Monday, June 17, 2013

The Steel Remains - Richard K. Morgan

Richard K. Morgan wrote, possibly, my favorite sci-fi novel, "Altered Carbon." This is his first fantasy novel. Morgan has ignored many fantasy conventions with "The Steel Remains." There is a gay protagonist, aliens, and gay sex between the protagonist and the alien. The sex is told with the usual Morgan detail, that is, the sex sections are basically pornography. It's a very brave route and I applaud Morgan for the bravery, but it also seemed ridiculous - more on this shortly.

It has the other Morgan touches as well - excellent descriptions, prose, structure, and a taste for the ultra-violent.

There's a mind-bending time-space continuum portion that's a little over-the-top and goofy, but Morgan again uses a deft writing hand to navigate his readers through it.

Ultimately, my final take is that this is, in many ways, an amazing book, but, yet, I simply didn't enjoy reading it that much. Ringil (the gay protagonist) is something of an ass and you could argue that it's because he's had to be. All the characters seemed a little thin and I can't completely get past the notion that he's breaking the rules of fantasy for the sake of breaking the rules. The homosexual/alien dynamic strikes me as goofy even though Morgan executes it well, but only in retrospect. Upon the initial reading, it was a you-have-to-be-shitting-me moment. It's difficult to discuss the homosexual component - it certainly strikes me as odd, gratuitous and, at first, seemed to detract from the story and seem somewhat implausible. However, in retrospect, it's a better book than my initial impression. Morgan provides answers and motives. I just wish that Morgan would have written a novel that brings in its readers as well as Ringil crosses swords.

Monday, June 03, 2013

A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan

I'm already conflicted by this book, so I'm taking the lazy way out and merely listing my reactions as I posted them on Goodreads:

"This seems too clever for its own good. I kind of hate it so far. I'm sticking with it, but find the encapsulation of a subject's life in a single paragraph annoying. Is this just one stream of consciousness intertwining characters together in what amounts to short stories? Fine, if it resonates." 05/28 page 85

"And just that quickly... I've been horn-swaggled into thinking this might be without merit. The "X's and O's" chapter - a (the?) Scotty chapter - is amazing. Jonathan Franzen said (or wrote - don't have the original source) that a writer should write in the third person unless a distinctive first-person voice offers itself. I hoped that these short stories intertwined would resonate and Scotty's first-person narration of meeting an old friend, his isolation, etc., certainly has resonated with me."

This is a deeply-flawed work of genius. I rank Egan in a club with Paul Thomas Anderson, David Foster Wallace, and Lev Grossman (to name a few).

In all of these, my admittedly amateur critique sees brilliance in prose indelibly marred by something else- too clever technique (Wallace, Egan), overlong (Anderson) or derivative (Grossman).

All of these artists have equally indelible gifts, all of them having the prose and insight to quickly establish a human condition.

I'm so confused I don't know whether to rate this a 1 star or 5 star. So, 3.