PRAISE FOR THE EARLY SHORT FICTION OF TOBIAS S. BUCKELL
It's on the basis of these early stories that Buckell was a Finalist, John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, 2002
For SPURN BABYLON
From "Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root" (Nalo Hopkinson, ed.)
Somber, affirming ... stands out as one of the most powerful stories.
Publishers Weekly
Embodies the strength and spirit of the people within Caribbean literature.
SF Site
For DEATH'S DREADLOCKS
From anthology MOJO (Nalo Hopkinson, ed.)
One of the strongest ... reads like a folk-tale handed down through generations.
SFFWorld
For A GREEN THUMB
From "Analog"
A nice crisp story ready for harvest.
Tangent On-Line
For TIDES
From anthology IDEOMANCER UNBOUND
A delightfully well crafted tale that held me in thrall from beginning to end.
Tangent
Fantasy readers will enjoy the unique world, the well-told story full of believable feelings and conflict, and well-drawn characters.
SF Reader
For NORD'S GAMBIT
From Switch.blade
Wonderfully imaginative ... moves brilliantly from spoof to surrealism -- and back again, to a smooth landing ... a must-read story, a special story, one of the gems of the collection.
SF Reader
Two stories, SPURN BABYLON and TRINKETS, were Honorable Mention in Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, 2000 and 2001.
Buckell's promising debut. ...a twist that adds a sci-fi edge to this tale's mythological underpinnings.
Philadelphia Inquirer
Buckell does a nice job of setting the stage and the pages turn quickly. I'm still on board for Volume Two. The possibilities for the series are tantalizing.
Contra Costa Times
...[A] promising debut. It's a twist that adds a sci-fi edge tp this tale's mythological underpinnings.
Kansas City Star
Buckell does a fairly smooth job unwrapping the plot.
Tampa Bay Tribune
Readers who like sieges, strategies and swashbuckling heroes will thoroughly enjoy this fast-moving tale.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
A fast-moving and thoroughly enjoyable tale that kept me reading almost non-stop.
Midwest Book Review
In this stellar debut, Buckell has created an amazing world. The plot is well-constructed and the writing is simply superb, particularly the dialogue, which is amazingly beautiful.
Romantic Times
Enjoyable...for a first-timer Buckell handles his interlocking narratives well and his characters retain their humanity.
Publishers Weekly
Buckell's debut captures the flavor of Afro-Caribbean culture in the lilting dialog of his characters and in their customs. An original tale with distinctive characters and a fresh approach to worldbuilding, this sf quest belongs in most libraries.
Library Journal (Starred Review)
Buckell's first novel conjures a vividly imagined world, spiced with intrigue and adventure that unfolds at a breakneck pace.
Booklist
An auspicious debut. Buckell's done what a first novelist needs to do: to make us want to know about his world, and more about his imagination. His announced next novel, Ragamuffin, is certainly worth looking forward to.
Locus
A good old SF adventure story. His Creole background lends a colorful touch to his characters and dialogue, and his clever reworking of familiar tropes makes this a standout first novel.
Locus (Short review)
Crystal Rain is a totally engrossing, can't-put-it-down reading experience. The setting is superb, the characters are fascinating and DeBrun, the enigmatic Pepper and the conflicted Oaxyctl are one of the great fictional triumvirates. This is lush SF adventure in the C.L. Moore vein. Hopefully more installments are on the way.
Starlog
Even non-sci-fi readers will be bowled over by...Tobias Buckell's Crystal Rain... Violent, poetic and compulsively readable.
Maclean's (Canada)
A pepperpot of a delectable, enjoyable story...Buckell is a deft, assured storyteller who will, hopefully, continue to publish novel-length fiction with the same eye for intricate setting and rounded characterization he's exhibited here in his debut novel.
SFF World
Infused with new life and excitement. Buckell's plotting is sturdy and swift with nary a longuer. For a thrilling adventure set on a unique world, this book couldn't be bettered.
SciFi.com (Paul Di Filippo)
A fast-paced pulp-style adventure ... a very satisfying first novel with a different and refreshing setting.
Emerald City
There's a great old-school pulp-adventure essence to Crystal Rain ... what Buckell does right, I'm happy to say he does breathtakingly right. Most effective is the evocation of place. His setting feels alive. There is real texture to Nanagada, its people, villages, back alleys and crowded markets. You can almost feel the humidity. Buckell's use of the sea as a critical setting is brilliantly handled, too...I can definitely say that there's nothing else on the racks right at this moment quite like it, and that Tobias Buckell is a name to add to you "watch this writer" list.
SFReviews.net
[Buckell's] first novel, CRYSTAL RAIN, is the sort of thing that will have readers watching for more. [He] has displayed a gift for imagination much greater than one book can hold. Sequels would surely please many readers, but if he imagines as thoroughly in new and unconnected novels, they too will please.
