- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz; New Ed edition (8 Nov 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 057507969X
- ISBN-13: 978-0575079694
- Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 1.6 x 19.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 118,077 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
¿Nova Swing begins to look like not only state-of-the-art noir SF, but a cunning cryptogram of a novel, as well.¿ (Sam Thompson TLS )
¿Harrison is a fine writer whose bleak vision draws much of its power from well observed descriptions of the real world.¿ (Lisa Tuttle THE TIMES )
Harrison's gloomy, seedy world is a constant delight of precise images, of sounds half-heard on the wind that delight even more than they disturb. Harrison writes with tremendous panache. A Poet of decay. (Roz Kaveney THE INDEPENDENT )
There are moments of high science fiction action, beautifully sustained by Harrison. (John Clute THE GUARDIAN )
Nova Swing is chilling, enigmatic, often darkly funny and beautifully written. (David Langford SFX )
It reads like mainstream fiction soaked in noir. Coloured by longing and wonder, 'Nova Swing' is filled with a humanity that makes it as substantial as it is dazzling. (Nocholas Royle TIME OUT )
"The lives touched by the novel's inchoate enigmas are disturbingly real, and Harrison¿s vision of the longing of failed lives disturbingly authentic. (Gary K Wolfe LOCUS )
"Harrison's deliciously scuzzy prose style and warped ideas grab you and drag you through the pages that he has populated with some memorably bizarre characters. Join the fan club while it's still exclusive." (Dave Golder BBC FOCUS )
Harrison writes with tremendous panache of vast machines and bizarre cosmetic therapies and about the reaches between stars. Harrison is a poet of decay. (Roz Kaveney THE INDEPENDENT )
"Harrison's considerable imagination runs far and wide." (SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
¿Harrison is a fine writer whose bleak vision draws much of its power from well observed descriptions of the real world.¿ (Lisa Tuttle THE TIMES )
Harrison's gloomy, seedy world is a constant delight of precise images, of sounds half-heard on the wind that delight even more than they disturb. Harrison writes with tremendous panache. A Poet of decay. (Roz Kaveney THE INDEPENDENT )
There are moments of high science fiction action, beautifully sustained by Harrison. (John Clute THE GUARDIAN )
Nova Swing is chilling, enigmatic, often darkly funny and beautifully written. (David Langford SFX )
It reads like mainstream fiction soaked in noir. Coloured by longing and wonder, 'Nova Swing' is filled with a humanity that makes it as substantial as it is dazzling. (Nocholas Royle TIME OUT )
"The lives touched by the novel's inchoate enigmas are disturbingly real, and Harrison¿s vision of the longing of failed lives disturbingly authentic. (Gary K Wolfe LOCUS )
"Harrison's deliciously scuzzy prose style and warped ideas grab you and drag you through the pages that he has populated with some memorably bizarre characters. Join the fan club while it's still exclusive." (Dave Golder BBC FOCUS )
Harrison writes with tremendous panache of vast machines and bizarre cosmetic therapies and about the reaches between stars. Harrison is a poet of decay. (Roz Kaveney THE INDEPENDENT )
"Harrison's considerable imagination runs far and wide." (SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
John Clute, THE GUARDIAN
"There are moments of high science fiction action, beautifully sustained by Harrison."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Harrison is a conflicted writer. In this recent work he appears to take it easy and as a result has written an entertaining conceit on a theme also explored by the Strugatsky brothers, or more precisely by Tarkovsky, in Stalker - if to nothing like that effect. The problem is that Harrison's book has little of the mystery of his greater earlier works, such as The Course of the Heart. He seems to have lost patience with the process.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
My first (and somewhat belated) exposure to M. John Harrison came with a short story called Tourism about a character called Jack Serotonin going into a site with a woman and only Jack coming back. The story focussed on what happened to the people on the outside of the site as they waited for Jack to come back. The short story was a precursor, a taster to this novel, with a name or two changed and the plot of the first chapter mapping onto that story with a few shifts. What follows is an investigation into an outlandish world described like a detective novel. Which is fitting, as the best detective novels have a good sense of place, and Nova Swing's downbeat, downmarket setting is a very memorable world.
