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The Gods and Their Machines |
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The Gods and Their Machines |
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基本信息·出版社：Tor Teen
·页码：240 页
·出版日期：2004年11月
·ISBN：0765311593
·International Standard Book Number：0765311593
·条形码：9780765311597
·EAN：9780765311597
·版本：1st
·装帧：精装
·正文语种：英语
内容简介 The Gods and Their Machines marks the debut of a compelling new voice in science fiction and fantasy, set in a world that bears a disturbing resemblance to the Middle East and the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
To the scientifically advanced people of Altima, the primitive "Fringelanders" of Bartokhrin are superstitious barbarians and terrorists. Their suicide warriors carry dark magic into the heart of the Altiman cities, killing innocent civilians. To the people of Bartokhrin, the Altimans are godless conquerors and oppressors, who bomb their town and villages from their high-flying aeroplanes. They revere the Blessed martyrs who carry the battle back to the Altimans.
Chamus Aranson is a young Altiman student, training to be a fighter pilot in his nation's air force. Riadni Mocranen is a rebellious Bartokhrian tomboy, who dreams of joining the heroic freedom fighters in their crusade against Altima. Chamus and Riadni come from two completely different worlds, but when Chamus is forced to make and emergency landing deep in enemy country, Riadni becomes his only hope for survival. Now they must work together to stop an unimaginable catastrophe from setting both their worlds on fire.
作者简介 <div>
Oisin McGann grew up in Dublin and Drogheda, Co Louth. A freelance illustrator/artist serving the publishing and design industires, he has also worked in Britain and Ireland in advertising and film animation. He now lives full time in Dublin.
The Gods and Their Machines is his debut novel
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媒体推荐 This excellent novel is a fantasy, yet every word of it has direct and understated relevance for our own political world. The book is a fine achievement and is strongly recommended. (Peter Hollindale
The School Librarian (UK) 20041215)
New Irish writer, Oisin McGann has created a believable world, but best of all, believable characters, ones you''d like to know. (Mary Finn
RTE Guide )
McGann has created a clever, sharply constructed novel with credible characters and dialogue and tension-filled action. An excellent read. (Mary Arrigan
The Sunday Tribune )
...an excellent and well-plotted debut novel. (
The Evening Herald )
This book has all the ingredients to make it one of your science fiction favourites: originality, intelligence and contemporary relevance. (
The Evening Echo )
The Gods and Their Machines is an eminently readable adventrue story, with a gripping plot that''s firmly rooted in current reality. (
Books Ireland )
The weird and wacky is combined with the complex emotion and adventure to give birth to an exciting read. (
Irish Farmers Monthly )
Draws on today''s headlines to tell a tale of understanding and peace in the midst of terror and prejudice. (
Library Journal )
McGann''s facility with both character and world building makes this impressive debut as rewarding as pure fantasy as...provocative allegory. (
Booklist )
专业书评 From Publishers WeeklyEarnest good intentions may earn respect for Irish author McGann?s first SF/fantasy novel, but they can?t quite bring the book to life. The relatively modern, urban country of Altima denigrates and exploits its rural, backward neighbor, Bartokhrin, leading to low-level but escalating conflict. When readers are introduced first to Chamus, a young Altiman lad who loves flying and hates terrorists, then to Riadni, a Bartokhrian tomboy who loves horses and despises foreign overlords, they may suspect that the two will meet, fight, be forced to depend on each other and eventually come to appreciate the "enemy?s" way of life. It also seems likely that Chamus and Riadni will use their mature understanding to thwart the bloody plans of childish old men on both sides. And so it happens in this YA-level parable with lessons that bear on the current crisis in the Middle East. McGann tackles genuine problems, but the novel?s world isn?t developed independently enough to feel real, apart from its contemporary references. The story?s conclusion is underdeveloped also, with a burst of good feeling instead of a real presentation of how these different people can learn to live together. Unfortunately, merely wanting to say something important isn?t enough.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From BooklistGr. 8-11. To Altiman teenager and trainee fighter-pilot Chamus, the people of bordering Bartokhrin are just Fringelanders--backward religious fanatics whose women wear geishalike makeup and wigs and whose men occasionally appear in Altima to commit a kind of supernatural version of jihad. But when Chamus crashes his plane near the home of a Bartokhrin young woman named Riadni, the two are thrown into a reluctant alliance, with ramifications that are as personally jolting as they are politically far-reaching. Although the protagonists' coincidental ties to key leaders on both sides require a significant suspension of disbelief, the action hurtles forward deliciously, and the alternating narratives build sympathies for both protagonists as they grapple with "a situation so big and so brutal that there was no way to make sense of it." The real-world parallels with Western secularism and the more traditional societies of the Middle East are clear, but McGann's facility with both character and world building makes this impressive debut as rewarding as pure fantasy as it is as provocative allegory.
Jennifer MattsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
