Originally published on my blog here in October 2000.Each of John Barnes' novels to date has been different, each an excellent piece of science fiction. A Million Open Doors is based on a scenario similar to some of the ideas behind Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai trilogy - the bringing together once more of the splintered subcultures into which the human race has developed after isolation on colony planets separated by interstellar space - while in tone it is reminiscent of the classic novels of Isa...

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1198461.html[return][return]A great read: perhaps reflecting a bit the fall of the Wall and globalisation more generally, it's about an encounter between cultures, the dour market-driven frozen colony of Caledony being forced to open up to the rest of the galaxy and in partiicular to the romantic troubadours of New Occitan. Lots of interesting politics and general growing-up for our Occitanian narrator as he realises more about the problems of his own society as a r...

First-rate book, that I plan to reread sometime. Jo Walton's is the review to read:https://www.tor.com/2009/03/26/just-w...She wrote: "A wonderful immersive science fiction novel. John Barnes is an important writer, and this is perhaps his best book."Date read is just a guess. Definitely long ago!

Good book about a culture clash across the stars. Both whimsical and serious with oddball characters -- I enjoyed it.Gotta read more John Barnes.Solid four stars.

SF about a culture clash of two planets: a flamboyant poetry-spouting, mountain-climbing, dueling troubador (Giraut) going to a highly repressed religious planet, where there is no art or culture or freedom of expression, and sparks a revolution. Better than I expected, but I had a few quibbles with the book. *SPOILERS* The main character is quite repulsed by the appearance of one very plain woman; her flaws (shiny uneven skin, unpleasing features, dispropotioned body) are so distracting to him,...

This is the first book I have read by Barnes, although I think I've read several of his short stories. In this book, I was not very engaged with the characters, but the "universe" that Barnes created was of much greater interest. This is the universe of The Thousand Cultures. "Man" has spread across the galaxy and splintered into many, many diverse cultures, out of touch with each other for the most part. This is Poul Anderson territory and he was one of my favorites. Giraut is from the planet N...

I had heard of this book a long time ago, but I could never found it until I got to Seattle last year. (last time I checked on Amazon.com a few days ago, you can't find a new edition still, and only two books of the Giraut series is available on Kindle - parts 3 and 4, for crying out loud!) This upsets me a lot, because I love to read a series in its entirety when the first book grips my attention. And this far future story sure did it. I loved the way Barnes created a whole retro-Occitan societ...

I had this pulpy short paperback so I figured I would read it. The fact it turned into a mediocre pulpy sci-fi book I guess shouldn't surprise me? The accolades it received surprised me. This book has some neat ideas about a future when 'cultures' get segmented, and then become mono-cultures in and of themselves. The female characters for the most part are treated pretty dismally. I think theres some effort here to make the shallow protagonist less shallow, but he still felt pretty shallow in th...

Some interesting ideas, but a bit all over the place and one of the least likeable protagonists I've ever encountered.

I am truly perplexed by this book. When I read of all the awards it either won or was nominated for, I expected a lot. I wouldn't say the book is bad, but it didn't deliver what its hype promised. For example, one reviewer trumpets that the author really makes the readers care. About what?I certainly didn't care about the characters, who I found generally unlikable and inconsistent in their development. I simply didn't believe them. I also didn't believe the story in many places, though the gene...

One of the finest first 3 quarters of a book I've ever read. I had a lot of trouble with the last quarter (including that many of our main characters are absent from the overcoming of the book's main conflict.) Good read though....

Meh. Started out well, got dry.

loved this one and the immediate sequel (which is much darker but resonated a lot), though the third milieu book was a huge letdown; this is lighter but lots of fun

John Barnes' "A Million Open Doors" (the first in his "Thousand Cultures" series) is an interesting book that's a bit uneven. Well, it's actually quite a bit uneven. For instance, the protagonist is from a world whose culture emulates the drawing room crowd of the French Revolution. Or, perhaps, it's the beatnik crowd of 1960s. I don't quite know. But, in a nutshell, the main character is a self-centered, callow, lout. Yet, after a lot of pages with this personality, he walks into a room and is

There was much to like about this novel: you are dumped right into the culture and story and forced to figure things out quickly, to the interplay of cultures and languages, to some engaging characters (though some will disagree on this point). It was also fast moving with a nice mix of action, character development and political discussion. However there we many disappointments as well: many elements which made no sense, development that felt very rushed in many places, and an ending that left

My son recommended this to me, and I really enjoyed it.The author uses the idea that when humanity colonized the stars, they did so in small self contained 'cultures' that became entrenched in their ways due to the long delays inherent in interstellar travel. With the advent of teleportation travel (called springers), many previously isolated cultures are faced with sudden changes.The novel is told through the point of view of Giraut, a resident of Nou Occitaine, a society based on a longing for...

This book snookered me.It begins on a glamorous swashbuckling planet with fashion and action and a Jack Vance vibe.For 30 pages.Then the titular Open Doors open.Our heroes head to a frozen, stoic, uptight, religious midwest planet. To open a student center. Nothing much happens. Natives are met, details of the working of their planet are talked about, their political, economic, and religious systems are described at length. Everything that happens in this book is a second hand description. Our h...

Nou Occitan, Giraut, Quartier, jovent, donzelha Garsenda, Rimabut his best frined killed in a duel, and worn as a pyspyx for a whiel until he faded, and Aimeric, a refuge economist from the fringe planet colony of Nansen, with it's culutres ondifferent continents of Caledony and St. Michael. It was not terraformed by teh inhabitans, since it had microscopic life, theyw ere allowed to do as much or as littel as they chose - so they meerely added enough plants and animals for their requirements. T...

This was read for /r/fantasy's book bingo! CW for offscreen rape.This is, at its core, a book about what happens when cultures collide, especially when the cultures are polar opposites. With, of course, the usual SF trappings: the extreme climates, the difference in thought, clashing belief systems, and the modes of politics and production.It makes for great popcorn: the protagonist, Giraut, is a dashing young man trained in troubadorean values, and he joins a friend basically on a whim to go to...

One of the best combinations of religion/sci-fi, and coming of age. I don't agree with all of the conclusions drawn by the author, and as a Calvinist I winced here and there. Yet, its a great story that brings up some pretty serious questions. I look forward to the rest of the series.