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Chung Kuo #8
The Marriage of the Living Dark
The Great Experiment has failed. The Ten Thousand Year Empire of the Han has lasted less than two centuries and now not a single stack remains of the great city of ice that once covered the habitable earth. Europe is DeVore's, America is a brutal dictatorship, while the rest of the globe groans beneath the rule of callous warlords.Li Yuan, once the most powerful man on earth, is now an exile in America. Banished to an endless round of tours and banquets, he unexpectedly finds a new role -- one that will once more tie him to the destiny of Chung Kuo.And then there is Kim Ward, the Star-Seeker, the spider in the web. Will he leave Chung Kuo to its fate? Or will he turn his great fleet around and return to fight one final battle -- winner takes all?
618 pages, Paperback
First published October 16, 1997
About the author
David Wingrove
51 books164 followersDavid Wingrove (born September 1954 in North Battersea, London) is a British science fiction writer. He is well-known as the author of the "Chung Kuo" novels (eight in total). He is also the co-author (with Rand and Robyn Miller) of the three "Myst" novels.
Wingrove worked in the banking industry for 7 years until he became fed up with it. He then attended the University of Kent, Canterbury, where he read English and American Literature.
He is married and, with his wife Susan, has four daughters Jessica, Amy, Georgia, and Francesca.
Between 1972 and 1982 he wrote over 300 unpublished short stories and 15 novels.
He started work on a new fictional project called A Perfect Art. Between 1984 and 1988, when it was first submitted, the title was changed twice, becoming first A Spring Day at the Edge of the World and then finally Chung Kuo, under which title it was sold to 18 publishers throughout the world.
A prequel to the Chung Kuo series, called When China Comes, was released in May 2009 by Quercus Publishing, which also re-released the entire series: "The series has been recast in nineteen volumes, including a new prequel and a new final volume. After a series launch in May 2009, Quercus will embark on an ambitious publishing programme that will see all nineteen volumes available by the end of 2012."
He has plans for a further a novels, a a first person character novel called Dawn in Stone City and three very different novels: The Beast with Two Backs, Heaven's Bright Sun, and Roads to Moscow.
Wingrove worked in the banking industry for 7 years until he became fed up with it. He then attended the University of Kent, Canterbury, where he read English and American Literature.
He is married and, with his wife Susan, has four daughters Jessica, Amy, Georgia, and Francesca.
Between 1972 and 1982 he wrote over 300 unpublished short stories and 15 novels.
He started work on a new fictional project called A Perfect Art. Between 1984 and 1988, when it was first submitted, the title was changed twice, becoming first A Spring Day at the Edge of the World and then finally Chung Kuo, under which title it was sold to 18 publishers throughout the world.
A prequel to the Chung Kuo series, called When China Comes, was released in May 2009 by Quercus Publishing, which also re-released the entire series: "The series has been recast in nineteen volumes, including a new prequel and a new final volume. After a series launch in May 2009, Quercus will embark on an ambitious publishing programme that will see all nineteen volumes available by the end of 2012."
He has plans for a further a novels, a a first person character novel called Dawn in Stone City and three very different novels: The Beast with Two Backs, Heaven's Bright Sun, and Roads to Moscow.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 1, 2020
After twenty years of waiting, this hodgepodge of rushed bonkers lunacy, and a deus ex machina shotgun pumping bullet after bullet of decoherence left me drunk with plotholes. I have some sympathy with the author losing the confidence of publishers and having to merge his thoughts and ideas into an unholy metaphysical mess but the Howard de Vore won in this series as it ate itself.
July 3, 2020
The only book in the series I'd rate so low. Too much stuff that seemingly has no place in the series. Too far fetched, too much like the Roads to Moscow meaningless ending. And a happy one (sort of) that leaves me questioning the buildup that created so many points of vacuum. I have much hope that the recast would fix it. Let's live and see...
January 18, 2021
The final volume of Chung Kuo's original run see's the end of the War of the Two Directions, and lordy oh lord is it a mess.
Wingrove envisioned Chung Kuo as a 9 book cycle (a trilogy of triologies) but his publisher ultimatly cut the series short and it shows, not that all the blame lies on the publisher as The Marriage of the Living Dark attempts to do a lot and so does nothing well. Tons of interesting ideas but ambition alone does not a good series make as characters we've followed for book appear only to die (or worse die off screen as it where) wars are fought and won and dealt with in a handful of paragraphs and all life on Earth comes to an end in less than 100 pages. That's before we get into the time travel/multverse plot with interdimensional beings and science that is magic, and I stopped caring. Momentum saw me to the end of this book not enjoyment. Multiverses and time travel tend to kill a story especially when introduced at the end. Ultimately this book would have been better served if Wingrove had been less ambitious and focused on one or two characters and ditched the multiverse angle (the series was cut short but it managed to make the final novel 100 pages too long).
