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Amazon.co.uk Review
Slow River won both the Nebula Award and the Lambda Literary Award for author Nicola Griffith. The book's near-future setting and devices place it firmly on the science fiction shelves, and the characters' matter-of-fact sexuality further label it as lesbian SF. But make no mistake, Slow River is no subgenre throwaway. Griffith's skill at weaving temporal threads through the plot bring protagonist Lore van de Oest tragically to life, and you will genuinely care about her in the end. Born into a bioengineering family made wealthy by cleaning up after humanity, Lore leads a life of privilege and power. Riches don't bring happiness, though, and the van de Oest family hides its share of dark secrets. Lore is kidnapped, but escapes from her captors when she realizes her family isn't going to pay the ransom. Naked, alone, and wounded, she is saved by the brutally street-smart Spanner, who teaches Lore to survive by exploiting the Net's (and human beings') weaknesses. To learn to trust, though, Lore must face her demons, one by one, until she can begin again.
Griffith's biotech-science details are accurate, and she fits them smoothly into the story in the manner of a cyberpunk master. This novel's real strength is its characters, though. The van de Oest family, Spanner, even characters who appear only briefly, are all distinct and consistent--not to mention very human. Lore herself seems so personal that Griffith's note about the story's disturbing aspects not being autobiographical was probably wise. Slow River is more than good enough to transcend genre and appeal to both science fiction fans and a broader audience looking for an excellent, character-driven sci-fi story. -- Therese Littleton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
She awoke in an alley to the splash of rain. She was naked, a foot-long gash in her back was still bleeding, and her identity implant was gone. Lore Van Oesterling had been the daughter of one of the world's most powerful families...and now she was nobody, and she had to hide.
Then out of the rain walked Spanner, predator and thief, who took her in, cared for her wound, and taught her how to reinvent herself again and again. No one could find Lore now: not the police, not her family, and not the kidnappers who had left her in that alley to die. She had escaped...but the cost of her newfound freedom was crime and deception, and she paid it over and over again, until she had become someone she loathed.
Lore had a choice: She could stay in the shadows, stay with Spanner...and risk losing herself forever. Or she could leave Spanner and find herself again by becoming someone else: stealing the identity implant of a dead woman, taking over her life, and creating a new future.
But to start again, Lore required Spanner's talents--Spanner, who needed her and hated her, and who always had a price. And even as Lore agreed to play Spanner's game one final time, she found that there was still the price of being a Van Oesterling to be paid. Only by confronting her family, her past, and her own demons could Lore meld together who she had once been, who she had become, and the person she intended to be...
Then out of the rain walked Spanner, predator and thief, who took her in, cared for her wound, and taught her how to reinvent herself again and again. No one could find Lore now: not the police, not her family, and not the kidnappers who had left her in that alley to die. She had escaped...but the cost of her newfound freedom was crime and deception, and she paid it over and over again, until she had become someone she loathed.
Lore had a choice: She could stay in the shadows, stay with Spanner...and risk losing herself forever. Or she could leave Spanner and find herself again by becoming someone else: stealing the identity implant of a dead woman, taking over her life, and creating a new future.
But to start again, Lore required Spanner's talents--Spanner, who needed her and hated her, and who always had a price. And even as Lore agreed to play Spanner's game one final time, she found that there was still the price of being a Van Oesterling to be paid. Only by confronting her family, her past, and her own demons could Lore meld together who she had once been, who she had become, and the person she intended to be...
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Frances Lorien van de Oest is a young woman used to her lifestyle as the daughter of a wealthy family. At the book's beginning she's a victim of a kidnapping plot that goes wrong. Left naked and seriously injured on a deserted street; Lore (as she calls herself) is helped by a stranger named Spanner. Very soon it is made clear that Spanner is not motivated by altruistic concern.
From this strong start, the novel can be an equally fascinating and baffling read. The story is split into sections with Lore's first person narrative of events and then flashbacks in the third person. The flashbacks deal with how Lore gets to know Spanner and of Lore's family life. In all the narrative threads it's evident that dark and twisted motives are being slowly revealed.
Lore almost leaps off the page as a powerful character who is intelligent, educated, worldly and yet isolated, controlled and vulnerable. Used to living in a manipulative environment she finds it easy to spot in others. Her view of relationships in her family, people from the threatening, criminal world she comes to know and then everyday work life builds a lot of tension and draws you into the story.
The author does do a great job of creating a plausible, not too distant, future and generally avoids over-detailed explanations of technology so that everything is smoothly integrated (with one glaring exception). It's also enjoyable to have world spanning locations included in the flashback sequences - they go from lush subtropical islands to barren deserts.
For those good points, there are places where the novel doesn't work so well.
Spanner shows far less depth in characterisation than Lore. Hellbent on criminal activities and the sleazy side of life she is ruthlessly amoral, self-involved and damaged. Even someone verging on sociopathic can appear understandable through the emotional perspective of another character. But here it is missing. The charming personality and attraction she is supposed to have for others never becomes apparent.
