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Product Description
Review
Not a sequel to, rather a consequence of, Harrison's eerie space opera, Light (2004). When a piece of the mysterious alien Kefahuchi Tract crashed into the city Saudade, it created a weird event site to which people are drawn in the hope of gaining a glimpse of realities beyond human comprehension. Those that enter the site are changed, contaminated or absorbed by the strangeness inside. Some never come out at all. Others merely want to have sex within sight of it. Meanwhile, things emerge too: "cats," who later return as mysteriously as they came; "people," who sing and dance and attempt to have sex only to fade and vanish; or metamorphosing objects such as that retrieved by "entradista" Vic Serotonin. Ineffectually patrolling the borderlands are the Site Crime police, led by Albert Einstein look-alike detective Lens Aschemann, whose need to understand his dead wife transforms into an obsession with the site itself. Vic sells his artifact to gangster Paulie DeRaad, unaware that it's contaminated by malignant code. Some of the emerging "people" persist and take on human qualities; Elizabeth Kielar, Vic's current client, may be one of these, as Aschemann's late wife also may have been. Other folk, like burned-out ex-starship pilot Fat Antoyne and bar owner Liv Hula, avoid the trap the site represents and content themselves with contemplating the rain, the cats and the behavior of those around them. There are consequences for all the characters, and eventually the novel - so dense, demanding and intelligent that it reads as if it were four times the length - insinuates them.A cross between J. G. Ballard's intense, static The Drowned World and Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's terrifying Roadside Picnic. The upshot: This science-fiction noir cum literary and social criticism is memorable, perplexing and challenging in equal measure. (Kirkus Reviews)
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 the Hardcover editio
Not a sequel to, rather a consequence of, Harrison's eerie space opera, Light (2004). When a piece of the mysterious alien Kefahuchi Tract crashed into the city Saudade, it created a weird event site to which people are drawn in the hope of gaining a glimpse of realities beyond human comprehension. Those that enter the site are changed, contaminated or absorbed by the strangeness inside. Some never come out at all. Others merely want to have sex within sight of it. Meanwhile, things emerge too: "cats," who later return as mysteriously as they came; "people," who sing and dance and attempt to have sex only to fade and vanish; or metamorphosing objects such as that retrieved by "entradista" Vic Serotonin. Ineffectually patrolling the borderlands are the Site Crime police, led by Albert Einstein look-alike detective Lens Aschemann, whose need to understand his dead wife transforms into an obsession with the site itself. Vic sells his artifact to gangster Paulie DeRaad, unaware that it's contaminated by malignant code. Some of the emerging "people" persist and take on human qualities; Elizabeth Kielar, Vic's current client, may be one of these, as Aschemann's late wife also may have been. Other folk, like burned-out ex-starship pilot Fat Antoyne and bar owner Liv Hula, avoid the trap the site represents and content themselves with contemplating the rain, the cats and the behavior of those around them. There are consequences for all the characters, and eventually the novel - so dense, demanding and intelligent that it reads as if it were four times the length - insinuates them.A cross between J. G. Ballard's intense, static The Drowned World and Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's terrifying Roadside Picnic. The upshot: This science-fiction noir cum literary and social criticism is memorable, perplexing and challenging in equal measure. (Kirkus Reviews)
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 the Hardcover editio