Souls in the Great Machine (Greatwinter Trilogy, #1)

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Souls in the Great Machine (Greatwinter Trilogy #1)

3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 · rating details · 334 ratings · 29 reviews

The great Calculor of Libris was forced to watch as Overmayor Zarvora had four of its components lined up against a wall and shot for negligence. Thereafter, its calculations were free from errors, and that was just as well-for only this strangest of calculating machines and its two thousand enslaved components could save the world from a new ice age.

And all the while a f...more

Paperback, 608 pages

Published December 15th 2002 by Tor Books (first published 1999)

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Nov 09, 2012 Daniel Roy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Daniel by: Ryandake

Shelves: sf

Stop me if you've heard this one before: in Australia in the distant, post-apocalyptic future, a continent-wide Siren-like Call wreaks havoc on society, and electricity is banned by EMP orbital platforms. But an ingenious and ruthless librarian reinvents computers by using prisoners as components. With it, she...

I'll stop here, not because anything in Souls in the Great Machine has been done before, but because discovering all the crazy and ingenious ideas put forth in this book are part of the...more Stop me if you've heard this one before: in Australia in the distant, post-apocalyptic future, a continent-wide Siren-like Call wreaks havoc on society, and electricity is banned by EMP orbital platforms. But an ingenious and ruthless librarian reinvents computers by using prisoners as components. With it, she...

I'll stop here, not because anything in Souls in the Great Machine has been done before, but because discovering all the crazy and ingenious ideas put forth in this book are part of the thrill. The setting of the novel is a true original, and reading about ideas like Mirrorsun and the Calculor is a huge part of the appeal of this quirky, innovative SF story.

The other reason to read this book, though, is the characters. They're all interesting, fully realized, and fun to watch grow and change. A big point in favor of the book is the large number of strong female characters on display. Yeah, there's a lot of sex, and you'll learn way too much about the female characters' breasts by the end of it, but it's really great to see these crazy, strong, passionate women take center stage. In a world where even full-length SF novels don't pass the Bechdel Test, that's a pretty significant achievement. Ah, but don't think the guys get shortchanged: John Glasken, a sort of male take on the oversexed bimbo trope, for instance, is actually a pretty great character in his own right, and he went from infuriating to adorable over the span of a few hundred pages. I'm surprised I'm praising him, because after a hundred pages I just wanted him to die a violent death.

If there's something to fault with this novel, it's the structure itself. Although the beginning and end are pretty strong and tightly plotted, things get real messy in the middle part. Characters get all over the place, they change quickly and sometimes mysteriously, and the plot gets bogged down with some minor side-plots that don't really go anywhere. (Having made it to the end, I still don't care about railroad gauge differences, dammit.) This is made worse by the fact that Souls in the Great Machine was originally published as two books in Australia; the cut in the middle, signified by a four-year gap, is pretty jarring as part of a continuous story.

But although it feels as if McMullen just threw all the pieces in the air near the middle of his book, everything falls into place neatly for a satisfying ending. Most of the big questions about the setting get answered in a satisfactory manner, though the most intriguing ones are reserved for the sequel. This was a satisfying read, with some never-before-seen SF ideas, and I'm excited to read the sequels.(less)

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Jul 07, 2009 Zach rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: post-apocalyptic, science-fiction

Pros: McMullen has a lot of really great ideas. This is a book set 200 years after the apocalypse, caused by a mysterious siren call that started luring people into the sea, leading to nuclear war and the placement of satellites that sweep the earth with electromagnetic pulses from time to time, prohibiting the use of electronics. The story, then, concerns the southern part of Australia (I think-the geography is hazy at best), where they have a produced a new calculating machine that uses people...more Pros: McMullen has a lot of really great ideas. This is a book set 200 years after the apocalypse, caused by a mysterious siren call that started luring people into the sea, leading to nuclear war and the placement of satellites that sweep the earth with electromagnetic pulses from time to time, prohibiting the use of electronics. The story, then, concerns the southern part of Australia (I think-the geography is hazy at best), where they have a produced a new calculating machine that uses people as binary components. Oh also an ancient net of nanomachines has started constructing a mirror in the sky to prevent global warming. This is a holdover from the pre-Apocalyptic world, of course, but I forget why it has started up again 2000 years in the future.

Cons: McMullen doesn't have a clue what to do with any of these ideas. None of them are fleshed out to any degree and their implications are never really explored. The characters (such as they are) and the plot (such as it is) clearly exist only to propel the reader along as McMullen careens from one idea to the next, which are often clearly just crammed into the narrative as he thought of them for the first time. (My favorite example of this: around page 300, it's explained that some people have bird DNA [don't ask:]. From there for the next 15 pages or so, one of the main characters is described as having bushy or feathery hair on just about every paragraph. This had never been mentioned in the prior 300 pages).

