Werthead Posted July 19, 2019 Author Share Posted July 19, 2019 On 7/8/2019 at 9:38 PM, polishgenius said: Just read this this week. It's fine, but Wert's right that the book really struggles to give a hook for us to hang on to. Two reasons for this I think: First is that even by Morgan standards the character is an iredeemable bastard who doesn't stand for anything (in which he differs from Kovacs and Ringil who are awful people but have points of view we can find sympathetic), and more importantly cares basically about almost nothing to do with the plot. It's hard to get invested in the investigation and mystery when you're first-person in a character's head and he doesn't give a shit. And secondly is that the actual mystery the plot hinges around turns out to be so fucking banal that it's barely worth mentioning. You actually get given most of the answer pretty early on and then the rest of the book is Veil digging deeper in part coz he just doesn't believe the answer is that lame, but it is. Reveal hidden contents guy who disappeared wasn't even murdered, he just got so angry he fell off a roof? And the big mystery he was involved in was that sci-fi skincreams- that don't even factor into the plot directly at any point- were manufactured on Earth instead of Mars? The fake lottery really needed to be [a much bigger part of the plot because that is at least something you can hang relatable human outrage on, and it's something that actually has some relevance to Veil as a character too. Yeah, this entire novel felt like a band doing a big comeback album after doing some interesting-but-commercially-less-successful experimental stuff for a while and then discovering that the rest of the scene had moved on quite substantially in their absence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 10 hours ago, Werthead said: Yeah, this entire novel felt like a band doing a big comeback album after doing some interesting-but-commercially-less-successful experimental stuff for a while and then discovering that the rest of the scene had moved on quite substantially in their absence. Move on or simply disappear? Other than the guy who wrote "quantum thief" and possible the luna books by ian McDonald I'm not aware of anyone doing better versions. But i don't follow neo noir SF as much as i should so any good shout outs appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.