Nicholson has a superb command of the language, that much I can’t deny. It’s just that his 14 short stories were all a bit flat. There’s also the fact – and maybe it’s just me – that he packs his imagery so dense in some places that you can’t help but feel a little oppressed by it. But his structure and pacing are good enough that this breathlessness is more of an unconscious sensation, and in many cases it serves to amplify the somber tone of his stories.
Because almost all of the stories in the book are set in the same universe (a multi-planet fascistic technocracy run by an enigmatic and poorly understood group called the Areopagus), I was initially concerned that this might limit the book’s thematic diversity. While this fear turned out to be somewhat justified, Nicholson manages to give each story its own unique voice by changing up the linguistic bent of each tale and writing across a number of planets, species and social classes.
Some may find Nicholson’s writing a little masturbatory. At times I had a feeling he was trying (as one of his characters says at one point) to “have his cake and let it eat him” with his constant descriptive exhibitionism. I mean, you’re writing short stories, for God’s sake, not poetry. The way he writes about music and singing in almost every fucking story in some of the most florid language imaginable wasn’t so much irritating as it was embarrassing. Jeez dude, ok, we know you know a lot about caesuras and minor thirds – shut up and get on with the plot.
Where he excels, I think, is with his sorties into cyberpunk territory. The dingy world he paints contrasts beautifully with the colourful cerebral experiences of his technologically enhanced characters – characters he brings to life in some of the most enchanting cyberpunk parlance (we’ll call it cybonics) I’ve ever read.
Again, it’s not brilliant and Nicholson needs to get over himself, but I would recommend it as a quick bit of fun. Meanwhile, my quest for truly disturbing reading material continues…
No comments:
Post a Comment