Published: June 09, 2011
Words: 270,356 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781452437941

Short description

This second Irredente novel follows the separate trajectories of the boy Henryk Burgred and the reactionary cleric Hersey through 750 pages of adventure, peril, revelation, and redemption until the lives of many individuals converge upon a single, mysterious point: the doomed planet Innisfree.

Extended description

The 270,000-word second installment of the Irredente space opera series, Tales from the Arm & Bar, begins four years after Henryk Burgred, illegitimate genovariant child of a deceased patrician military officer and a slum prostitute, goes to the family homeworld Plum Grove. Having been rescued from almost certain death on Edom by his uncle, and having earned the wrath of the Irredente hegemony by killing a senior naval intelligence official, Henryk for the first time in his life finds a pastoral place of peace and comfort at the Burgred family estates on Plum Grove. There he settles into his privileged but duty-bound birthright.

Meantime, the reactionary eunuch priest Hersey, who as cleric on Edom had consigned Henryk to a one-way trip to Lindenau, charnel-house of the hegemony, has traveled to the Beyond (the Bar End). There, Hersey -- accompanied by his symbiant companion Tildy -- has visited the many strange, genovariant-populated worlds organized under the authority of the Media.. (Read more) The 270,000-word second installment of the Irredente space opera series, Tales from the Arm & Bar, begins four years after Henryk Burgred, illegitimate genovariant child of a deceased patrician military officer and a slum prostitute, goes to the family homeworld Plum Grove. Having been rescued from almost certain death on Edom by his uncle, and having earned the wrath of the Irredente hegemony by killing a senior naval intelligence official, Henryk for the first time in his life finds a pastoral place of peace and comfort at the Burgred family estates on Plum Grove. There he settles into his privileged but duty-bound birthright.

Meantime, the reactionary eunuch priest Hersey, who as cleric on Edom had consigned Henryk to a one-way trip to Lindenau, charnel-house of the hegemony, has traveled to the Beyond (the Bar End). There, Hersey -- accompanied by his symbiant companion Tildy -- has visited the many strange, genovariant-populated worlds organized under the authority of the Mediant, finally landing upon the world of the Mediant itself, where Hersey is forever changed. Hersey regains his manhood, takes Tildy as his wife, and is commanded by The Mediant to return to the Irredente hegemony to spread a gospel of toleration for all life -- including inorganic sentient life driven into hiding by the Irredente prohibitions on technology.

Tales from the Arm & Bar follows the separate trajectories of Henryk and Hersey through 750 pages of adventure, peril, revelation, and redemption until the lives of many individuals converge upon a single, mysterious point: the doomed planet Innisfree.
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Tags

herbert, leguin, sutton, simmons, edom

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Reviews

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Review by: Ivan Vučica on July 20, 2011 :
I'm very, very happy to have read this book. It continues the tradition of J. P. Sutton's excellent storytelling, wrapped in a somewhat odd and complex language. This is an upside, however, offering a refreshment compared to most of the reading I've done.

Summary: I'm definitely recommending the book, as well as its predecessor.

This sequel to "Out of Edom" reveals a lot: it reveals more about what the dilly-dallies from "Out of Edom" are, it reveals what attacked the Hegemony, and it reveals what the Mediant is. It is definitely more about revealing than about concluding, since this book has a very open ending, just like its predecessor. Personally, I find the ending disappointingly too open, but that just makes me more eager for the book 3.

However, I'm giving it 5 stars, although, honestly, I'd give 4.5. Here's a bit about why. These are ALL minor issues, and they might be resolved in the third book, which I'm already eagerly awaiting.

SPOILER ALERT BELOW.

- It looks like I didn't pay enough attention, but I simply didn't catch how long passed since "Out of Edom".
- I'm confused about how a multi-planetary Hegemony has managed to transform completely in below two decades, with people barely remembering what life was before, after multiple centuries of stable, conservative government. All of a sudden, Galinda manages to seize power without significant legal, religious and political contest?
- Destruction of Andromache was probably meant to convey a sense of "noone-is-invulnerable". However, that's not something I enjoy (similar to destruction of Vulcan in Star Trek XI), and especially since it happened once the AI has been revealed.
- Dilly-dallies are intelligent; it is strange that Henryk, who does not seem to mind AIs, cannot convince them that destruction of technology and non-Locu AI is not the same as destroying Locu AI (particularly after Norman is revealed). He knows that dilly-dallies destroy tech, since they've been doing that all around the hegemony for years by the time of this book.

Thanks to the author for another great book! Looking forward to future works!
(reviewed long after purchase)

Review by: Cheradenine Zakalwe on July 04, 2011 : (no rating)
Wow, Great Book.
The 2nd book made me feel like: I want the 3rd right now!
lol.

I swallowed the +-600 pages in one week.
There are no super heroes which makes it convincing, just pure blind but credible luck.

A few things got explained and but new questions came up or rather the conclusion.
New alliances and the holly man gets shock of a life time.
Humanity gets to learn that they had been following a false beliefs, interesting enough is that there is not only one enemy and your ally has their own different agenda.

I guess the last book will show that no one is completely/absolutely right or wrong
.
It reminded me of Hyperion and Foundation Series.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

Review by: Edward Wilson on July 03, 2011 :
I found this highly entertaining, after reading book one, "Out of Edom", I was very much looking forward to this, it was available a day early, 30th June, rather than 1st of July, much to my delight. I was not disappointed, a great read! I've no idea when book three is due, but again, I really can't, although I'll have to, wait.
(reviewed within a week of purchase)

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