The Crystal World

Very descriptive text and a situation that drives madness in many that experience it. There's more than a little Joseph Conrad in this African setting.

Starts as a recollection, so you know the protagonist got out of it - or at least some of him did. The text gives a great description of these constant crystals, all lighting and shadows. Even the characters talk about how there are dualities everywhere around them. We also have speculation that the crystals don't bring death but a sort of suspended animation - but if the planet is covered in a pair of decades, is that *really* living?

I liked this better than The Drowned World. Science and the treatment of women took me out of that story, and this improves on both counts - though the characters of action are all men. The most irritating part (for me) was mention of a satellite, a potential cause of the phenomena, but no further details.

Next by this author is either the third of the apocalyptic trilogy "The Burning World" (which is now called The Drought) or something completely different, like Empire of the Sun.