Though his first novel was published only two years ago, after six years of publishing short stories, Tobias Buckell has already made a considerable splash in science fiction. His 2006 debut novel, Crystal Rain, drew praise for its fast-paced action, imaginative setting, and use of cultural inspirations not often seen in science fiction.
The story of Crystal Rain is set in Nanagada, an isolated and technologically regressed colony of humanity, lost for so long that their origins have faded into mythology. Far in the past, the old-fathers came to Nanagada through a hole in the sky, fleeing the oppression of their home. They brought other humans who settled the land, but were attacked by the vicious, inhuman Tetol. With the aid of the Loa, another nonhuman race, the old-fathers waged war against the Tetol, and saved Nanagada by destroying the wormholes they were merging from. In the process, however, the old-fathers were slain, their great machines destroyed, and parts of the land blighted. Their ancestors flew between the stars, but now steam engines, telegraphs, and airships are the state-of-the-art in Nanagadan technology.
Alongside the human survivors, some of the Loa and Tetol survived as well. To many people in Nanagada, the Loa are living gods, still residing in their temples in Capitol City. Across the Wicked High Mountains that mark the border of Nanagada lie the surviving Tetol, who have subjugated the human Azteca living there and twisted their whole culture into a force to destroy Nanagada and the Loa by proclaiming themselves gods and demanding an endless supply of human sacrifices.
For centuries, the Azteca attempts to attack Nanagada have been thrown back, thanks to the nearly un-crossable Wicked High Mountains that make the passage of large forces impossible. But now, things have changed: a tunnel under the mountains that the Azteca have secretly been building for decades is complete, letting whole armies through, and an unstoppable horde now marches across Nanagada towards Capitol City, bent on claiming the entire population of Nanagada as slaves or sacrifices for their monstrous “gods.” Taken by surprise, the Nanagadans fight heroically to slow the Azteca down, burning their own crops and towns to deny them to the enemy as they fortify themselves for a desperate last stand at the walls of Capitol City. The inscrutable Loa had long opposed human efforts to investigate the lost technology of the past, but now, terrified, they reveal a glimmer of hope: To the far frozen north, across the sea, lies the Ma Wi Jung, a remnant of the powers wielded by the old-fathers, and Nanagada’s best chance to turn back the unstoppable Azteca tide.
Thrust into this conflict is John DeBrun, a Nanagadan sailor. 27 years ago, DeBrun was found washed up on shore with no knowledge of whom he was. Since then, he has never quite fit in: he does not talk like a Nanagadan, his memory has never returned, and after 27 years, he doesn’t seem to have gotten any older. Nevertheless, he has built a life and identity for himself with his wife and son in a town near the Wicked Highs, but that life is shattered when the Azteca onslaught begins and his home is taken unawares and ravaged. DeBrun survives, but is separated from his family, their fate unknown to him. In the ruins, he meets Oaxyctl, an Azteca defector who fled across the Wicked Highs and joined the mongoose men, Nanagada’s frontier soldiers. Together, they struggle to survive. But Oaxyctl is a double-agent, charged by the Azteca gods themselves with the task of finding the secret to activating the Ma Wi Jung- a secret, he is told, possessed by John DeBrun. No matter how much the horrific demands of his gods plague Oaxyctl’s conscience, the price of failure is even worse to contemplate. And there is another player who also has an interest in DeBrun – a strange man who fell out of the sky…
From this set-up, creates one of the best adventure stories science fiction has seen in recent years. Buckell takes the reader across the world he has created, from a desperate midair struggle with an Azteca airship, to grim siege warfare at the walls of Capitol City, to the freezing North and the lost realm of the old-fathers. Starting with only the fragmentary understanding of the Nanagadans themselves, the reader gradually learns more about the awesome technology of the old-fathers, and about how the planet’s humans, Loa, and Tetol came to be where they are.
Nanagada itself is a fascinating creation, an array of peoples, cultures, and religions, drawn primarily from the people of the Caribbean, where Buckell himself grew up. Technology out of Earth’s late 19th century exists alongside remnants of a past that has become incomprehensible- the mammoth structures of Capitol City, alien creatures that are worshipped as gods, vast expanses of lifeless land that make those who visit sicken and die for reasons unclear to a society that no longer understands concepts like radioactivity and nuclear weapons. The disparities between technologies of past and present create a fascinating contrast of situations- grinding trench warfare fought with bolt-action rifles and steam-powered rail cars in one chapter, a struggle between a monstrous bioengineered alien and a cybernetically enhanced superhuman the next- that fit together naturally in the same story and setting. Buckell also provides tantalizing hints of what the wider universe is like as the story goes on, without going on at length about back-story.
Crystal Rain is a great choice for science fiction fans, especially if you are interested in a story with a creative setting that diverges from the American/European-based norm of most science fiction. If you enjoy Crystal Rain, also be on the lookout for Buckell’s second book, Ragamuffin, and the forthcoming Sly Mongoose, due out August 2008. Buckell is definitely a writer whose work is worth keeping an eye on, and Crystal Rain is a great way to begin.
Questions and comments may be sent to John.Markley@CrucialPop.com
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