The Middle Earth by David
Wingrove, Chung Kuo Recast #3
IMMOVABLE PEACE
The year is 2196. The great
Empire of Ice, Chung Kuo, has finally been shaken after more than a century of
peace enforced by brutal tyranny. The Minister of the Edict - an official
responsible for licensing all technology that could lead to Change - has been
assassinated. The seven ruling T'ang struggle to maintain Stasis, even as their
mile-high, continent-spanning cities descend into chaos.
IRRESISTIBLE CHAOS
Amid the chaos, the rebels
responsible for the assassination seize the opportunity to effect Change. But
the assassination was orchestrated by those far closer to the ruling power and
this betrayal, the first of many, will lead them all into the world-shattering
War of Two Directions.
WAR IS COMING...
The
Middle Earth is the original first book of the Chung Kuo series, but makes up
the third book in the Chung Kuo Recast series, the rewritten version of the
original one. The Recast series featured
two entire new prologues, Son of Heaven and Daylight on Iron Mountain. Those
first two book left quite the impression on me and was therefore quite eager to
see how the series would continue and especially how the prologues would be
linked to the original story.
The
Middle Earth picks up in the year of 2196, almost a 100 years after the events
of the prologue (2043-2098). In the start of the book there is summary of
events that happened in the prologues to give you a short introduction. But I
must recommend that you read Son of Heaven and Daylight on Iron Mountain, first
they are both great and second they give a much better detailed view of what
the Chung Kuo Recast series is about. The summary mentions the fall of the
world and rise of China under the tyrant Tsao Ch’un, how he nukes Japan and
took over North America. And how now with populations increasing, something had
to give… Which brings you directly into the storyline of Middle Earth.
Looking
back on the first two books, Son of Heaven and Daylight on Iron Mountain and
comparing those events with The Middle Earth, I must say that I think the
prologue books worked out well. The whole universe that was created within
these two first books and all the technology and planning of the Chinese empire
was worked out well and allowed me to fully grasp the storyline once again. I
think that it was a wise decision to write Son of Heaven and Daylight on Iron
Mountain since in those books, David Wingrove breaks down several elements that
are being only mentioned in The Middle Earth, like the Seven and also the
company Genetic Synthetics (GenSyn). So again, its wise to start at the new
beginning.
Like I
said above the third books picks up a century after the prologue and this books
has a whole new cast. And likewise I have learned in the first two books, there
are a lot of characters that you get introduced to. This book is also divided
into two parts, with the first part playing in 2196 and the last in 2198. Since
this story build on the foundation of the prologues ,the new world is ruled by
the Seven T’ang. A seven headed counsel that has the final verdict overall laws
and decisions to be made. They are strict and in their opinion Chung Kuo is
prosperous. The Seven are holding back the Change. However not everyone
supports those ideas as well and the rebels find that it is time for a change.
Within
the city of Chung Kuo the two “races”, if you can say it in that way, the Han
(original Chinese people) and the Hung Mao’s (European people) co-exist with
each other. And what I learned from the prologues is that there have been
incidents in the past (like the ruling in court against Jake in Daylight on
Iron Mountain) where the Hung Mao’s are being discriminated and made to be the
lesser people. It is also “frowned upon” when a Han beds an Hung Mao, you
disgrace your family. What I really liked about the city, Chung Kuo, itself was
how it was described, both in detail and in the big picture, this really plays
a cool part with you imagination. As soon as you read about how many miles it’s
spanning and even more so the countless number of levels, each more suited for
the elite living in there is really amazing. But this city is not all fancy,
high tech and clean. As you go down into the levels you reach the Net where
more troublemakers can be found. And when you go even further, you reach the
Clay, which is ruled by vicious tribes of cast-offs, who have “sacrificed”
their intelligence for cunning. The description of what is possible within the
city combined with the levels of politics and division of people in how wealthy
you are, certainly created a rich feeling to begin with. This rich feeling is
only further fortified by the story that takes place within The Middle Kingdom.
