War of the Maps

Paul McAuley — 2020

'The underrated McAuley is in top form in this hard science fiction novel with heart.' Washington Post Book World On a giant artificial world surrounding an artificial sun, one man - a lucidor, a keeper of the peace, a policeman - is on the hunt. His target was responsible for an atrocity, but is too valuable to the government to be truly punished. Instead he has been sent to the frontlines of the war, to use his unique talents on the enemy. So the lucidor has ignored orders, deserted from his job, left his home and thrown his life away, in order to finally claim justice. Separated by massive seas, the various maps dotted on the surface of this world rarely contact each other. But something has begun to infiltrate the edges of the lucidor's map, something that genetically alters animals and plants and turns them into killers. Only the lucidor knows the depths to which his quarry will sink in order to survive, only the lucidor can capture him. The way is long and dangerous. The lucidor's government has set hunters after him. He has no friends, no resources, no plan. But he does have a mission.

Reviews

Janice Hopper@archergal

Nov 2, 2022

A really nice adventure story that made me think of some of Jack Vance's work. The "maps" of the title seem to refer to both gene maps (what makes an organism what it is) and a more figurative map, where instead of a paper or electronic representation of a place, it refers to an actual place. I thought of these maps as more continents or countries. Anyway, Thorn, the lucidor (which I continually misread as "luchador" with interesting mental image results) is pursuing Remfrey He, a dangerous "philosopher." In this context, philosopher is more like the 17th/18th century practitioners of natural philosophy, a study of the physical environment and the creatures in it. Remfrey He is also basically a mad scientist. His story is complicated and I don't want to spend time talking about it here, but basically, he's a Bad Dude. The lucidor has captured and brought him in before, but due to some political maneuvering with a neighboring map, Remfrey He got released and is doing his mad scientist stuff for them. But since he's also only out for himself, he also skips out on the new map and runs off AGAIN. The lucidor is after him now, in more of a private capacity. This is the story of how all that plays out. The world is set on a Dyson sphere. The maps are all on the surface of the sphere. The time period appears to be WAY into the future, after people have essentially risen to essentially become gods, and then went away again to some unspecified sort of place (uploaded? I wasn't clear.) The world they left behind has its own problems, including an invasion by some other sort of organism or set of genes that seems intent on remaking the world. I appreciate books with older protagonists. The lucidor (that's mainly how he was referred to) had retired from his lawkeeping job. He took on the recapture of Remfrey He kind of as a favor to an old associate. I liked his character. I think this is the first Paul McAuley book I've finished. I've started one or maybe two others, but got distracted by something else shiny. I enjoyed this one all the way through.

Nicholas Zachariou@nixzach

May 22, 2023

Talbet Fulthorpe@talbet

Jul 29, 2021