Nerdly Book Review:
Sun of Suns
January 3, 2010 by Kyle BradyTags: Book, Karl Schroeder, Review, Sun of Suns
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Like many other reviews have said, some of the "official", Schroeder delivers a novel that is original, amusing, intriguing, and full of greatness from start to finish.
The events of "Sun of Suns" take place in a so-called balloon world that the reader only knows select details about, most of which are revealed as the novel progresses. Even more importantly, the reader's perceptions of the fully-realized, individual characters flip on themselves during the course of the book - sometimes twice.
Blending steampunk, scifi, classic fantasy, and a hint of cyberpunk, "Sun of Suns" manages to be one of the most original novels in recent history that refuses to be boring, cliched, or even borrow ideas from previous works. The opening of the book is slightly confusing, but becomes clear over time, and the ending is much the same: some details and events are purposely obscured with a recanting later by a character that doesn't fully fit what needed to happen.
Whether by accident or design, Schroeder has produced an outstanding scifi novel that is all but perfect except for what is most likely an intentional obfuscation of technical detail. As part of a series, more wonderful chapters to this story, that hopefully explores the universe outside of Virga (or at least explains further), are to come.
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