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rocketiza's review against another edition
2.0
Nowhere near as tight of narrative as the previous books, and seem to needlessly make everything from the plot to the the trade craft more elaborate than needed.
chromatick's review against another edition
3.0
I don't really have too much to say about this one.
I'm glad I finished the series, but after the first two books the latter two novels didn't really seem to go anywhere.
There's certainly nothing about this series overall that will be memorable to me.
I'm glad I finished the series, but after the first two books the latter two novels didn't really seem to go anywhere.
There's certainly nothing about this series overall that will be memorable to me.
matosapa's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
neilsb's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
nwhyte's review
4.0
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3183836.html
Hugely enjoyable and ties up the threads of the previous three books in the Fractured Europe series. Doesn't really stand on its own to the extent that its predecessors did, but I found it very a satisfying conclusion.
Hugely enjoyable and ties up the threads of the previous three books in the Fractured Europe series. Doesn't really stand on its own to the extent that its predecessors did, but I found it very a satisfying conclusion.
ianjsimpson's review
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
peterseanesq's review
5.0
Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3D6PUIO4TXBL7?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp
I've been a faithful reader of this "sequence" and my feelings are ambivalent. The "Fractured Europe Sequence" is not really a series. It actually is a single book published in parts over the course of years. The nature of the reading experience made following the storyline difficult. In addition, this story is basically a spy story where everything is nuanced and shadowy.
Before I get into review proper, let me advise anyone who hasn't read the previous books - Do not start with this book. This book is the last part of a larger novel. It will make no sense to you by itself.
Now, here there be spoilers.
The world is unusual and yet surprisingly familiar in this the Year of Our Lord 2020. In the recent past, Europe was ravaged by the Xian Flu, which triggered an epidemic of devolution, as parts of countries separate and secede from each other.
Rudi made his appearance on the first book as he became acquainted with the mysterious organization known as Les Coureurs des Bois, whose mission is to get things through these new borders. In the first book, we watch Rude learn tradecraft through a variety of missions that do not cohere into a single narrative. At the end of the first book, Rudi discovers that there is a pocket universe called the "Community" which is accessed at odd spots in our world abut spans Europe in a starnage topological overlay.
Book two introduced us to Rupert took us to a pocket universe - the Campus - where society is a college campus. Rupert is the security chief of one faction of this society, which is in the midst of a revolution. There is some interconnection with our world and the Community. It seems that this unversity world is where the Xian Flu came from. At the end, Rupert defects to our world as the Campus is destroyed in a nuclear attack.
In the third book, Rudi returns and pursues his own mysterious history in the Couriers. He becomes involved in some subtle missions concerning a mathematician who seems to have the key to creating pocket universes. At the end of the book we get a hint that there may be an ever more secret group involved in the struggle between the Community and Europe.
Throughout these books, the most interesting creation has been "the Line," which is a Europe-spanning railroad that is its own nation. The Line seems to play an important role in these stories but is very mysterious.
The final book opens with a new character, Ben, who is a Somali refugee on an island in the Mediterranean. He is recruited and, then, disappears from the story until he gets a walk-on at the end. The rest of the first 70% of this book is like that. Things happen but it isn't clear what is happening, whether we should care, and what is important. There is a long extended section involving Alice, who is a Scottish embassy official, who gets played in a gambit involving a jeweled skull. Is she imporant? What about the person she meets, who is affiliated with some organization, but which we don't know? And then there are the references to the "William Dancy Reading Group," which has become a charity involved in providing medical equipment. What's that all about?
Honestly, at 60% of the way, I was ready to quit on the grounds that this story was going nowhere.
I was impressed with the topological nature of the books. For example, it seems that a large part of the Alice section happens before the events of other books. I wondered if there was a clue in that feature.