In a sense, the plot is secondary. The story is about the characters who inhabit this world and how they interact with it. However, I will say that the fact that Harrison includes a quote from Roadside Picnic by the Strugatskys is very telling. Had he not acknowledged this as an influence (along with a small allusion - I think - to Philip K. Dick's Clans of the Alphane Moons), I might have been a little saddened. However this story is an inversion of that one because it's about what takes place outside the site where strange things happen. It's about how society is filled these days with tourists, people who will never know what it is to be lost, how society has become so safe that it's sometimes hard to see why we keep living. Serotonin is one of the few men in this world who thrives on being lost, both inside the site and in his own life.
As ever with Harrison, there is sex, there is body horror, there is profundity. And isn't that what British SF is all about?
In a sense, the plot is secondary. The story is about the characters who inhabit this world and how they interact with it. However, I will say that the fact that Harrison includes a quote from Roadside Picnic by the Strugatskys is very telling. Had he not acknowledged this as an influence (along with a small allusion - I think - to Philip K. Dick's Clans of the Alphane Moons), I might have been a little saddened. However this story is an inversion of that one because it's about what takes place outside the site where strange things happen. It's about how society is filled these days with tourists, people who will never know what it is to be lost, how society has become so safe that it's sometimes hard to see why we keep living. Serotonin is one of the few men in this world who thrives on being lost, both inside the site and in his own life.
As ever with Harrison, there is sex, there is body horror, there is profundity. And isn't that what British SF is all about?
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'Nova Swing' is M John Harrison's sequel to 2003's 'Light', a book that marked a welcome return to Science-Fiction. Harrison can be a polarising writer and 'Nova Swing' does nothing to change this.
The story is loosely related to 'Light' and concerns a cat and mouse game between detective and 'tour operator' Vic Serotonin. Serotonin risks all by routinely going into the 'event site', a place where normal laws of physics don't seem to apply and the risk to the person's mind seems huge.
Whereas 'Light' was arguably a character driven piece that wrapped three narratives into an intense conclusion, 'Nova Swing' allows its two main characters to fade into the background, instead choosing to explore the effects of the event site on the secondary characters in the book. Initially this move can seem confusing, but to me it enabled the book to build to a much richer and ambiguous conclusion than 'Light'. Harrison's prose (as always), is a wonder and the dark noir world will feel instantly familiar to those familiar with the Cyberpunk genre.
This is a book that does not offer up any easy answers, it makes you work for them. For that alone, I highly reccomend it.
The story is loosely related to 'Light' and concerns a cat and mouse game between detective and 'tour operator' Vic Serotonin. Serotonin risks all by routinely going into the 'event site', a place where normal laws of physics don't seem to apply and the risk to the person's mind seems huge.
Whereas 'Light' was arguably a character driven piece that wrapped three narratives into an intense conclusion, 'Nova Swing' allows its two main characters to fade into the background, instead choosing to explore the effects of the event site on the secondary characters in the book. Initially this move can seem confusing, but to me it enabled the book to build to a much richer and ambiguous conclusion than 'Light'. Harrison's prose (as always), is a wonder and the dark noir world will feel instantly familiar to those familiar with the Cyberpunk genre.
This is a book that does not offer up any easy answers, it makes you work for them. For that alone, I highly reccomend it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Minging
Light, Harrison's previous book, is amazing, a visionary book that stays with you long after reading, and takes the reader into stunning new dimensions. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Sarcosuchus
And how well the man writes. . .
Genre novels are never considered for the Booker prize. And never mind that middle-class angst is as much a genre as crime or science/weird fiction. Read more
Published on 20 Dec 2007 by N Foster
Space Noir...
Nova Swing manages to combine a number of genres - the film noir and sci-fi being the main elements. Read more
Published on 12 Sep 2007 by J. Bloss
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