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A review by oleksandr
Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi
3.0
This is an alt-history novel, where afterlife is not only real, but is able to communicate with our reality. This is my second book by [a:Hannu Rajaniemi|2768002|Hannu Rajaniemi|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1300203018p2/2768002.jpg] after [b:The Quantum Thief|7562764|The Quantum Thief (Jean le Flambeur, #1)|Hannu Rajaniemi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327950631i/7562764._SY75_.jpg|9886333]. I was impressed with the latter, but with this one – not so much. It is interesting to note that the book was published in 2018, when a book with the similar time period and similar importance of souls (albeit in as different way), namely [b:Witchmark|36187110|Witchmark (The Kingston Cycle, #1)|C.L. Polk|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1505338133i/36187110._SY75_.jpg|57809962].
It is 1938 and British Empire not only covers the globe but has a foothold in underworld, called Summerland. The Afterlife is real, but to get there in full mental capacity one needs a Ticket, which gives access to a kind of virtual energy to keep consciousness together. Without it a soul quickly loses its memories and cognitive capacities, “drinks from Lethe”.
Enter Mrs. Rachel White, a middle age English woman, who works for Her Majesty Secret Service (Old Queen Victoria still rules – from the other side). She is one of the few women there, “only because you went to Eton with Sir Stewart and are able to pee standing up”, similar to our history’s 1930s. she works with a Soviet defector, who informs her about a mole in the service, gives his name and handle and they commits suicide. The mole is Peter Bloom, a ghost of the illegitimate son of the current PM, Herbert Blanco West (who is poorly hidden [a:H.G. Wells|880695|H.G. Wells|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1547736853p2/880695.jpg]). No one in the service believes her, so she assumed hysterical and put aside from ‘serious work’. She wants to prove her rightness by any means necessary.
Meanwhile Peter Bloom handles a contact in civil war Spain, which gives him info that notorious defector from the USSR, one Iosif Dzhugashvili (Stalin). Unlike our history, after Lenin died, in the USSR a group called ‘The God-Builders’ decided that “the Soviet people needed a God, and so they made an electric one. And now we have little Tombs everywhere, his eyes, watching everything. He is a sterner father than the Tsar ever was. And when we die, we become Him.
‘That was to be my reward, you see. I have served our radiant Father too well. I was chosen by the Immortalization Commission to return home and to undergo the Termin Procedure, to merge my meagre soul with that of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. An honour beyond measure.’”.
While the novel is well written, characters are interesting, it is more or less a quick read without striking new ideas. Some things were simplified, like Spain is just a field in the Great Game between the British and the Soviet, there are fascist (backed by the British) and what happened with Germany and Italy we don’t see, for they just don’t fit in this story. The WWI seemed to be won by the Entente with use of ecto-tanks and other spirit weapons (probably without entry of the USA). The world is described only as much as needed for the story, so simplifications rule the day but worsen my personal experience.
It is 1938 and British Empire not only covers the globe but has a foothold in underworld, called Summerland. The Afterlife is real, but to get there in full mental capacity one needs a Ticket, which gives access to a kind of virtual energy to keep consciousness together. Without it a soul quickly loses its memories and cognitive capacities, “drinks from Lethe”.
Enter Mrs. Rachel White, a middle age English woman, who works for Her Majesty Secret Service (Old Queen Victoria still rules – from the other side). She is one of the few women there, “only because you went to Eton with Sir Stewart and are able to pee standing up”, similar to our history’s 1930s. she works with a Soviet defector, who informs her about a mole in the service, gives his name and handle and they commits suicide. The mole is Peter Bloom, a ghost of the illegitimate son of the current PM, Herbert Blanco West (who is poorly hidden [a:H.G. Wells|880695|H.G. Wells|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1547736853p2/880695.jpg]). No one in the service believes her, so she assumed hysterical and put aside from ‘serious work’. She wants to prove her rightness by any means necessary.
Meanwhile Peter Bloom handles a contact in civil war Spain, which gives him info that notorious defector from the USSR, one Iosif Dzhugashvili (Stalin). Unlike our history, after Lenin died, in the USSR a group called ‘The God-Builders’ decided that “the Soviet people needed a God, and so they made an electric one. And now we have little Tombs everywhere, his eyes, watching everything. He is a sterner father than the Tsar ever was. And when we die, we become Him.
‘That was to be my reward, you see. I have served our radiant Father too well. I was chosen by the Immortalization Commission to return home and to undergo the Termin Procedure, to merge my meagre soul with that of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. An honour beyond measure.’”.
While the novel is well written, characters are interesting, it is more or less a quick read without striking new ideas. Some things were simplified, like Spain is just a field in the Great Game between the British and the Soviet, there are fascist (backed by the British) and what happened with Germany and Italy we don’t see, for they just don’t fit in this story. The WWI seemed to be won by the Entente with use of ecto-tanks and other spirit weapons (probably without entry of the USA). The world is described only as much as needed for the story, so simplifications rule the day but worsen my personal experience.