Last night I went to my first Manchester Science Fiction Book Club (#sfmcr) at MadLabs (@madlabs).
Unlike most people in the group I didn’t hate the book, although I was (and remain) far from a passionate advocate. I’ve liked Ballard’s disconnected, dispassionate characters in other books and I think they served their purpose here - the reader is as alienated from the central voices of the book as they are alienated from society and each other, interested only in their own “journey” into primordial, primal beings. Problem being, I’m guessing, that idea of regression isn’t enough to sustain a full length novel and it felt to me that this concept got lost in a quite complex plot, which is a shame because the idea really interested me.
Either way it was good fun to discuss the book with other readers and a nice bunch they are too.
The cover above is not the cover I have, btw. I hated my cover, this one’s much nicer :)
Oh and a much more articulate and in depth reveiw can be had courtesy of Words & Fixtures.
