nicanical
Picked this up after seeing praise for M. John Harrison as a stylist and, yeah, I have to agree. Light has a definite style to it, slick and propulsive. I got Neuromancer vibes, especially from Harrison's scene-setting:
Downtown was black and gold towers, designer goods in the deserted pastel malls, mute fluorescent light skidding off the precise curves of matte plastic surfaces, the foams of lace and oyster satin. Down by the ocean, transformation dub, saltwater dub, pulsed from the bars, the soundtrack of a human life, with songs like "Dark Night, Bright Light" and others.
The neon vegetation, bluish, pale and strong, grew over its half-mile length like radioactive ivy over a fluted stone column.
The spaceport was empty. Everyone had gone home long ago. The night was just chain-link rattling in the wind, smell of the tide, a voice calling out from some motel cabin.
The style carried me to the end, Light's plot and characterization and all that other stuff are too off-the-wall to sustain my interest on their own. The plot and characterization aren't bad bear in mind, just too loosey-goosey for me. Like Harrison built the plot out with dice rolls. I'm probably just not sophisticated enough to appreciate those facets of the book.
Picked this up after seeing praise for M. John Harrison as a stylist and, yeah, I have to agree. Light has a definite style to it, slick and propulsive. I got Neuromancer vibes, especially from Harrison's scene-setting:
Downtown was black and gold towers, designer goods in the deserted pastel malls, mute fluorescent light skidding off the precise curves of matte plastic surfaces, the foams of lace and oyster satin. Down by the ocean, transformation dub, saltwater dub, pulsed from the bars, the soundtrack of a human life, with songs like "Dark Night, Bright Light" and others.
The neon vegetation, bluish, pale and strong, grew over its half-mile length like radioactive ivy over a fluted stone column.
The spaceport was empty. Everyone had gone home long ago. The night was just chain-link rattling in the wind, smell of the tide, a voice calling out from some motel cabin.
The style carried me to the end, Light's plot and characterization and all that other stuff are too off-the-wall to sustain my interest on their own. The plot and characterization aren't bad bear in mind, just too loosey-goosey for me. Like Harrison built the plot out with dice rolls. I'm probably just not sophisticated enough to appreciate those facets of the book.