Well, I hope you all enjoyed this one. I always find it’s a good recommendation because it’s a rip-roarer and a great book to go into unawares; drawing the reader in with a hard boiled sci-fi noir by way of Douglas Adams-style absurdity – which would absolutely be enough for me to enjoy on its own – before breaking open into weird dreamings. I’m not very well versed in the cyberpunk genre (per Miller’s comment a few weeks back: “*guy who has read Snow Crash and almost no other cyberpunk* Getting a lot of Snow Crash vibes from this.”) but as far as I can tell, it’s not usual for the genre to aim for fancifulness or weird horror. That latter seems like more like a Clive Barker thing, but then Barker doesn’t incorporate silly humour. Anyway, my point is that it’s a book like no other I’ve yet found. For a debut novelist to so deftly manage these disparate tones is a wonder.

One thing that strikes me anew every time I read it is just how swift it is. The sci-fi detective adventure is merely the first third of the book and it packs in a lot of adventure. The world building, smart-alec robots, Ji and Snedd’s crime empire, the conspiracy in Centre, breaking into Stable to “rescue” Alkland and the great escape through the roof… all this before the plot proper begins, and then we’re really moving.

Stray observations:

• I’m a sucker for stuff like the sentient appliances like the BugAnaly™, the rebellious elevator (“Way to go. Fight ‘em from within.”), and so on. The scene where the wall in Colour saves Stark and Alkland from the cops is a real fist-bump moment, and the BugAnaly™’s ultimate betrayal is at once tense and hilarious.
• The neighbourhoods themselves are illogical but who cares?
• Marshall Smith’s facility with hard-boiled dialogue gets the balance of humour and tough talk just right: (“I told the apartment to behave and got out onto the streets.”). I think it serves the character well as a display of the insecurity and empathy he’s barely keeping hidden:

“‘… that’s what everyone believed.’
‘Almost everyone,’ I suggested. I don’t know what it is about conversations like these, but they make everyone sit forward in their chair and speak in compact sentences.”

• Stark often pulls the narratorial trick that usually annoys me, of saying like, “I’ll tell you about it if it’s important later,” or like, “Remember when I said [X]? I was lying.” In the end I forgive this sleight-of-hand because it does actually play into the conclusion and Stark’s unwillingness to examine himself too deeply.
• Fuck yeah tiger flesh monster.

I’m interested to hear how you all found it. Do you find the tonal balance as charming as I do? How does Jeamland strike you as an example of writing a compelling dreamscape? Do you think the book sticks the landing?