about the science and technology, and weird character introductions (2 viewpoint characters had the first two chapters, but didn't show up again in the 150 pages I read) were all problems I couldn't get past.
I was pretty disappointed because there are some truly excellent ideas in here. The political setup is really cool and there are even some interesting c More...
I was pretty disappointed because there are some truly excellent ideas in here. The political setup is really cool and there are even some interesting c More...
Jan 16, 2012
Alice
rated it:
An interesting read, but I had to push myself to finish. I just didn't connect to the characters, couldn't bring myself to really care about them. My impression is that the author was trying to show shades of grey in that no one is completely good or bad, but ended up with unlikeable characters.
Jan 12, 2010
Matt
rated it:
Quite clever in its exploration of the social "process" of going to war ... from the demonising of the opposition amongst the populous to the engineering of diplomatic incidents and the exaggeration of the enemies threat (weapons capability).
(Almost) all of the viewpoint characters are greedy, self-serving, politically ambitious scum.
Anyone else detecting some not-too-subtle parallels with recent events?
On top of that there is some fairly detailed More...
(Almost) all of the viewpoint characters are greedy, self-serving, politically ambitious scum.
Anyone else detecting some not-too-subtle parallels with recent events?
On top of that there is some fairly detailed More...
Jan 11, 2010
Robert
rated it:
A strong sci-fi story with deep socio-political resonances. Much easier to read than many of the recent additions to the genre. Furthermore, the characters had depth, complexity, and were very well developed. A wholesome, entertaining, and all-around good tale.
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