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There’s a lot to be said about this book, and most of it is even good.
Basically from the first page of the story, it takes you on a rollercoaster ride with half a dozen characters that is so full of twists and turns that keeping track of what is actually happening becomes a task of its own after one’s halfway through the novel. The action is unforgiving and direct, with the battle raging through the streets of bleak concrete molochs, the emptyness of space, the grey wastes of the moon and the depths of cyberspace. The writing style immerses the reader directly into the action after a short while. It’s a tale about a looming world war, about idealism and about the uncertainty of identity in a future where mind and technology can interfere with each other very easily.

The picture David paints of the future is deeply dystopian, with the world locked in a cycle of inner and outer conflict, with a completely collapsing ecosphere and a society where a life’s worth less than even in ancient Rome. It’s a world that’s been completely thrown off balance, a world in which sometimes your own side is far more dangerous to you than your supposed enemies might be.

The technology shown in “The Mirrored Heavens” is not too far out there. Whether we will truly be that advanced with regards to neuro-interfaces and cyberspace by that time is up for speculation, but at least the space technology and weapons systems shown already exists in their basics today.

The novel is a great one – once you’ve adapted to the writing style. Usually I’m not fan of first person present tense writing, but with this novel it works rather well. There’s also a certain degree of ambivalence in me with regards to the dystopian setting. I’m no optimist, but I think that most political systems primarily strive to achieve internal order. Thus, while the setting works well for the novel, I’m no great friend of it. Moreso, the very literal mindf*** that nowadays cyberpunks presents us with is, well, positively disturbing. If one has ever seen Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex, he know’s what I’m talking about.

My last point of critcism is that the actual information you get about the world is rather thinlayered. I understand that the novel focusses on the plot, but there is hardly said more than a) there are the Eurasians, and they have different factions; b) there is the USA and within it different factions intriguing against each other for influence on “The Throne”; c) and there are Combines and the Euromagnates, on which basically nothing substantial at all is said. I’m an avid fluff-reader, digging through pages of explanations is a good read to me, so that disappointed me somewhat.

All in all I’d call “The Mirrored Heavens” a solid and action-packed work and definately a great first novel of David Williams. Maybe the world it plays in will be elaborated on in possible sequels.

regards,
Wired

@ Zak: right on, brother . . . keep me posted. . .

Forever forward!
-Zak!