Brother to Dragons

Easily one of the best books I've ever read. Sheffield's descriptive technique is unparalleled. As far as science fiction goes, this book could possibly be one of the 5 best books ever written, in my opinion.

In a post successful USA the reader finds him or herself caught up in the life of an unlucky individual. A hero who rises from the bottom to achieve a goal. Yet this is unknown till only the end when the final and most drastic decision is made.

Brother To Dragons is the story of a man born in the midst of a terrible time, in a deep city charity ward with extreme birth defects. Early in life he is, without knowing it, exposed to the illegal drug trade, because of which he ends up in a supposedly unescapable juvenile delinquint house with purposely lethal conditions, but somehow manages to escape. He then spends about ten years as a multi-lingual street vendor, until the government pulls him out by way of blackmail (his recent first love was, without the protagonist's knowing it, a member of an important political family). The government then uses him to find out what's going on in the country's biggest complete security prison/Toxic And Nuclear Disposal Installation facility. He comes back not only with what he was sent for, but also with a way to save the world, which he himself puts into action shortly before dying. Although I have read lots of science fiction, this book is the first book of its kind I have read (3 times!), and I look forward to reading more of Sheffield's work.

When I read this, I was unsuspecting of what this story really was. Originally I just pointed out a book and bought it. Fortunatly my choice out of blind luck turned me on this dark look at the future focusing on an unfortunate good soul growing up in the worst conditions who would change the world forever. The cover is misleading, but I didn't feel at all jipped at being mislead. Infact, I greatly appreciated stumbling upon this jewel of a story.

A bleak "if this goes on" look at the future of America. Unlike most science fiction novels this one doesn't follow the handsome hero or powerful spy around. Instead, it follows a victim of the downspiral of social spending on education and health and his helplessness to even get near the people in power until one day they need him for a mission into the place they've exiled their scientists (can't have science, because it disturbs the status-quo that supports the upper classes...). He dies, but before dying brings out a final gift for the world, something to break the status quo once and for all. A bleak look at the present and what will happen if we let it. An important book. I am surprised Baen published it (Baen preferring upbeat books with spaceships in them). Let's hope Baen reprints it soon.