Grail - Elizabeth Bear [3]
—JAMES PATRICK KELLY, author of Strange but Not a Stranger and Think like a Dinosaur
“This final volume really rounds out the series and brings it to an enjoyable end.… The politics of a world racked by global warming and world wars is believable and often electric.… The alien tech is refreshingly alien and overall it feels like we’re somewhere very much fully realized.… An enjoyable, thoughtful and above all fun trio of books. Elizabeth Bear’s work is definitely worth sampling but you probably won’t want to stop with just the one book.”
—SF Crowsnest.com
“A compelling story … Bear has plotted the global geopolitics of the next sixty years with considerable depth and aplomb.”
—Strange Horizons
CARNIVAL
Runner-up for the PKD Award for Best Novel, 2006 Nominated for the Lambda Literary Award for Best SF Novel, 2006
“Bear has a gift for capturing both the pleasure and pain involved in loving someone else, particularly in the acid love story between Kusanagi-Jones and Katherinessen. While these double-crossed lovers bring the novel to a nail-biting conclusion, it is the complex interplay of political motives and personal desires that lends the novel its real substance.”
—The Washington Post Book World
“Enjoyable, thought-provoking … Like the best of speculative fiction, Bear has created a fascinating and complete universe that blends high-tech gadgetry with Old World adventure and political collusion.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Bear’s exploration of gender stereotypes and the characters’ reactions to the rigid expectations of a world of strict gender roles proves fascinating, as does her exploration of political systems gone too far in more than one direction. Her sense of pacing and skill with multifaceted characters prone to all sorts of confused motivations and actions also enrich this action-packed, thought-provoking story.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“Another great adventure of ideals, prejudices and consequences by one of the brightest new minds in speculative fiction.”
—Mysterious Galaxy
“This is a book that could have come straight from the so-called golden age … the sort of vivid, pacy novel that used to make science fiction such an exciting genre to read. It is very good to see that this sort of story can still be told.”
—SF Site
“Fans of C. J. Cherryh, Liz Williams and Karin Lowachee will find much to admire in this mix of space opera, feminist utopia, spy thriller and yaoi tale. It’s a unique blend from a young writer who seems determined to extend her limits with every new book.… The Machiavellian back-and-forth, plotting and counterplotting, is unpredictable and exciting, and we get a rich diet of ambushes, duels, kidnappings, escapes and poisonings.”
—SciFi.com
“Carnival will appeal to those who like hard science fiction, and are willing to invest some time and brainpower into learning what makes these characters tick … along with their machinery.”
—The Davis Enterprise
“Beautifully designed … One has to stop and admire the sheer scope of creativity evidenced here.… I look forward to seeing where Elizabeth Bear will take us next.”
—SF Site
“The world and universe created is lush with invention and the characters are appealing in their unorthodox nature … interesting and very dynamic. The politics of New Amazonia and the galaxy are top-notch, full of ambiguities … breathtaking in parts.… Overall, Carnival is an interesting book with some excellent extrapolations and is an enjoyable read.… I will be keeping an eye on [Bear’s] releases for a long while to come.”
—SF Crowsnest.com
UNDERTOW
“Compact and entertaining … Bear’s very neatly configured, compact and entertaining novel reminds me of the early novels of George R. R. Martin, back in the days when he used to write science fiction.”
—SciFi.com
By Elizabeth Bear
GRAIL
CHILL
DUST UNDERTOW
CARNIVAL
WORLDWIRED
SCARDOWN
HAMMERED
Grail is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.