Amazon.co.uk: Cythera: Richard Calder: Books

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WILLIAM GIBSON
'Dark, edgy and inflicted with just the right degree of lyricism' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

INTERZONE
'Disturbing orginality which explodes in your face like a fistful of fireworks.' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Image meets reality, 10 Oct 2006

By	dogbarkssome (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cythera (Paperback)

Richard Calder's 4th novel is a heady mix of science fiction ideas, exploring the link between image and reality, and extending current fears over the influence of violent media into a dystopian future where children are constantly watched over by censors. The novel is equally divided into three different first person narratives: the first telling the tale of Tarquin and his love for the `ghost' (a sentient media image that has escaped from the mirror Net world Earth 2) of movie star Dahlia Chan; the second telling of a female impersonator called Mosquito who attempts a daring masquerade to aid the lovers cause; and finally the story of the imprisoned Flynn - film-maker of the banned Dahlia Chan movies - as the ghosts of his creation attempt to free him from prison. Cythera is packed with solid SF ideas - from the media ghosts and a Third World Children's Crusade against the West to downloading minds into new bodies being built by Von Neumann machines off Earth - and some dizzying post-modern narrative tricks as the worlds of reality and fantasy combine towards the novels end. There is also a pleasing symmetry running through the book, from one character being a woman living in disguise as a man and another being a male female impersonator to the way the filmmaker and actresses lives are mirrored by their creations, with a remorseless father-figure plaguing both Tarquin and Flynn. Readers familiar with Calder's `Dead Girls/Dead Boys/Dead Things' trilogy will recognise a couple of major supporting characters, but as this is technically a prequel to that series this should work well as a stand-lone novel. By no means an `easy' book when it comes to either concepts or Calder's extravagant use of language, this may well be too bizarre for the more casual science fiction reader, but for those up to the challenge this is staggering, beautiful stuff.

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