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Stations of the Tide
When a strange magician and renegade scientist steals the secrets that could save a distant planet from being annihilated by its own oceans' tides, a man is sent to Miranda to retrieve those secrets before it is too late. Winner of the Nebula Award. Reprint.
256 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2001
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November 28, 2015
This was some kind of amazing. The main character, who was never referred to as anything but Bureaucrat, was hardly my definition of a bureaucrat. He was part outcast, part superspy, part magician's apprentice, and part avenger. He wears so many hats during this superb little gem that I never slow down and even consider why. The plot is also so damn interesting and the pacing so fantastic that I almost miss exactly how wonderfully crafted the writing is.
Am I a fan of Swanwick? I have read a few of his short stories, years ago, and I loved them. I remembered them very fondly, but in passing, because I prefer novels over anything else. So why am I so damn late to the table, now? Hell if I know, and I'm ashamed because of it. I'm going to be going through his entire catalogue shortly.
So many wonderful sf ideas were crammed in here, and all of them were firmly in the service of the overarching story that happens to have an awful lot in common with The Tempest. The obvious bits were intended by the colonizers of Miranda, and the allegorical allusions were fully conscious and intended by the characters. It was delightful in that respect. The things that happen give the feel, but thankfully not the full substance of the play, so never worry, if you think you might be turned off by a shameless cribbing. This novel is truly a one-of-a-kind brilliant homage to all things SF and Fantasy. A lot of the time, it's impossible to separate the two, but what else can you do when you have awesome worldbuilding on colony worlds, cloning, terraforming, world-AIs, NSA game theory puzzle boxes the size of nations, AND indigenous aliens who shapeshift, who's biology is mostly incompatible with us except when triggered, turning us into wizards with grand powers, morphing into angels and demons, mind-control, as well as the summoning of immensely powerful archetypes? Is it SF or Fantasy? Clarke's razor applies.
But lo! This is no simple tale to mix elements and say, "Hey, look what I did!" No. The story here is king, from old world to new, disillusionment to renewing perception, retribution to revelation to understanding.
Of course, it also borrows concepts to sweep a wide circumference, even stooping to crib from some classics (Dune fans rejoice, pain by nerve induction). For this, I don't care too much. It serves a serious and pretty much identical purpose, but in the service of magic apprenticeship. There's other examples, too, but it slides by so fast and delicious and moves on to the next wonderful surrealism and solid chink of plot, that I'm left gasping with joy.
THIS IS A GRAND GEM, people. Fantastic writing, wonderful ideas, and nothing short of intensely memorable characters. It won the Nebula award in '91 and was nominated for Hugo, alas that it hadn't won.
I will probably read this one again, just to bathe in it. The tide is coming. Can YOU read between the lines of the tv station?
Am I a fan of Swanwick? I have read a few of his short stories, years ago, and I loved them. I remembered them very fondly, but in passing, because I prefer novels over anything else. So why am I so damn late to the table, now? Hell if I know, and I'm ashamed because of it. I'm going to be going through his entire catalogue shortly.
So many wonderful sf ideas were crammed in here, and all of them were firmly in the service of the overarching story that happens to have an awful lot in common with The Tempest. The obvious bits were intended by the colonizers of Miranda, and the allegorical allusions were fully conscious and intended by the characters. It was delightful in that respect. The things that happen give the feel, but thankfully not the full substance of the play, so never worry, if you think you might be turned off by a shameless cribbing. This novel is truly a one-of-a-kind brilliant homage to all things SF and Fantasy. A lot of the time, it's impossible to separate the two, but what else can you do when you have awesome worldbuilding on colony worlds, cloning, terraforming, world-AIs, NSA game theory puzzle boxes the size of nations, AND indigenous aliens who shapeshift, who's biology is mostly incompatible with us except when triggered, turning us into wizards with grand powers, morphing into angels and demons, mind-control, as well as the summoning of immensely powerful archetypes? Is it SF or Fantasy? Clarke's razor applies.
But lo! This is no simple tale to mix elements and say, "Hey, look what I did!" No. The story here is king, from old world to new, disillusionment to renewing perception, retribution to revelation to understanding.
Of course, it also borrows concepts to sweep a wide circumference, even stooping to crib from some classics (Dune fans rejoice, pain by nerve induction). For this, I don't care too much. It serves a serious and pretty much identical purpose, but in the service of magic apprenticeship. There's other examples, too, but it slides by so fast and delicious and moves on to the next wonderful surrealism and solid chink of plot, that I'm left gasping with joy.
THIS IS A GRAND GEM, people. Fantastic writing, wonderful ideas, and nothing short of intensely memorable characters. It won the Nebula award in '91 and was nominated for Hugo, alas that it hadn't won.
I will probably read this one again, just to bathe in it. The tide is coming. Can YOU read between the lines of the tv station?
July 3, 2019
"Stations of the Tide" by Michael Swanwick is the story of an unnamed Bureaucrat and the urgent investigation he’s tasked with.
The planet he lives on, Miranda, is subject to major tidal flooding every 200 years, and with the tide due to arrive in a week’s time on what’s called Jubilee Day, it’s imperative that he locate and apprehend the man Gregorian to avert disaster beforehand.
The populace under tight control, the government believes Gregorian has come into possession of proscribed technology, technology capable of hampering humanity’s efforts at achieving higher ground for the flood.