However, I persevered and, as in the other books, there was a big pay-off in the end. We learn who the other player in the struggle was. The Whitcomb-Whites - the mysterious creators of the pocket universe - make a reappearance. We learn what role the Line plays. We see the games within games of the Community and the European intelligence agencies. Rupert is a key player and gets revenge for the destruction of his world.
However, there were some notes that left me dissatisfied. I don't know if I missed them or if they were there all along. For example, I don't think the jeweled skull showed up in earlier books. I missed the role played by Araminta Delahunty and Andrew Molson. I don't know if I was dense or the clues were too subtle for me to pick up on.
In any event, the ending redeemed the book and the series for me. I have always liked the imaginative construction of this world and I've considered the characters to be well-drawn. I also like nuanced spy stories that cause me to reconsider what I thought was true and false.
I've been a faithful reader of this "sequence" and my feelings are ambivalent. The "Fractured Europe Sequence" is not really a series. It actually is a single book published in parts over the course of years. The nature of the reading experience made following the storyline difficult. In addition, this story is basically a spy story where everything is nuanced and shadowy.
Before I get into review proper, let me advise anyone who hasn't read the previous books - Do not start with this book. This book is the last part of a larger novel. It will make no sense to you by itself.
Now, here there be spoilers.
The world is unusual and yet surprisingly familiar in this the Year of Our Lord 2020. In the recent past, Europe was ravaged by the Xian Flu, which triggered an epidemic of devolution, as parts of countries separate and secede from each other.
Rudi made his appearance on the first book as he became acquainted with the mysterious organization known as Les Coureurs des Bois, whose mission is to get things through these new borders. In the first book, we watch Rude learn tradecraft through a variety of missions that do not cohere into a single narrative. At the end of the first book, Rudi discovers that there is a pocket universe called the "Community" which is accessed at odd spots in our world abut spans Europe in a starnage topological overlay.
Book two introduced us to Rupert took us to a pocket universe - the Campus - where society is a college campus. Rupert is the security chief of one faction of this society, which is in the midst of a revolution. There is some interconnection with our world and the Community. It seems that this unversity world is where the Xian Flu came from. At the end, Rupert defects to our world as the Campus is destroyed in a nuclear attack.
In the third book, Rudi returns and pursues his own mysterious history in the Couriers. He becomes involved in some subtle missions concerning a mathematician who seems to have the key to creating pocket universes. At the end of the book we get a hint that there may be an ever more secret group involved in the struggle between the Community and Europe.
Throughout these books, the most interesting creation has been "the Line," which is a Europe-spanning railroad that is its own nation. The Line seems to play an important role in these stories but is very mysterious.
The final book opens with a new character, Ben, who is a Somali refugee on an island in the Mediterranean. He is recruited and, then, disappears from the story until he gets a walk-on at the end. The rest of the first 70% of this book is like that. Things happen but it isn't clear what is happening, whether we should care, and what is important. There is a long extended section involving Alice, who is a Scottish embassy official, who gets played in a gambit involving a jeweled skull. Is she imporant? What about the person she meets, who is affiliated with some organization, but which we don't know? And then there are the references to the "William Dancy Reading Group," which has become a charity involved in providing medical equipment. What's that all about?
Honestly, at 60% of the way, I was ready to quit on the grounds that this story was going nowhere.
I was impressed with the topological nature of the books. For example, it seems that a large part of the Alice section happens before the events of other books. I wondered if there was a clue in that feature.
However, I persevered and, as in the other books, there was a big pay-off in the end. We learn who the other player in the struggle was. The Whitcomb-Whites - the mysterious creators of the pocket universe - make a reappearance. We learn what role the Line plays. We see the games within games of the Community and the European intelligence agencies. Rupert is a key player and gets revenge for the destruction of his world.
However, there were some notes that left me dissatisfied. I don't know if I missed them or if they were there all along. For example, I don't think the jeweled skull showed up in earlier books. I missed the role played by Araminta Delahunty and Andrew Molson. I don't know if I was dense or the clues were too subtle for me to pick up on.
