Nova Swing

Harrison is one of my favourite authors and this is his sequel to the Science Fiction novel Light. Here he fuses Science Fiction with Noir, all wrapped in his usual surreal poetic style. Pieces of the Kefahuchi Tract have fallen to earth, creating a strange, dangerous zone of shifting landscapes within the city. Vic Seratonin, a ‘travel agent' will, for a price, take people into the zone. But things have started escaping too. New artefacts bringing with them the dangerous daughter code that leads to decay and disaster. On his tail is Lens Aschemann, a detective in Site Crime, a widower fascinated with the mysterious new people who emerge from the zone, only to fade away within hours. Then there's Liv Hula, bar owner and former rocket jockey; Fat Antoyne, desperate to be Vic's friend who falls into the employ of Paulie DeRaad, and in love with Irene the Mona. Familiar themes surface - a strange, afflicted city; strange new diseases; dysfunctional people. There are echoes here of the Viriconium stories, to my mind his masterpiece (especially the novel In Viriconium). But in the end I found this novel unsatisfying somehow. Don't get me wrong, it's good and well worth reading, but Harrison has written better.