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What's New
Review Features
S - Science Fiction
F - Fantasy
H - Horror
Complete Listing
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Adams, Douglas (S)
Asher, Neal (S)
Aylett, Steve (S)
Banks, Iain M (S)
Barclay, James (F)
Barker, Clive (H)
Baxter, Stephen (S)
Brin, David (S)
Bury, Stephen (S)
Card, Orson Scott (S)
Cherryh, CJ (S/F)
Clute, John (S)
Cockayne, Steve (F)
Cook, Glen (F)
Danielewski, Mark (H)
Dick, Philip K (S)
Egan, Greg (S)
Feist, Raymond (F)
Gaiman, Neil (F)
Gibson, William (S)
Goodkind, Terry (F)
Grimwood, Jon C (S)
Hamilton, Peter (S)
Jeter, K.W. (S)
Jordan, Robert (F)
Lethem, Jonathan (S)
McAuley, Paul (S)
MacLeod, Ken (S)
Martin, George RR (F)
McMullen, Sean (S)
Miéville, China (S)
Moran, Daniel K (S)
Morgan, Richard K (S)
Nagata, Linda (S)
Niven, Larry (S)
Noon, Jeff (S)
Robinson, Kim S. (S)
Rucker, Rudy (S)
Simmons, Dan (S)
Smith, Michael Marshall (S)
Stephenson, Neal (S)
Sterling, Bruce (S)
Vinge, Vernor (S)
Westerfeld, Scott (S)
Williams, Sean (S)
Williams, Tad (S/F)
Collections (S/F)
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| The Classics |
Bradbury, Ray (S/H)
Burgess, Anthony (S)
Tolkien, JRR (F) |
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| Jonathan Lethem |
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 Our
Ranking Gun with occasional music, is the first
book by Lethem that I've read. I saw it on a recommended list on Amazon.com when
I was buying a Jeff Noon book. The title (what an awesome title) really stuck
out so I picked it up. I have to admit I wasn't disappointed. They classify this
one as science fiction, but to tell you the truth, it is sci-fi in setting only.
It is a bit like a Philip K Dick book in that he sets it in the future and then
uses that to bend the rules of reality a bit. And bend them he does. Several of
the main characters are actually evolved animals. For instance, the hit man that
is trailing the main character throughout most of the book is a kangaroo. The
setting itself is pretty bizarre but intriguing. It is a very repressed society,
where it is considered rude and is actually illegal to ask people questions. Only
a group known as Inquisitors have the legal right to ask others questions. Each
civilian has a card which tracks their karma. The more karma you have the better
of a citizen you supposedly are. If you are deducted down to zero, you cease being
a citizen and are put away. Beyond the setting this is, for the most part, a straight
fiction detective novel. The main character is an ex-inquisitor who has gone private.
In a way it is very 1950ish with the detective references. It is full of cheesy
one liners told from the first person perspective. The detective is even dressed
in the standard hat and trench of the old school private eyes. At points, Lethem
threatens to go a bit overboard with the writing, almost to a point of just being
too cheesy. But, almost without fail, each time he is almost over that edge, he
reels it back by either making fun of the very dialogue he is spouting or by shifting
the scene to the more surreal. I'm assuming this was all done on purpose and he
does a nice job with it. The story is an interesting but twisted murder mystery
that involves the full level of the society Lethem created. Witnesses, suspects
and victims range from evolved lambs to babyheads (artificially rapid evolving
babies) At points your head is left spinning trying to understand the characters
motivations and such, but it is mostly done very well and airtight. My only real
complaint is that being so unfamiliar to this society, it is tough to try to piece
together the mystery yourself. Your own motivations do not really apply here.
