Book Review: Shrine Of Stars

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Shrine Of Stars     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Paul J. McAuley
Class/Genre:   Science Fiction
Series: Confluence # 3
Avon, Sep 2000, $18.00, 384 pp.

Dr. Dismas continues to hold Yama prisoner while the Tibor and former thief Pandaras search for their incarcerated master. A machine possesses Dismas with the intent of using Yama's newly ripening powers to alter the course of the worldwide war in favor of the nihilistic heretics. Dismas infects Yama with the offspring of his own paramour.

Yama is unable to control machines, call to his friends, or stop Dismas and the monstrous Enobarbus from bending him to their will. Even if Tibor and Pandaras can rescue their strangely behaving friend and master, it appears that the end of Confluence and the beginning of the Preservers' plan for the rest of time has been set in motion.

SHRINE OF STARS completes up one of the best and most complex science fiction trilogies in many years. The Confluence trilogy consists of three strong tales (CHILD OF THE RIVER, ANCIENTS OF DAYS and SHRINE OF STARS) that work at their most powerful when read back to back to back. Though SHRINE OF STARS is a superb, thought-provoking tale, like ANCIENTS OF DAYS, new readers will have questions that the previous book answered. Still, the outstanding story line of the final tale centers on the last builder Yama staggering into a war between the torpid leadership and the heretic believers of Angel. Will Yama turn into the savior or destroyer of Confluence? To find out, fans must read the only rival to Gene Wolfe's mantle, Paul J. McAuley's excellent novels.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner

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