Child of the River: The First Book of Confluence (Confluence Trilogy) - Hardcover

Mcauley, Paul J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0380975157 ISBN 13: 9780380975150

Publisher: Eos, 1998

Synopsis

A man's quest to discover the secret of his parentage brings him to a great metropolis, called Confluence, teeming with strange creatures, where he learns that he is the last survivor of a dynasty gifted with preternatural powers

About this title

About the Author

Paul J. McAuley won a Philip K. Dick Award for his debut novel, Four Hundred Billion Stars. He won the Arthur C. Clarke and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards for his novel Fairyland. In addition he has published five other novels-including Child of the River,the first book of Confluence--and two collections of short stories. In 1995, his short story, "The Temptation of Dr. Stein," won the British Fantasy Society Award. Mr. McAuley is a regular contributor to the British SF magazine Interzone and writes reviews for Foundation. He lives in London.

Reviews

Thousands of years ago, so we eventually learn, the omnipotent and now-vanished Preservers built Confluence, not a planet but a habitat, or construct, thats home to a zillion species``bloodlines''whose ancestry includes both human and animal genes. When Yama, a boy of mysterious origin, was found resting on the breast of a dead woman in a boat, he was adopted by the Aedile, ruler of the city Aeolis and of the vast, crumbling necropolis that surrounds it. Now, the sinister apothecary Dr. Dismas visits the great city Ys and learns something significant about Yama's originsbut he won't tell the Aedile what it is; indeed, Dismas attempts to kidnap Yama and involve him in the war against the ``heretics,'' adherents of the enigmatic and recently vanished Ancients of Days. Yama escapes Dismas and in the necropolis acquires a sentient knife that feeds on sunlight. The Aedile resolves to place Yama as a clerk with Prefect Corin in Ys, but Yama, finding he can mentally control machines, joins up instead with potboy Pandaras and agrees to assist the warrior Tamora with her commission to track down and capture a spaceman who's jumped ship. Yama defeats the corrupt, powerful spaceman by unexpectedly summoning a feral machine. Eventually, Yama will learn that hes a Builder, one of a race created to serve the Preservers; but to learn the rest of his own identity and heritage, he must force his way into the jealously guarded Palace of the Memory of the People. Agreeably meaty and complex, challenging and tantalizing: an entry with ample scope for sequels, the one possible drawback being that McAuley's (Pasquale's Angel, 1995, etc.) narrative voice may be too cool to be entirely satisfying. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

As the first book of The Confluence, McAuley's novel begins an elegant literary exploration of the end of civilization that recalls the work of Patricia McKillip. McAuley uses a standard gambit, that of the orphan on a quest to discover his own mysterious past, with a host of secondary characters either asking him riddles or trying to kill him. The riddles concern the nature of the world: Who were the Builders, Creators, and Preservers? How did the various Bloodlines and Machines come to be? Tantalizing hints of the answers keep one turning pages despite slow pacing, which is also compensated for by excellent world building and highly competent characterization. The audience for this volume will consist mostly of literary sf aficionados, but any collection catering to a significant number of such should acquire this book and watch for its sequels. Roland Green

On the world of Confluence, where thousands of bloodlines compete for position in a society abandoned by its creators, the mysterious appearance of a youth of indeterminable heritage portends either the world's end or a new beginning. Yama's search for his origins leads him from the faded necropolis of Aeolis to the fabled metropolis of Ys, bringing him closer to the secret of his past while simultaneously plunging him into the midst of a convoluted war of politics and religion. McAuley's (Fairyland, Avon, 1996) latest novel launches an ambitious sf/fantasy saga set against a richly detailed world of ancient technology and forbidden magics. A good addition to most sf or fantasy collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Eos
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0380975157
• ISBN 13: 9780380975150
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400