Europe at Midnight

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

I have to start out by saying I didn't really want to read Europe At Midnight. The only reason I bought it is because it was nominated for the Arthur C Clarke award this year and I decided to review the whole shortlist. I didn't want to read this because that I wasn't a fan of Europe In Autumn, but I think it's partly my own fault that I didn't like it. I went into that book expecting a sci-fi story (I mean you would expect that if a book has been nominated for a sci-fi award right?) and what I actually found was a very well written spy novel with a little bit of science-fiction bolted on at the end. And I think that shock at not getting what I expected was a large part of the reason I didn't like that book, to the point where I want to go read it again knowing it's really more of a spy novel.

Anyway that's enough about the first book. Europe At Midnight is the sequel to Europe In Autumn and is partially set in one of the pocket universes you are introduced to at the end of the first book. This particular universe is essentially a large university campus and our main character is a type of detective who lives there. Look I'm going to be totally honest. I read this and I still don't fully understand the whole plot, you're better off reading the blurb than reading my attempt at summarising it.

I suppose that may also give you an idea of how I feel about this book (you may also like to know I finished it and immediately put it on my to-be-donated pile). Basically this book was just okay. I really liked the spy aspect of it but the rest was kind of boring. The characters were fine, you have two main characters and because of the way it was written I found it really difficult telling who's point of view the story was being told from. The beginning wasn't so bad for this because the characters were in two separate places but by the end I had no idea what character was talking.

The ending was very meh. It didn't have any real conclusion, it sort of just stopped. In fact I vaguely remember having this same problem with Europe In Autumn. The only good thing I can tell you about this book is you don't need to read the first to understand what is going on in this one (and I can say that with complete certainty because I remember very little of what happened in the first book). Basically it was just okay. But if you want a good spy novel go read something by John Le Carre instead.

The second book in Hutchinson's Fractured Europe series is not a direct follow up to the superb Europe in Autumn, but rather a novel set in the universe(s) established in that first book. It opens in a vast university Campus that is more like a miniature city, where some kind of revolution has taken place. The Professor landed with the job of Intelligence Director (who introduces himself as Rupert of Hentzau) meets the mysterious Araminta Delahunty....and worlds literally collide.

The story then moves to England, a country familiar and yet not. There is no longer a United Kingdom. Europe has fractured into hundreds of states, each with its own Intelligence needs. Jim works for England's Intelligence Service when he's seconded to a secret committee called Perigee, under the directorship of a Professor Adele Bevan and a woman called Shaw. Bevan's life's work has been the study of the possibility of a parallel universe hidden within Western Europe.

This is a brilliant synthesis of espionage and near future speculative fiction. Hutchinson captures the drab, world weary LeCarré/Deighton world of intelligence work perfectly, but also manages to graft it on to a brilliantly imagined Europe where even a trans-European railway has declared itself a sovereign nation and Dresden has become a walled off city dedicated to data storage for the super rich. Make no mistake, this is a gripping thriller.

The story is labyrinthine, weaving in and out of both worlds as Jim and Rupert navigate conflicting interests. Rupert becomes a double, even triple agent, a man out of time and a man from a lost world. In a story that spans a couple of decades, Hutchinson manages to broaden the world he's created and set up what comes next. Right at the end Rudi, the Coureur from Europe in Autumn, pops up and there is the sense of something huge about to happen.

Highly recommended.