Century Rain

[coalescent]

There are many things I should have done over the weekend. Instead of most of them, I read Alastair Reynolds' latest novel.

For all that he's the winner of the 'British Science Fiction Award' (it says so on the cover, so it must be true), this is my first encounter with novel-length Reynolds. I had a bad experience with a short story, 'Galactic North', that appeared in Interzone a few years ago, and for a while actively avoided his work; then I picked up a copy of the Infinities anthology, which contained his novella 'Diamond Dogs', which I enjoyed greatly. Since then, I've had vague plans to read more of his work, but never got much beyond his other short stories. Part of this is a slight reluctance to commit myself to four linked books (even though people have assured me that Chasm City can be read solo). Century Rain, on the other hand, is a genuine standalone, with no connection to the Inhibitors universe.

It also has one of those twin-strand narratives that seem to be so trendy these days. In the future--2266--Earth has been devastated by an irresponsible release of nanotechnology, and all surviving humans live in space or on other planets. The Threshers occupy Tanglewood, a mess of habitats in near-Earth orbit, and are cautious to the point of technophobia. By contrast the Slashers (no smirking at the back, there) argue that one mistake is no reason to swear off the advantages that nanotech has to offer, and have embraced the stuff wholeheartedly. Tensions are running high. The Slashers are in favour of using any means necessary to rehabilitate Earth, up to and including absurdly large scale engineering projects, such as accelerating continental drift to sweep any contaminated bits of crust down into the mantle; The Threshers, unsurprisingly, aren't convinced.

Verity Auger is a Thresher archaeologist, trying to reconstruct a picture of pre-nanocaust Earth. One day a mysterious map falls into her lap; it purports to be from 1959, but its condition seems far too good for that to be true. And there's something slightly not-quite-right about it, as well ...

The other strand, obviously, is set in 1959. Wendell Floyd and Andre Custine are struggling jazz musicians, or possibly struggling private detectives. It's a past, but not our past, however. Their Europe is one where the German invasion of France failed almost before it had begun; where World War II and most of the associated technological development never happened; and where Paris is moody and murky, with fascism lurking in the shadows, and glamorous-yet-tragic dames on street corners:

She stepped out into the twilight air, thin and angular in black, like a sketch in Vogue. She wore a black fur stole and a black pillbox hat with a spotted veil, and when she stood under the lamplight she looked like a million dollars, until she was near him, and then she looked tired and sad and on the edge of something she couldn't face.

"Let's go eat," Floyd said gently. "And then let's go hear some real music." (p.148)

I think Reynolds had a lot of fun playing up the noir aspects of this strand. It feels, oddly, a little more staged, a little less 'real', than the future-strand; but given the way the two link up, I think that's deliberate, and mostly it worked for me.

It's a bit of a shame, then, that the use of Paris in the larger narrative didn't work so well. I like the idea of E2, but from about the novel's half-way point it becomes clear that Floyd's story is going to be subsumed into Verity's--his 1959, his world, all of it, is reduced to being another prize in the ongoing conflict between the Threshers and the Slashers. The story moves away from Paris and, quite apart from the fact that this involves leaving the most interesting location in the book, to my mind it leads to a couple of frustrating structural weaknesses.

Firstly, Verity suddenly has to become Chief Expert, infodumping shamelessly to bring Floyd up to date on her time, and presenting as certainty some things that she herself had seemed to be uncertain about earlier in the book. Secondly, most of the final hundred and fifty pages is given over to an unnaturally prolonged, and eventually slightly dull, chase scene. The very end, when it comes, is pitched exactly right, but on the way there were some moments where I was worried about losing interest--exactly when I shouldn't have been able to put the book down.

There are compensations. Thematically, it all works quite nicely. The novel's points about responsible use of technology aren't new, but there's a nice point-counterpoint going on on multiple levels; and watching traditional noir-detective Floyd and kick-ass sf heroine Auger bounce off each other is very entertaining. There are many interesting throwaway and not-so-throwaway details to Verity's world, from 'Asimov-compliant' robots to the deployment of an amusica virus as a weapon, to the portrayal of the something-more-than-human Slashers and their abilities.

The novel's back cover is smothered in quotes praising Reynolds' previous novels. No fewer than three of these describe his work as 'mind-boggling'. Century Rain isn't mind-boggling. It's smart, highly readable, a lot of fun (and funny at times, which I wasn't really expecting), and for much of its length it's a good old-fashioned mystery; but in the end, it's just not quite as good as I was hoping it would be.

Still, it's made me bump Chasm City a few more notches up my to-be-read list.

Comments

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

I should have read John meaney's latest which came in the post, and reviewed Stel Pavlou's Gene which I read last week.But i was ill and couldn't even read LJ

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I should have read one of the books that someone actually wants me to review. And written a review of Postscripts. And finished writing christmas cards. And cleaned my flat.