Where I think the writing becomes entirely unstuck is with the main plot thread. Which is water recycling. The idea is definitely a good one but, in contrast to the vaguer descriptions elsewhere, paragraphs dealing with water plant processing can be impenetrably dense. The book launches into a level of detail which could be inspired by research papers on freshwater chemistry and marine biology. To give one partial quote:
"A strain, mainly Pseudomonas paudimobilis, for the BTEX and high-molecular-weight alkanes; B strain for chlorinated hydrocarbons; and probably by now the C strain... VC levels told an observer a lot about the health and ratios between aerobic and anaerobic, methanotrophic and heterotrophic bacteria."
Science, real or fictional, doesn't have to cause a headache in readers. With a balanced approach between specialist technical details and dumbing it down too far a story can become stronger (I'm thinking here of Neal Stephenson's early novel Zodiac). Sadly, Slow River doesn't achieve a similar balance and I started skimming over these passages when I saw them coming.
I'm giving four stars as I do think that Lore, the majority of the characters and the overall intelligence of the writing are well worth it. The jargon unfortunately isn't.
From this strong start, the novel can be an equally fascinating and baffling read. The story is split into sections with Lore's first person narrative of events and then flashbacks in the third person. The flashbacks deal with how Lore gets to know Spanner and of Lore's family life. In all the narrative threads it's evident that dark and twisted motives are being slowly revealed.
Lore almost leaps off the page as a powerful character who is intelligent, educated, worldly and yet isolated, controlled and vulnerable. Used to living in a manipulative environment she finds it easy to spot in others. Her view of relationships in her family, people from the threatening, criminal world she comes to know and then everyday work life builds a lot of tension and draws you into the story.
The author does do a great job of creating a plausible, not too distant, future and generally avoids over-detailed explanations of technology so that everything is smoothly integrated (with one glaring exception). It's also enjoyable to have world spanning locations included in the flashback sequences - they go from lush subtropical islands to barren deserts.
For those good points, there are places where the novel doesn't work so well.
Spanner shows far less depth in characterisation than Lore. Hellbent on criminal activities and the sleazy side of life she is ruthlessly amoral, self-involved and damaged. Even someone verging on sociopathic can appear understandable through the emotional perspective of another character. But here it is missing. The charming personality and attraction she is supposed to have for others never becomes apparent.
Where I think the writing becomes entirely unstuck is with the main plot thread. Which is water recycling. The idea is definitely a good one but, in contrast to the vaguer descriptions elsewhere, paragraphs dealing with water plant processing can be impenetrably dense. The book launches into a level of detail which could be inspired by research papers on freshwater chemistry and marine biology. To give one partial quote:
"A strain, mainly Pseudomonas paudimobilis, for the BTEX and high-molecular-weight alkanes; B strain for chlorinated hydrocarbons; and probably by now the C strain... VC levels told an observer a lot about the health and ratios between aerobic and anaerobic, methanotrophic and heterotrophic bacteria."
Science, real or fictional, doesn't have to cause a headache in readers. With a balanced approach between specialist technical details and dumbing it down too far a story can become stronger (I'm thinking here of Neal Stephenson's early novel Zodiac). Sadly, Slow River doesn't achieve a similar balance and I started skimming over these passages when I saw them coming.
I'm giving four stars as I do think that Lore, the majority of the characters and the overall intelligence of the writing are well worth it. The jargon unfortunately isn't.
4 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was a brilliant read. By the end of the book I was wishing that there was a sequel.
The book is great because of the characters and their interactions rather than the amazing sci-fi, although there are some exceptionally cool bits of technology uses in there that would definately be on my list of 'toys I would like to have'.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
46 reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Uneven but Entertaining
30 July 2004
Format:Paperback
The action in this science fiction novel alternates between three different phases in the life of the protagonist, Lore van de Oest. One phase, told in the third person and present tense, consists of biographical sketches of Lore's privileged upbringing until a kidnapping gone wrong propels her, naked and injured, into a new life on the streets. The second, told in the third person and past tense, tells how she survives for three years on the mean streets with the help of an amoral hustler called Spanner, whom she joins in a life of crime. The third, in which Lore speaks in the first person, is about how Lore, now separated from Spanner, tries to go straight and build a life for herself as a shift worker in a high-tech water purification plant.
Author Nicola Griffith leavens each section with vivid futuristic detail, and she is an evocative writer with a sharp eye for character. As a writer, her choice to switch between first and third person, past and present tense -- her biggest gamble -- is also her greatest failure, as the transition can sometimes be jarring. Other than that, her prose flows as smoothly and deeply as the river of the title.
