This cypberpunk offering from Peter Tieryas Liu takes us
into a near-future world in which something (unspecified) has caused everyone
to lose all their body hair. I found myself wondering whether such an event
would actually lead to the kind of societal upheaval depicted here, but was
prepared to suspend my disbelief. The author does a good job of creating this
new world order and new society, with innovative technologies, particularly in
transport, communication and gaming. It is this aspect that I feel entitles me
to label this book ‘cyberpunk’, although such labels are not always useful or
informative. I was vaguely aware of a certain dissonance between the upheaval
through which the world had apparently passed, including (as is mentioned in
passing) nuclear warfare, and the enormous technological advances that seem to
have occurred in a relatively short time.
I suppose the title and the concept had led me to expect
something slightly more light-hearted, comical and satirical than I actual
found. There is humour here, certainly, but it is not quite the Naked Gun or Hot Shots of the cyberpunk genre that I expected.
I won’t go into the details of the story here. Suffice it to
say that there are mystery, intrigue, conspiracy and evil-doers in abundance.
Our hero, Nicholas Guan, former military, now occasional cinematographer, finds
himself in a range of dangerous situations where he is shot at, blown up,
tortured and variously given a hard time. There is some back story concerning a
former marriage, which sheds light on Nick’s current situation. Nick gradually
unravels a mystery involving his best friend Larry and rival, multi-national
wig manufacturers. It ought to be a send-up, right?
The action and more violent scenes are well-written and
involve the reader closely. Nick is a likeable and believable character. The
other characters around him are also quite interesting, even when they are
extreme (like the leader of a religious sect that holds Nick captive for a
while). The plot became complex at some points at the political/conspiracy
level, and I couldn’t always quite keep track of who did what and why. That
could just be me. As I was reading the scenes where Nick was held captive by
the religious sect, I found myself wondering whether the story might not be
working at an allegorical level. But, again, that may just be me. I remain
somewhat curious about this scene. Of all the difficult situations Nick could
have found himself in, why did it take precisely this form? This scene could
almost be omitted without affecting the story, although I wouldn’t necessarily
advocate this.
I had a sense that the author hurried somewhat towards the
denouement in the last chapter or two. While I enjoyed the fast action pace of
some of it, I thought there were times when the author should have slowed down,
given the reader time to grasp what was going on, and given the hero more time
to contemplate his decisions. Some of the interactions with other characters
could have been made more personal and intimate; instead they remained at a
factual/information-exchange level. I think this would have lent more impact to
the moments of revelation and given more weight to the hero’s decisions. This
sense of being rushed was augmented by the fact that the quality of the writing
deteriorated a little here, and more errors crept in.
Overall, I thought this was an interesting and well-paced
contribution to the genre. I enjoyed the concept and the world the author
created. However, these did not overshadow the story or the characterisation.
The writing was of a fairly high standard, except where noted. Four stars from
me.
No comments:
Post a Comment