July 20, 2015
Toner’s ambitious debut, which opens the Amaranthine Spectrum series, is a thoughtful, languid space opera. The several 147th-century cultures on display are fascinating, but the pace is leisurely. The characters are also odd and only gradually revealed to be post-human, both physically and intellectually. For example, Lycaste, one of the many protagonists, seems at first mentally limited, and he changes colors much like an octopus to express emotions. He lives naked in a deceptively peaceful world where almost everything he needs quite literally grows on trees—including meat and simple utensils—or can be scavenged from the wreckage of the deep past. Meanwhile, the centuries-long reign of the immortal ruler of the Amaranthine Firmament is being contested by another immortal, the mysterious Aaron the Long-Life, and the entire decadent empire is under attack by a number of mortal post-human species. The pace picks up as the tale moves toward its end, but this is the kind of book that will most appeal to cerebral readers who can appreciate its characters’ many verbal interactions even when they delay the plot.
September 1, 2015
Toner's ambitious first novel begins with a prologue in fourteenth-century Prague and then leaps to a surreal, multiplanetary setting in the 147th century. Humanity has evolved into a strange amalgam of species ranging from small elfin creatures to giants with color-changing skin. The Amaranthine, near-immortal beings thousands of years old, rule the universe in their own methodical way, but when an outsider contends for the throne, the worlds of the Amaranthine Firmament and the kingdoms of the Prism Investiture become places laced with deceit and violence. Toner frames the novel in a series of short chapters, each one adding characters, subplots, and a dizzying mash-up of science fiction and fantasy themes that are both mystifying and entertaining. At one point in the story, a spaceship transporting an Amaranthine looses a hot-air balloon containing a Vulgar sniper (think a goblin or elf) to shoot a Melius (giant). This quirky first volume in a projected trilogy is challenging and densely written, but it will appeal to readers who enjoy the offbeat end of far-future sf. This is the kind of novel that could develop a cult following.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)