The
first part of the story focuses on two character’s Howard DeVore a Major in the
Security forces of the T’ang, Li Shai Tung and General Knut Tolonen, general to
Li Shai Tung. Like it is mentioned in the synopsis of the book, assassinations
are in the planning. And the first part of the book shows how this was set into
motion and how it all played out and partly what consequences it takes with it.
It’s a bit hard to mention who is behind the planning of the assassination’s,
though it becomes quite obvious during this part, it was great to see how this
part was explained in detail. It’s General Tolonen’s job to find out who
exactly. What he doesn’t know that is the person is closer to him that he
thought. The great thing here is that you as a reader do know who it is, though
for the confirmation I did re-read several paragraphs. In the subsequent
dialogues that follow between the two persons I really got a smirk on my face
to see how Tolonen was crossed and that he didn’t really have a clue who it
was. As for Howard DeVore he has to navigate his way through a lot of problems
of his own, tying up loose ends here and there, and this latter part can proof
to be much harder then he first assumed. Overall I really liked the how
convinced Howard was to reach his goal, whatever it costs. And halfway I was in
for quite a surprise. Nearing the ending of only the first part of the book, I
was glad that I had my notepad next to me to write down all the characters,
their interactions, who betrayed who, who is allied with each other and who
pulled of a double cross etc. David Wingrove really sets a great storyline into
motion within only these few pages.
The
second part of the book again introduces new characters and two really stand
out and I think we will see more of them in the following books. Kim Ward and
Fei Yen. I already mentioned the clay part underneath Chung Kuo, well Kim is
from that “level”, it was pretty cool to read about his adventures down their
and how he was saved, the people living in the clay are real brutes, and the
only meat to find down there is on a another persons body… that should say
enough. But Kim is pretty smart and knows how to think outside the box, with
him being saved from the clay he is being sold trained and sold off to the
highest bidder. I’m curious as to how his story will unfold and what he will
make. The second character is Fei Yen, a young girl, that is about to marry the
son of Li Shai Tung to keep the elite ruling. Though you do learn a bit about
her already she does remain still obscure but the way she is shown, especially
later on with the other son of Li Shai Tung, does make her, I hope, an
important character later on.
Furthermore
the second part of the book pretty much deals with the consequences of the
assassinated Minister. Thing are getting out of hand and General Tolonen has
his hands full with managing the situation. And what I said about the cloning
part and copies in my Daylight of on Iron Mountain, well yes! It is followed up
in this part as well. As an unknown corporation to GenSyn makes highly advanced
copies set to overthrow the Seven. Pretty cool to read about that the copies
have a higher conscious or something as one of those said “They made me better than that. More devious. More human”. So again
my interest was pretty high in this part of the story.
The
ending of this book follows up the chaos at the wedding of Li Yuan and Fei Yen
and leaves the other storyline that of Howard DeVore and Kim Ward at an open
ending. Now the fourth book in the series Ice and Fire was originally combined
with The Middle Earth so I expect that those ends will be picked up in this
book.
But
this is turning into a pretty long read already. So here are my last few words.
The
Middle Earth neatly follows up the two new prologues. Even though the prologues
were written after The Middle Earth, I couldn’t find any fault with that
transition everything that was explained in the prologues only added that much
more depth to The Middle Earth. Furthermore The Middle Earth is great
action-packed story, starting of with an assassination, followed up by
political intrigues that weaves a tight web around a lot of characters. The
characters that you are introduced all are from a varied amount of classes,
from the elite to the cast offs which keep the storyline diverse as you follow
each and everyone in quite the detail. It can be hard to keep the focus on such
an amount of character but from the beginning David Wingrove managed to put
everyone down just right and doesn’t let one character falter along the line. I
do think that he is in quite for a challenge as the story now really takes off.
Probably not only on Earth... I’m looking forward to read about the
world-shattering War of Two Directions.