Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Bantam (1987), 438 pages
Description
In the jungles of Guatemala, David Mingolla is struggling to survive amongst the rotting vegetation and his despairing fellow foot soldiers. He knows he is nothing but an expendable pawn in an endless war. On R & R a few miles away from the warzone he meets Debora - an enigmatic young woman who may be working for the enemy - and stumbles into a deadly psychic conflict where the mind is the greatest weapon.
User reviews
LibraryThing member billmcn
Though the end of the Cold War has left its setting in an alternate history limbo, this novel's fervid mashup of science fiction and magic realism remains compelling.
LibraryThing member georgematt
I came to this book with high expectations and on the whole I was not disappointed. Over ten years ago I was very impressed with Shepard's 'The Golden,' a dark tale of the baroque imagination, probably the best vampire story since Stoker's Dracula (sorry Anne Rice). Since then I have not read any
Influenced by the Vietnam War and the film Apocalypse Now, this too is on the dark side. The setting is a future conflict in Central America between the US and left-wing insurgents where the primary although secretive method of combat is psychic warfare. The young protagonist like Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now struggles to come to terms with the insanity of war on a journey through a surreal jungle environment. There are wonderful set-pieces-platoons gone AWOL hooked on aggression enhancing drugs with their own peculiar religion, a defective psychic who controls swarms of butterflies and a prison straight out of a Renaissance depiction of hell, amongst others. There is an erotically charged love story too to add to the mix.
But 'Life During Wartime' is not totally successful. The core SF idea behind it, of a conspiratorial elite of mind manipulators, is a rather unoriginal even corny one. It is only Lucius Shepard's luminous writing talent that transcends this limitation.
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more of his writings until 'Life During Wartime,' an earlier novel, now published in the SF Masterworks series.Influenced by the Vietnam War and the film Apocalypse Now, this too is on the dark side. The setting is a future conflict in Central America between the US and left-wing insurgents where the primary although secretive method of combat is psychic warfare. The young protagonist like Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now struggles to come to terms with the insanity of war on a journey through a surreal jungle environment. There are wonderful set-pieces-platoons gone AWOL hooked on aggression enhancing drugs with their own peculiar religion, a defective psychic who controls swarms of butterflies and a prison straight out of a Renaissance depiction of hell, amongst others. There is an erotically charged love story too to add to the mix.
But 'Life During Wartime' is not totally successful. The core SF idea behind it, of a conspiratorial elite of mind manipulators, is a rather unoriginal even corny one. It is only Lucius Shepard's luminous writing talent that transcends this limitation.
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LibraryThing member salimbol
A kind of SF version of 'Apocalypse Now', with the same miasmic feel, this is bleak, unsettling, graphically violent and sexual, and intelligent. While the overarching plot framework is weak at times, the book shines when it's focusing on the minds and societies destroyed by war.
LibraryThing member dbsovereign
Gritty and cinematic, this is War. I guess I'd call it Heinlein's Troopers on acid or something like that. The jungle is like another character – it’s just downright oppressive, and even made it difficult to read the book at times. I found myself wondering if Shepard was any fun to read because
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this novelistic war game can get tedious after while. However, there is a certain very visceral immediacy about him that I can admire. Show Less
LibraryThing member HenriMoreaux
I have to say I was quite disappointed with Life During Wartime, not only is it not science fiction in the typical sense of an advanced future it also wasn't really a war story. More of a hallucinogenic tale of a soldier developing psychic powers and hooking up (multiple times) with a fellow
There's a considerable amount of sex and not a great deal of action in this readers opinion.
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psychic. There's a considerable amount of sex and not a great deal of action in this readers opinion.
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LibraryThing member quondame
After starting it a number of times I finally finished this book. And note here that it is not the book I'm looking for. I keep being deceived by the description of a man drawn into a conflict by a psychic woman. That is one interpretation of what passes for a plot in this book. What a conflict of
Episodic, angry, descriptive, but not satisfying.
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private families mapped onto an international conflict adds to a discussion on the effects of war, I can't say. Episodic, angry, descriptive, but not satisfying.
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Awards
Philip K. Dick Award (Nominee — 1987)
Arthur C. Clarke Award (Shortlist — 1989)
Ditmar Award (Shortlist — 1989)
Kurd Laßwitz Preis (Nominat — 1990)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1987-10
Physical description
438 p.
ISBN
0553343815 / 9780553343816