With the clock ticking, the Bureaucrat heads out to find his man, three-legged helper briefcase beside him. Trouble is, in such a technically saturated world it’s troublesome telling reality from virtual reality, hallucination from fact, and truth from lies.
Stations of the Tide is a highly imaginative mashup of Southern Gothic, Jack Vance, and post-humanism.
The planet he lives on, Miranda, is subject to major tidal flooding every 200 years, and with the tide due to arrive in a week’s time on what’s called Jubilee Day, it’s imperative that he locate and apprehend the man Gregorian to avert disaster beforehand.
The populace under tight control, the government believes Gregorian has come into possession of proscribed technology, technology capable of hampering humanity’s efforts at achieving higher ground for the flood.
With the clock ticking, the Bureaucrat heads out to find his man, three-legged helper briefcase beside him. Trouble is, in such a technically saturated world it’s troublesome telling reality from virtual reality, hallucination from fact, and truth from lies.
Stations of the Tide is a highly imaginative mashup of Southern Gothic, Jack Vance, and post-humanism.
July 9, 2017
A very beautifully written and imagined novel, full of magic and menace, mystery and madness.
The plot, although it does mostly come together in the end, is secondary to the experiential and visual aspects of book. If you're unable to follow everything that's going on or visualize some of the scenes and items he's describing, don't sweat it.
The plot, although it does mostly come together in the end, is secondary to the experiential and visual aspects of book. If you're unable to follow everything that's going on or visualize some of the scenes and items he's describing, don't sweat it.
October 9, 2024
Stations of the Tide won the Nebula Award for best novel of the year in 1991, the award voted on by writers, which I believe illustrates the point that fellow-craftsmen appreciated the work more than casual readers and fans. My analogy is that there are some paintings that are said to be appreciated more by fellow artists than casual enthusiasts, and some albums of music appreciated more by musicians than strict listeners. (Gentle Giant, Kraftwerk, The Nice, for example.) The main character is never named; he's just "the bureaucrat." He's searching for a magician who has smuggled forbidden technology onto the world of Miranda, and he has a strict deadline. It's a suspenseful story, very elegantly written, and though the setting is worked out in marvelous detail I just couldn't identify with any of the characters.
April 3, 2012
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT .
It’s the Jubilee Year on the planet Miranda. Every 200 years the planet floods and humans must leave until Miranda’s continents are reborn. Miranda used to be the home of an indigenous species of shapeshifters who, during Jubilee, would return to their aquatic forms until the waters receded, but it seems that humans have killed them off.
Gregorian, who lives on Miranda but was educated off-planet by a rich and distant father, now styles himself a magician and is telling the citizens of Miranda that he can transform them into sea creatures so they can stay on the planet. He has stolen a piece of proscribed technology from Earth and our protagonist, who we know only as “the bureaucrat,� has been sent to find out what Gregorian has up his sleeve. The bureaucrat must track down Gregorian before the Jubilee tides flood the planet. During his quest he learns about the exotic planet’s history, meets several strange residents, does a lot of hallucinating, has a lot of sex, worries about his job back home, and gets hooked on a local soap opera. The middle of the book bogs down in a haze of drugs and sex which feels slightly self-indulgent, but Swanwick manages to make it fit the plot. In the end, it’s not just Miranda that changes.
Stations of the Tide, which has been compared to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, is often surreal and confusing, but this seems to fit the dark exotic planet. The setting was my favorite part of the story � Miranda is both beautiful and frightening. I especially loved the Grandfather Tree which has many trunks descending from its huge branches and houses a café and a shipwreck.
Then there’s the technology: the bureaucrat has a walking talking briefcase and can split his consciousness into surrogate electronic forms that can run errands for him. He’s very surprised to find that the Mirandans had even higher forms of technology until they were made illegal by the bureaucrat’s agency. The Mirandans resent this.
Some readers are likely to be put off by the nameless bureaucrat because he’s somewhat flat and emotionless for much of the novel, but Oliver Wyman, the narrator of Audible Frontier’s version, made him feel like a real person rather than a nameless entity. I liked Wyman’s interpretation of the bureaucrat’s epigrammatic business-like style. His aloofness made it all the more moving when he rarely but suddenly was overwhelmed with emotion.
This is the second novel by Michael Swanwick that I’ve tried. I didn’t at all like the first one, The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, but I liked Stations of the Tide even though it had some of the same issues. Both novels are original and inventive with exotic settings but the plot of Stations of the Tide was at least comprehensible most of the time. It reminded me most of Robert Silverberg’s fantasy, especially his novel Downward to the Earth.
Stations of the Tide was originally published in two parts in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine in 1990 but was published as a book in 1991. It won the Nebula Award for best novel that year and was also nominated for the Hugo Award, the Campbell Award, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Try Stations of the Tide if you like lushly exotic alien settings and don’t mind feeling like you’ve taken the same hallucinogens that the protagonist took.
It’s the Jubilee Year on the planet Miranda. Every 200 years the planet floods and humans must leave until Miranda’s continents are reborn. Miranda used to be the home of an indigenous species of shapeshifters who, during Jubilee, would return to their aquatic forms until the waters receded, but it seems that humans have killed them off.