It's hard to convey here how poorly organized and structured this book is. Characters fall in and out of love immediately. They betray one another for the thinnest of reasons even more often (one such betrayal, toward the end of the book, isn't explained at all, as far as I could see). Pages will be spent on the most boring minutiae, and then McMullen will oftenhandedly reference the passage of 5 years. (or, another favorite example, after the first inexplicable betrayal that the plot hinges on, two characters ride into the desert to search for a third... and then the chapter is over and it's 5 years later and one is a monk and the other is a warlord). I could go on and on. There were a lot of head-scratchers in this book... and there weren't supposed to be.

Oh, one other thing: when I started this, I was stoked on the fact that all of the main characters were strong and sympathetic females... until he started writing about their breasts as their main identifying characteristics (not kidding). Then by the end it turned out that the philandering man was the main hero/character after all. Bah.

The more I write the more I'm convinced that this deserved 1 star, but I really enjoyed a few bits of it and I'm feeling generous. Let's pretend it's a 1.5(less)

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Feb 17, 2013 Smcleish rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Originally published on my blog here in August 2004.

There are plenty of post-apocalyptic novels, and plenty of science fiction about computers, but Souls in the Great Machine is the first story I have read which combines the two. Set about seventeen hundred years from now, following a nuclear winter, Souls in the Great Machine is about the effects of the development of a new form of a religiously proscribed machine, the computer. Because electronic equipment has become unusable (due to still fun...more Originally published on my blog here in August 2004.

There are plenty of post-apocalyptic novels, and plenty of science fiction about computers, but Souls in the Great Machine is the first story I have read which combines the two. Set about seventeen hundred years from now, following a nuclear winter, Souls in the Great Machine is about the effects of the development of a new form of a religiously proscribed machine, the computer. Because electronic equipment has become unusable (due to still functioning military satellites which destroy any detected electrical circuits), the components are men and women who perform the operations basic to the electronic computer of today by hand. The machine is slow compared to one using microchip technology, but powerful enough to bring prominence to the small state in which it is secretly constructed.

Souls in the Great Machine builds on well worn science fiction ideas in an original manner, and by centring on the Calculor itself becomes fascinating (at least for the first two thirds; the last two hundred pages of this novel, describing desert warfare, is more commonplace and not so interesting). The scenario is influenced by writers like Neal Stephenson and Bruce Sterling - despite the massive differences in the technology depicted, the closest novels in tone to Souls in the Great Machine that I can think of are The Diamond Age and The Difference Engine - as well as post apocalyptic novels, particularly A Canticle for Leibowitz, which also deals with the relationship between technology and religion. The desert warfare could come from Dune (which also, of course, has a religious prohibition on the development of computing machines), or a number of fantasy novels and the use of railways is (perhaps more superficially) like Pavane or Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Out of such influences, McMullen has forged a novel distinctively his own.

Souls in the Great Machine has flaws; as mentioned, it tails off in its final third; and it is also lacking in characterisation. It is as though the nature and effects of the Calculor are not just the main interest of the novel, but so much its focus that everything else not directly related to the topic is underwritten. For a genre novel, it is dense and that makes it a slow read, and the effect of the poor end segment is to make the reader wonder whether the effort has been worth it. I would say that for the earlier parts of Souls in the Great Machine, the whole is just worth it; enough for me to look out for his other books, some of which are also set in the same world.(less)

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Oct 05, 2012 Juliet Wilson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

My partner recommended this book to me. We rarely read the same books, even when we choose science fiction, we read different types of science fiction. But he thought that I would be interested in the alternative technologies in this book. He was right too.

Souls in the Great Machine by Sean McMullen is set in Australia about two millenia into the future. The continent is ruled by war-like librarians. Nuclear winter is long in the past and the world has developed new technologies since then, but...more My partner recommended this book to me. We rarely read the same books, even when we choose science fiction, we read different types of science fiction. But he thought that I would be interested in the alternative technologies in this book. He was right too.

Souls in the Great Machine by Sean McMullen is set in Australia about two millenia into the future. The continent is ruled by war-like librarians. Nuclear winter is long in the past and the world has developed new technologies since then, but without fossil fuels and with electricity and steam engines being banned by all major religions, the technology has developed in interesting, labour intensive ways. Messages are sent long distances using beam-flash towers, trains are driven by wind power or by galleys of slaves and passenger volunteers, who have to put in a lot of hard work to get to their destination. Computers aren't even a memory in this culture and instead complicated mathematical calculations are performed by slaves in the Calculor - a huge hall full of rows of abacuses. There are smaller, mobile calculors that can be used on the battlefield.

