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Stations Of The Tide
Copyright 1992 by
Michael Swanwick
I first read this on the 20th December 2001.
In the future, wild technology has turned Earth into a slaughterhouse.
Now the other worlds have heavily restricted the use of advanced
technology and the use of proscribed knowledge is a very serious offence.
Our bureaucrat (he has no other name) is sent by his boss, Korda, to
the planet Miranda to track down Gregorian, who is believed to have fled
with advanced and potentially extremely dangerous Earth technology.
Our bureaucrat finds Miranda in the middle of a massive upheaval - the
"Jubilee Tides" are just about to inundate most of the planet, an event
that occurs every few hundred years. Even with this distraction, the
locals seem very reluctant to talk to him, or to his associate, a
local security officer, Lieutenant Chu. Still, he perseveres in his
quest and draws to closer to his quarry.
A very odd tale. I was initially well fed-up because it seemed to be
rapidly changing from SF into some supernatural woodland fantasy. But I
was misled, it was just an illusion, of which the book is full.
It's sprightly, once I got over some initial confusion, in addition
to the aforementioned, about what's going on.
What's it got? artificial intelligence, cloning, aliens,
matter-transmission, virtual reality and quite an impressive climatic
conditions on the planet Miranda. And sex, lot's of it, and
quite educational
Loaded on the 20th January 2002.
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