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3.13 AVERAGE
3.13 AVERAGE
Another odd book from Harrison, though this one has a bit more coherence, continuity, and sense to it than [b:Light|17735|Light|M. John Harrison|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312499143s/17735.jpg|295250]. It took me about 50 pages to really get into the story, but past that point I was fairly invested in the character and was curious where Harrison was going with the book. Even more so than in his more recent books, this one is in written in a style that, while prose, is fairly poetic--and chock full of philosophy and projections of historical phenomena and ideologies into the distant future. I would probably give this 3.5 stars, if that were an option.
John Truck feels like the archetype for every low-life space freighter captain to hang around seedy spaceport bars looking for the next semi-legal job to keep his head above water. He's a passive protagonist, stumbling from encounter to encounter as he is fought over by the setting's major factions, who value him only for his genetics as the last half-Centauran. While the Centauri Device itself is a classic sf macguffin, it is John Truck himself who is the macguffin for most of the book.
The world presented in the novel is bleak and depressing, and seeing the world through the eyes of a character like John Truck helps the world to come into focus in a way that the eyes of another character could not. The grimness of the human-dominated galaxy is enhanced by a few snatches of space-operatic wonder, such as the fantastic alien ships found abandoned by one of the factions, with the implication that the grim human world has destroyed a galaxy of alien beauty.
The prose style is not always easy to read but is rewarding.
The world presented in the novel is bleak and depressing, and seeing the world through the eyes of a character like John Truck helps the world to come into focus in a way that the eyes of another character could not. The grimness of the human-dominated galaxy is enhanced by a few snatches of space-operatic wonder, such as the fantastic alien ships found abandoned by one of the factions, with the implication that the grim human world has destroyed a galaxy of alien beauty.
The prose style is not always easy to read but is rewarding.
Gave up, to many convulated sentences and implied meanings. Couldn't decipher it.
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One of Harrison's early science fiction works, you can see glimpses here of what he accomplishes in Light. Includes one of my top 10 favorite opening lines of all time:
"It was St. Crisipn's ve on Sad al Bari IV when Captain John Truck, impelled by something he was forced to describe to himself as 'sentiment,' decided to visit the Spacer's Rave, on the cornoer of Proton Alley and Circuit (that chilly junction where the higher class of port lady goes to find her customers)."
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A bleak, nihilistic, and dark satire on the space opera genre. The drug and violence fuelled excesses of William Burroughs, meet and corrupt, shades of Banks and Reynolds. The plot is weak, the characters shallow, and the (anti-)hero totally miserable and unlikeable. All of this buried in impenetrable, florid prose.
An SF classic? May have been when it was written in 1974, but now it's just wearisome.
Don't read this, unless you are particularly masochistic . Score 1.5
An SF classic? May have been when it was written in 1974, but now it's just wearisome.
Don't read this, unless you are particularly masochistic . Score 1.5