Empty Space: A Haunting by M. John Harrison
reviewed by David Soyka
Well, it's been one helluva long, strange trip. Concluding a trilogy (according to the publisher, though
certainly not in the typical Lord of the Rings sense), M. John Harrison's Empty Space is more directly
connected (if it can be said that anything here is directly connected) to Light (2002) than the
in-between Nova Swing (2007). All three share strands of genealogy set in an existence influenced by the presence of
the Kefachuchi Tract, described as "a singularity without an event horizon."
Which means what, exactly?
Nova Swing by M. John Harrison
reviewed by David Soyka
The science fiction of the book is also heavily blended with noir, a detective story of sorts in which the question isn't "whodunit" but
rather "who does it to us." Right from the opening page, the name of the bar, Black Cat White Cat, connotes both the on/off
state of Schrödinger's cat as well as the cinematic tones of classic noir film. Indeed, the theme here
echoes The Maltese Falcon.
Viriconium by M. John Harrison
reviewed by Sean Wright
Ashlyme feels compelled to rescue Audsley King from the plague zone, returning her back to the High City where he feels she
belongs. Indeed, his admiration for the artist is so great that he's even willing to share his studio with her, although she
doesn't know it. In fact, she doesn't know that he has planned to abduct her, an absurdist plot hatched by a struggling
astronomer, Buffo. But the tension is notched up a level when The Grand Cairo, a powerful yet nasty dwarf with a history of
violence, commissions Ashlyme to paint his portrait and invites himself to be part of the rescue team.
Anima by M. John Harrison
reviewed by Matthew Cheney
Before embarking on the journey, we should note that this is not a new novel; rather, it is a
one-volume edition of his 1992 novel The Course of the Heart and his 1997 novel Signs of Life. Read from cover-to-cover
in a short amount of time, it feels less like a book than an assault, a wound, an onslaught of dream-killing mirrors,
a battalion of bloodthirsty words, an epidemic of images that burrow into the readerly brain and claw their way through the murk
of accumulated wistfulness and self-delusion until all that's left is the petrified carcass of desire.
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Things That Never Happen by M. John Harrison
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
This is a formidable if occasionally entropic collection of 24 short stories, published between
1975 and 2000. He is a writer's writer, deep diving into the abyss of human consciousness with a style and acuity
matched only by the disturbing visions of Jonathan Carroll. The tales presented here are filled with people in places that we
can all recognise, if only from peripheral vision.
Light by M. John Harrison
reviewed by Jeff VanderMeer
Some books make you want to run for a thousand miles, to dive off of buildings just for the burn of the fall. Some books are like
drugs, adrenalin rushes, fireworks. This book is not just among the best SF novels of the year -- it's without
question the best read of the year. He has jettisoned all banality, dead spots, padding, and come up with a novel that moves
without sacrificing depth. Not since Stepan Chapman's The Troika and Iain M. Banks' Use of Weapons has a novel managed
to so single-handedly revitalize and re-energize the SF field.
The Centauri Device by M. John Harrison
reviewed by Martin Lewis
John Truck is a freewheelin' spaceship captain bumming around the galaxy. This existence is interrupted
by the appearance of the titular Device, a mysterious alien weapon. Although Truck does not know it, he has a
unique connection to the weapon if indeed that is what the Device is. This brings him to the attention of the
Earth's two superpowers, the Israeli World Government and the United Arab Socialist Republics. It also
attracts the interest of various other factions such as the Interstellar Anarchists and the Openers, a religious cult.
Travel Arrangements by M. John Harrison
reviewed by Rich Horton
This collection is almost obsessively about contemporary England. The
England depicted is closely observed, and very real -- very much the
post-Thatcherite land, trying to simultaneously shuck off and preserve the
images and the myth of "Albion." Despite a seeming "mainstream" tone, many
of the stories use SF or fantasy tropes to illuminate concerns of character
and contemporary life that are exactly the ones that dominate contemporary
realistic fiction. Nevertheless, the author is one of the best SF writers of
the present day.
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