Bone Dance

Emma Bull

Language: English

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Publisher: Ace Books

Published: May 2, 1991

Description:

Sparrow’s my name. Trader. Deal-maker. Hustler, some call me. I work the Night Fair circuit, buying and selling pre-nuke videos from the world before. I know how to get a high price, especially on Big Bang collectibles. But the hottest ticket of all is information on the Horsemen—the mind-control weapons that tilted the balance in the war between the Americas. That’s the prize I’m after.

But it seems I’m having trouble controlling my own mind.

The Horsemen are coming.

From Publishers Weekly

This voodoopunkfunny! novel focuses on Sparrow, an androgynous trader of old and extremely rare videos and CDs in a post-Armageddon Minnesota. Sparrow gets caught up in an internecine fight between two Horsemen, the last survivors of the group of powerful telepaths who caused the apocalypse. The book moves slowly at first, but Bull keeps the focus on the people and their relationships, and eventually the offbeat characters draw the reader in. It is especially rewarding to watch Sparrow's dawning realization that it isn't necessary to do things alone and that there are friends to help. Bull has a sharp ear for relaxed dialogue and conversational humor, and one gets a true feel for this world, where large cities meant to hold millions are populated by mere hundreds and Jane Austen is a name even the literate no longer recognize.p. 132 Sparrow's androgyny is also skillfully handled. Like mystery writer Sarah Caudwell's protagonist Hilary Tamar, Sparrow is sometimes masculine, sometimes feminine, sometimes neither, always believable. While not as strong as Bull's contemporary fantasy classic War for the Oaks , this is a winning book.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-- In the pitiless post-apocalyptic future, Sparrow's confusion and self-doubt are more than mere teenage angst. How much more may determine the future. Mixing symbolism from the Tarot deck, voodoo mythology, and a finely detailed vision of life and technology after the nuclear war, Bull has come up with yet another winner. Sparrow's video-age consciousness has obvious appeal for the MTV generation. A tense, ferocious dance on the deteriorating high wire of the future.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.