New York Nights (Gollancz S.F.) [Hardcover]

Early on in New York Nights, Hal Halliday, private investigator in the crumbling New York of 2040, turns to his partner Barney who is sitting in their seedy office "with his outstretched legs lodged on the desk, a mug of coffee balanced on his belly, the smouldering butt of a fat cigar pegged into the side of his mouth." Hal tells him he should give up the cigars for his health, but Barney replies: "part of the clichéd image, Hal. What kind of private Dick would I be without my cheap stogie?" In a nutshell, there you have Eric Brown's new novel. It inhabits the clichés of the SF-noir futuristic-gumshoe novel with an unusual thoroughness: gritty urban milieu, worn-down hero, mysterious deaths, shady corporations, a Secret that somebody is prepared to kill for, chases, fights, automatic pistols and all the rest. But in the process it reminds you why these things became clichés in the first place. They work. The plot bucks you about like a rodeo bronco and you are as loathe to let go; Brown orchestrates his surprises and revelations with a spare economy; his characters are basic but workable, his prose gets the job done.

Hal and Barney are investigating the disappearance of a beautiful Virtual Reality designer, and the plot shifts from reality to computer simulation. British authors today seem endlessly fascinated with this premise (as in Chris Priest's The Extremes or Roger Levy's Reckless Sleep), presumably because it allows them to explore the process of imaginative escape that is the point of SF in the first place. Brown has his own twist on the premise, and he ties up all his loose ends neatly--surprisingly so, in fact, given that this is just the first part in a trilogy. --Adam Roberts author of Salt

The first of a new trilogy from 'the name to watch in SF' (Peter F. Hamilton)

Forty years from now America is struggling for survival following a series of terrorist attacks on its nuclear power stations. A massive exodus of refugees has left much of the country empty and turned New York into a third world city, swamped by shanty towns. As the economy downshifts and the infrastructure crumbles in the face of massive hikes in oil prices people are desperate for escape. Hal Hennessey and his partner Barney Kruger are doing fairly well out of the misfortune of others - retired from the NYPD they run a missing persons agency tracking down the debris from families that have broken apart under the pressures of a society that is disintegrating. When they are approached by one of the leading figures in the new radical-lesbian chic underground, desperate to find her missing girlfriend Hal is forced to confront his own past and the whereabouts of a sister he hasn't seen in more than fifteen years. And behind it all, the big software companies are rushing to perfect a new generation of virtual reality (VIRTUA) environments to give people the heavens they have lost. Anyone asking awkward questions around them better have good life insurance. Especially when the VIREX underground campaign against VR is hotting up. Eric Brown is unique amongst the new generation of British SF writers in the sensitivity and depth of his characterisation. His novels are infused with a strong empathy for ordinary people and display a willingness to examine family, happiness and mortality, using the rules of SF to ask fundamental questions about our lives and beliefs.

'Eric Brown is the name to watch in SF' PETER F. HAMILTON
'NEW YORK NIGHTS is a notable performance, pitch perfect; and Brown is an excellent writer' INTERZONE

'A book with real heart, and with stamina. As Eric Brown has been in a class of his own for some time, this verdict, perhaps comes as no surprise. NEW YORK NIGHTS is brilliant.' INFINITY PLUS

'Meditations on memory and guilt and forgiveness are what work best in the book, for Brown draws acute portraits of his characters, and makes their personal battles both convincing and affecting.'

SFSITE

'The plot bucks like a rodeo bronco and you are as loath to let go; Brown orchestrates his surprises and revelations with spare economy.' ADAM ROBERTS (author of SALT) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Eric Brown lives in Haworth. He lived in Australia until he was fourteen and has travelled extensively in the Far East. He writes full time and is a regular contributor to Interzone.