These are indeed my favorite sci-fi books. They are the ones that I take with me when I change destinations. To get them, I started to use amazon back in 1999! (In Spain they had only published the first 2 books)
Because of this book, I started playing Go in the 90s, and got into the Japanese expat society of Spain which helped me in my career a lot years later.
The book has also who I consider the best Evil character in writing: Hans de Vore. But it has also soooo many cool characters, and all of them so multidimensional, that it's puzzling.
This book is so complex and so original, that it becomes almost impossible to brief. It has hundreds of storylines, and thousands of characters who entangle, fight, ally, fuck, kill, are killed... All that in the background of a great original background:
In the XXII century, the world is just a one massive city, with hundreds of levels. And it's all chinese people, culture and social system. Only some westerns are around.
As it is revealed, in the XXIst century a Chinese tyran nuked the western world, and committed the biggest genocide in history, and started building the City. He wiped out the history books, and rewrote history so that the history of that empire it is believed to have started "when Atila sacked Rome".
7 Chinese emperors rule the world, and work to avoid any change in Society, pushing for wuwei (inaction)
To that, some people struggle with economic and financial strategies.
Others with technology and science.
Others with plain terrorism.
There is a constant battle in all those fronts, and good, bad, geniouses and stupids are in all factions, so you easily sympathise with ones or others, swinging all the time.
Now the books are going to be anticipated with 2 new tomes that are a Prequel to the story.
I can't wait to have it in my hands!!
I recommend it very, very much.
