mariajones444's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
ireitlitam's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
li_st's review against another edition
1.0
I was intrigued by the cover art and promises of creatures and strange worlds.
Unfortunately by the time I got to the creatures, I was so goddamn annoyed by the mc and the story that I had to put the book down.
Tragic. The cover looks awesome, though. Kudos to the artist
Unfortunately by the time I got to the creatures, I was so goddamn annoyed by the mc and the story that I had to put the book down.
Tragic. The cover looks awesome, though. Kudos to the artist
wynwicket's review against another edition
2.0
I liked the Steampunk-meets-aliens sensibility, and the narrative voice was fantastic, but this was just a little too "out there" for me.
markyon's review against another edition
4.0
A Red Sun Also Rises is a cracking planetary romance that involves many of the tropes of Victoriana adventure-romp, whilst also managing to involve an intelligent plot and complex concepts.
Much of the start of the book has an HG Wells feel. The tale begins with the story told by Aiden Fleisher, who whilst as a parish vicar in England, develops a friendship with crippled engineering genius Clarissa Stark. When Aiden is forced to leave his parish and become a missionary in Papua New Guinea, Clarissa goes with him as sexton, and together the two of them have significant difficulties in attempting to persuade the indigenous tribes to convert to Christianity.
After a voodoo type ritual, they find themselves transported on the alien world of Ptallaya. This is a strange place, a planet lit by double-yellow- suns called The Eyes of the Saviour, and populated by the Yatsill, a telepathic alien race who, rather like parrots, mimic things they see. We spend much of the book at this point travelling, hunting strange living things with the Yatsill, hallucinating on strange foods and being immersed into the Yatsill culture, which gives us a strange insight into this unusual world.
A submersion and ‘rebirth’ of Clarissa in the pools of the Cavern of Immersion means that the Yatsill absorb her life experiences. Consequently, they all speak a rather class-conscious English language peppered with Hear Hear!’s and ‘Harrumphs!’, rename themselves with inappropriate English-sounding names (so that aliens such as Tsillandra Ma’ra become Crockery Clattersmash) and rapidly build Yatsillat, a caricature of Victorian London (one depicted so well on the UK cover) with British idioms such as teashops and the House of Lords. Like writing often found in HG Wells’ novels, it is funny and yet also rather biting, a satire of British Victorian class and society.
However, things are changing. Whilst Aiden and Clarissa begin their exploration of Ptallya beneath the light of double suns, Yatsill stories tell of the coming of a red sun, and with it a time of evil, one dominated by the Blood Gods...
Summarising this book as a planetary romance may give some readers an impression of frenetic activity with little depth, a legacy of Edgar Rice Burroughs and other Golden Age pulp writers. perhaps. Whilst there is a definite speed to this novel, this is also an intelligent book, with complex ideas riffing off past genre tropes. Like in HG Wells’ stories (First Men in the Moon, for example) or perhaps CS Lewis’ Perelandra space opera novels, although on the surface there is an exciting and quite breathless plot, the real interest in the book is in the sidetracks along the way, rather than the endpoint.
The tone of the novel is suitably appropriate. Like writers in the time of the Victorian British Empire, there’s a lot of imperialistic mannerisms that Mark has used that capture a sense of time and place that so many similar novels need to grasp, yet don’t.
The book is actually more of an exploration of the concept of evolution, as Mark clearly points out in an interview given at the end of the book. The alien people, plants and animals live in a complex interconnected life-cycle pattern, which is altered as a consequence of unintentional interference.
There’s also a lot of discussion of rather esoteric issues, such as the ideas of faith and absolute evil, as Aiden clearly struggles with some of his basic beliefs before reaching a satisfactory conclusion for himself. This initially rather naive character has a number of rites of passage so that by the time he reaches the end of the novel, he has grown and matured as a result of what happens.
The ending is a conclusion of sorts, although it is clear that other books could follow. This is, for now at least, standalone and not part of a series.
Although the book is similar to the author’s own Burton & Swinburne Adventures, it is not as much of a steampunk tale as the other novels. But overall this is a really entertaining book, by turns, engagingly amusing and then exciting, managing to juggle the scientific romance style of HG Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs with a knowledge of contemporary SF ideas.
One of the better Victoriana fantasies I’ve read.
Much of the start of the book has an HG Wells feel. The tale begins with the story told by Aiden Fleisher, who whilst as a parish vicar in England, develops a friendship with crippled engineering genius Clarissa Stark. When Aiden is forced to leave his parish and become a missionary in Papua New Guinea, Clarissa goes with him as sexton, and together the two of them have significant difficulties in attempting to persuade the indigenous tribes to convert to Christianity.
After a voodoo type ritual, they find themselves transported on the alien world of Ptallaya. This is a strange place, a planet lit by double-yellow- suns called The Eyes of the Saviour, and populated by the Yatsill, a telepathic alien race who, rather like parrots, mimic things they see. We spend much of the book at this point travelling, hunting strange living things with the Yatsill, hallucinating on strange foods and being immersed into the Yatsill culture, which gives us a strange insight into this unusual world.
