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Curse of the Coral Bride

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The plot of the 'The Curse of the Coral Bride' is loosely based on a story called "The Light of Achernar" that I did for John Pelan's anthology of tales set in Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique, 'The Last Continent'.

I'd always wanted to design a "dying Earth" of my own, whose inhabitants would know that the end of the world was imminent. Unlike the early fantasy writers (Including CAS) who were content to accept Lord Kelvin's theory that the sun's heat was a by-product of its collapse under the force of its own gravity - which gave it a lifespan of a few million years - I wanted to use more recent estimates of a solar life span in the billions of years.

In my far future the Earth's orbit has been altered so that it can circle a much larger primary (a Dyson sphere enclosing a red giant), and the mortal humans populating it are the products of a re-creation by more advanced human-descended species that have long since abandoned the Earth to its fate....thus creating a mystery as to the reason for their continued presence on the doomed planet.

'The Curse of the Coral Bride' is intended as the first of a series whose climactic volume will provide a solution to that mystery as well as an account of the destruction of the Earth.

Cover Design by Ade Daniel

Published by Immanion Press 2005
ISBN: 1-9048-5313-7

Review by Ian Braidwood

Cast of Characters:
Captains Cardelier, Akabar and Sharuman. Meronicus the Magnificent, emporer of Yura. Princes Orlu and Viragan. Pricesses Zintrah and Calia. Giraiazal of Natalarch, Burrel, Mergin, Lysariel, Triasymon, Manazzoryn and Urbishek the sculptor.

It took me a long time to finish this book. Not because of any problem with it, but simply because I didn't want to take a hardcover book to work and I tend to continue reading during the evening what I read at lunch. It might help explain that the author who most pushed Brian aside was Bertrand Russell.

Just like Inherit the Earth, this is intended as the first volume of a six book series and was initially offered to Tor, before Immanion decided to release it. I personally find it unlikely that any others of the series will see the light of day and so will review this as a stand alone novel.

Anyone who has read one of Brian's other novels based upon short stories will know that he never merely pads out the original series of events, so while The Light of Achernar will guide you as to the flavour of this book, the events and denoument are very different. Also, the Earth described herein is subtly very different, set 5 billion years or so in the future. It feels like a fantasy, but there are enough hints to allow a science fictional interpretaion.

The main setting of the novel is Scleracina, an island among many, which I imagined to be like the Greek ones, but with Carribean style pirates. It is initially part of the Yuran empire, but gains its independence when misfortune overtakes Yura and a young diver finds himself elevated to the throne.

Most of the story is told from the point of view of Giraiazal, magician and vizier to the royal household. It is he who tries to help when Damozel Fate deals several from the bottom of the deck; afflicting madness and misfortune liberally upon all. Giraiazal's skills are effective enough to stave off disaster, while various machinations are enacted beneath the surface.

One aspect of Curse which niggled me at first was that each chapter starts with excerpts from 'The Revelations of Suomynona', which provide background, comment on the story and act as an arena to explore various philosophical issues inherent to the plot. However, after a while these became every bit as interesting as the action. They did make me realise however, something about Brian's writing, which has been staring me in the face for ages: I cannot recall a single instance where Brian has started a novel halfway through - a technique common in modern writing and film, as a way of spicing up the action. I think that maybe, Curse could have benefitted from this technique before the action begins to ensnare the reader as much as the characters.

Overall, Curse of the Coral Bride is good enough to leave the reader wanting to know more about the world, but is not by any means one of Brian's best; carrying as it does the burden of introducing a series.

 

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