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Rainbow Bridge (Bold As Love book 5) by Gwyneth Jones
01/12/2006 . Source: Pauline Morgan 
pub: Gollancz. 374 page enlarged paperback. Price: £12.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-575-07715-8. Buy Rainbow Bridge in the USA - or Buy Rainbow Bridge in the UK  check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk and www.boldaslove.co.uk
When I was a student, there was a tradition that stated that the revolution would start 'on Thursday, after the pubs close'. I doubt that things have changed much. After all, young people know exactly how to make the world run better. They go on demonstrations and attend vast, open air music festivals. Only as they get older does disillusionment set in.
Gwyneth Jones started this series with the proposition that the revolution did takes place and that musicians were at the heart of it. The first volume, 'Bold As Love', began at a Reading festival, a meeting of musicians and mystics. Civilisation in Britain collapsed dramatically when a virulent virus infected the Internet and the rest of the world cut off the island to protect itself. Isolated, the revolution happened.
Three musicians end up ruling the Rock and Roll Reich - Fiorinder Slater, Sage Pender and Ax Preston - who became elected President of Britain. This Triumvirate is able to survive everything thrown at them because of the love that binds them. It is not just the men's love for Fiorinder but for each other that gives them their strength.
Throughout the series, disasters have beset Britain. At the end of the third volume, 'Midnight Lamp', a secret project in the United States went drastically wrong, resulting in the destruction of all the world's fossil fuels. Then at the end of 'Band Of Gypsies' (volume 4), the Chinese invaded.
'Rainbow Bridge' is the fifth in the sequence. The Chinese are canny. They have observed the effect music has on the populace and the influence the Triumvirate have wielded in holding the country together. Their conquest resembles that of the Romans two thousand years previously. They came with military superiority and showed they meant business by slaughtering and perceived opposition, real or imaginary.
Everyone was aware of the mayhem they were prepared to create. Then they recruited the local leaders to help keep order. 'Rainbow Bridge' begins with a reprise of 'Bold As Love' in that they both begin with a rock concert. After the first, at Ashdown instead of Reading, the Triumvirate go on tour. The Chinese sent them to the lawless stronghold of Rainbow Bridge in Norfolk. Initially a labour camp, the place is a fortress and the three are in effect spies as well as ambassadors. The Chinese are prepared to let most areas continue in relative normality but they do not want any pockets of insurgence.
It would be wrong to believe that the Triumvirate have become puppets of the new regime. Ax is a skilled diplomat and able to take advantage of opportunities presented. At the same time, the three are under constant threat. A number of their friends have been killed in previous episodes and it is never certain that any of them will survive to the end of the volume. The skill of Jones as a writer is to keep the tension high with twists that will surprise the reader. Within the highly charged situations there is also the ongoing development of the relationship within the Triumvirate. Nothing must be taken for granted.
Although the series is brilliantly conceived, this is probably not the place to start as the nuances of the unfolding world changes are carried through the narrative. To understand fully the shifts and subtleties it is best to start with 'Bold As Love'.
Pauline Morgan
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