This is brilliant, one of the best SciFi/Fantasy novels I have read, though I see from other reviews that it is one of those passionately love it or passionately hate it types of book. At 532 pages, it is not a light read, but it is the sort of book that doesn’t just tell a story, it is also a language adventure and the reader needs to be able to relate to this, or throw it away and get something less complex. (Just reflecting on this, I found myself wondering from time to time, whether the author could have done with a fairly large dose of a calming medication and a good lie down in a quiet dark room, but no, it is this that (for me anyway) lifts the book above mediocre to brilliant.
It is a bit hard to get into and grasp the story, partcularly as there is an opening scene, then a very long “flashback” to earlier days, which builds up to the opening scenario, from which the story then proceeds.
A brief synopsis: In the near future there has been a war, called the Gone Away War. I won’t give anything away by explaining what this was – suffice to say that it has SERIOUSLY altered the nature of reality. A structure called the Jorgmund Pipe has been constructed across the world and dispenses a substance that holds the disturbed stuff at bay and allows life to carry on with some semblance of normality. Despite being near to indestructible, something has set the pipe on fire. The narrator (who is nameless, and we eventually discover why) is part of a small group of men and women who initially worked on the pipe construction, but are now take-on-anything troubleshooters. They are contracted to put the fire out.
OK, then there is the long flashback account of how the narrator and his best friend Gonzo Lubitsch grew up together and came to be almost super-human types. Lots of esoteric martial arts and the like. They work with their team on the Jorgmund pipe in a far flung corner of central Asia, become disaffected and go off to form their own enterprise.
It is during the fire-fight (in more ways than one) that we discover why the narrator has no name. This is one of the most stunning bits of inventiveness I have come across in fantasy literature! I really had to put the book down for a while and think “Now hang on, let me put this together!” We realise then that there is another story within the story and they both proceed in parallel. Yes it does have a good ending.
There is also quite a horror aspect to the story. A mixture of gruesome fantasy and what really happens to people in war. Some parts, even though we know they are extremely inventive fantasy, are achingly sad.
As well as the inventiveness of its fantasy, this is a very funny book, with a crude raw and thoroughtly entertaining British humour. I do hope he continues with this quality.
(Right – at this point of my original review I made a magnificent faux pas , by attributing Nick Hornby’s novel, A Long Way Down to Nick Harkaway. See comments below! This, of course, provides my beloved with more ammunition to bolster her opinions of advancing senility.)
Nick Harkaway said,
March 20, 2009 at 10:59 am
*grin* I’m pretty sure Nick Hornby wrote “A Long Way Down”… but thanks for a lovely write-up.
NH
merlinsbooks said,
March 21, 2009 at 12:12 am
Bugger! You are, of course, quite correct – blush, blush. I will make the appropriate amendment.
Cheers
Merlin