In any event, the ending redeemed the book and the series for me. I have always liked the imaginative construction of this world and I've considered the characters to be well-drawn. I also like nuanced spy stories that cause me to reconsider what I thought was true and false.
expendablemudge's review
5.0
Real Rating: 4.5* of five
Old friends make reappearances...old problems need solutions again, the only ones at hand are the ones that didn't work before...new faces wear old clothes and frighten us out of our sleep because the monsters under the bed never left.
An island in the Aegean Sea, the Scottish Embassy in Tallinn, a folk duo of no discernible talent but a huge reputation, and a pair of refugee teenagers tear through the pages trailing clouds of story as Author Hutchinson makes his last scheduled stop in hideously Fractured Europe.
So let me start with this. You're not going to make this your first stop on the route of the Coureurs des Bois. It would be a serious error of judgment to jump in any old how. It is necessary to read EUROPE IN AUTUMN first because so many things that happen in each book suddenly make sense in light of remembering events from the ones before; and starting from the first story helps make the experience of reading the fourth richly textured and satisfying.
The multiverse that Author Hutchinson posits, with its pocket universes and its bizarre cartographic secrets and its stunningly amoral and conscienceless elite, doesn't suddenly make sense in this book's denouement. It doesn't really ever make sense. It all—all the books, all the maps you hear about, all the baggy, wrinkled bits of story-cloth left on bushes here and there drying at their own pace—makes perfect sense as soon as you realize that. I'm not trying to be sibylline or obfuscatory. I'm giving you the effect of reading Author Hutchinson's deeply sculpted, complex story. What vistas open to you are important, but not decisive and defining. They're fractal artifacts of a universe possessed of no higher law than randomness. Remembering the things in your subjective past isn't always helpful, though it's always a good idea to rattle the dice in the brain-cup and see if boxcars or snakeyes come up. Either roll can be the winner because, like the real universe, shit just happens, what the hell. (Yes yes, it's a Terry Pratchett line, but believe me when I tell you that Author Hutchinson has a similarly depraved sense of humor to Sir Terry's.)
What you need to know about this book in particular is that Rudi coming back into focus, Rudi from the Krakow restaurant who really never wanted too much of what happened on his watch to happen...Rudi snaps the pieces of this shattered place's soul into focus as only he could. He still wants to feed people and be a cog in a machine that lacks malevolence for its constituent parts. And he is the reader in that sense, he is the character who does what he must but wants some of his work to matter in a simple way without Overtones.
He wants to live a boring life in boring times. The opposite of the "ancient Chinese curse" we've grown up hearing about. Europe's fracture due to the hideous plague of dubious origins is irreparable. The world cannot be put back together again. I think the Western Romans, especially the Britannians, of 500CE must have felt this way. It look the same. The sky's the same. The birds didn't change. But nothing will ever work again so what shall we do now?
Then there are those alternate places that aren't a thing like Fractured Europe...do they fit together better, are they functional societies, and what are we all going to use as glue to hold all the truly jagged pieces in place? There are no answers. There are no better-framed questions. There are a lot of smug bastards pretending they're on top of stuff. They're not. And you know what? Since no one is, since there's no top to be on, the world will sail on. Over the falls. Off the edge. Into safe harbor. Simultaneously.
This, my friends, is why I read Author Dave Hutchinson's books. Do not kid yourself. He sees reality, he tells you what's happening in eleventeen voices, he weaves disparate strands of story together and snips others without warning. This is what life actually is without the comforting lie of linear time to soothe our monkeybrains with story. Author Hutchinson tells us the story but unwraps it so we can get down in the gearbox that only quantum mechanics know how to grok.
I want you to read these novels. Don't start here. This is your reward for making a turbulent and beautiful journey. This is the final cataract on the river. You're prepared for it. And it's a great sense of understanding and accomplishment as you finish this book. For this is what it means to be awake and alive and fully present in a unique place. Control? None. Power? Illusion. A good dinner, some wine, and companions to enjoy. Do what it takes to keep that safe for the greatest number of people.
