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bluestarfish's review against another edition
4.0
Nick Harkaway does his take on a superhero book and it is a very exciting read. Skirting round the edges of realistic fiction, and I think this comes closest to it yet, it still manages to say important things about heros and villains, environmental disasters that people live through while the world watches, and the edges of governments and illegal behaviour in the black fleet which everyone can ignore as long as they don't come ashore... Lester and the boy make a touching pair on the island during the events of the endgame. It is exhilirating in its pace and intensity but it does also leave you thinking and pondering all sorts afterwards.
johndiconsiglio's review against another edition
3.0
An oddball genre-bender. Reads like post-colonial Brit lit blended with spy thrillers & comic books. E.M. Forster + John LeCarré + Stan Lee—shaken, not stirred. A toxic North African island scheduled for sinking becomes a Casablanca-like haven for all sorts of nefarious characters & shady dealings. It’s home to a war-weary English solider whose surprising paternal affections for an abandoned boy are the heart of the novel. There’s gun-runners, dope smugglers, missing dogs, stolen fish and an ominous Black Fleet looming off shore. Oh, and a costumed superhero. Fun, even sweet, in spots, but I never felt in on the joke.
brinysea's review against another edition
5.0
Wow! Not a book I would have likely picked up on my own but I loved this month’s book club selection.
theaurochs's review against another edition
4.0
Unfortunately my reviewing has really suffered recently. A reflection of finding it quite difficult to engage fully with reading in the past few months as well; struggling with anxiety that just makes it hard to really connect with anything. With that caveat; Tigerman is the first book for quite a while to really grab me. A touching and emotional examination of found family and fatherhood, with Hemingwayan portrayals of masculinity and Vonnegutian social observation, all wrapped in a nebulously spec-fic setting and a surprisingly realistically-painted superhero plot. Harkaway takes great efforts to twist recognisable superhero tropes into shapes that are just plausible enough for disbelief to be suspended. In large part this is due to the superhero plot never being the focus of the story- it is very much centred on the emotional connection between the two main characters, as well as the precarious political situation of the setting and how this affects its inhabitants.
We follow The Sergeant, one Lester Ferris (although they think of themselves much more as The Sergeant), who is a British soldier retired from active duty and sent as a political liaison to the fictional island of Mancreu, somewhere in the Arabian sea. A former British colony, the island is now independent but hosts a number of diplomats from varying nations, as well as having a whole fleet of more-or-less deniable warships off the coast, due to some strange natural phenomena found beneath the island. These phenomena have been deemed so dangerous that the entire island has now been condemned; doomed to be scorched from the earth at an undefined point in the near future. The Sergeant is to help with the evacuations where possible, but mostly has been ordered to sit things out, lest the British government be seen to be meddling too much. Against this backdrop of imminent doom, strange feelings have descended on the inhabitants. A certain melancholy but also a vaguely celebratory vibe; with little consequences left for their actions. The Sergeant themself is somewhat melancholy; reflecting on a life in the army and following orders; unsure what future they might be able to make for themself, and where. When they meet a bright and seemingly orphaned boy, they get a glimpse of a potential future as a father and it begins to open up something.
As The Sergeant begins to semi-officially investigate crimes on the island, we get a great exploration of the people and culture of this post-colonial, semi-abandoned and totally-doomed place. It’s a very enveloping atmosphere, and strongly evokes that laid-back island life, despite the gnawing unease of the looming evacuation/ecological disaster, and the ever-present shadow of warships in the bay. It’s a small place where everyone knows everyone, and yet there are still secrets hiding in the shadows, and myths hiding in the mountains. The inevitable yet ill-defined end has lent an aura of lawlessness to the island, and it begins to be used as a base for smugglers and other international criminals. When one of The Sergeant’s friends gets caught in the crossfire, they find themself wanting to take more action than their official role would allow. Partly out of this need and partly to impress The Boy (who is enamoured with comic books), they create a superhero-like alter ego and take the fight directly to some of the smugglers.
The book is much more rooted in the emotional wanderings and thoughts of The Sergeant, and in exploring the lives of the islanders. But the superhero plot is engaging and hits all the beats you might expect, and several that you might not. It manages good deconstruction of some of the more offensively simplistic ideas commonly found in superhero stories (primarily that such things as “bad guys” just don’t exist in the real world) while still feeling like a potential origin story for a Batman-like character. It never crosses the line into heavy-handed parody or cynical take-down; being clearly very respectful of the source material yet also very aware of the pitfalls of tropes.