And oh there are a lot of battles. Far too many for my taste. The opposing sides seem to take to the battlefield for no apparent reason and apart from the first extended battlefield scene that outlined the use of the battle calculor, I found these scenes tedious. Instead of all the constant fighting I wanted a bit more character development - John Glasken the maverick, serial seducer and unlikely hero is entertaining and feels like a real person, whereas I didn't get a feel for a lot of the other characters beyond their roles. That may be deliberate of course, but it didn't help in engaging me with certain parts of the story.

The comments above are about my tastes rather than about the quality of the book. It's totally fascinating if you're interested in technological solutions to possible futures, but really it's written for people with more of a taste for plot driven storylines and lots of battles.

(less)

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Nov 19, 2011 Wealhtheow marked it as to-read

Shelves: sci-fi, steampunk, post-apocalyptic

Someone recommended this to me as:
"If you like unusual SF, you should definitely pick up Sean McMullen's Greatwinter trilogy of novels, starting with the first book Souls in the Great Machine. It's set in Australia (the middle book is set in North America) and it revolves around a post-apocalyptic society built slowly and realistically from the ashes of our own. You've got a kind of clock-punk level of technology in which fueled engines are religiously proscribed, yet society gets on at a pretty...more

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Nov 10, 2012 Ryandake rated it 5 of 5 stars

Daniel wrote a great review of it here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

as for me, this is my sixth or seventh time to read this trilogy, and it is as awesome this time as it has been for all the previous.

if your idea of great sf is of sf with truly innovative ideas, wonderful plotting and characterization, and thoroughly memorable characters, you have come to the right place: Souls in the Great Machine has all of these. and this is only the on-ramp to a far more complex and involving fu...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Beverly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I give it a 4 star instead of a 5 star rating, because for me, the plot got too bogged down in some parts, slowing down the action too much. But, it was a fascinating piece of SF, and thanks to another reviewer, I found out that it was released as two separate books in Australia, explaining the sudden 5-year gap in the story.
I would have liked to have known more about what happened to Lemorel during those 5 years, because it may have explained better her motivations for what she did later.
The s...more

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Feb 05, 2013 Iain Coggins rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Lovers of timely and original speculative fiction.

Shelves: speculative-fiction

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 for a number of years. Reviewers give a lot of fours, primarily because of weak character development. Having read such reviews, I found myself looking for this problem as I read (hence the aforementioned foolishness). Truth be told, McMullen does have some weaknesses in this regard, but I would say his real weakness is...more

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Dec 11, 2012 NMC rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

The vision of the world McMullen creates is amazing. For a post-apocalyptic SF, it's definitely one of the more original ones I've read. McMullen also has the tendency to just throw the reader inside the story, without a lot of explanation beforehand. I appreciate that as he expects his readers to be smart enough to figure out the world and situation the characters are in. His strong female characters was another addition I appreciated. Unfortunately, the story peters after 2/3rds of the way in...more The vision of the world McMullen creates is amazing. For a post-apocalyptic SF, it's definitely one of the more original ones I've read. McMullen also has the tendency to just throw the reader inside the story, without a lot of explanation beforehand. I appreciate that as he expects his readers to be smart enough to figure out the world and situation the characters are in. His strong female characters was another addition I appreciated. Unfortunately, the story peters after 2/3rds of the way in due to inconsistencies and plotlines that seem to appear out of nowhere.

(view spoiler)

Despite all these complaints, I still have to give this book 3 stars for it's unique, diverse world and interesting characters. I just wish the plotline was a little more consistent and believable, as those aspects ruined it quite a bit for me.(less)

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Oct 28, 2007 Smallerdemon rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: scifi fans, rand fans, steampunk fans

Overall this would be best classified as a fun book to read. Lots of action and lots of fun characters. The characters remind me quite a bit of characters from Ayn Rand's books, which means they seem to be slightly one dimensional in the behavior, but that does get toned down some later in the book. It loosely qualifies as steampunk. The post-apocalyptic nature of it sets it in a different era than a lot of steampunk. The setting for most of the book is Australia (in later books it seems that No...more

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Feb 09, 2010 Aneel rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to Aneel by: Mom

Quite good for the first hundred pages, then abandons its focus on interactions between characters and switches over into Big Picture mode. The book starts rapidly switching between characters and destroys their verisimilitude. Characters swap allegiances and opinions for the sole purpose of making the giant Tech plot work out, and everything starts feeling heavily scripted. Interesting ideas, but, in the final analysis, an unsatisfying read.

