War of the Maps

This is the second of Paul McAuley's books that I have tried, and whilst I found this one a bit more enjoyable, I struggled with both of them to varying degrees. He certainly has interesting ideas - this is a Sci-Fi setting with an oddly old school fantasy feel. The world is an alien artifact, a vast ring structure enclosing a star with various mirrors providing the reflected light. It is a fascinating world concept, but it is not really explored much in the story, which in reality could be any fantasy world.

The competing philosophies represented are also interesting, although the MC's role as a law maker on the run is again a little underdeveloped.

This is a sprawling story - a chase to hunt down a madman who has taken to experimenting on people and monsters. The chase is interesting enough and the prose is prettily written, but I found that I struggled to get gripped by the story. Ultimately this is a lot of missed opportunity. The story isn't bad, there is just a potential for a lot more...