Jonathan Lethem’s Gun, with Occasional Music (Wikipedia page) read like a Philip K. Dick novel that wasn’t prepared to go all the way to the (crazed) edge. Similar first-person narrative, resonant mix of current culture with a future which has gone mildly awry with its reliance on central control (with a pervasive, encouraged use of drugs to aid the process). Beyond those similarities, this is a detective novel in the Chandler vein. I’m embarrassed that I haven’t read any Chandler, but noir was a theme that caught fire, so anyone can recognize it beyond its forefather.
I looked forward to diving in each night, so that’s a good sign. Tags: Mystery · Science fiction
2 responses so far ↓
1 R. Tranquilla // Mar 21, 2006 at 8:01 pm
I read Lethem’s “Fortress of Solitude” not long ago, and was alternately very impressed (with the beauty of the sentence-to-sentence language and the elaborate themes) and annoyed (with the plot, and the sudden perspective change in the latter part of the novel). I just finished a two-month long binge of reading literally all of William Gibson’s books, which I’d somehow missed until now; while I didn’t love every single minute, the mix of “hard” sci-fi, thiller, and yes, noir, did compel me to find, buy, and read eight or nine books over eight weeks. As you say, a good sign….
2 clock — watching time, the only true currency » Book: Altered Carbon // Apr 17, 2006 at 7:56 pm
[...] Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan felt right in line with Lethem, but with more of a William Gibson flavor. The language didn’t thrum like Gibson’s, but the world-framing theme of ’sleeves’ (human bodies as replaceable wrappers for your ‘core,’ or brain in a digital form) read well, and even original when taken to its extremes. The mechanics of sleeving even drive the plot in several ways. [...]
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