Earth Made of Glass

John Barnes

Average Rating 4/10 ( Review)

The stunning sequel to the Arthur C Clarke and Nebula Award nominated A Million Open Doors...

At the furthest reaches of the galaxv exist the Thousand Cultures, societies scattered across 31 inhabited worlds in 25 star systems. The Inner Complex - which includes Earth - has been able to exert control over the Thousand Cultures because it contains 90% of all human population and because all traffic must pass through it. But humanitv is expanding and the complexes are beginning to fight over access to the frontier worlds. At the frontline - Quidde, base of Chaka Home: a culture based on a Millenialist black American sect claiming spiritual descent from Chaka Zulu's armv - Giraut and Margaret must prevent the outbreak of a repeat of ancient history: a war of hatred as three cultural factions threaten a struggle with echoes of the bloodiest geno.ides of the 20th century.

Review by Nigel (300800) Rating (4/10)

Review by Nigel
Rating 4/10
This is the sequel to A Million Open Doors, which sees the same characters a decade later working for the Council of Humanity trying to establish a single Interstella Human Culture.

They are sent to one of the last cultures to be re-united with earth where the task of integrating the worlds inhabitants to the bigger and better Thousand Cultures (1200 actually:) seems impossible.

I was looking forward to this novel. Having just finished A Million Open Doors I had that feeling of loss you get at the end of a book when you want to know what happens next with the characters (it isn't only me is it?).

It didn't last long. The book seems to have no real purpose and the constant moaning about lost youth and the onset of their middle age, with nothing really achieved, gets on your nerves after a bit... hmmmmm.

Shame, as the potential is vast. All I can say is at the end of this one I really didn't care what happened next to any of them.
Nigel (30th August 2000)