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Feb 17, 2013 Chris Reznor rated it 5 of 5 stars

A sci-fi story set in a post apocalypic where computers don't technically exist. Instead, giant calculation machines are staffed by human slaves doing the math. The use of 'lo-tech' in the story is particularly interesting. Flintlock pistols, pedal trains and communication networks of 'beamflash towers'? Not a typical sci-fi read but still very much worth a read.

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Dec 30, 2009 Joe rated it 3 of 5 stars

The storytelling is passable, but the ideas are so good that this rates at least a 3/5; I don't regret reading it at all, and I'm looking forward to the next books. Hopefully, the dialog gets a little less stilted (but at least it's not cliched), and the characters a little more fully-realized, but even if that doesn't happen, I think I'd still enjoy them.

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Apr 17, 2011 Wren rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: did-not-finish

This book has such a great concept I tore through 100 pages out of curiosity about this world and its wonderful mechanical technology. Nevertheless, I found the writing choppy and inconsistent, and gave up because of the feeling that such an amazing dystopia deserved better.

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May 15, 2012 Robert added it

Shelves: sci-fi

I'm on page 100 or so... only giving it another few pages before I put it down for good. There is something really interesting here, but I'm not sure the author is ever going to get me to care about it. We'll see.

---

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Feb 02, 2012 Eric rated it 3 of 5 stars

Fascinating setting and great characters. Shame about that deus ex machina, though.

http://readthedamnbook.wordpress.com/...

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Jun 13, 2012 Chip rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you like post-apocalyptic stories, you should read this book. Definitely some great ideas - computer made from humans, wind trains, the Call, sentient Mirror-Sun, etc. Could have been a 5-star if he had explained why one of the main characters decides to go to war with everyone and made the second half of the book a bit more even.

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Jul 30, 2011 CD added it

I do like this series. A computer that is really people....lots and lots of people doing calculations in servitude. Really creepy and great.

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Aug 03, 2011 Steve added it

Loved this series. They still march on Anzac day in the 40th century....just no-one can remember why.

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Dec 01, 2012 Cynthisa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: alt_and_spec_fic, z_mmii, aa_series_to-start-over-with

Book Log note: "Great world-building, but needs a good, hard edit.")

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Mar 19, 2009 Justin rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is nutty, but I love it. Coolest title ever.

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Feb 11, 2011 Ellie/Anton rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy-sci-fi-steampunk, read-in-2011

Errr... I guess I'll give it a three. Started off great, but by the time we got to the end I was incredibly bored and annoyed by all the characters. There are many of them, and their motivations are not always clear. Occasionally they just take off on some grand adventure for no apparent reason. Also, it seemed like the author occasionally just wanted to speed things up, to show more stuff about the world, so he would sort of 'fast-forward' the action, making me feel like I'm missing something.

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Mar 24, 2010 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

Yowza! Big, big ideas, delivered through the actions of well-realized characters. This is the first book in a long time that has given me the feeling I got from those first Heinlein and Asimov books in my teens.

My only beef with this was the "small world" cast. After the Nth time one of the characters crosses paths with another character we've met before, it started feeling strained to me. Necessary to the plot, but irritating.

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Oct 24, 2007 korty rated it 5 of 5 stars

A unique and wonderful read. The worldbuilding in this book is stunning. The author creates a world and the cultures that populate it with such vividness that you feel like you have actually been there. There is one awkward aspect where a character we had gotten to know well in the first half disappointingly gets pushed to the background in the latter half, but it is not enough to lower my rating.

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Jul 13, 2008 Tobey added it · review of another edition

I'm having a hard time reading this book--it's confusing with all the characters coming in and I'm not really sure what the hell is going on. My boyfriend got me the trilogy from the library, but I'm not sure at this point if I will even get through the first book.

ETA: I gave it the 50 pages, but couldn't read it any further.

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Mar 08, 2008 Danjo rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi

I absolutely love the angles this book brings to bear on an advanced low tech society. The concept of a post-apocalypic, librarian run civilation is very fertile ground to hit upon the nature of progress confined.

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Jun 12, 2009 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Interesting take on the future, where librarians are in control of the government.

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May 10, 2007 Sharon marked it as to-read

Shelves: sci-fi_fantasy

librarians rule the world?
recommended by Bryan Alexander, NITLE

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May 21, 2013 Kelsey marked it as to-read

May 21, 2013 Ryan Farrell rated it 3 of 5 stars

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Souls in the Great Machine (Greatwinter Trilogy #1)

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