Gregorian, who lives on Miranda but was educated off-planet by a rich and distant father, now styles himself a magician and is telling the citizens of Miranda that he can transform them into sea creatures so they can stay on the planet. He has stolen a piece of proscribed technology from Earth and our protagonist, who we know only as “the bureaucrat,� has been sent to find out what Gregorian has up his sleeve. The bureaucrat must track down Gregorian before the Jubilee tides flood the planet. During his quest he learns about the exotic planet’s history, meets several strange residents, does a lot of hallucinating, has a lot of sex, worries about his job back home, and gets hooked on a local soap opera. The middle of the book bogs down in a haze of drugs and sex which feels slightly self-indulgent, but Swanwick manages to make it fit the plot. In the end, it’s not just Miranda that changes.
Stations of the Tide, which has been compared to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, is often surreal and confusing, but this seems to fit the dark exotic planet. The setting was my favorite part of the story � Miranda is both beautiful and frightening. I especially loved the Grandfather Tree which has many trunks descending from its huge branches and houses a café and a shipwreck.
Then there’s the technology: the bureaucrat has a walking talking briefcase and can split his consciousness into surrogate electronic forms that can run errands for him. He’s very surprised to find that the Mirandans had even higher forms of technology until they were made illegal by the bureaucrat’s agency. The Mirandans resent this.
Some readers are likely to be put off by the nameless bureaucrat because he’s somewhat flat and emotionless for much of the novel, but Oliver Wyman, the narrator of Audible Frontier’s version, made him feel like a real person rather than a nameless entity. I liked Wyman’s interpretation of the bureaucrat’s epigrammatic business-like style. His aloofness made it all the more moving when he rarely but suddenly was overwhelmed with emotion.
This is the second novel by Michael Swanwick that I’ve tried. I didn’t at all like the first one, The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, but I liked Stations of the Tide even though it had some of the same issues. Both novels are original and inventive with exotic settings but the plot of Stations of the Tide was at least comprehensible most of the time. It reminded me most of Robert Silverberg’s fantasy, especially his novel Downward to the Earth.
Stations of the Tide was originally published in two parts in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine in 1990 but was published as a book in 1991. It won the Nebula Award for best novel that year and was also nominated for the Hugo Award, the Campbell Award, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Try Stations of the Tide if you like lushly exotic alien settings and don’t mind feeling like you’ve taken the same hallucinogens that the protagonist took.
May 10, 2018
Actual rating: 2.5 stars
What an odd little novel! Not my usual fare at all, and I wouldn’t have picked it up or persevered if it wasn’t on my project reading list (and if it wasn’t so short). I can see where many people would find it interesting and intriguing. I merely found it all confusing, so it’s not my cuppa tea.
The main character never even gets a name—he is merely “the bureaucrat.� When I first started the book, I thought, “Oh good, this is a sci-fi mystery!� And it kind of was, but it also wasn’t. There’s a lot of odd technology and strange biology. It reminded me a lot of Philip K. Dick’s writing, actually, which I quite like. It had that same trippy quality, so I’m not sure why it rubbed me the wrong way, but it did. It also made me think about Gibson’s Neuromancer, with its hallucinatory qualities.
This is the only Swanwick book on my reading list, but I may at some point try some of his other writing just as an experiment, to see what else he has to offer.
Book number 284 in my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project.
What an odd little novel! Not my usual fare at all, and I wouldn’t have picked it up or persevered if it wasn’t on my project reading list (and if it wasn’t so short). I can see where many people would find it interesting and intriguing. I merely found it all confusing, so it’s not my cuppa tea.
The main character never even gets a name—he is merely “the bureaucrat.� When I first started the book, I thought, “Oh good, this is a sci-fi mystery!� And it kind of was, but it also wasn’t. There’s a lot of odd technology and strange biology. It reminded me a lot of Philip K. Dick’s writing, actually, which I quite like. It had that same trippy quality, so I’m not sure why it rubbed me the wrong way, but it did. It also made me think about Gibson’s Neuromancer, with its hallucinatory qualities.
This is the only Swanwick book on my reading list, but I may at some point try some of his other writing just as an experiment, to see what else he has to offer.
Book number 284 in my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project.
June 26, 2015
This is one of the books that I described as: good beginning, tedious but necessary middle part, good ending.
It has interesting ideas: planetary romance, and conflict between Miranda people needs and rule of forbidden technology share, to name two of them. But the execution is too slow for my personal taste.
What saved this book to make me like this book: the foreshadow clues are good and the climax ending used the clues well to burn my excitement. What an ending! (Argh! I need to restrain myself not to spoil it).
If only this book has 2-3 more surprises (and made the novel less boring in the middle part), this novel could become 5 Star.
It has interesting ideas: planetary romance, and conflict between Miranda people needs and rule of forbidden technology share, to name two of them. But the execution is too slow for my personal taste.
What saved this book to make me like this book: the foreshadow clues are good and the climax ending used the clues well to burn my excitement. What an ending! (Argh! I need to restrain myself not to spoil it).
If only this book has 2-3 more surprises (and made the novel less boring in the middle part), this novel could become 5 Star.
December 20, 2007
Despite the sci fi suit this book sometimes wears, this is a full on plunge into surrealism. A story of shape changing, clones, virtual reality, a decaying dying planet, a pastiche of Shakespeare's The Tempest, and other things told in explosion of images straight from the magic realism camp(minus most pretense of "reality"). A paranoid stacking of incidents like Pynchon and diseased and demented characters like Kafka. This is one very literary and mind blowing novel, kind of "Crying of Lot 49" meets Gene Wolfe's "Fifth Head of Cerberus".
