Purgatory Mount

This is a complex novel, that combines two very different stories which on casual inspection appear to have very little to do with each other. Or do they?

The title should clue you in that the novel takes some inspiration from Dante's classic poem, but it also becomes clear early on that it is also in dialogue with classic SFF - there's speculation about space elevators followed a few pages later by a namecheck for Arthur C Clarke, gullible misheard as Gully Foyle, and a frequent refrain of “the eagles are coming”. This idea of the past being inherent in the modern is also expressed in the preoccupation with original sin, memory and atonement that saturates the book. It's also interesting that of the two story strands, the one set earlier in the timeline has a distinctly YA feel, while the later is slower, more philosophical and more adult (to use a poor but easy term). You could tease out something here about how we grow from youth to age, and go back once more to the idea that our past defines our now - without being too spoilery, the reason why characters in the later strand are in the positions they are is embedded in the earlier story.

I might be making it sound very dry here, but it's worth noting that for all the philosophical musing of one strand and the convulsive violence and upheaval of the other, the novel is told with a lightness of touch and a delight in wordplay and puns that make it a very smooth read. There are frustrations - certain mysteries are left dangling - but overall this is very readable and very thought-provoking. Recommended.