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A review by christajls
Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi
2.0
Reviewed on Women Write About Comics
In an alternative version of 1938, death is no longer a thing to fear and the afterlife is no longer a hypothetical. As long as you have a Ticket you can spend your afterlife in Summerland, a metropolis of the dead. It’s a desirable place where you can exist in comfort and keep in touch with both the living and the dead. Of course, no community exists in a vacuum, and the politics that influence the living world make their way into Summerland as the British and Soviets compete for power.
Rachel White is an SIS agent with an eye on Summerland, and she discovers a Soviet mole within their ranks. But he’s an operative with friends in high places, and blowing the whistle could mean ruining the career she’s worked so hard to achieve. Should she risk going rogue in order to bring him in?
Summerland reads like a classic spy story, right down to the Soviet antagonists, but with a science fiction twist. There is a lot of scientific and mathematical theory worked into the fictional elements, which gives it a very authentic feel. However, the heavy use of these elements and the complicated plot ultimately makes the story a little difficult to follow. Which would be alright if the character arcs were the real pull.
Rachel White and the deceased Peter Bloom are the two POV characters, and I wasn’t particularly pulled in by either of them. Rachel feels a bit like a caricature of a woman rather than a real person. Every decision and thought she makes seems to circle around one of the men in her life. Peter, on the other hand, seems to move through his life and death with no urgency or excitement despite the actual high stakes plot he’s involved in. I loved the concept of this novel, but in the end, the pieces don’t come together the way I hoped they would.
In an alternative version of 1938, death is no longer a thing to fear and the afterlife is no longer a hypothetical. As long as you have a Ticket you can spend your afterlife in Summerland, a metropolis of the dead. It’s a desirable place where you can exist in comfort and keep in touch with both the living and the dead. Of course, no community exists in a vacuum, and the politics that influence the living world make their way into Summerland as the British and Soviets compete for power.
Rachel White is an SIS agent with an eye on Summerland, and she discovers a Soviet mole within their ranks. But he’s an operative with friends in high places, and blowing the whistle could mean ruining the career she’s worked so hard to achieve. Should she risk going rogue in order to bring him in?
Summerland reads like a classic spy story, right down to the Soviet antagonists, but with a science fiction twist. There is a lot of scientific and mathematical theory worked into the fictional elements, which gives it a very authentic feel. However, the heavy use of these elements and the complicated plot ultimately makes the story a little difficult to follow. Which would be alright if the character arcs were the real pull.
Rachel White and the deceased Peter Bloom are the two POV characters, and I wasn’t particularly pulled in by either of them. Rachel feels a bit like a caricature of a woman rather than a real person. Every decision and thought she makes seems to circle around one of the men in her life. Peter, on the other hand, seems to move through his life and death with no urgency or excitement despite the actual high stakes plot he’s involved in. I loved the concept of this novel, but in the end, the pieces don’t come together the way I hoped they would.