A submersion and ‘rebirth’ of Clarissa in the pools of the Cavern of Immersion means that the Yatsill absorb her life experiences. Consequently, they all speak a rather class-conscious English language peppered with Hear Hear!’s and ‘Harrumphs!’, rename themselves with inappropriate English-sounding names (so that aliens such as Tsillandra Ma’ra become Crockery Clattersmash) and rapidly build Yatsillat, a caricature of Victorian London (one depicted so well on the UK cover) with British idioms such as teashops and the House of Lords. Like writing often found in HG Wells’ novels, it is funny and yet also rather biting, a satire of British Victorian class and society.
However, things are changing. Whilst Aiden and Clarissa begin their exploration of Ptallya beneath the light of double suns, Yatsill stories tell of the coming of a red sun, and with it a time of evil, one dominated by the Blood Gods...
Summarising this book as a planetary romance may give some readers an impression of frenetic activity with little depth, a legacy of Edgar Rice Burroughs and other Golden Age pulp writers. perhaps. Whilst there is a definite speed to this novel, this is also an intelligent book, with complex ideas riffing off past genre tropes. Like in HG Wells’ stories (First Men in the Moon, for example) or perhaps CS Lewis’ Perelandra space opera novels, although on the surface there is an exciting and quite breathless plot, the real interest in the book is in the sidetracks along the way, rather than the endpoint.
The tone of the novel is suitably appropriate. Like writers in the time of the Victorian British Empire, there’s a lot of imperialistic mannerisms that Mark has used that capture a sense of time and place that so many similar novels need to grasp, yet don’t.
The book is actually more of an exploration of the concept of evolution, as Mark clearly points out in an interview given at the end of the book. The alien people, plants and animals live in a complex interconnected life-cycle pattern, which is altered as a consequence of unintentional interference.
There’s also a lot of discussion of rather esoteric issues, such as the ideas of faith and absolute evil, as Aiden clearly struggles with some of his basic beliefs before reaching a satisfactory conclusion for himself. This initially rather naive character has a number of rites of passage so that by the time he reaches the end of the novel, he has grown and matured as a result of what happens.
The ending is a conclusion of sorts, although it is clear that other books could follow. This is, for now at least, standalone and not part of a series.
Although the book is similar to the author’s own Burton & Swinburne Adventures, it is not as much of a steampunk tale as the other novels. But overall this is a really entertaining book, by turns, engagingly amusing and then exciting, managing to juggle the scientific romance style of HG Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs with a knowledge of contemporary SF ideas.
One of the better Victoriana fantasies I’ve read.
executivespooky's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
gnostalgia's review against another edition
5.0
All to often, I build my expectations for a book so high that I come away a little disappointed. To my great relief, Hodder’s “A Red Sun Also Rises” met my expectations — and exceeded them.
The story is brilliant. I liked the character of Fleischer and I like the thought of a hunchback, Clarissa Stark, helping the pastor develop a spine. Fleischer struggles with his life, his faith, and finally with reality itself, and his human frailty and subsequent growth really pulled me in to the story. The characters were nicely developed and the world of Ptallaya was freaking brilliant.
I don’t think that I have read anything quite like it. I highly recommend it and give it 5 stars out of 5. Having said that, it should get extra points for sheer WTF moments, characters, and story. It’s a must-have for your library.
The story is brilliant. I liked the character of Fleischer and I like the thought of a hunchback, Clarissa Stark, helping the pastor develop a spine. Fleischer struggles with his life, his faith, and finally with reality itself, and his human frailty and subsequent growth really pulled me in to the story. The characters were nicely developed and the world of Ptallaya was freaking brilliant.
I don’t think that I have read anything quite like it. I highly recommend it and give it 5 stars out of 5. Having said that, it should get extra points for sheer WTF moments, characters, and story. It’s a must-have for your library.
bent's review
3.0
An enjoyable read, reminded me a little of older science fiction that I've read - Lewis Carroll particularly, but other books that I'm less able to put my finger on. A little convoluted at times. I enjoyed it, but at times it was just a little too removed from reality to totally capture my attention.
macindog's review against another edition
4.0
A good, old-fashioned adventure tale with a bit of steam-punk and the threat of alien invasion thrown in. Our Victorian-era heroes, a failed priest/missionary and his brilliant-but-disabled female sidekick, while trying to convert some natives on a far off island find themselves transported to an alien world with some very strange and almost comical inhabitants called the Yatsill.
The Yatsill, resembling four-legged molluscs, are brilliant mimics and soon pick up the mannerisms and thoughts of the two and so begin to rebuild their city and their culture in the style of Victorian London. However, it's not long before this seeming idyll gets shaken up and our heroes are plunged into a dastardly plot involving blood gods, horned demons, submarines, sonar weapons and alien invasion.
Mark Hodder's style makes you want to keep reading to find out just what crazy idea is coming next and this is no exception. A Red Sun Also Rises was very readable with a straight but also insanely convoluted plot. Almost Lovecraftian in nature but not quite so dark, this was well worth the read and I hope there's a sequel in the works.
The Yatsill, resembling four-legged molluscs, are brilliant mimics and soon pick up the mannerisms and thoughts of the two and so begin to rebuild their city and their culture in the style of Victorian London. However, it's not long before this seeming idyll gets shaken up and our heroes are plunged into a dastardly plot involving blood gods, horned demons, submarines, sonar weapons and alien invasion.
Mark Hodder's style makes you want to keep reading to find out just what crazy idea is coming next and this is no exception. A Red Sun Also Rises was very readable with a straight but also insanely convoluted plot. Almost Lovecraftian in nature but not quite so dark, this was well worth the read and I hope there's a sequel in the works.