Empty Cities of the Full Moon

by Howard V. Hendrix

Venturing into a universe different from where his previous novels— Lightpaths , Standing Wave , and Better Angels —were set, Howard V. Hendrix tackles one of life's most enduring What does it mean to be human? In a dramatically altered near-future, the world's newest technology resurrects a plague of apparent global madness that not only destroys ten thousand years of urban civilization, but also creates a world under the sway of the full moon—and a human race transformed in astonishing ways.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy

448 pages, Paperback

Published August 6, 2002

Reviews

[Lissa Notreallywolf]

This is a really interesting post apocalyptic novel in the same vein as The Labyrinth Key-some of the bad guys even overlap. A conspiracy theory based organization called Tetragrammaton and some of the major players in Key also appear in this book about a plague which develops from the work of a well meaning scientist intervening to cure common mental illnesses contributing to homelessness. The book has a interesting structure, sort of misleading at first because you suspect the parallelism is between two universes-A and A prime. But the novel is about Universe A prime, with alternating chapters about pre-Prionic Pandemic and post prionic Pandemic. In Labyrinth Key the threat is viral in the sense of computer viruses, and this one it more a biologically virulent change. Hendrix is obviously got some political beefs with the manipulation of history and the prevalence of surveillance and normalization, ecological themes. I actually found myself wanting to read Foucault after this... The ending was somewhat disappointing, but I was quite pleased by the amount of Shakespearean references foreshadowed in the prior plot.

[Becky Beaman]

The beginning of the book did not fill me with enthusiasm -- a parallel universe set-up, and a couple of short chapters alternating universes. Followed by a time-hopping structure: before, after; before, after... But the stories became clearer. Not my favorite book, not my least favorite -- good storytelling, if nothing else. Ending a tangle of "science" and less than fulfilling, but fine. Worth a couple of days to read...

[Derek]

It's an intricate construction: at first appearance a postapocalyptic adventure and end-of-world thriller, but later revealed to have deep ambitions regarding the nature of the universe (the "plenum"--the universe of multiverses) and drawing parallels between society, biology, psychology, and a concept that Hendrix calls "parallel universe processing". It's all extremely elaborate and heavy and laden with technical language from the fields of chemistry, biology, and metaphysics. It comes at the expense of the protagonists passing from enclave to enclave within the ruined Eastern Seaboard and having deep jargon-filled conversations that reveal portions of the whole.

In the last chapters this tottering tower takes control and, I think, loses structural integrity. The non-"plenum" aspects felt entirely satisfying in themselves and I wonder if there are actually two books here trying to break free of each other.

[Riddick]

I bought this book from a bargain and at first I'm quite curious about it (that's why i bought it eh?).

The only thing here is that,

I don't quite understand some of the scientific terms he meant in the book (it just really hard to imagine)and it changes everything...

I now realize the saying that "don't judge the book by it's cover"

though to tell you the truth i quite enjoyed it somehow..i liked how he created those parallel worlds...post-apocalyptic thingy...


i can't say so much about it...

and you obviously know why...

[Garrett Weinstein]

An interesting and original premise for a post-apocalyptic tale involving biotechnology gone awry and shamanistic dream travel. Engaging characters too. Unfortunately, the story was constantly de-railed for hard sci-fi info dumps that I hardly felt were really needed to understand what was going on.

[Kristy Buzbee]

Ahahahahahahaha WHAT. I think the author didn't expect anyone to understand all his science mumbo jumbo...which is why the ending didn't make any sense.

[Amanda]

This is a signed copy of the book which I received after a reading from my hometown. He was a local author from Fresno area.