Due to this, you are really just along for the ride, unable to guess, or even
recognize any of the clues. All in all this was a very good novel. I already ordered
Amnesia Moon. I loved his writing style and found myself unable to put this one
down. Any fan of science fiction a bit on the weird side will like this one. Detective
novel fans may want to steer clear though. The sci-fi setting corrupts a lot of
what I think you'd expect. |
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Our Ranking Amnesia Moon is the second
book I've read of Lethem's, the first being "Gun With Occasional Music" which
hooked me immediately (and also happened to be Lethem's first novel). Amnesia
Moon is certainly a departure from the hard boiled detective style of Gun, but
the one thing that remains the same Lethem's spectacular writing resulting in
one terrific novel. The book is set in the future but you never really get a sense
of how far, but I sort of assume it is the near future. It starts off with the
main character Chaos living in a post nuclear war era where human mutations are
rampant and food is scarce. The region is run by Kellogg who somehow has the ability
to pipe his dreams into the citizens dreams. These visions are basically what
gives Kellogg control over his people. The problem is Chaos seems to have some
abilities of his own and he grows tired of dreaming these dreams so he takes off,
heading west. What follows is a surreal adventure, the will leave you struggling
and guessing and what really is happening. Chaos makes his way across the US,
struggling to remember his identity and piece together what may have really happened
to cause the current disaster the country is in. Along the way he runs into other
dreamers who control their little pockets of civilization and you begin to gather
clues piecemeal. Saying anything beyond this will really give away the twists
and turns of the plot, but to say the least it is an extremely organizing and
methodical plot considering the sheer weirdness of it. Lethem does an incredible
job, leaving you confused but hungry to know the truth (just as Chaos is). On
the back of the book is a quote claiming that Lethem is really Philip K Dick's
reincarnate. When I first read it, having only read Gun with Occasional Music
I thought the quote was nuts. However, after finishing this one, I sort of tend
to agree. The style is very reminiscent of Dick's very simple way of stating the
surreal. I think Lethem has a ton more talent as a writer though. The images Lethem
creates are very well done, but not overly done. Lethem's style lends itself to
more simple statements as opposed to incredibly sweeping descriptions. The characters
are also very solid. The main character Chaos is flawless and remains consistent
throughout the book. You slowly learn more about him, in both his past and his
own character, as he delves deeper into his quest. The surrounding cast are also
portrayed quite well, especially the varying leaders of the communities that Chaos
passes through. Finally, the setting itself is done expertly. Just as Chaos is
confused, you are never really sure exactly what reality is as you read this.
Lethem truly brings you along the confusion as Chaos is, giving you no more hints
than the character, but also not holding anything back. All in all this was another
terrific work by Lethem. I've already but the search out for his next one, "Motherless
Brooklyn". The book is relatively short, only 240 pages and it is a very fast
read. It only took me two nights to finish it, but it really was impossible to
put down. This is certainly worthy of four and a half stars. |
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 Our
RankingWhile Motherless Brooklyn is not a science
fiction or fantasy novel as most of my reviews are, Lethem's "Amnesia Moon" and
"Gun With Occasional Music" (I still love that title) impressed me enough that
I had to read this one. Well, needless to say, Lethem didn't let me down again.
Motherless Brooklyn is a tale of four Brooklyn boys who are found at an early
age by a small time hood with a enough mob connections to fake his way into the
life style. The boys are young and impressionable enough to grow to idolize his
position and wind up becoming his entourage, the Minna Men. (his name was Minna).
However, when Minna is mysteriously killed during right under their noses, the
boys attempt to identify the killer and the motive, while being immediately launched
into a world they discover they only knew through the very narrow and filtered
eyes of their leader. Basically, this is a very character and location driven
story. In actuality the two are inseparable. Lethem's Brooklyn is what truly molds
the characters in this tale. Lethem very subtly creates an endearing and dangerous
world within Brooklyn. It is vintage New York, complete with the White Castles
and the hero shops as well as the local mobs and the small time hoods trying to
act bigger than they truly are. Lethem spares no detail in creating this. I found
myself very impressed by the level he goes into to fully complete the Brooklyn
imagery. As you read it you become so engrained in Brooklyn, that when the main
character actually leaves for the first time, you almost become as shocked as
he does by the stark differences of the world outside. The only thing more in
depth than the setting are the characters. Starting with the narrator Lionel,
who is one of the Minna Men and happens to suffer from Tourette's syndrome. The
obvious detail that launches out at you is Lethem's attention to his disease.
At no point does disease waver or subside to the background. It isn't a disease
that the author threw in there that only explodes at crucial plot situations or
at funny moments. Throughout the novel the disease is a constant force and a constant
reminder of how difficult it must be to truly have it. More importantly, with
each small outburst, Lionel becomes more and more real. The other characters are
no less real. Each of the four Minna Men are very convincing and seem very alive.
The interaction back and forth with Lionel especially during his outbursts really
add to their characters. Minna, mostly through flashbacks is also very convincing
and he's endearing enough that you can understand how the children could fall
for him as they do. The only character I found a little disappointing was Minna's
wife. She came across fairly flat and I had a lot of trouble understanding her.
