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A review by fluffysaurasrex
Anthropocene Rag by Alexander C. Irvine
4.0
Arc provided by NetGalley for review.
If The Wizard of Oz and Blade Runner sat around a campfire telling tales, chances are they'd eventually tell you Anthropocene Rag.
A seemingly random group of six people are given golden tickets to Monument City, a mythical creation somewhere in an American landscape that has been devastated by ecological disasters and a mysterious technology that can create and destroy however it sees fit. Led by an A.I. that is starting to have thoughts of its own, the group make their way to a city that may not even exist.
At first alone, the travellers do cross paths, joining together as they go, each one unsure of where or why they are going.
The story becomes a mashup of folk tales and historical figures, as the tech that remakes the world on an ongoing basis builds cities from the past and future, merging them with old tales and figures both real and fictional. It's as if each character must travel through a drug induced state while not actually partaking in the drug that produced it.
It makes for a very strange journey with no real beginning or end, much like the characters have to deal with as they go. It's like listening to a young child tell a story. It absolutely makes sense in that you understand everything they're saying, but at the same time you have no idea why anything is really happening. They're not burdened by limitations on their imagination, and neither is Anthropocene Rag.
This may bother some readers, as the story is more question than answer. With the number of characters, there's also little time for exploration of their individual stories. The only constant is their journey towards an unknowable destination. We need to be as curious and willing to embark on a fully unknown trip as the characters are to become fully immersed in the story.
This is not a light read, and you'll be constantly trying to decide what's really going on, or why some things have happened. It's a challenge not everyone may be willing to take, and even I find myself more fascinated by how the tale is told than satisfied by how it plays out.
It's hard to find a comparison, which is the greatest compliment in a world filled with stories, so you just have to be willing to take a step into the unknown with this one.
If The Wizard of Oz and Blade Runner sat around a campfire telling tales, chances are they'd eventually tell you Anthropocene Rag.
A seemingly random group of six people are given golden tickets to Monument City, a mythical creation somewhere in an American landscape that has been devastated by ecological disasters and a mysterious technology that can create and destroy however it sees fit. Led by an A.I. that is starting to have thoughts of its own, the group make their way to a city that may not even exist.
At first alone, the travellers do cross paths, joining together as they go, each one unsure of where or why they are going.
The story becomes a mashup of folk tales and historical figures, as the tech that remakes the world on an ongoing basis builds cities from the past and future, merging them with old tales and figures both real and fictional. It's as if each character must travel through a drug induced state while not actually partaking in the drug that produced it.
It makes for a very strange journey with no real beginning or end, much like the characters have to deal with as they go. It's like listening to a young child tell a story. It absolutely makes sense in that you understand everything they're saying, but at the same time you have no idea why anything is really happening. They're not burdened by limitations on their imagination, and neither is Anthropocene Rag.
This may bother some readers, as the story is more question than answer. With the number of characters, there's also little time for exploration of their individual stories. The only constant is their journey towards an unknowable destination. We need to be as curious and willing to embark on a fully unknown trip as the characters are to become fully immersed in the story.
This is not a light read, and you'll be constantly trying to decide what's really going on, or why some things have happened. It's a challenge not everyone may be willing to take, and even I find myself more fascinated by how the tale is told than satisfied by how it plays out.
It's hard to find a comparison, which is the greatest compliment in a world filled with stories, so you just have to be willing to take a step into the unknown with this one.