Quote:
Originally Posted by Brett
Sirpudding put me on to John Barnes' Thousand Cultures series. I just finished A Million Open Doors and am starting on The Merchant of Souls, and I have to say that there seems to be a lot in this setting that is fundamentally similar to FLAT BLACK. There are differences, of course, But if I had read this stuff before 1989 I would have to say that it influenced FLAT BLACK. |
I think these books are Barnes's best, both because they're founded in some fairly sophisticated economic thinking, and because the third volume suddenly yanks the rug out from under the apparent world of the first two and shows you that the setting is not what you thought it was . . . and then the fourth book does that AGAIN to the setting as it appeared in the third book. Even the rather weird caricature of libertarianism in A Million Open Doors is an *interesting* weird caricature, not a straw man caricature.
Bill Stoddard