'' Evening's Empires'' is a 2013
science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
novel by
Paul J. McAuley, the fourth in his ''
Quiet War'' sequence.
Summary
Reception
Dave Hardy of SF Crowsnest noted "In essence, this is a quest. Not a magical one, of course, but, for most of the book, this is about the search for Dr. Gagarian’s head. It is also a good example of modern space opera."
Greg L. Johnson of
SF Site wrote "That's plenty of story for any novel, and Paul McAuley places it in a setting that is both decaying, and, from our perspective, full of wonders. For the characters, life in the
Solar System
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...
is akin to Europe after the
collapse of the Western Roman Empire
The fall of the Western Roman Empire, also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome, was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vast ...
, with pockets of civilization and relative prosperity separated by lengthy and dangerous travel. It's a far cry from the beginnings of a Solar System wide civilization depicted in ''
The Quiet War'' and ''
Gardens of the Sun'', and from the cultural struggles going on in distant
Fomalhaut in ''
In The Mouth of the Whale'', yet McAuley provides enough of an historical background to tie them all together. The life of
genetic engineer Sri Hong-Owen is one of the connecting threads in the novels and, in a way, influences every character in Evening's Empires, though it is separated from the other novels by vast distances in time and space".
References
{{Reflist
Dystopian novels
2013 British novels
2013 science fiction novels
British science fiction novels
Fiction set around Fomalhaut
Space opera novels
Works by Paul J. McAuley
Victor Gollancz Ltd books