Happen I agree.
Old friends make reappearances...old problems need solutions again, the only ones at hand are the ones that didn't work before...new faces wear old clothes and frighten us out of our sleep because the monsters under the bed never left.
An island in the Aegean Sea, the Scottish Embassy in Tallinn, a folk duo of no discernible talent but a huge reputation, and a pair of refugee teenagers tear through the pages trailing clouds of story as Author Hutchinson makes his last scheduled stop in hideously Fractured Europe.
So let me start with this. You're not going to make this your first stop on the route of the Coureurs des Bois. It would be a serious error of judgment to jump in any old how. It is necessary to read EUROPE IN AUTUMN first because so many things that happen in each book suddenly make sense in light of remembering events from the ones before; and starting from the first story helps make the experience of reading the fourth richly textured and satisfying.
The multiverse that Author Hutchinson posits, with its pocket universes and its bizarre cartographic secrets and its stunningly amoral and conscienceless elite, doesn't suddenly make sense in this book's denouement. It doesn't really ever make sense. It all—all the books, all the maps you hear about, all the baggy, wrinkled bits of story-cloth left on bushes here and there drying at their own pace—makes perfect sense as soon as you realize that. I'm not trying to be sibylline or obfuscatory. I'm giving you the effect of reading Author Hutchinson's deeply sculpted, complex story. What vistas open to you are important, but not decisive and defining. They're fractal artifacts of a universe possessed of no higher law than randomness. Remembering the things in your subjective past isn't always helpful, though it's always a good idea to rattle the dice in the brain-cup and see if boxcars or snakeyes come up. Either roll can be the winner because, like the real universe, shit just happens, what the hell. (Yes yes, it's a Terry Pratchett line, but believe me when I tell you that Author Hutchinson has a similarly depraved sense of humor to Sir Terry's.)
What you need to know about this book in particular is that Rudi coming back into focus, Rudi from the Krakow restaurant who really never wanted too much of what happened on his watch to happen...Rudi snaps the pieces of this shattered place's soul into focus as only he could. He still wants to feed people and be a cog in a machine that lacks malevolence for its constituent parts. And he is the reader in that sense, he is the character who does what he must but wants some of his work to matter in a simple way without Overtones.
He wants to live a boring life in boring times. The opposite of the "ancient Chinese curse" we've grown up hearing about. Europe's fracture due to the hideous plague of dubious origins is irreparable. The world cannot be put back together again. I think the Western Romans, especially the Britannians, of 500CE must have felt this way. It look the same. The sky's the same. The birds didn't change. But nothing will ever work again so what shall we do now?
Then there are those alternate places that aren't a thing like Fractured Europe...do they fit together better, are they functional societies, and what are we all going to use as glue to hold all the truly jagged pieces in place? There are no answers. There are no better-framed questions. There are a lot of smug bastards pretending they're on top of stuff. They're not. And you know what? Since no one is, since there's no top to be on, the world will sail on. Over the falls. Off the edge. Into safe harbor. Simultaneously.
This, my friends, is why I read Author Dave Hutchinson's books. Do not kid yourself. He sees reality, he tells you what's happening in eleventeen voices, he weaves disparate strands of story together and snips others without warning. This is what life actually is without the comforting lie of linear time to soothe our monkeybrains with story. Author Hutchinson tells us the story but unwraps it so we can get down in the gearbox that only quantum mechanics know how to grok.
I want you to read these novels. Don't start here. This is your reward for making a turbulent and beautiful journey. This is the final cataract on the river. You're prepared for it. And it's a great sense of understanding and accomplishment as you finish this book. For this is what it means to be awake and alive and fully present in a unique place. Control? None. Power? Illusion. A good dinner, some wine, and companions to enjoy. Do what it takes to keep that safe for the greatest number of people.
Happen I agree.