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In the Hall of the Martian King
(2003)(The third book in the Jak Jinnaka series)
A novel by John Barnes
The Barnes & Noble Review
John Barnes revisits secret agent Jak Jinnaka (the hero of The Duke of Uranium and A Princess of the Aerie) in In the Hall of the Martian King. As the acting procurator on Deimos -- the outer moon of Mars -- while his boss is on vacation, Jak is stuck in a dead-end, mind-numbingly boring administrative job. When he gets the chance to head a mission to retrieve a priceless religious artifact on Mars, he jumps at the chance. But when his crazy uncle, his sadistic ex-girlfriend, and a bumbling aristocrat get involved, failure is almost guaranteed...
Barnes is one of those writers who just can't be pigeonholed. His 1992 Nebula Award-nominated novel, A Million Open Doors, was an ambitious sociological study of sorts about what happens after humanity has colonized space and created countless different cultures. His 1995 Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated novel, Mother of Storms, was about what a natural disaster can do to a civilization linked together by a virtual reality network. Candle was a more intimate story about the last fugitive from the global Net and his hunter. In the Hall of the Martian King is, once again, unlike any of his other works. While it is (obviously) similar to the other books in the Jak Jinnaka sequence -- i.e., fast-paced, funny, and highly entertaining -- it takes a decidedly existentialist turn, as Jak must totally reexamine himself when he learns some shocking truths about the society he lives in. Paul Goat Allen
Genre: Science Fiction
John Barnes revisits secret agent Jak Jinnaka (the hero of The Duke of Uranium and A Princess of the Aerie) in In the Hall of the Martian King. As the acting procurator on Deimos -- the outer moon of Mars -- while his boss is on vacation, Jak is stuck in a dead-end, mind-numbingly boring administrative job. When he gets the chance to head a mission to retrieve a priceless religious artifact on Mars, he jumps at the chance. But when his crazy uncle, his sadistic ex-girlfriend, and a bumbling aristocrat get involved, failure is almost guaranteed...
Barnes is one of those writers who just can't be pigeonholed. His 1992 Nebula Award-nominated novel, A Million Open Doors, was an ambitious sociological study of sorts about what happens after humanity has colonized space and created countless different cultures. His 1995 Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated novel, Mother of Storms, was about what a natural disaster can do to a civilization linked together by a virtual reality network. Candle was a more intimate story about the last fugitive from the global Net and his hunter. In the Hall of the Martian King is, once again, unlike any of his other works. While it is (obviously) similar to the other books in the Jak Jinnaka sequence -- i.e., fast-paced, funny, and highly entertaining -- it takes a decidedly existentialist turn, as Jak must totally reexamine himself when he learns some shocking truths about the society he lives in. Paul Goat Allen
Genre: Science Fiction
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