And before I forget. Howard DeVore. An ok villain at the begging of the series, devolves into BS territory with his villainy and such. Wingrove might has well as had him be literally Satan.
Advice, Skip this and Book 7. If you read the series don't go further than Book 6 White Moon Red Dragon.
Wingrove envisioned Chung Kuo as a 9 book cycle (a trilogy of triologies) but his publisher ultimatly cut the series short and it shows, not that all the blame lies on the publisher as The Marriage of the Living Dark attempts to do a lot and so does nothing well. Tons of interesting ideas but ambition alone does not a good series make as characters we've followed for book appear only to die (or worse die off screen as it where) wars are fought and won and dealt with in a handful of paragraphs and all life on Earth comes to an end in less than 100 pages. That's before we get into the time travel/multverse plot with interdimensional beings and science that is magic, and I stopped caring. Momentum saw me to the end of this book not enjoyment. Multiverses and time travel tend to kill a story especially when introduced at the end. Ultimately this book would have been better served if Wingrove had been less ambitious and focused on one or two characters and ditched the multiverse angle (the series was cut short but it managed to make the final novel 100 pages too long).
And before I forget. Howard DeVore. An ok villain at the begging of the series, devolves into BS territory with his villainy and such. Wingrove might has well as had him be literally Satan.
Advice, Skip this and Book 7. If you read the series don't go further than Book 6 White Moon Red Dragon.
September 30, 2019
OMG OMG OMG.....So I read books 1-7 20 years ago when they first came out - reread them like 10 years ago. Never read book 8. I remember it being available only in the UK at the time?...sure I could have gotten it but didnt want to pay the price or something. So I reread for the 3rd time & I finally got Book 8 & just finished it! OMG OMG OMG! Maybe the ending was too fait accompli? with Master Tuan......But my point: OMG. AWESOME.MAGNIFICENT.BEAUTIFUL.ASTOUNDING. I cant believe all the disparate elements that are woven together so damn well. I LOVED THIS BOOK. A FITTING END TO ONE OF THE GREATEST SERIES OF ALL TIME. FOLDSPACE...MORPHS...CHARACTERS...ANOTHER DIMENSION (s)... I do not have enough superlatives. I fall back to my true measure of measurement - I ENJOYED THE HELL OUTTA THIS BOOK!
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June 17, 2019Finito nel 01/gen/1970 00:00:00
May 27, 2010
This last volume of the Chung Kuo series is almost universally considered the weakest. Generally, most readers and reviewers believe the series dropped in quality with each book. For the first seven one can argue whether the perceived decline reflected actual quality or just such severe shifts in style and genre that the later books simply didn't appeal to the same market as the earlier ones. However, with book eight, even Mr. Wingrove acknowledges that publishing considerations forced him both to rush the job and to cram two books into one. The resulting work reflected both those facts. With luck when the new revised version of the whole series is published starting this year or next, the ending will be a little more coherent.
Go references: pp. 17,192,244,249,252,326-28,337,434,436-7, 525,528,624,626-7
Go references: pp. 17,192,244,249,252,326-28,337,434,436-7, 525,528,624,626-7
May 14, 2012
Having come to the end of the series there are still some unanswered questions, and to remain spoiler free I won't say what they are but Coffin Filler and Joseph anyone? What I have enjoyed about the series - the fact that he lets you fill in the blanks. The books are almost genre spanning in their breadth of subject matter. Despite the numerous characters you can still invest in them and find yourself rooting for someone you previously despised!
What I enjoyed the least - the epilogue in my paperback had been ripped out and I didn't realise until I got to the end of the book!!
What I enjoyed the least - the epilogue in my paperback had been ripped out and I didn't realise until I got to the end of the book!!
July 28, 2012
The whole series was great up to this point. Apparently the publisher forced Wingrove to either cram the final 2 books into one or just not release a final book. Wingrove decided not to leave fan hanging and tried to edit the ending into one book... which did not turn out so well. To be fair, I have read worse.
January 18, 2013
I really loved the series as a whole and the characters also. I thought DeVore was memorable villain, partly because of his brutality. I was quite disappointed in this final book though. I felt let down and had a WTF! moment when the book was over. A few things in this book came out of nowhere. Not a worthy end at all.
April 2, 2014
Not my favorite in the series at all. Without the context set in the first recast novels, it really doesn't make sense. Looking forward to the recast edition; hopefully will be a much better read than the first time around.
August 9, 2010
I hope the re-release of this series will make this a much better ending. He started too much in this book, with an unsatisfying result for an end.
March 17, 2016
This was a bit of a departure from the previous books in the Chung Kuo series.
Aliens! Space travel! Interdimensional travel! Superpowered immortals!
I enjoyed it.
Aliens! Space travel! Interdimensional travel! Superpowered immortals!
I enjoyed it.
April 27, 2016
The best future history ever !
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews