Soldiers of Paradise: Book One of the Starbridge Chronicles

by Paul Park

Book Overview

Where the seasons last for generations, hard winter makes for hard religion. The worlds of the solar system are the hells through which all souls must incarnate on their journey to Paradise; all, that... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380705818
• ISBN13: 9780380705818
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Avon Books
• Length: 291 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Soldiers of paradise

The book I read for free reading was Soldiers of paradise and it made the most of my time. It was wrtten by Paul Park which is also a very intresting man and his past life will amaze anyone. the book is like a fantasy in the distant future but alot of war and illeagel drugs is involved.This book was a great choice because there were always surprises that poped up from evey cornor when you least expected it. This book was like no other because none the action never stops, theres always something intresting going on. A qoute from Thankar explains how much he hates alot of people in his world because everyone has to be a real hard case to survive and he dosent want to be one " I know him and I always hated him. we'll hang him higher than any bird can fly". That explains how Thanker doesnt like anyone because he knows that his friends can even stab him in the back just to survive. The future is so bleak with war and drugs its explained as med-evil times because castles, tourture and death is just business in the world he has to suffer in. in conclusion the book was great and the ending is what you least suspect.

Beautiful written,

This was a beautiful way of telling a story. Musical. I think the whole book should of been spoken the way the storyteller had spoken it. It may be hard to understand once you start reading it, but once you dove into it, it's hard to put down. I havn't finished it yet, but close to it, and so far it's beautiful, that 's all I can say. If you need a book just to pick up and read, try this one. Magical, ~Isirah~Weasel~

Come Read the Best!

An aging star begins to swell toward red giant stage. The "humans" of many worlds, all likely descendants of a common ancestor, the hypnogogic ape, ride from hot doom to the outermost world of the system, soon the only one habitable. The spaceship that rescues them over the millennia continues to fly its programmed rounds empty, while the "Starbridge" crew becomes top caste on a planet of centuries-long years and winters. The unique thing about this background to the Starbridge Chronicles is that you'll never discover it by reading the books -- and I say this to Paul Park's credit. He constructs a story so deep that it has roots you'll never know, whereas lesser authors like myself go around flashing our explanations for everything.Park creates a rich fictional "charnal house" filled with all manner of mystery, decadence, death and rebirth. Meanwhile the great wheel of time rolls on, incapable of caring. But the reader has the pleasure and pain of caring very much what happens to many very imperfect people. (Who gives a damn about the perfect ones?)Paul Park is a revolutionary. When he shows you that the great systems of the universe are heartless and wrong, he's also condemning the great systems we all live under. Some writers advance the revolution by envisioning better ways, but somehow the truths of human nature get in the way of utopia. Perverted utopias, perverted good deeds, and perverted religions are also part of Park's universe. As of ours.

An astounding feat of world-building.

The first of The Starbridge Chronicles and it gets off this underappreciated trilogy to an exhilirating start. The world of Paradise is so fully realized that the reader sometimes forgets that s/he is in this one. The world is very surreal and richly detailed, as are the characters that populate the grand drama that unfolds. At the end of the novel the world, the characters, and ultimately the reader have all undergone profound changes. If you dare to escape into this frightening world, you will be richly rewarded and you might even want to tatoo your hand with all kinds of archaic symbols.