June 12, 2022
What a long, winding, complicated road one must travel to come to the end of this journey. At worst it was very confusing, at best it was quite interesting.
On the whole, it was just compelling enough, despite the fits of frustration, to keep me coming back - reading word by word until the very end.
On the whole, it was just compelling enough, despite the fits of frustration, to keep me coming back - reading word by word until the very end.
April 25, 2019
A man known only as 'the bureaucrat' searches for an elusive wizard on a planet plagued by catastrophic tides. In this universe a vague domineering organization housed in a labyrinthine structure known as the Puzzle Palace regulates access to technology among planets. When a society is deemed to have been irresponsible, its technology is revoked and its development stage is regressed. Puzzle Palace staff utilize 'surrogates' to travel safely in zones where their presence may not be welcome or to simply allow themselves to multi-task. There is a strong undercurrent of classism running through the novel, coupled with an overarching critique of bureaucracy and autocratic control. Mystery and the supernatural mingle together in this unique work that has made me think twice about the value of a good briefcase.
December 28, 2015
I got halfway through & just didn't care if I read another page or not. I'm not sure if the writing wasn't up to snuff or it was the plot - maybe it was the characters. I think it was. I didn't like the hero much & there wasn't a single supporting character that was more than a caricature. The hero was a self absorbed bureaucrat. There were also some sex that just seemed to be put in there to add interest. They didn't. Everything about the book seemed slightly out of place & phase. Anyway, it didn't click for me at all.
January 20, 2010
4.0 stars. A very original novel with a smart blend of science fiction and fantasy elements that make an excellent story.
Nominee: Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: John W. Campbell Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Winner: Nebula Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: John W. Campbell Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Winner: Nebula Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
January 29, 2024
My 1998 booklog says: "A+, classic, reread again sometime. [have copy]"
September 17, 2011
Swanwick is one those rare authors who - I believe - deserves more recognition than he gets. He is certainly not for everyone (yes, yes, I realize I'm balancing precariously on the very edge of eternal hipsterdoom here); Stations of the Tide lacks that solid straightforwardness which popular books usually possess. The pacing is uneven, and the story often stumbles and walks in circles, and sometimes I got the feeling that the author and I are equally confused as to where we are heading.
Frankly, Station of the Tide is not so much a walk through the woods (dangers untold and hardships unnumbered), but a voyage through the unknown and troubled waters. The ocean refuses to be mapped; ruthless and willful, it changes its liquid landscapes on a whim and with the sky constantly overcast every direction looks the same, so is it any wonder at all that you feel a little lost?
Indeed, among those few reviewers who actually bothered to write more than two lines about Station of the Tide, almost everyone compared it to Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I can't really approve or disapprove of this comparison for, being a typical russian barbarian, I've never read the latter, but I thought it's worth mentioning since my more educated friends might find it helpful.
My barbaric origins aside, I can make a few comparisons of my own.
Swanwick is not the first author to introduce me to drugs in science fiction - that rather doubtful honor belongs to PKD. For a very long time I firmly believed that writing about drugs was an undivided domain of beatniks. It was the unquestioned right of those who misspent their youth in 1960's. Of course, the sci-fi novels I read as a child couldn't avoid the topic completely, but in them drugs were always presented as an unwanted and shameful appendix of the bright new world, something that the near-perfect half-gods which humans had evolved into didn't need, didn't long for.
Swanwick is by no means a drugs-enthusiast that PKD was. In fact, the drugs in Stations of the Tide is a thing of the past, treated with contempt by scientifically advanced "offworlders" and reduced to shamanic brews and weird concoctions which magicians gulp down in order to gain power. Think Carlos Castaneda, or - if you must - Stanislav Grof (at his weirdest).
Then there is sex. Funny how, as an adult, I've come to expect books to "put out". Not that I would think any less of the authors who decided not to include sexual scenes in their novels, but ignoring the elephant in the room can only take you so far. With Station of the Tide, however, I imagine the story would not have suffered too great a loss if Swanwick had chosen to forego the "sexy" part completely. His writing style seems to work better for the fairy-tale innocence of his short fiction. Although, to be fair, I have to admit that the two sexual scenes Swanwick did wrote into the story are not atrociously bad. They are just awkward and corny (especially so if you consider that they are written from the point of view of a middle-aged man).
After reading all this, you may think that I didn't like the book. That's not true. Actually, this is exactly why I believe that Michael Swanwick is so great: I liked the book despite all these things; despite the awkward sex scenes and failed attempts at originality, despite confusing plot and weird pacing and some other things that made very little sense.
There is a lot to like about Stations of the Tide.
Somehow Michael Swanwick managed to pack a very real - living and breathing - world into the limited space of a relatively short novel. Swanwick's writing style is reminiscent of that one of Bradbury's -though not as refined, not quite as polished yet. What I like the most, however, is that Swanwick is both visceral and visual author. The visual part is responsible for the absolutely magnificent book covers as well as some breathtaking views inside the book, while the visceral part allows Swanwick to build an eerily realistic world based on a completely unrealistic premise.
Frankly, Station of the Tide is not so much a walk through the woods (dangers untold and hardships unnumbered), but a voyage through the unknown and troubled waters. The ocean refuses to be mapped; ruthless and willful, it changes its liquid landscapes on a whim and with the sky constantly overcast every direction looks the same, so is it any wonder at all that you feel a little lost?
Indeed, among those few reviewers who actually bothered to write more than two lines about Station of the Tide, almost everyone compared it to Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I can't really approve or disapprove of this comparison for, being a typical russian barbarian, I've never read the latter, but I thought it's worth mentioning since my more educated friends might find it helpful.
My barbaric origins aside, I can make a few comparisons of my own.
Swanwick is not the first author to introduce me to drugs in science fiction - that rather doubtful honor belongs to PKD. For a very long time I firmly believed that writing about drugs was an undivided domain of beatniks. It was the unquestioned right of those who misspent their youth in 1960's. Of course, the sci-fi novels I read as a child couldn't avoid the topic completely, but in them drugs were always presented as an unwanted and shameful appendix of the bright new world, something that the near-perfect half-gods which humans had evolved into didn't need, didn't long for.
Swanwick is by no means a drugs-enthusiast that PKD was. In fact, the drugs in Stations of the Tide is a thing of the past, treated with contempt by scientifically advanced "offworlders" and reduced to shamanic brews and weird concoctions which magicians gulp down in order to gain power. Think Carlos Castaneda, or - if you must - Stanislav Grof (at his weirdest).
Then there is sex. Funny how, as an adult, I've come to expect books to "put out". Not that I would think any less of the authors who decided not to include sexual scenes in their novels, but ignoring the elephant in the room can only take you so far. With Station of the Tide, however, I imagine the story would not have suffered too great a loss if Swanwick had chosen to forego the "sexy" part completely. His writing style seems to work better for the fairy-tale innocence of his short fiction. Although, to be fair, I have to admit that the two sexual scenes Swanwick did wrote into the story are not atrociously bad. They are just awkward and corny (especially so if you consider that they are written from the point of view of a middle-aged man).
After reading all this, you may think that I didn't like the book. That's not true. Actually, this is exactly why I believe that Michael Swanwick is so great: I liked the book despite all these things; despite the awkward sex scenes and failed attempts at originality, despite confusing plot and weird pacing and some other things that made very little sense.
There is a lot to like about Stations of the Tide.
Somehow Michael Swanwick managed to pack a very real - living and breathing - world into the limited space of a relatively short novel. Swanwick's writing style is reminiscent of that one of Bradbury's -though not as refined, not quite as polished yet. What I like the most, however, is that Swanwick is both visceral and visual author. The visual part is responsible for the absolutely magnificent book covers as well as some breathtaking views inside the book, while the visceral part allows Swanwick to build an eerily realistic world based on a completely unrealistic premise.
September 16, 2023
This book just got so weird. Sort of a like a literary 2001 where the story starts out relatively straight-forward but then about halfway through, the author drops a coupla happy face stamps and whoosh we are off to dreamland folks. The two century flood thing seems to be a trope I read before, but I can't recall in which book. Regardless, this one features imaginative writing, but damned if I could make heads or tails out of it once it went full-on Pollack painting.
April 13, 2024
Took me several tried to get into this one. I am glad I kept trying because it was worth the effort. It was recommended to me by someone on the Roger Zelazny group, and I had loved Vacuum Flowers by the same author so I bought it sight unseen.
The main character seemed flat and the events obscure to an annoying degree, but a couple of days ago I realised that I did not want to put it down and knew I was hooked. There are a number of underlying themes that it holds in common with vacuum flowers (my first cyberpunk book):
- An organic, transient living space in which humans are not natural.
- The theme of our main character being introduced to squalor.
- A strong 'magical' or numinous ongoing experience.
The ending is simple, perfect and brilliant. I put the book down with a sense of satisfaction.
The main character seemed flat and the events obscure to an annoying degree, but a couple of days ago I realised that I did not want to put it down and knew I was hooked. There are a number of underlying themes that it holds in common with vacuum flowers (my first cyberpunk book):
- An organic, transient living space in which humans are not natural.
- The theme of our main character being introduced to squalor.
- A strong 'magical' or numinous ongoing experience.
The ending is simple, perfect and brilliant. I put the book down with a sense of satisfaction.
October 24, 2021
A hallucinogenic mind trip - went over my head
No way to describe this book properly - lush and exotic alien planet, magic-like science (or vice versa), the impending transformation of a planet about to flooded under water, mysterious native shapeshifters, giant AIs, frequent echoes of The Tempest, and a investigative plot that never really seems to be much more than a vehicle for a steady stream of mind-bending weirdness. Definitely a book you need to approach with care, and in the right frame of mind, to fully appreciate. Felt lost and confused for most of it, but maybe will give it a another listen someday.
No way to describe this book properly - lush and exotic alien planet, magic-like science (or vice versa), the impending transformation of a planet about to flooded under water, mysterious native shapeshifters, giant AIs, frequent echoes of The Tempest, and a investigative plot that never really seems to be much more than a vehicle for a steady stream of mind-bending weirdness. Definitely a book you need to approach with care, and in the right frame of mind, to fully appreciate. Felt lost and confused for most of it, but maybe will give it a another listen someday.
April 5, 2023
Station of the Tide didn't age well. The misogyny is strong, and it left a very bad taste in my mouth.
March 29, 2025
"In Zeiten der Flut" ist ein wilder Mix aus Herz der Finsternis und Shakespeares "der Sturm" im Science Fiction Korsett.
Der Planet Miranda wird alle 100 Jahre von einer Flut heimgesucht. Alle Lebewesen, jetzt Landbewohner passen sich kurz vorher an und werden Meeresbewohner.
Auf dem Planeten ist Technologie verboten und als es nun das Gerücht gibt, dass verbotene Technologie benutzt wurde, wird ein Bürokrat einer ominösen Behörde entsandt um den Urheber aufzuspüren.
Das ist die Handlung. Der Protagonist ist namenlos und wird nur Bürokrat genannt. Er begibt sich auf den Planeten und sucht Gregorian.
Dieser hat den Ruf ein Magier zu sein und ist ein Mann voller Mysterien.
Auf der Suche wird der Bürokrat immer tiefer in die mysteriöse Welt Mirandas und ihrer Bewohner gezogen. Wirklich und Fantasie verschwimmen immer mehr. Der Bürokrat ist fasziniert von Gregorian, verfolgt in aber auch erbittert. Diese Suche erinnert sehr an Conrads "Herz der Finsternis". Auch dort verfolgt Marlow einen faszinierenden Antagonisten Kurz und gerät in einen finsteren Sog.
Swanwick schreibt wie im Fiebertraum. Die Handlung ist dicht und schreitet schnell voran.
Der magische Realismus ist allgegenwärtig.
Der Bürokrat kann irgendwann nicht mehr zwischen Realität und Visionen unterscheiden und verliert sich in der bunten Welt Mirandas.
Diese Weg beschreibt Swanwick auf meisterliche Weise.
Man hat selten so einen dichten Science Fiction Roman gelesen.
Der Planet selbst mit seinen Menschen und Lebewesen ist ein eigener Akteur in der Handlung. Swanwick hat seiner Zukunftsvision einen komplexen und faszinierenden Unterbau gegeben.
Grandiose Science Fiction mit einer Sogwirkung sondergleichen.
Der Planet Miranda wird alle 100 Jahre von einer Flut heimgesucht. Alle Lebewesen, jetzt Landbewohner passen sich kurz vorher an und werden Meeresbewohner.
Auf dem Planeten ist Technologie verboten und als es nun das Gerücht gibt, dass verbotene Technologie benutzt wurde, wird ein Bürokrat einer ominösen Behörde entsandt um den Urheber aufzuspüren.
Das ist die Handlung. Der Protagonist ist namenlos und wird nur Bürokrat genannt. Er begibt sich auf den Planeten und sucht Gregorian.
Dieser hat den Ruf ein Magier zu sein und ist ein Mann voller Mysterien.
Auf der Suche wird der Bürokrat immer tiefer in die mysteriöse Welt Mirandas und ihrer Bewohner gezogen. Wirklich und Fantasie verschwimmen immer mehr. Der Bürokrat ist fasziniert von Gregorian, verfolgt in aber auch erbittert. Diese Suche erinnert sehr an Conrads "Herz der Finsternis". Auch dort verfolgt Marlow einen faszinierenden Antagonisten Kurz und gerät in einen finsteren Sog.
Swanwick schreibt wie im Fiebertraum. Die Handlung ist dicht und schreitet schnell voran.
Der magische Realismus ist allgegenwärtig.
Der Bürokrat kann irgendwann nicht mehr zwischen Realität und Visionen unterscheiden und verliert sich in der bunten Welt Mirandas.
Diese Weg beschreibt Swanwick auf meisterliche Weise.
Man hat selten so einen dichten Science Fiction Roman gelesen.
Der Planet selbst mit seinen Menschen und Lebewesen ist ein eigener Akteur in der Handlung. Swanwick hat seiner Zukunftsvision einen komplexen und faszinierenden Unterbau gegeben.
Grandiose Science Fiction mit einer Sogwirkung sondergleichen.
October 15, 2008
More coherant than , less emotionally wrenching than , but just as stuffed with innovation and imagination as all of Swanwick's work. An unnamed bureaucrat is sent to a Miranda to investigate possible stolen technology. Miranda is a colony world, forbidden to have any advanced technology, which has led to intense resentment and a thriving subculture of bush wizards.
March 14, 2019
7/10. Nebula del 92. LeÃda en el 2003.
Mezcla de sociedad con una dependencia absoluta de las estaciones de gran duración y tecnologÃa avanzada restringida. Mezcla sexo, magia, intrigas galácticas y todo lo que se le ocurre al autor en pocas páginas.
Curiosa, rara, original, a ratos confusa. Le podéis colgar un montón de estos adjetivos.
Mezcla de sociedad con una dependencia absoluta de las estaciones de gran duración y tecnologÃa avanzada restringida. Mezcla sexo, magia, intrigas galácticas y todo lo que se le ocurre al autor en pocas páginas.
Curiosa, rara, original, a ratos confusa. Le podéis colgar un montón de estos adjetivos.
September 29, 2015
Hmm - not sure how I feel about this one entirely. It was good overall. It had Gene Wolfe's tricky paw prints all over it: oblique events, rambling dialogue that means something maybe, obscure aliens you never really meet, some dodgy gender politics (ok Swanwick is not as bad Wolfe in this department - not every female is out to sleep with the main character or is otherwise a psycho bitch).
As to the plot - an agent guy lands on a planet to investigate the illegal appropriation of technology by a supposed magician who is bad. He wanders about a colonialist heart of darkness kind of landscape in a world that is about to be entirely flooded by a global seasonal cycle. From here he meets enigmatic characters, witnesses hallucinatory events, other stuff in line with this book's surrealist-sci fi roots.
You can't go wrong if you like this kind of thing. Not the best but still worth a visit.
As to the plot - an agent guy lands on a planet to investigate the illegal appropriation of technology by a supposed magician who is bad. He wanders about a colonialist heart of darkness kind of landscape in a world that is about to be entirely flooded by a global seasonal cycle. From here he meets enigmatic characters, witnesses hallucinatory events, other stuff in line with this book's surrealist-sci fi roots.
You can't go wrong if you like this kind of thing. Not the best but still worth a visit.
June 17, 2013
This is one of those obvious classics of SF, if not for anything but the sensation of transportation it gives me. It is a story about sufficiently advanced technology wearing a cloak of magical realism.
Miranda and its people, the avant garde of now banned technology, is facing a winter in which the land is overcome by a great flood in which the dimorphic flora and fauna will burst forth in dazzling transformation. Everything unable to be transported offplanet or secured will be utterly destroyed. So in the days before the Jubilee tides, there is a fin de siecle mentality, and magic is in the air, as pervasive as saltwater.
The bureaucrat is a man on a mission to secure illegal technology brought to Miranda by the magician Gregorian. Just as the cultural psychology of Miranda is transformed by the impending sea change, so is the psychology of the bureaucrat who finds himself submerged in unusual trials.
Swanwick fits large ideas in such a small book! Not everything is explained outright, and the reader needs to read between the lines or engage in some extrapolation. Nevertheless, it is a rewarding experience to feast upon this feat of the imagination. Interestingly enough, one of the issues explored here is the dangers of technology, and Swanwick shows us an advanced and idealized version of the world wide web; rather than multi-tasking within the mind like the people of Miranda, we do this already, with our smartphones, tablets, personal computers, televisions, etcetera. It won't be long before reality makes a prophet of Swanwick.
I'd put Stations of the Tide right up there in the same category as Ian McDonald's Desolation Road, Bester's The Stars My Destination, and M John Harrison's Light. I understand that there are certain expectations people have when approaching a book, but in the end, all it takes is not characterization, not prose, but how it makes the reader feel. I felt like it was the end of the world and I learned to love it. I remember reading this in middle school, and took away with me nothing but that sensation, and a love for apocalyptic fiction.
The Stations of the Tide has one mean undertow.
Miranda and its people, the avant garde of now banned technology, is facing a winter in which the land is overcome by a great flood in which the dimorphic flora and fauna will burst forth in dazzling transformation. Everything unable to be transported offplanet or secured will be utterly destroyed. So in the days before the Jubilee tides, there is a fin de siecle mentality, and magic is in the air, as pervasive as saltwater.
The bureaucrat is a man on a mission to secure illegal technology brought to Miranda by the magician Gregorian. Just as the cultural psychology of Miranda is transformed by the impending sea change, so is the psychology of the bureaucrat who finds himself submerged in unusual trials.
Swanwick fits large ideas in such a small book! Not everything is explained outright, and the reader needs to read between the lines or engage in some extrapolation. Nevertheless, it is a rewarding experience to feast upon this feat of the imagination. Interestingly enough, one of the issues explored here is the dangers of technology, and Swanwick shows us an advanced and idealized version of the world wide web; rather than multi-tasking within the mind like the people of Miranda, we do this already, with our smartphones, tablets, personal computers, televisions, etcetera. It won't be long before reality makes a prophet of Swanwick.
I'd put Stations of the Tide right up there in the same category as Ian McDonald's Desolation Road, Bester's The Stars My Destination, and M John Harrison's Light. I understand that there are certain expectations people have when approaching a book, but in the end, all it takes is not characterization, not prose, but how it makes the reader feel. I felt like it was the end of the world and I learned to love it. I remember reading this in middle school, and took away with me nothing but that sensation, and a love for apocalyptic fiction.
The Stations of the Tide has one mean undertow.
June 28, 2012
Wow, that was gorgeous.
I'm still digesting as I write this, and it's going to take multiple re-readings to begin to unpack the payload of symbolism and reference in this slender volume. And, unlike most novels that aim for those kind of effects, it's very good SF as well, with a rich and consistent vision of a future human civilization, packed with gorgeous, dazzling images and ideas.
I would love to read a book about this book, that chases down the referents, traces the story-within-a-story of the TV soap opera the characters watch, and makes explicit some of the cultural and ecological stuff that Swanwick just hints at.
Why only four stars when I'm babbling over how brilliant it was? Because it kept me at arms length. The ending was more coherent and comprehensible than I feared, but I closed the book with a "hmm," rather than an "aah." I reserve the right to bump it up after further reflection.
Addendum: Two more observations strike me as worth adding.
1) Many reviewers will tell you that this is "A blend of fantasy and science fiction." That is a license to dismiss them as shallow and inattentive readers. Swanwick's treatment of magic in this book is the best, most nuanced and unsentimental I have ever seen in fiction. His magicians are extraordinary people with extraordinary skills. However,
2) Like his hero Gene Wolfe, Swanwick is clearly writing ambitiously here, with serious things to say about right and wrong and the human condition. As is often the case with Gene Wolfe, I finished the book uncertain what those things actually were. And as is often the case with Gene Wolfe, the intoxication of language and setting will keep bringing me back to contemplate and re-read even if I despair of figuring out what the book was about.
I'm still digesting as I write this, and it's going to take multiple re-readings to begin to unpack the payload of symbolism and reference in this slender volume. And, unlike most novels that aim for those kind of effects, it's very good SF as well, with a rich and consistent vision of a future human civilization, packed with gorgeous, dazzling images and ideas.
I would love to read a book about this book, that chases down the referents, traces the story-within-a-story of the TV soap opera the characters watch, and makes explicit some of the cultural and ecological stuff that Swanwick just hints at.
Why only four stars when I'm babbling over how brilliant it was? Because it kept me at arms length. The ending was more coherent and comprehensible than I feared, but I closed the book with a "hmm," rather than an "aah." I reserve the right to bump it up after further reflection.
Addendum: Two more observations strike me as worth adding.
1) Many reviewers will tell you that this is "A blend of fantasy and science fiction." That is a license to dismiss them as shallow and inattentive readers. Swanwick's treatment of magic in this book is the best, most nuanced and unsentimental I have ever seen in fiction. His magicians are extraordinary people with extraordinary skills. However,
2) Like his hero Gene Wolfe, Swanwick is clearly writing ambitiously here, with serious things to say about right and wrong and the human condition. As is often the case with Gene Wolfe, I finished the book uncertain what those things actually were. And as is often the case with Gene Wolfe, the intoxication of language and setting will keep bringing me back to contemplate and re-read even if I despair of figuring out what the book was about.
December 16, 2008
A science fiction re-telling of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." The unnamed Bureaucrat plays the role of Marlow, who travels to the planet of Miranda to find the enigmatic figure known as Gregorian. Authorities suspect Gregorian is using banned off-world technology to pose as a magician in the decadent and half-pagan culture of the Tidewater. Add in the threat of the Jubilee tides, natural cataclysmic floods that are due to drown the Tidewater underwater, and the hunt for Gregorian becomes a race against time. The Bureaucrat's chase for the mysterious wizard changes him more than he would ever admit, until he is ready to turn his back on everything that brought him to Miranda.
The beginning chapters setup the story well, but it loses some steam in the middle as the narrative gets a little slippery, diving in and out of drugged dream sequences and digressions. The last two chapters or so tie it up well, and left me thinking of the final image for a while: The Bureaucrat and his trusty briefcase standing on a rock in the middle of the newly-swollen ocean. This briefcase is no ordinary briefcase.
The beginning chapters setup the story well, but it loses some steam in the middle as the narrative gets a little slippery, diving in and out of drugged dream sequences and digressions. The last two chapters or so tie it up well, and left me thinking of the final image for a while: The Bureaucrat and his trusty briefcase standing on a rock in the middle of the newly-swollen ocean. This briefcase is no ordinary briefcase.
October 31, 2013
This is a pretty weird kind of book. First of all, it doesn't explain anything. Either you pick it up from context, or you're lost. Sink or swim. Second, there's a bit of a weird juxtaposition of high tech and magic (the latter mostly through tantric sex. In case you always wanted to know more about that). Don't expect much in terms of morality from the characters either. If women sexually assaulting men disturb you, this might not be for you.
In spite of all that, I quite liked it. I would give it 3.5 stars if I could. (please Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ PTB, give us a 10-star scale, pretty please?)
The feeling that permeates the book is of great sadness paired with a kind of desperate decadence, so it's not really an uplifting read. It is a pretty good personal journey of the main character though, a nameless bureaucrat, sent to Miranda to hunt down a rogue element who stole some forbidden tech. In the course of his travels across the doomed planet, the bureaucrat also learns quite a lot about himself, and discovers unknown talents.
In spite of all that, I quite liked it. I would give it 3.5 stars if I could. (please Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ PTB, give us a 10-star scale, pretty please?)
The feeling that permeates the book is of great sadness paired with a kind of desperate decadence, so it's not really an uplifting read. It is a pretty good personal journey of the main character though, a nameless bureaucrat, sent to Miranda to hunt down a rogue element who stole some forbidden tech. In the course of his travels across the doomed planet, the bureaucrat also learns quite a lot about himself, and discovers unknown talents.
May 26, 2010
Having reread this for the first time in 8 years, and remembering some intense images but very little else, I'm VERY glad I did so . This book is weirdly flat emotionally, not least because of the cipher main character that is the Bureaucrat, or the wisp of a motivation we see in the antagonist. But the universe is fantastic, the pseudophilosophizing is lovely and engaging, the references and hints of the occult are copious, the carnivalesque atmosphere is hard to top, and this skinny little volume gives you a sense of a vastly weirder and larger world than just the stuff we see. The sense of mystery and all the open questions this book leaves is just amazing. Not to mention the plain old badass sidekick, a nanotech factory/intelligent briefcase. Deserved every award it got. Not as emotionally gripping as Iron Dragon's Daughter, but maybe even more inventive.
August 5, 2011
Interesting idea, poorly executed. The book was written haphazardly, often it was difficult to follow what was going on; characters who were only briefly introduced later become pivotal for no reason, and the book's setting was so dimly explained as to leave the reader wondering what was going on. It just didn't make sense for about 80% of the book. Don't waste your time with this one....
January 16, 2020
This book was weird where it creates a really interesting planetary system and teases at there being a huge mystery, but then it all kind of falls flat for me. It had some interesting bits but I felt myself rushing through it just to get it finished.
July 4, 2021
A lovely frustrating jumble of a book, it’s not really about what they say it is ( forbidden tech) but I’m not sure what it IS about. Sort of borders on Delany’s DHALGREN. I enjoyed most of it.
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