Crystal Rain
The cover of Tobias Buckell’s CRYSTAL RAIN is exactly what I like to see on a fantasy novel: Swashbucklin’ dudes (one with a hook for a hand) hanging out on dirigibles and looking for action. That action is here, and so is a wildly freewheeling tale of invasion, amnesia and adventure that never slows down until the smash-bang end.
The story takes place on a vaguely Caribbean island nation … but not on Earth. The whys and wherefores are a bit more complicated than that, but Bucknell has quite a creation on his hands. As the warlike tribe from across the island starts a bloody march toward conquest, aliens, humans and some people in between have to find a way to harness the technology left behind by a long-forgotten apocalypse to restore the equilibrium of the island.
This is my idea of the perfect first novel. It doesn’t over-reach, yet the plotting and characters are meaty enough to feel like something other than an assignment for Novels 101. Bucknell weaves a tasty mix of Caribbean and Aztec culture into the brew, and the result is a great, great, great summer read that will keep you turning pages into the wee hours. –Ryun Patterson
CRYSTAL RAIN sounds like a type of fruit-flavored water. Or a stripper’s name.
There fruity water or titties in this book?
[...] After being totally bushwacked by VELLUM last week, I’m finally catching up to my "to read" list of books. Thankfully, CRYSTAL RAIN was on that list. It’s a cool book, (despite a lack of sports drinks and strippers) and the author has a whole set of special features on the novel’s website that only people who have the book can look at. Unfortunately, the special features don’t include Evangeline Lily naked. [...]
[...] 4. CRYSTAL RAIN by Tobias S. Buckell – I really thought this was going to be a stupid book. The way the cover and jacket sold Buckell’s Caribbean upbringing and the tropical world he created, I expected a second-rate hack job by a guy who managed to pull the wool over a publisher’s eyes. Wrong. CRYSTAL RAIN is a bloody, satisfying adventure that only provides a glimpse of the world Buckell’s created. Some more, please. [...]