The final entry of McMullen's Greatwinter Trilogy cannot maintain the momentum that the trilogy launched itself with.
Returning to McMullen's Australica is nice, but not quite as brilliant as its introduction in "Souls of the Great Machine." In "Eyes of the Calculor" we are reaqauinted with McMullen's most endearing character with appearances from other characters brought to life in his previous books complete with character exposes. The intrique is not quite as grand as that of "The Miocene Arrow" and in my opinion the new character with the most potential an guile is treated as far too disposable. Still, McMullen does not fail in granting us brand new dynamic characters and even the development of his more familiar characters is interesting. These new characters' interaction and development are as detailed and entertaining as McMullen's offerings from previous books in the series, but their triumphs just don't feel as grand.
The Australica of "Eyes of the Calculor" does not feel as if it has change much since "Souls" and it becomes even more familiar when electronics are once more burned beyond use. The reinstitution of the man-powered calculor is nice and familiar, the components' efforts to evade service is fresh, and the innovations of creating calculors not powered by men or electrical essence are creative. The political/religious conflict created by the sundering of electronic devices seems to be receive a great deal of focus and this interests me far less than smaller interactoins that take place between individual characters. The confilct between avian and human societies is fleshed out and inter-continental politics even find a foothold in "Eyes." Mirrorsun lends significant drama a debate for the political/religious controversy and while it is nice to see one Earth's youngest intelligences developed and explained, I was far more curious about the fate of the cetezoids. The cetezoids barely receive an honorable mention in "Eyes" while Mirrorsun becomes one of the main climaxes of the tale.
"Eyes of the Calculor" finally appeals to the value I place on intrapersonal relationships and McMullen take a turn I did not expect from the precedent he has set in his previous books; he allows some of his characters to actually find love. Unlike the previous two books of the trilogy wherein characters seemed preoccupied with betrayal and lust, characters introduced in "Eyes" are presented with opportunities at true love and some actually find and achieve it. This as much as anything McMullen could have used to complete his trilogy does give the reader a sense of peace and closure and no matter how tumultous life can become for the states that war with eachother and the species that vie for dominance over the others, the individual may still find love and happiness. This is an encouraging statement. ( )

http://www.leftfield.org/~rawdon/books/sf/mcmullen_sean/#eyes.of.the.calculor ( )

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In the final Greatwinter book the emerging technology is zapped by Mirrorsun, EMP-style. This forces fallback to the old human powered/slave conscript calculors full of scientists and mathematicians.

With no Call, the aviad societies are now a lot more vulnerable to human expansion, not being able to move around in safety in Call times. The aircraft no longer work, so the horses available in Australia become an important resource the North Americans want to gather.

Multiple threads in this book.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/02/eyes-of-calculor-sean-mcmullen_18.html ( )