panguitch's Full Review: Tobias S. Buckell - Crystal Rain
For most of its history Science Fiction was deservedly criticized for its vision of a future where white men cruised the galaxy in chrome-plated ships, rescuing women with the personalities of robots from salacious bug-eyed aliens. Villains have since become more complex and female characters more credible, but the de facto science fiction hero remains white (with some notable exceptions).
The cover art proclaims Tobias S. Buckell's Crystal Rain is something different, starting with the black protagonist, front and center. But the first thing you'll notice about him is the hook he has in place of a hand. That's only after you take in the beautiful little airship he's dangling from, and the brilliant jungle birds darting across his line of fire.
The man is John deBrun, and Buckell backs up the cover's promises by making deBrun's story far from run-of-the-mill. The dirigibles and other trappings of the world's fallen technology lead to the obvious association with the steampunk genre. But I found Crystal Rain to be a science fiction novel that's much more reminiscent of classic high fantasy.
deBrun is an amnesiac who settles down with a wife and son in a village not far from the Wicked Highs, the mountains which separate the Caribbean-descended people of Nanagada from the bloodthirsty Azteca (Buckell is himself Caribbean-born and conveys the dialect without overburdening the reader). deBrun's secret past makes him the equivalent of fantasy's prophesied-hero trope, a role he gradually awakens to as he and Oaxyctl, an Azteca double agent, make their way to Capitol City to warn of an Azteca invasion.
Not only is deBrun the world's sole possible savior, but he must embark on a dangerous quest to retrieve a powerful artifact which means the difference between survival for the peaceful Nanagadans and their death on the demon-god altars of the inhumanely vicious Azteca. That tastes like fantasy to me.
By the end some interesting science fictional trappings have been hung on this fantasy frame, with wormholes and global climate control and some of the most extreme biotechnology, human and alien, I've encountered. This is more effective in the case of the "gods" who can reinvent their bodies with each molting than it is with some of the enhanced humans. In the case of deBrun's ambiguous ally Pepper, for instance, I'm divided between my raving inner fanboy, who revels in Pepper's nonchalant, murderous coolness, and my adult lack of interest in yet another invulnerable superhero straight from the comic books who stole his black trenchcoat from the Matrix along with the rest of his attitude.
Oaxyctl, deBrun's other ambiguous sidekick, is a more fascinating character, and the most well-rounded other than deBrun himself, and perhaps deBrun's traumatized son and Dihana, the martyr-queen figure. His inner conflict is both spiritual and visceral, and the arc of his development is surprising and satisfying.
Crystal Rain suffers from a sometimes lurching pace and structure, which may reflect its being a first novel, or may be an aspect of Buckell's writing style that doesn't fully jive with my personal tastes. In any case it will be remembered for the wonderful melange it creates by juxtaposing future and industrial-era technologies, clothing fantasy motifs with science fiction elements, and pulling in races and cultures not often featured in the genre. For this alone it's well-worth the read.
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