Chung Kuo: The Middle Kingdom: Book 1
The first book in a projected series of seven is set 200 years in the future, when the world's 34 billion people are ruled by a sort of pre-Communist version of China. Monarchs have ruthlessly suppressed all knowledge of pre-Empire conditions and technology, hoping to maintain their fragile control as some Europeans push for the right to build a starship. Court intrigue, propriety and "face" count for more than talent or skill in this clearly evoked, decadent and threatened society. While this first novel from Wingrove, co-author of the Hugo Award-winning Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction , is easy to read, it suffers from cardboard characterizations, indecisive plotting and seemingly arbitrary closing. Major ad/promo.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.