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A review by marthmuffins
Metal from Heaven by August Clarke
5.0
Metal from Heaven - 4.5/5
I had to take a little while to think on this one. Of all the fantasy books I've read this year Metal from Heaven was one of those most interesting and engaging, even if it still frustrated me at times. There are aspects I think won’t work for a lot of people but really did for me, but I’ll summarise my thoughts with these points:
Anarchism
The main character, Marney, is a part of an anarchist revolution against a very late 19th/early 20th century style society (hence the opening quotation from Joe Hill). It handles this well; it doesn’t make the anarchists revolutionary saints fighting a pure fight against the nefarious forces of Industry, they do fucked things in the name of the Hereafter. But they also commit righteous murder, destroy and appropriate the habits of property, and scheme the downfall of industry and hierarchy in the name of that very same Hereafter. This doesn’t mean it’s forcing you through a lecture on collective decision-making or the unity of means and ends but it felt like something which was genuinely interested and vocal about engaging with what could be.
Queerness
Many lesbians. Very cool. Featuring a lot of a classic of lesbian existence, yearning. I do think the yearning itself gets a too much at times, the central emotional core of the novel is built around it and there are multiple instances of yearning on the side which complement it. This is an angsty gays book at heart though so it’s to be expected and welcomed, it just can become all-encompassing (which is accurate to the feeling itself I suppose). But yes, I do love the book’s gay.
Religion
This element is one I think will be more polarising,. Religion is a very integral part of the book. Even when it’s not centred it’s present, informing the main character’s actions and beliefs as she moves through the narrative. I love this, and I found how faith was handled frankly refreshing from the very dour way a lot of novels, especially in the fantasy/sci-fi/horror space, view and discuss faith.
It’s not that there isn’t questioning of it, and there’s still a definite critique of religious institutions in line with both the anarchist ideas and the main character’s queerness, but faith is a key part of both Marney’s life and the entire functioning of the anarchist society she’s a part of. Even those who aren’t as religious as the main character have some form of faith which informs on their lives and actions. I find the way religious belief is discussed refreshing, but I can see that pushing people away somewhat.
Style
This is another element that might put some folk off. The main style the book is written in really evoked the vibe of the sort of queer transgressive horror novel which has become popular in the last 10 years but has been building over the last 20 to 30. I think it works well, the main character Marney has a strong internal voice which the text captures and uses effectively to really get across her internal angst and pain in a well written way.
However, the style itself can make it hard to get a grip on the world, exposition is hard to pull off when the writing is both so stylised and so insular to the main character that when we do get blocks of text that outline the world, religion, or politics it can be hard to parse through. This is more pronounced in a secondary world where you can’t rely on a reader just knowing what a United States or a Ghana is or a car or a dog etc are. It did work for me, and rereading expository text a second time let me get a handle on it, but that aspect of the style did suffer somewhat.
Sex scenes too could at times be somewhat dodgy in terms of writing, very flowery and lots of the instances of the word “lapping”. I can see issue being taken with the contents of those too, they can be violent and have dubious consent at times, but it worked for the story and was handled well. Sex scenes are hard to write though, and these are nowhere near the worst I’ve read and did still work 80% of the time.
Cast
There are too many characters and it’s hard to tell them apart. I’m happy that 99% of the cast is made up of hot lesbians, but with an internal perspective being so centred on Marney means that they can often blend together for me when they often times have only one or two distinguishing characteristics unique to themselves. This also isn’t helped when halfway through the book we get an almost entirely new cast of characters who are also hot lesbians but rich. Part of this is down to needing cast to kill off so the themes of revolution, martyrdom, and struggle come across, but I don’t ever care enough about most of the side cast for it to affect me whenever someone is killed. Cutting the cast back significantly would have helped a lot with this without losing much.
Ending
I do have some issues with the ending,.
Overall
However, even with the issues I had the book kept me engaged and interested throughout. I can see this as a polarising read for many, but I really enjoyed reading this one and will definitely be looking out for more adult books from August Clark in the future.
Sidenote: More authors should include further reading, both fic and non-fic, in their acknowledgements.
