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Daylight On Iron Mountain (2011)

by David Wingrove(Favorite Author)

3.77 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1848878311 (ISBN13: 9781848878310)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Atlantic

series

Chung Kuo Recast

review 1: This was better than "Son of Heaven", but still has many of the same flaws. Thankfully there was a little less of the misogynistic sex scenes. I'm sure that Wingrove would try to justify these by saying he is attacking the Han culture's treatment of women through these scenes but it is a very fine line here - and a number of other Goodreads reviewers have raised concerns at the role woman play- and don't play - in these books.The series is often compared to George Martins Fire and Ice series - which also features a lot of rape and brutality, but Martin has a number of strong female characters who stand up to the men and emerge as very memorable characters. I'm am sure Wingrove would say that Confucianism is a very patriarchal society, But I strongly reject the simplistic v... moreiew he puts forward here. Anyone who has had anything to do with traditional Chinese families knows how much power the women wield - even though that power may be confined to the domestic. Wingrove copies the forms of Chinese Epics like the "Romance of The Three Kingdoms" and "The Dream of the Red Chamber" ... but these classic all feature extremely strong women who find ways to give themselves a voice in a male dominated culture. In any culture there is a vast difference between the idealized forms and the actual."Daylight on Iron Mountain" tried to address some of the big flaws in the series - especially the recreation of an historical Confucian way of life. I have never seen any justification for this apart from the aesthetics of having folk running about in Kung Fu costumes and flying spaceships- Cmon- It's Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless - silly fun we're not meant to take seriously. There's nothing wrong with that. It only becomes a problem when the writer takes himself seriously. Wingrove has taken a lot of flack for this - so this novel is his exercise in future proofing that was meant to silence all those critics who say this "future" just couldn't happen. Unfortunately the way he tries to address this problem is indicative of his deep flaws as a writer.He uses a Chinese character to complain about having to wear all the silly historical costumes and go through all the meaningless ancient rituals. This breaks the first rule of writing - don't tell your audience ... SHOW your audience. Alas he never shows.Great geniuses and generals have a lot of adjectives heaped up to tell us how clever they are- but we never get to read anything that actually validates this. In the original Chinese classics there are many examples of witty brilliant people coming up with creative solutions to problems. Unfortunately Wingrove is just not up to the task ...so we have to sit through lots of fluff about smoldering intensity in their dark beautiful demonic eyes.I'd really love to know what any Goodreaders of Chinese background think of this series.
review 2: 1 star - binned it before half way, please don't write anymore!!!2 stars - finally binned it after really trying, I mean really trying and I hate to not finishing someth....3 stars - finished it but boy was that hard work on times, it just about hooked me back in as I was about to dump it4 stars - great book but it lacked something, something, can't put my finger on it but.... something5 stars - want more, more books, more movies about the books, more movies about the authors and the making of the movie, just more!!! less

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