Souls in the Great Machine by Sean McMullen
Review by Bowden P. (Trey)
I can’t remember how this book was suggested to me, but its a good, if strange, fit. Its interesting post-apocalyptic fiction set in Australia over 2000 years in the future.
Souls in The Great Machine has a large cast of characters, most of them female (Lemorel, Zarvora, Theresela, Darien and Lorien) that get more ‘screen time’ than the men (Function 9/Denkar, Ilyire and John Glasken). As a whole, they’re interesting educated, intelligent and sympathetic, if sometimes flawed. What’s more, they change. No, they don’t change shape, but they grow. Lemorel changes roles from the sympathetic view point character to something I didn’t expect (but was logical when I looked back). The same for Zarvora, who is introduced as a ruthless, driven and not that likable tyrant to someone more understandable, sympathetic and likable. Glasken’s transformation is possibly the largest, but he never strays too far from his character traits.
The Australia of Souls in The Great Machine is another character in is own right. It has fractious city states grouped in loose alliances, duelling as a legitimate way of settling disputes, lost civilizations (that are still alive) and the Call threatens all of this. The Call lures all land mammals above a certain size to the oceans and their doom.
The apocalypse that shaped all of this is kind of unique too. The Call is part of it, but it stacked with a nuclear exchange, a man made ice age and orbital battle stations that target electronics with EMP cannons, making the use of electronics a moot point.
I know this is not the hardest of science fiction (with the unexplained Call), but my suspension of disbelief got tweaked with the rather lush Australia, especially given the continent’s fragile ecology. Same for the orbital battle stations that lasted 2000 plus years in the face of orbits cluttered with debris, hard radiation, temperature extremes and the need to shift orbit periodically with fuel. I’ll forgive these though for the interesting story well told.
And its an epic story as well. It has loves lost and found, betrayal, redemption, political maneuvering, wars won and lost, scientific rediscovery. Combine it with the interesting characters and their growth and its a winner for me.
Souls in The Great Machine has interesting ideas also. Sean McMullen gives the idea of the galley train – a pedal powered train, wind driven trains, the Calculor – an intellectual ‘galley’ where the skills of thousands are combined for mathematical tasks. The changes to the Calculor good as well, moving from a prison factory to a social institution in its own right. Then there are the religious responses to the call as well.
Did I like it? Four-and-a-half stars worth. Its an interesting post-apocalyptic fantasy well told.
Likes: Characters; Setting; Scope and ambition of the story; Female characters that passed the Bechdel test; Ideas.
Dislikes: Unlikely future Australia and functioning future battle stations.
Suggested for: Fans of Saberhagen’s Empire of the East, S.M. Stirling’s Dies the Fire.
