Child of the River: The First Book of Confluence

I think if I'd not been a McCauley fan and had read that this was a Gene Wolfe pastiche. I'd have been unlikely to have bought it. It's really not too bad at all. Has a lot of Wolfean elements, basically combining the far, far future of "The Book of the New Sun" with the artificial enviroment of "The Long Sun" books. Gene Wolfe lite desribes it well and though it lacks the embedded complexity of Wolfe it does capture a lot of his stylistic touches well. I agree with those who think this should have been released as a single novel rather than a trilogy but its still an interesting journey rather than a compulsive page turner.

'Child of the River' is a great novel.Paul McAuley has created an amazing universe, one where the tropes of fantasy fiction interact with all of the gizmos and gadgets of the hardest SF. The protagonist, Yama, discovers that he's not like the others..that on a world that contains 500 different species, there's no one else like him. So Yama wants to discover who he is and where he came from...and why he's able to command machines.McAuley is a master wordsmith. The words meld together and form an incredible tapestry. The reader feels as though he's present in McAuley's universe. And really, any book that contains men fencing with chainsaws has to be worth reading. I couldn't put the book down. McAuley has taken a place on my Must-Read list. Highly recommended.

So why did I give it only four stars? Two reasons. It's the first book in a trilogy, and I always reserve some opinion (in this case, one star's worth) for the final work all together. Secondly, it's not really a trilogy, but a single novel broken up into three printings. This can be somewhat frusterating when you're ten pages from the end and asking yourself, "How is this going to wrap up?"... Answer: it doesn't.That said, this is a terrific book. The descriptions of exotic locales and strange creatures are not only imaginative, but eloquently written, beckoning to be spoken aloud at times. While reading, I often drifted into a lush animated world of McAuley's creation. I wanted to pop "ghost berries" into my mouth and feel the tangy juice on my tongue as I burst open the skin. The Child of the River is that delicious. It doesn't even really need a plot. But it has a great one, or at least the beginnings of a great one. Yama, the child of the river, is completely and totally unique among his fellows of Confluence. He doesn't know where he came from, how he was born, or what he is to be. But as he developes and begins to learn the standard lessons of adulthood, he stumbles upon some abilities that might come in handy for others. How these powers will play in the war between the Heretics and the Preserver's Theocrates is one of the many decisions Yama must make on the long road to discovering himself.A wonderous start for a trilogy... now on to the second book, Ancients of Days.

Yama is on the journey of his young life from the city of the dead to a metropolis of living wonders on a world that stands apart. Thru this savage, secret & war torn land, Yama must survive to discover the truth about who he is & his purpose in life. This is a saga of Mixed Life. Way up the time-line from Here & Now on Earth. Where humans have become gods, have gone away & been long forgotten. There is no one left behind who remembers what they were like. What a toe-curler! .........