ECLIPSE

A SONG CALLED YOUTH — BOOK ONE

John Shirley

— Bruce Sterling

'Like many works defining the wild cyberpunk fringe in the 1980s, this depiction of a near-future dystopia, here revised and updated since its 1985 debut, seems almost acceptably mainstream today. But Shirley’s spiky prose and edgy attitudes, which lately have cultivated a following among horror readers (Wetbones; Really, Really, Really, Really Weird Stories), still hook the reader’s attention. Tapping anxieties about rising global nationalism, Shirley presents a Goya-esque vision of war-torn western Europe, bombed out and unstable in the early years of the 21st century from a resurgence of Russian militarism and the collapse of NATO. The Second Alliance, a government-sanctioned multinational police force, has rushed in to restore order and revealed itself a nightmarish incarnation of every fascist and fundamentalist power fantasy. The only defense against the Alliance’s creeping totalitarianism is thc New Resistance, a polyglot pick-up team of rebels that includes Rick Rickenharp, a tripping retro guitarist whose artistic and political sensibilities are sinuously intertwined, and John Swenson, a mole whose soul is blackened through his infiltration of the Alliance. Stitched together from vivid swatches of action and intrigue alternating kaleidoscopically between Earth sites and the orbiting FirStep space colony, the novel offers a thrashy punk riff on science fiction’s familiar future war scenario and lays a solid foundation for the subsequent volumes of Shirley’s "A Song Called Youth" trilogy.'

Publishers Weekly, February 28, 2000

'Originally published in 1985, this first volume of "A Song Called Youth" has been masterfully rechanneled and regrooved for the new millennium while retaining Shirley's ever-present effervescence.'

Paul Di Filippo, "On Books" Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine

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YOUR FEEDBACK:

***** Shocking, intense, visionary: a work of genius
World War III started but no one used the big nukes. While the USA and the New Soviets agreed to fight on European battlegrounds (and on a space station halfway between Earth and Moon), fascist fundamentalist Christian forces - under the name Second Alliance - are gaining in influence worldwide. Only the New Resistance sees the destructive power of the Fascists and starts a bitter and seemingly hopeless fight.
As this is only the first part of the recently reissued trilogy, I don't know yet the outcome of the War, but one thing is for sure: John Shirley wrote one of the most intense future histories I have ever come across. The plot is based in the year 2029, and as this is a revised edition (the original version was released about 15 years ago), a lot of the historical background is real and does not only paint an imaginative dark future, but also shows the frightening doings of some actual American congressmen (Trent Lott and the racist Council of Conservative Citizens). Shirley apparently has a strong dislike for WASPs (understandably), and together with the malleability of people's minds, he paints us a visionary picture of the future that could happen only just too easily.
Very graphic violence (nothing for the faint hearted), strong language and a shockingly surreal glimpse into the future will make sure that this book will have an everlasting imprint to your neurons.

Pascal Thiel, from Leon, Iowa United States
(off Amazon.com, September 3, 2001

***** One of the finest cyberpunk novels
John Shirley belongs to the generation of science fiction writers led by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling who are known as cyberpunks. Shirley was one of the early proponents of cyberpunk fiction.
"Eclipse", the first in his "A Song Called Youth" trilogy, is a vivid, stylistically hip mix of politics, rock and roll and computers. His lean prose is almost as elegant as Gibson's; here he depicts a near future in which Europe falls under the sway of a Neo-Nazi Christian fundamentalist tyranny, the Second Alliance (SA), in the aftermath of a limited nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Opposing the SA are a motley band of rock musicians and socialist guerrillas known as the New Resistance.
Those interested in reading some great cyberpunk fiction should acquire John Shirley's "A Song Called Youth" trilogy.

— John Kwok from New York, NY
(off Amazon.com, May 16, 2001)

***** I'm still shaking...
The song called Youth is played by Rick Rickenharp. This book is powerful. My message is simply to any sci-fan fan who was fortunate to stumble upon this book. READ IT. Just start and let Shirley do the rest.

—Dustin Osborn from Los Angeles, CA United States
(from Amazon.com, October 8, 2000)

***** Eclipse
"...a multinational corporation for hire by those nations who require extra policing power, is gaining prominence in Europe as NATO and the new Russian war machine approach the hard battle line drawn at the former USSR's borders. SA steps into the vacuum and gradually, through a campaign of media propaganda, misinformation, infiltration, and ultimately coup, plans to impose a New World Order. But the idea is an old one. Pure Fascism. For the SA is nothing less than a Racist Army, and their CEO, an evangelical Christian Fundamentalist, envisions a world of "genetic purity...." "...a brilliant political writer/speechmaker with memories of torture, an American student caught behind the lines in Amsterdam, a video editor who's mind has been "robbed" by SA agents, a young "Admin" daughter of FirStep's chief designer, a driven ex-Mossad agent, a rock'n'roll classicist caught in the dangerous pull of a synthetic designer drug and a loyal corvid named Richard Pryor. They are a band of rebels called the New Resistance (NR), and everybody is looking for them." "_Eclipse_ does not know the meaning of "slow." The book is a mélange of poetic language, vibrant description, and vivid characterization. Considered a crucial work in the nascence of cyberpunk fiction, _Eclipse_ is among the very best Earth-based speculations in science fiction history."

— Shikhar Dixit from USofA
(off Amazon.com, June 18, 2000)

***** Cyberpunk was built on this!
I was a street punk the first time I read eclipse, and it changed my life. Smart and hard edged the eclipse series is the ultimate dark future tale, butdoes contain hope, and gritty realism!

—Traveerse Davies from Halifax, Canada
referring to the original pb edition
(from Amazon.com, June 20, 1999)