It is a great and thoughtful story, with clear emotional stakes and well-drawn characters. There’s something deeply charming and old-school about the presentation, with some of the more problematic elements of such a colonial tale recognised and avoided or examined critically. It’s a timely tale of continuing living in the face of ecological disasters. And it’s a sweet and touching tale of emotional connection, and forging bonds. There’s some real genuine humour in here, as well as some serious social commentary. Really great work and I will look forward to reading more of Harkaway’s work; I’m not sure why I’ve avoided them for so long.
We follow The Sergeant, one Lester Ferris (although they think of themselves much more as The Sergeant), who is a British soldier retired from active duty and sent as a political liaison to the fictional island of Mancreu, somewhere in the Arabian sea. A former British colony, the island is now independent but hosts a number of diplomats from varying nations, as well as having a whole fleet of more-or-less deniable warships off the coast, due to some strange natural phenomena found beneath the island. These phenomena have been deemed so dangerous that the entire island has now been condemned; doomed to be scorched from the earth at an undefined point in the near future. The Sergeant is to help with the evacuations where possible, but mostly has been ordered to sit things out, lest the British government be seen to be meddling too much. Against this backdrop of imminent doom, strange feelings have descended on the inhabitants. A certain melancholy but also a vaguely celebratory vibe; with little consequences left for their actions. The Sergeant themself is somewhat melancholy; reflecting on a life in the army and following orders; unsure what future they might be able to make for themself, and where. When they meet a bright and seemingly orphaned boy, they get a glimpse of a potential future as a father and it begins to open up something.
As The Sergeant begins to semi-officially investigate crimes on the island, we get a great exploration of the people and culture of this post-colonial, semi-abandoned and totally-doomed place. It’s a very enveloping atmosphere, and strongly evokes that laid-back island life, despite the gnawing unease of the looming evacuation/ecological disaster, and the ever-present shadow of warships in the bay. It’s a small place where everyone knows everyone, and yet there are still secrets hiding in the shadows, and myths hiding in the mountains. The inevitable yet ill-defined end has lent an aura of lawlessness to the island, and it begins to be used as a base for smugglers and other international criminals. When one of The Sergeant’s friends gets caught in the crossfire, they find themself wanting to take more action than their official role would allow. Partly out of this need and partly to impress The Boy (who is enamoured with comic books), they create a superhero-like alter ego and take the fight directly to some of the smugglers.
The book is much more rooted in the emotional wanderings and thoughts of The Sergeant, and in exploring the lives of the islanders. But the superhero plot is engaging and hits all the beats you might expect, and several that you might not. It manages good deconstruction of some of the more offensively simplistic ideas commonly found in superhero stories (primarily that such things as “bad guys” just don’t exist in the real world) while still feeling like a potential origin story for a Batman-like character. It never crosses the line into heavy-handed parody or cynical take-down; being clearly very respectful of the source material yet also very aware of the pitfalls of tropes.
It is a great and thoughtful story, with clear emotional stakes and well-drawn characters. There’s something deeply charming and old-school about the presentation, with some of the more problematic elements of such a colonial tale recognised and avoided or examined critically. It’s a timely tale of continuing living in the face of ecological disasters. And it’s a sweet and touching tale of emotional connection, and forging bonds. There’s some real genuine humour in here, as well as some serious social commentary. Really great work and I will look forward to reading more of Harkaway’s work; I’m not sure why I’ve avoided them for so long.
rtpodzemny's review against another edition
5.0
Recommended for: you. Right there, you. And you. Just everyone read everything by Nick Harkaway, because the fact that quite a few of you aren't reading everything by Nick Harkaway is flatly unacceptable.
Do it.
Do it.
bryguy22's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.25
prettypositivity's review against another edition
3.0
This is a great story with great characters but I struggled with the pages and pages of description of Lester's internal narrative. It was a slow read but really picks up in the last quarter. Enjoyed this but would take a break before giving Harkaway another try.
rocketiza's review against another edition
3.0
It's very British except when it's very american 50s comic booky and that combo is off putting a lot.