The Mirrored Heavens (2008) « The Entropy Pump

The Mirrored Heavens, the first book in David J. Williams Autumn Rain trilogy, presents an odd future. Odd, because it feels like one of those science fiction novels that posed a strong Russian state right before the USSR collapsed. Some of those novels felt dated the moment they were published (Spinrad's Russian Spring (1991), Barton & Capobianco's Fellow Traveler (1991)), despite their other qualities. There's another cold war going on between the East and the West and this setup, always present, gives the book the same slightly dated touch.

Thought, a closer look at the setting reveals subtle differences. The US has discarded any pretension of democracy and has become a military dictatorship, the east block (Russia and China combined) is also a military led. The technological landscape is entirely part of the cyberpunk tradition, you have an extended cyberspace (thought pretty much fractured along the geo-political lines), man-machine interfaces, artificial intelligences and so on.

All that tech doesn't change the fact that this isn't a cyberpunk novel, but an espionage one. The book is completely defined by the infighting between different factions of the US government and by the external conflicts. Shifting alliances, plans inside plans, this is the worldview that shapes the entire plot of the book. Every revelation turns out to be just the cover for another lie, every conspiracy is just the surface for a deeper stratagem. Add cyberpunk-level technology into the mix, and everything becomes just a bit more paranoid (false memories, virtual realities, constructed personalities, etc.).

The world-building is dense, but not all that difficult. The plot demands all attention, but more due to its ever-shifting nature than because of an underlying complexity. The future reeks a bit too much of the past and cyberpunk tech isn't exactly cutting edge anymore either, but the action is fast and furious (and also ultraviolent), which easily masks these deficiencies.

If you like hard-edged characters trying to balance on a knife's edge and if you're a fan of near future science fiction and espionage novels, then The Mirrored Heavens is an excellent read (be warned thought, while self-contained to a degree, it's merely the first third of a three-part novel).