Analog
The hard part [of writing a novel] is a combination of fast pace with some glossy writing and intriguing characters. And I've noticed that this is a skill that science fiction writers are picking up. Case in point: the debut novel from Tobias S. Buckell, Crystal Rain.
I was actually quite surprised at how fast-paced the book was. I was glad to see, however, that as I was burning through the story, Buckell got each moment and each twist and turn exactly right.
Buckell writes that stuff with panache, and there's some remarkably strong science fiction in there too... [He] has way more atmosphere and colour in his story than an equivalent sf book... It takes a great deal of care to create something so balanced.
This gave me quite a joyful feeling as some new twist came into play and the world wrenched into a strange direction.
The Cultural Gutter
Once the world sank in and permeated my mind, I couldn't put the book down. Like all good books, it only got better as it progressed, all the way to the end.
GreenMan Review
Buckell has done an excellent job with his first Sci-Fi novel. This story is complex, fresh, and interesting--and wide open to a sequel.
Children's Literature
An impressive debut...with unique creatures, characters, and advanced technology; Crystal Rain blends plenty of action, suspense, culture, and science fiction. Buckell has created an interesting world that I'm looking forward to reading more about in his sequel Ragamuffin.
SciFi Chick
A galloping read that throws the reader into an alien world that they won't want to leave. I may have just found my new favorite sci-fi author.
Graeme's Fantasy Review
This is an exciting and imaginative debut from author Tobias S. Buckell. The story features characters that are carefully nuanced and thus, wholly believable. The ending, though logical, is truly heartbreaking.
Bookstove
Tobias Buckell combines old world with new in his novel CRYSTAL RAIN. While the rich cultures, drawn in part from Caribbean history and lore, echo a familiar landscape, he brings it out of the Earth milieu and into a bold new universe where technology and tradition collide. I enjoyed his colorful characters and musical use of language; his voice is fresh and entirely readable.
Karin Lowachee
CRYSTAL RAIN is refreshing and imaginative, an exotic stew of cultures, myths, and technology.
Kevin J. Anderson
After making the Campbell Ballot for Best New Writer with his short fiction, Tobias Buckell delivers on that promise with his first novel.
Mike Resnick
There's a nova in the skies: Tobias S. Buckell is a dazzling new voice, and CRYSTAL RAIN is an explosive debut. Read it!
Robert J. Sawyer
Hugo Award-winning author of HOMINIDS
An alive, exciting story. CRYSTAL RAIN is a great launch to Buckell's career as a novelist; more, please!
Nalo Hopkinson
Buckell represents an important force behind the genre's change... Buckell's work deals with complex racial issues in a way worthy of the self-proclaimed "literature of ideas" head-on, with no visible flinching while still managing to give its readers a rollicking good time.
Seattle Times
A thrilling fast-paced sci-fi adventure novel with some interesting themes, and one that I would recommend to anyone interested in speculative fiction.
The Caribbean Review of Books
The characters are solid, the action well done, and all in all, RAGAMUFFIN is a winner.
Contra Costa Times
Buckell plays with Caribbean and Aztec cultures, bending their exotic flavor to technology-flavored ends. Though the ending is never in doubt, the twisty ride getting there is a lot of fun.
Publishers Weekly
First-class space adventure, with tip-top characterization, action, and world-building. May Buckell enjoy a long, productive career.
Booklist
A well written fast paced tale.
Midwest Book Review
A compelling sophomore effort from Buckell. He's taken a number of hoary sf tropes and breathed new life into them. His worldbuilding is beyond solid and his characters are sympathetic and highly memorable.
Romantic Times
Part of the Sci Fi Channel's "Essential Book" series, [Ragamuffin] establishes the author as a signature voice of Afro-Caribbean speculative fiction. Fans of Nalo Hopkinson should enjoy this colorful and vibrant tale of the "good fight."
Library Journal
Exciting and inventive. The story is too rich and interesting to spoil. It's space opera, of course, but a heavily tetured one. Buckell is quickly proving himself a writer to shelve there with C.J. Cherryh, Alastair Reynolds, Dan Simmons and those few other writers who have managed to adopt the advantages of mainstream literature without giving up the skilled storytelling and sense of wonder of old style SF.
Critical Mass
Quite impressive. Buckell is not simply repeating himself but expanding on his first book and building his talents. The real fun of Ragamuffin is the complex universe and backstory, developed through hints in the first book and made more concrete in this one.
SF Revu
Tobias Buckell comes as close as anyone in the opening chapters of this book to reproducing the frissons of one of my favorite novels: Earthblood (1996), by Keith Laumer and Rosel George Brown. The sense of humans downtrodden by aliens, with the lone-wolf protagonist bravely fighting to restore the race's glory--all of that comes across delightfully, and it's grand stuff. Like Laumer and Brown, Buckell also has a keen grasp of sensory detail. His future environments are incredibly rich in smells, tactility and visuals. One gets instantly immersed in the sense of a truly lived-in future.
Buckell keeps all his plates spinning wildly and entertainingly enough to make the whole scenario ultimately a cohesive, comprehensible and entertaining one. This book is full of wild-eyed action...feats of bravery, exotic beings and odd ways of thought, startling uses of technology and bold manifestos on freedom.
SciFi.Com
There's a reason these novels are being touted as this season's "sci-fi must-haves." Don't miss out.
GreenMan Review
[Buckell] demonstrated again that adventure and well-written, high-concept speculation are not as mutually exclusive as they seem to be these days. With CRYSTAL RAIN or as a standalone story, RAGAMUFFIN is first-class science fiction.
Bookgasm
It's just as fast paced and thrilling as in the first book. I read Ragamuffin nonstop and was only sorry when I closed it that I'll have to wait again to spend more time in this splendid universe.
BookLoons
We're got ample evidence here that science fiction is alive, well and kicking ass.
The Agony Column
Hard hitting and fast moving, "Ragamuffin" sucked me in at the first page and left me gasping for breath by the time it finished. "Ragamuffin" was great fun to read and I look forward to seeing more of Tobias Buckell's work in the future.
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Buckell is one of a number of young writers who are redefining the genre, creating amazing new books and stories the likes of which the science fiction world hasn't seen in far too long. Both Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin are excellent places for new readers to discover the current sf genre. These books are accessible for readers unfamiliar with the genre, yet deep enough to be enjoyed by even veteran sf readers. I predict that in the coming years new readers will enter the genre thanks to excellent books like Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin--books which are fun to read yet also examine life from the big-picture view unique to science fiction. I have seen the future, and it's going to be an amazing science fiction ride!
Monsters & Critics
Buckell is a powerful new voice in science fiction, filled with the lyrical accents of Jamaica and highlighted with shades of Aztec culture.
Curled Up with a Good Book
If Crystal Rain hinted at the promise of Tobias Buckell's inchoate talents, Ragamuffin is the delivery. Ragamuffing shored up Toby Buckell's stature as a leader Purveyor of the new space opera. It's adrenalizing fun all the way through.
SF Reviews
A thrilling ride, particularly one of the most exciting chase scenes I can recall...This is grand space opera on a human scale.
Ideomancer
A very satisfying read, providing me with a lot of entertaining hours spanning over the 300 odd pages. An enjoyable novel with memorable characters to whom I look forward meeting again in the next novel Sly Mongoose. An accomplished second novel by a clearly talented author.
Fantasy Book Spot
Buckell is an action-packed, fun author of both subtly and brevity...RAGAMUFFIN builds on the strengths of CRYSTAL RAIN in a huge escalation of scale. These Caribbean-inspired books are loads of fun with something to offer all fans--highly recommended.
Nethspace
Buckell delivers double helpings of action and violence in a plot-driven story worthy of a good blockbuster.
Publishers Weekly
An edgy, engaging science fiction novel... light enough for a beach novel, smart enough for bedside, this novel can be enjoyed on multiple levels.
Romantic Times
Buckell's world building, full of strong Aztec and Caribbean elements, is spectacular; the story, finely tuned and engrossing.
Booklist
I enjoyed the fast paced action and clever plot found in Sly Mongoose. This third book in Buckell's universe is my favorite.
Midwest Book Review
Anyone hankering for a book that is pure front-to-back action is likely to peg this as the space opera of 2008... Tobias Buckell improves by an order of magnitude with each story he tells.
SF Reviews
Great world-building and fast action make this an excellent book to keep you diverted -- but also to make you think too.
IO9.com
If you enjoy science fiction, it's hard to go wrong with Sly Mongoose and its predecessors!
Errant Dreams
Space opera that's full of heroes, strange alien races and cool looking spacecraft.
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Not just a very good science fiction novel, [SLY MONGOOSE] very easily borders on great. I wouldn't be surprised to see Buckell garner another Nebula Award nomination for another terrific novel.
SFF World
Buckell has done it again! SLY MONGOOSE is a highly entertaining and energizing story... one I highly recommend you read and give pride of place on your bookshelf.
Grasping for the Wind
A strong and vibrant third book from Buckell... it pushes all the right buttons, delivers on all its promises, and manages to be quite gory while avoiding sensationalism. If you have never read Buckell, SLY MONGOOSE is a good place to start, and I recommend you do.
Adventures in SciFi Publishing
BIBLIOGRAPHY & RIGHTS INFORMATION
Buckell's short fiction has sold in translation in Spain (Libro de Los Zombies), Israel (Bli Panika), Poland (Nowa Fantastyka), and Greece (Eleftherotypia, Iniverse Pathways)
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