I cleaned one room in my flat. I guess that's something.

[fishlifter.livejournal.com]

Read Chasm City. You don't need a clean flat.

[tefkas.livejournal.com]

*echoes*

Chasm City is definitely worth reading, and probably the strongest of the quartet. It also helps that it's set prior to Redemption Ark, chronologically, despite being written (or published) later...

Set prior to <i>Redemption Ark</i>...?

[fishlifter.livejournal.com]

Did you mean Revelation Space?

I'm not going to attempt to track through the various time strands of the four novels, but Chasm City was in any case the second one published; it came out in 2001.

Re: Set prior to <i>Redemption Ark</i>...?

[fishlifter.livejournal.com]

And today I have learned not to try to do emphasis in titles that way. My only excuse is that I'm an Old Fart.

Re: Set prior to <i>Redemption Ark</i>...?

[tefkas.livejournal.com]

I do, indeed, mean Revleation Space. I'm an idiot, 'tis all.

Revelation Space
Chasm City
Redemption Ark
Absolution Gap

*nods*

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

You don't need a clean flat.

At this point, I mostly think it would just be an interesting novelty. :)

[tinimaus.livejournal.com]

I had a bad experience with a short story, 'Galactic North', that appeared in Interzone a few years ago, and for a while actively avoided his work

You are making it sound like the story threw up in your pot-plant and wiped its face on the curtains. :-)

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Don't be silly. I didn't have a pot-plant. :-p

[tinimaus.livejournal.com]

Waste-paper basket?

[snowking.livejournal.com]

You're missing a "the" when you talk about leaving Paris.

Hmm, I wouldn't say mind-boggling but Revelation Space and Chasm City are good. Enjoyment dulled slightly once I'd read Schismatrix, mind. I really should get Absolution Gap.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

You're missing a "the" when you talk about leaving Paris.

Thanks.

Hmm, I wouldn't say mind-boggling but Revelation Space and Chasm City are good. Enjoyment dulled slightly once I'd read Schismatrix, mind. I really should get Absolution Gap.

I think the premise of Century Rain could form the basis for a mind-boggling book (think Dick), but I don't think that's the sort of book Reynolds wanted to write. I was just amused that so many people had been boggled. :)

[talvalin.livejournal.com]

The mind-boggling stuff is in his earlier books, but I've yet to read Schismatrix to find out just *how* much of it was, um, borrowed.

Century Rain is at least reasonably consistent, unlike the majority of his novels, but I did think that it could have been better. I agree that the Paris segment was the most interesting and abandoning it so early was a mistake. I wasn't particular surprised by the shameless infodumping, but Floyd's reaction to all of it was brilliant, especially the line about being able to change a spark-plug. The dialogue was sharper than I've seen (it's dark, but still less grim than the Inhibitor stuff) and I laughed out loud in quite a few places, usually in public places. By the way, if you think the info-dumping in Century Rain was bad, try the entire chapter's worth of it at the end of Revelation Space!

Not that you need another person bugging you, but Chasm City is rather good. :)

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I've yet to read Schismatrix

Well, I know what I'm nominating for next month's book group, then! I've been meaning to give it another go.

Floyd's reaction to all of it was brilliant, especially the line about being able to change a spark-plug. The dialogue was sharper than I've seen

Agreed, the dialogue was pretty sharp. I wish I'd noted down some of the better quotes, actually. :)

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

Agreed, the dialogue was pretty sharp. I wish I'd noted down some of the better quotes, actually. :)

I don't think it was exactly quotable, what it had was a snap, some rythmn and verve. Yeah, that was one of the nice parts of the book.

Absolution Gap

[talvalin.livejournal.com]

Too much pissing about the start, interesting middle (the moving Cathedrals are awesome), fucking awful end. It's worth reading to find out what happens, but then you'll want to punch Reynolds repeatedly as soon as you're done.

Re: Absolution Gap

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Moving cathedrals, bloody religion viruses, sadistic surgeons in big black rubber gloves. Smashing.

[despotliz.livejournal.com]

If you can wait till after christmas when I've retrieved it from the north, I've got Absolution Gap. It does have a shit ending, though.

[snowking.livejournal.com]

Based on the two opinions so far mentioned, yeah, I can wait.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

This is why I'll probably just read Chasm City and then stop.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

I really should get Absolution Gap.

I won't bother. Just read the two pages epilogue, the rest isn't worth the effort.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I like Alastair Reynolds a lot. Like with Iain Banks I get the impression of imagination operating at full strength, just blasting out images and ideas, regardless of any constraints of whether they are wise or tasteful. Shame he doesn't always take the care he might to present them properly.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I get the impression of imagination operating at full strength, just blasting out images and ideas

I did get that from The Algebraist, but although I think Century Rain is the better of the two books, it didn't give me a comparable buzz. There was cool stuff, but not as high a density of cool stuff. :)