A Son of the Rock

Gollancz, 2009, 440p.

In the aftermath of The Quiet War, the Outers -€“ humans altered to cope better with living in the further reaches of the Solar System – have been driven beyond the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Parts of Gardens of the Sun are set in bubble habitats round Uranus, Neptune and Pluto or on wandering asteroids but the action, such as it is, also ranges back to Earth. This division of humanity – which also includes so-called Ghosts who follow a mystic claiming to have messages from the future – is the source of conflict in the novel. There are several sub-plots including the ongoing search for the gene wizard Avernus, one of the many characters from The Quiet War to reappear here, along with others such as Sri Hong-Owen, Macy Minnot, Loc Ifrahim, Felice Gottschalk and Cash Baker. The gardens of the title turn out to be habitats gengineered by Sri Hong-Owen to allow life to be easier amid the harshness of space.

Despite there being enough in this book to fill a whole series of novels, reading this one was hard going. The different characters’ stories are too remote from each other, even if some do overlap by the end, and are not in any case the main focus of the narrative which often reads like a history of the future (except with use of the pluperfect – usually a sign more is being crammed in than the story can bear.) It is in effect one long info dump and the scenes where the characters interact seem like addenda.

McAuley’€™s future environment is impressively detailed, though, as indeed was Kim Stanley Robinson’€™s in his 2312 which tended to neglect plot. It’€™s a pity we’re told most of it instead of being allowed to experience it.