A Maxim Jakubowski Best Science Fiction selection.

British author Wingrove published his epic Chung Kuo series some two decades ago, and now returns to it with this prequel, which will eventually be followed by a further 19 volumes about a future world dominated by China. The year is 2085, some years after the great economic collapse that destroyed Western civilization. Jake Reed, in Dorset with his teenage son, remember how the catastrophe came to pass and glimmers of a Chinese invasion and a civil war loom across the horizon. SF on the grand sociological scale with hints of James Clavell and the Dune series.

Comparison: Iain M. Banks, Col Buchanan
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Synopsis

The year is 2085, two decades after the great economic collapse that destroyed Western civilization. With its power broken and its cities ruined, life in the West continues in scattered communities. In rural Dorset Jake Reed lives with his 14-year-old son and memories of the great collapse. Back in '43, Jake was a rich, young futures broker, immersed in the datascape of the world's financial markets. He saw what was coming - and who was behind it. Forewarned, he was one of the few to escape the fall. For 22 years he has lived in fear of the future, and finally it is coming - quite literally - across the plain towards him. Chinese airships are in the skies and a strange, glacial structure has begun to dominate the horizon. Jake finds himself forcibly incorporated into the ever-expanding 'World of Levels' a global city of some 34 billion souls, where social status is reflected by how far above the ground you live. Here, under the rule of the mighty Tsao Ch'un, a resurgent China is seeking to abolish the past and bring about world peace through rigidly enforced order. But a civil war looms, and Jake will find himself at the heart of the struggle for the future.

Reviews

'Imagine a collaboration between James Clavell and Frank Herbert and the result might be something very much like Chung Kuo... smart, involving, entertaining' San Francisco Chronicle

About the Author

David Wingrove is the Hugo Award-winning co-author (with Brian Aldiss) of Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction. He is also the co-author of the first three MYST books - novelizations of one of the world's bestselling computer games. He lives in north London with his wife and four daughters. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation