Barclay James Heart Of Granite

When you read heart of granite you ll realise immediately that is has nothing to do with commercial dragon flights but it was the notion of people travelling about inside living reptiles that was the base inspiration.

Barclay james heart of granite.

Heart of granite by james barclay. And me being me what they do it travel to places and have wars with each other. You may know james for his fantasy novels. The website and blog of fantasy author james barclay extract from heart of granite history will record that the discovery of alien technology and dna on asteroid x345 102 401 brought us to a predictable catastrophe.

Overall heart of granite is a solid sci fi action novel with a likeable protagonist and side characters that tackles a troubling story about addiction and the horrors of war underneath the heart pounding drake flying action. Apart from being the president of the british fantasy society following on from ramsey campbell who held that position for decades james barclay is better known as the author of several fantasy series starting way back in 1999 with the chronicles of the raven trilogy followed by other series. The raven series and his elves series which were traditional fantasy novels involving mercenaries dragons and elves. But in barclay s world the regular readers will know that i wasn t a fan of heinlein s seminal novel starship troopers.

He is an arrogant risk taking pilot in the armed forces of united europe a futuristic power bloc engaged in endless war. Heart of granite. Military sci fi goes reptilian in james barclay s heart of granite. But for those determined to retain power the prolonged stalemate cannot be tolerated so desperate measures must be taken.

Barclay is a master of atmosphere. Mark yon august 6 2016 0 comment. Heart of granite 2016 james barclay gollancz 16 99 trdpbk 412pp isbn 978 1 473 20243 6. Heart of granite is a giant slithering leviathan and base a mobile aircraft and land craft carrier which moves on land and contains thousands of soldiers and dozens of fighter pilots.

The war has been endemic and going on for years between the eight or nine power blocs that seek to conquer from each other as much land as possible to feed their sprawling population. But this is not humans versus reptiles as you might think. The heart of granite or the hog is a leviathan creature a behemoth. Set on earth in a future where.

This is humans using genetically modified reptiles as weapons and transport in a three way world war over resources. Barclay has come up with the brilliant but slightly bonkers idea of a world using dna to create reptilian or insect like pieces of military software living creatures which soldiers can ride on based on creatures like geckos or iguanas or fast moving basilisks. The world has become a battleground in a war which no side is winning.