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"Good book-unsatisfying ending"

Overlook Nov 2003

Venus lies under a dome beneath the sea as a tremendous lure for surface visitors. Permanent residence is restricted, but tourists are encouraged. Powerful computers run the city controlling climate to include virtual flora and fauna.

Scientists work experiments using DNA remnants of dead souls. These geneticists bring back to life first century gladiator Jula from the DNA remains that an archeological excavation led by Flayd discovered. Also brought back to life is eighteenth century musician Cloudio, both of whom find they feel disrupted and more comfortable with weird flashbacks to their previous lives. Meanwhile a surface musician Picaro arrives at Venus and meets Flayd, who is convinced that something catastrophic is being conducted under the auspices of the city leaders including the computers. As calamities begin to happen and the city is quarantined with no exit or entry, Flayd's theory seems more realistic. Soon, this quartet manipulated by an entity that makes Machiavelli look like kindergarten, is the last hope to stop the imminent final disaster from taking place

The five key characters (the heroic foursome plus the computer) seem genuine with personalities that in many ways are symbolic of the four forces of nature. These individuals hook the reader wanting to learn more about Flayd's conspiracy theory. However, that is the weakness of the fourth Venus novel as there is only vague references to a massive conspiracy, but no revealing of who and why especially by the city government who would appear to be biting their nose to spite their face. Thus a potentially powerful futuristic science fiction novel with a strong cast that grips the reader drowns by the ending.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted November 23, 2003

Tanith Lee concludes her compelling Secret Books of Venus quartet with a haunting and suspenseful tale set in her brilliantly reimagined alternate Venice. Centuries into the future, the sunken city of Venus has been salvaged from beneath the sea and rebuilt there under a dome, where it is supported by a vast network of computers that regulate weather, noise, and the most precious undersea commodity of all-air.

It is here that a macabre experiment takes place. Conducted by geneticists at the university, it consists of the resurrection of two lost souls, both murdered in their times: Jula, a first-century gladiatrix, and Cloudio Del Nero, the eighteenth-century composer who met his fate in Lee's acclaimed first volume of the Venus series. An unexplained catastrophe occurs, claiming several lives. Was it merely an accident, computer failure, or has the experiment unleashed an airborne virus? Or is there an even more sinister danger afoot, a force from beyond that threatens the survival of Venus itself? To answer these questions, a traveler from the surface is forced to confront mysteries in his own past that have remained buried, and to reveal the connection that ties him to the unavenged spirits wreaking havoc on the doomed city.