Two of the three parts of Slow River -- the ones about street life and privileged life in the near future -- are above average examples of basic science fiction themes, most worth reading for Griffith's prose. The third, about Lore's employment at the extremely well-imagined purification facility, is more original. The atmosphere of low-grade tension inherent in the possibility that some malfunction there will cause an ecological catastrophe gives an element of suspense to Griffith's novel that keeps the reader turning pages.
Or, at least, it did me. It says something, about either Griffith or me, that I read as fast as I could through chapters about surefire topics like high-tech crime and futuristic luxury because I was desperate to find out what happens to the poorly-paid denizens of a water treatment plant. It takes talent to make this sort of topic so absorbing, but Griffith has no shortage of that -- and her peers agree, and awarded Slow River various awards, including the prestigious Nebula.
Author Nicola Griffith leavens each section with vivid futuristic detail, and she is an evocative writer with a sharp eye for character. As a writer, her choice to switch between first and third person, past and present tense -- her biggest gamble -- is also her greatest failure, as the transition can sometimes be jarring. Other than that, her prose flows as smoothly and deeply as the river of the title.
Two of the three parts of Slow River -- the ones about street life and privileged life in the near future -- are above average examples of basic science fiction themes, most worth reading for Griffith's prose. The third, about Lore's employment at the extremely well-imagined purification facility, is more original. The atmosphere of low-grade tension inherent in the possibility that some malfunction there will cause an ecological catastrophe gives an element of suspense to Griffith's novel that keeps the reader turning pages.
Or, at least, it did me. It says something, about either Griffith or me, that I read as fast as I could through chapters about surefire topics like high-tech crime and futuristic luxury because I was desperate to find out what happens to the poorly-paid denizens of a water treatment plant. It takes talent to make this sort of topic so absorbing, but Griffith has no shortage of that -- and her peers agree, and awarded Slow River various awards, including the prestigious Nebula.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Top notch SF
25 Jan 2005
Format:Paperback
I was surprised at some of the poor reviews given this book and have an idea that these stem from those picking up books from a list of Nebula Award winners. This book is not at all your typical SF story, indeed it feels much more like a mainstream story with some SF aspects than it does an SF story. I'm an avid reader of both science fiction as well as mainstream fiction, so this holds a good deal of appeal for me.
Griffith's prose is wonderful and showcases a beauty of language seldom seen in science fiction. Her characterization is also near perfect. I won't spend time discussing the plot as that's been handled amply by the other reviewers, but I will echo one other person's thoughts: The storyline that has Lore working at a sewage plant is, surprisingly, every bit as engrossing as the ones that deal with her kidnapping and her high society upbringing. To me, that says a good deal about Griffith's talent as a writer.
As for the sex scenes, which some people describe as being nearly constant in the book, there are actually about four or five scenes taking up somewhere around ten pages of the book (not each, but in total). Additionally, they're not placed in the story without purpose.
Overall, an excellent book. Personally, I'm quite glad that it won a Nebula. It's certainly desereving.
Griffith's prose is wonderful and showcases a beauty of language seldom seen in science fiction. Her characterization is also near perfect. I won't spend time discussing the plot as that's been handled amply by the other reviewers, but I will echo one other person's thoughts: The storyline that has Lore working at a sewage plant is, surprisingly, every bit as engrossing as the ones that deal with her kidnapping and her high society upbringing. To me, that says a good deal about Griffith's talent as a writer.
As for the sex scenes, which some people describe as being nearly constant in the book, there are actually about four or five scenes taking up somewhere around ten pages of the book (not each, but in total). Additionally, they're not placed in the story without purpose.
Overall, an excellent book. Personally, I'm quite glad that it won a Nebula. It's certainly desereving.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
One of those stories that stays with you.
30 Dec 1997
Format:Paperback
"Slow River" is one of those books that I read again and again, wearing my copy to a dog-eared mess, giving other copies to friends, keeping in an easily accessible place so I can re-read a favorite passage or look up a memorable phrase.
This book captivated me on so many levels that I'm hard put to say what I like best about it. Griffith's prose, like the "slow river" she describes in the opening chapter, is smooth and languid on the surface, but has hidden depths that slowly rise as the story continues. The structure of the story is excellent; the use of different tenses and points of view (Lore is always the viewpoint character, but sometimes first-person, sometimes third-person) is smooth and never confusing. Griffith's plot construction is first rate, allowing the characters to breathe and grow.
The story itself is equally tantilizing. The glimpses we get of Lore's family are few, but telling; one senses that she is used to living a life of precision masked by glamour. When she loses these things, she loses her identity.
Griffith's use of symbolism is frequent but never heavy-handed or overstated; it would be easy for the PIDA (a type of personal ID), for example, to become just another tired cliche. The symbols merely serve to underline important things about the characters, who come to the forefront, each an individual.
In fact, it's hard for me to cite anything bad about this book. I suppose I could think of something if I tried, but Griffith has that rare knack of enveloping the reader in her story so completely that every time I read it, I forget about analyzing it and just sit back and enjoy the book.
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