Of course, a lot of this could have been done by design since Lionel also struggled
to understand her. The plot itself was interesting but was certainly not the highlight
of the story. During the middle of the book the plot seemed to stall and I really
thought Lethem was going to lose it, but it came back on track quickly enough
and the book finished off strong. However, even though this is sort of a detective
story, don't expect to be blown away with amazing twists and turns. This is really
more of a story of Lionel's development and of the people themselves in the small
world of Brooklyn. The plotline is really just a means for Lethem to explore this
world. I truly enjoyed this one, finding it as good as the previous two books
that I read by him. |
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 Our
Ranking If you've read any of the above book
reviews, you've realized that I've grown into quite a Lethem fan. Up until A Girl
in Landscape he was 3 for 3 for outstanding novels. After reading this, unfortunately,
I need to ding his average to 3 for 4. First, let me just say this isn't a horrible
book. It's just wasn't up to the typical Lethem standards I think. The writing
itself was very good, right up there with each of Lethem's other novels I have
read. The setting and framework to the story are very basic. At the very beginning
you are slightly introduced to a futuristic Earth that is environmentally on the
verge of collapse. People are starting to leave Earth (but not in vast numbers
yet) to go colonize other planets. The main family the story is about, decides
to go as well after the father, Clement, is embarrassed in a local election. Upon
arrival they find themselves in a very small settlement (there are too few people
to even call it a town) that is certainly struggling to find an identity or even
a plan. The planet also happens to be occupied by what seems to be a fallen alien
race. Basically they are a few aliens who were left behind on the planet by others
of their kind. For the most part, the aliens seem to be totally unimpressive,
but there are remnants of their race throughout the planet that point to some
past greatness. Just as an aside, as I was reading about this planet, I couldn't
help being reminded of several Philip K. Dick books that had similar settings.
The writing, and the desolation of the planets themselves were very similar. The
characters are very well written, especially the interactions among them and the
aliens. The dynamics between the various families and even amongst themselves
is very impressive. Lethem is very subtle in crafting the family issues and molding
the characters development around these problems. Along with the terrific human
interaction, Lethem does a fine job with the aliens as well. The aliens act as
an almost uninterested cast, but that seems to be the cause for most of the catalysts
in the story. I'll hand one thing to Lethem in this story, is that he builds the
alien characters extremely well from the human perspective, basically to the point
where you are convinced you know them as well. Then, in one seemingly unimportant
scene, he casts doubt on everything you had come to believe of them, turning the
entire story nearly on its heals with a simple conversation. So, with this raving
review of his characters and writing, what's the problem, right? The problem really
is just the plot. Lethem takes these incredible characters, and really does nothing
with them. There are some good solid scenes of interaction, but they don't really
lead to anything. The final climax, is really a let down. It was actually almost
like the story just had the air let out of it and therefore needed to end. Overall,
I don't regret reading this, but I was really hoping for something more out of
Lethem. If you are a Lethem fan, you should really still pick this up just to
appreciate the character development. If not, I would check out Motherless Brooklyn
or Gun with Occasional Music for a true taste of what Lethem can do. |
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 Our
Ranking It's been a while since I'd read a Lethem
book and since this is really the only one of his I hadn't read, I figured I pick
it up and give it a read. As She Climbed isn't completely a sci-fi book, but it
does have some sci-fish elements in there, so I suppose it qualifies. However,
for the most part this is a pretty straight forward fiction novel that, and no
surprise here coming from Lethem, has some very surreal qualities to it. The most
surreal aspect of the book happens to be the main catalyst of the story. The main
character Phillip has lost his girl friend that he is deeply in love with. Normally
this, while upsetting, might not be overly bizarre but when he loses her to a
void called Lack, well that is a little weird. See, Alice is a scientist that
is part of a team that created a self contained vacuum. Somehow, Alice becomes
very attached, and then falls in love, with this vacuum, attributing personality
to it by observing it accept certain objects but completely rejecting others.
Most of the book is centered around Phillip's attempts to win Alice back and Alice's
attempts to have Lack love her back. (A pretty funny quote on the back of the
book is "...the best boy-meets-girl-meets-void story ever written. Not sure why,
but I got a kick out of that line) Along with the main story line, there are also
several other sub plots, mostly around Lack and various interpretations of what
Lack represents. Lethem unveils some very interesting philosophical arguments
in these attempts to analyze Lack. However, beyond the pure interest level of
some of these arguments the plot tends to drag at points and also becomes a little
bit redundant. After about half way, I found myself slightly bored with the story.
While wonderfully written, this is by no means Lethem's most engaging story line.
One of the bigger let downs in this one though were the characters. From Amnesia
Moon to Motherless Brooklyn to Gun, Lethem has created tremendous characters and
I've sort of begun to expect that. Here, while no character was horrible, none
of them stood out as very strong characters. Along with that, a lot of them just
acted sort of questionably, making fairly bizarre decisions and even random speeches
at points. They really didn't move smoothly along with the story. One exception
to this though were a pair of blind men that relied on each other extensively.
Lethem did an amazing just with this and the whole experience of their characters
was very unique and intriguing. Overall, this wasn't a bad book. It was very well
written and was pretty interesting. It just wasn't a terrific book and certainly
wasn't near Lethem's top 3 in my mind. If you're a Lethem fan, give it a read.
As always with him, you'll be impressed with the imagery and there are always
the lines that will force you to just sit back and say wow. |
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