The
Armageddon Blues
Emerald Eyes
The Long Run
The Last
DancerThe
Armageddon Blues
Emerald Eyes
The Long Run
The Last
Dancer
There are many
things in this world I just don't understand. Why the handrail on an escalator
always moves just a little faster than the stairway. Why it is, exactly,
that Armageddon wasn't laughed out of the theaters in the first week. Why
my dog is lying here whining at me for no explicable reason.
One of the many things in this world that I don't understand is why in the world the books of Daniel Keys Moran are out of print, incredibly difficult to find (although my hypothesis is that this has to do with the first issue), and have not won a major award or at least gotten more critical acclaim.
These four books, The Armageddon Blues, Emerald Eyes, The Long Run, and The Last Dancer begin the Tales of the Continuing Time. The series is among the most interesting and entertaining of any I have read in a long time, and shows promise of only getting better. I really hope that these books are reprinted and more people read this series - it is already very good, and has the makings of something truly great.
Some history on Sven's and my involvement with the series. Sven acquired a copy of The Last Dancer a little over a year ago from Stars, and then passed it on to me. We both agreed that the book was fantastic, and its references to other stories (contained in Emerald Eyes and The Long Run) left us wanting desperately to find those books, particularly The Long Run. Unfortunately, as we rapidly discovered, these books are amazingly difficult to find. They are (as mentioned above) all out of print, and apparently are snapped up as quickly as they can make it into used bookstores.
Finally, in the last couple of months, thanks to the wonderful power of the internet and once again to Alice and The Stars Our Destination, we managed to come up with one copy of The Armageddon Blues, one copy of Emerald Eyes, and two (count 'em!) copies of The Long Run. And no, as with Cosmic Banditos, we ain't sharing, although I encourage you strongly to go and find copies of your own.
Moran tells great stories. His characters have really
cool names, like Trent The Uncatchable, The Name Storyteller, and Camber
Tremodian. His world has depth and breadth and incredible history (and future),
neat technology, powerful characters, and a wonderful sense of the fantastic
and mythic. His only fault lies in sometimes being a little too scattered,
but that seems to be fading with time. If he continues in the way he has,
I would expect the Tales of the Continuing Time to become one of the best
science fiction series' around.
So, without further ado, onto the reviews...
The Armageddon Blues is the first of the Tales of the
Continuing Time, and it does show. The book has its brilliant moments, for
certain, and the characters are interesting. Unfortunately the book is a
bit chaotic, and is hard to follow at times. The Armageddon Blues is also
the most independent of the three books, and is not really part of the story
contained in the other three. Indeed, I didn't really know it was part of
the series until I looked at the nifty little chart at the back of The Last
Dancer.
Still, though, the book is quite cool, particulary the character who gets labeled "The Enemy of Entropy". Every universe needs one of those. This book is a fun one to blast through in an afternoon, but if you want to really get into the series, start with Emerald Eyes and come back to this one later.
The story of the Castanaveras telepaths begins here
with the creation of Carl Castanaveras and his genetically engineered siblings.
This story has significantly more coherence than Blues, and was far better
at keeping my attention. It is a good story in its own right, but I can't
help but feel that Emerald Eyes, while a pivotal story in the saga, really
is there just to set up The Long Run and The Last Dancer, and what will
come after. Indeed, Moran implies as much in the way Carl is created - that
while he's awfully important, it is his legacy that will become far more
significant, notably Trent Castanaveras (see The
Long Run, below), and the Gift of the House of November, to be carried
through Carl's daughter, Denice. Basically, while Emerald Eyes is very good,
it is just an appetizer for the coming main course.
In this book, we follow Trent the Uncatchable as he
begins The Long Run. This is really the first book where Moran truly seems
to come into his own. The story moves quickly, the characters are all extremely
cool, and it is generally just a great ride. Trent in particular is an interesting
character and while, as Sven points out, Moran does occasionally suffer
from the "My character is so cool I'm going to make him omnipotent"
syndrome, Trent still somehow manages to be sympathetic and fun. Many of
the peripheral characters are fantastic as well, such as Jimmy Ramirez,
and especially Mohammed Vance, who squares off as Trent's main antagonist,
playing Darth Vader to Trent's Luke Skywalker. Vance actually makes his
first appearance in Emerald Eyes, and has rapidly become one of my favorite
antagonists (I hesitate to call him a villain - that simplifies his character
too much).
There are too many incredibly cool moments in this book to go into (and I wouldn't want to ruin them) but suffice to say that this book is basically just a huge amount of fun to read. Of these four books, this is the one I would most love to see made into a movie. It would make a mint.
Plus I'll admit, I think the name Trent the Uncatchable, while incredibly pretentious, is also incredibly frickin' cool.
This is the best of the Moran books, and since it is
also the most recent, I find this extremely encouraging. Although this book
does suffer at points from a bit of the "what the heck is going on?!"
problem, these are minor and usually just serve to increase the sense of
mystery and of a greater story surrounding these books.
This book deals primarily with Denice Castanaveras, one of the twin children of Carl Castanaveras introduced in Emerald Eyes, and also gives the first real insights into the history of the Continuing Time. The sense of history in this book borders on overwhelming - the most disturbing feeling I had about this book was the thought that if Moran never publishes the next one, I'll never get any more story from this world. Several major characters from previous books make appearances - Denice, obviously, Mohammed Vance continues as a major antagonist, Trent, and several other minor characters. There are also a number of very interesting new characters, most of whom I won't go into to preserve the mystery. And of course, the major players from times and places unknown - the being we are introduced to as The Name Storyteller and his opposite, Camber Tremodian, continue their behind-the-scenes manipulation of everyone involved.
One of the great things all of Moran's books, and it is particularly evident in this one, is the fact that his characters are truly three dimensional, and it never just breaks down into "good guys versus bad guys" - good guys do bad things, bad guys act in honorable ways, and for the most part all of the characters in this book are just people caught up in tremendous events trying to do what they think is right.
Overall, this book is tremendous - a great story, interesting characters, and just generally cool stuff going on. It is even better in the context of the rest of the series - it just makes you hunger for still more of Moran's work. Here's hoping the next one comes out soon.
