Child of the River:: The First Book of Confluence - Softcover

Mcauley, Paul J.

3.7

375 ratings by Goodreads

9780380792962: Child of the River:: The First Book of Confluence

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0380792966 ISBN 13: 9780380792962

Publisher: Eos, 1999

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An Arthur C. Clarke and John W. Campbell Memorial Award-winner for his novel Fairyland, Paul J. McAuley designs and fabricates remarkably intricate worlds. He builds some out of solid bricks of science, some from granite carved from the rich quarry of human history and experience. All are marvelous constructs of invention and thought; enthralling landscapes to wander, explore and lose oneself in. He offers now a world that stands distinctly apart: a place of savagery, secrets and war; the home of ten thousand extraordinary bloodlines ruled by universal devotion to absent gods; a realm of merchants, mercenaries, ghouls, heretics, bureaucrats and feral machines; a world called Confluence. Child Of The River is the first book of the end times; the beginning chapter in the final great epic of a mysterious civilization. In it, a singular young man named Yama makes his way from a ghostly city of the dead to a metropolis of living wonders, and through the labyrinthine country o

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Review:

Paul J. McAuley has won just about all the awards named for science fiction authors: the Philip K. Dick, the Arthur C. Clarke, and the John W. Campbell Memorial. McAuley is a true wordsmith, an author's author, and in Child of the River, he has not only written an outstanding novel, he has created a universe. While fans of Gene Wolfe and Mervyn Peake might be taken aback by McAuley's stylistic imitation of those two luminaries, why look a gift horse in the mouth? McAuley's vision is original enough, as well as complex and entertaining enough, to keep a demanding reader engrossed.

Child of the River tells the story of Yama, a young man of unique heritage in a world of genetically altered beings. The river world Confluence is a place of crumbling, ancient cities and machines so old and mysterious they seem like magic. From the vast necropolis of Aeolis to the engimatic metropolis of Ys, Yama seeks the truth about himself, and the universe. With Child of the River, McAuley begins a trilogy examining the death of a breathtakingly epic civilization. --Therese Littleton

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.

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