I had to take a little while to think on this one. Of all the fantasy books I've read this year Metal from Heaven was one of those most interesting and engaging, even if it still frustrated me at times. There are aspects I think won’t work for a lot of people but really did for me, but I’ll summarise my thoughts with these points:
Anarchism
The main character, Marney, is a part of an anarchist revolution against a very late 19th/early 20th century style society (hence the opening quotation from Joe Hill). It handles this well; it doesn’t make the anarchists revolutionary saints fighting a pure fight against the nefarious forces of Industry, they do fucked things in the name of the Hereafter. But they also commit righteous murder, destroy and appropriate the habits of property, and scheme the downfall of industry and hierarchy in the name of that very same Hereafter. This doesn’t mean it’s forcing you through a lecture on collective decision-making or the unity of means and ends but it felt like something which was genuinely interested and vocal about engaging with what could be.
Queerness
Many lesbians. Very cool. Featuring a lot of a classic of lesbian existence, yearning. I do think the yearning itself gets a too much at times, the central emotional core of the novel is built around it and there are multiple instances of yearning on the side which complement it. This is an angsty gays book at heart though so it’s to be expected and welcomed, it just can become all-encompassing (which is accurate to the feeling itself I suppose). But yes, I do love the book’s gay.
Religion
This element is one I think will be more polarising,
Spoiler
especially regarding the endingIt’s not that there isn’t questioning of it, and there’s still a definite critique of religious institutions in line with both the anarchist ideas and the main character’s queerness, but faith is a key part of both Marney’s life and the entire functioning of the anarchist society she’s a part of. Even those who aren’t as religious as the main character have some form of faith which informs on their lives and actions.
Spoiler
It also feeds into the ending in a way that I’ve seen people take issue with. The religious aspect of the ending works for me, andStyle
This is another element that might put some folk off. The main style the book is written in really evoked the vibe of the sort of queer transgressive horror novel which has become popular in the last 10 years but has been building over the last 20 to 30. I think it works well, the main character Marney has a strong internal voice which the text captures and uses effectively to really get across her internal angst and pain in a well written way.
However, the style itself can make it hard to get a grip on the world, exposition is hard to pull off when the writing is both so stylised and so insular to the main character that when we do get blocks of text that outline the world, religion, or politics it can be hard to parse through. This is more pronounced in a secondary world where you can’t rely on a reader just knowing what a United States or a Ghana is or a car or a dog etc are. It did work for me, and rereading expository text a second time let me get a handle on it, but that aspect of the style did suffer somewhat.
Sex scenes too could at times be somewhat dodgy in terms of writing, very flowery and lots of the instances of the word “lapping”. I can see issue being taken with the contents of those too, they can be violent and have dubious consent at times, but it worked for the story and was handled well. Sex scenes are hard to write though, and these are nowhere near the worst I’ve read and did still work 80% of the time.
Cast
There are too many characters and it’s hard to tell them apart. I’m happy that 99% of the cast is made up of hot lesbians, but with an internal perspective being so centred on Marney means that they can often blend together for me when they often times have only one or two distinguishing characteristics unique to themselves. This also isn’t helped when halfway through the book we get an almost entirely new cast of characters who are also hot lesbians but rich. Part of this is down to needing cast to kill off so the themes of revolution, martyrdom, and struggle come across, but I don’t ever care enough about most of the side cast for it to affect me whenever someone is killed. Cutting the cast back significantly would have helped a lot with this without losing much.
Ending
I do have some issues with the ending,
Spoiler
namely that it zooms way out in the last two chapters, and we lose a lot of that intimacy with the main character as she goes very End of Evangelion. Thematically it works with the anarchist and religious ideas in play so that it fulfils those aspects of the novel, but it leaves Marney and her relationships too out of focus, harming the central character dynamic. The final lines bring that back, and it’s still threaded throughout those last two chapters, but generally it loses sight of that character focus the rest of the novel was built aroundOverall
However, even with the issues I had the book kept me engaged and interested throughout. I can see this as a polarising read for many, but I really enjoyed reading this one and will definitely be looking out for more adult books from August Clark in the future.
Sidenote: More authors should include further reading, both fic and non-fic, in their acknowledgements.