Radiance

This is one of those books that leave me undecided about whether I like it or not. (I'm giving a three-star to be generous.) I loved the idea of an alternate universe where the silent movie era is coupled with space travel. Wonderfully imaginative idea, I thought. It's Georges Méliès-inspired like the Scorsese film, Hugo. I would have enjoyed a straight-forward narrative but I'm open to experimental styles too, if there's something intense or profound or even humorous for me to grab onto. Lines like this made me think there would be humor throughout:“She is dead. Almost certainly dead. Nearly conclusively dead. She is, at the very least, not answering her telephone.”But that was the only time I got a little laugh.Valente offers a pastiche of media styles. Each individual chapter is inspired by any number of styles such as: Classic Hollywood, children's animation, commercials, film noir, documentary footage, celebrity gossip columns, gothic tales, science fiction, steampunk, not to mention fairy tales and mythology. She has a distinct prose style that's almost lyrical or poetic. It's not enough to make me fall in love with the book, but I can see how it stands out from the ordinary. There are a lot of broader concepts that the author touched upon. First there are the characters like filmmaker Percy and his daughter Severin who cannot exist without having their lives recorded on media. Percy even goes so far as to have events, such as Severin arriving as an infant in a basket, restaged so he can catch them on film. There's also characters who mix their fiction with reality, embodied by actress Mary Pelham, who tries to emulate the film detective she plays on screen to solve “real-life” mysteries.Beyond individual characters, the world of Radiance has Imperialism in the form of Earth nations that have now taken over solar system planets. There's also the propaganda to influence the masses with the product Callowmilk. Along with this is some environmental commentary about using animals for their products. Then there is the conspiracy with the disappeared civilizations and people on the various planets. That's a lot of things for Radiance to be about, and it doesn't take any of them very far. The novel goes wide but not deep.Throughout, Valente makes meta comments about story types and the nature of stories. The main takeaway is that stories don't have endings. “There is no such thing as an ending. There are no answers. We collect the pieces where we can, obsessively assemble and reassemble them, searching for a picture that only ever comes in parts. And we cling to those parts.”What I'm looking for is for each of the parts to be interesting on their own as well, if parts is all we get. With the exception of the mythology of Anchises, most of the mini-stories didn't engage me. An example of fiction done in a meta style that did work for me was Auster's [b:The New York Trilogy 431 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386924429l/431.SX50.jpg 2343071]. I recognized it for what it was but I was also very involved with the stories.Radiance reminds me of a film beautiful to look at, something like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which had innovative and amazing effects for the time. After watching for a while, I realized that the characters and plot were just not that intriguing. Years have passed, and all I can remember is the visual style.

[review written months later] it was good but i am probably not enough of a movie nerd to truly appreciate it and i low-key hate reading things in script form so it was kind of tedious sometimes

I could not keep focused. Maybe reading would have been better than listening? Not sure. I just think this is not for me.

Not for me!

[b:The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy 76527 The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Laurence Sterne https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1403402384s/76527.jpg 2280279] in space. Yet somehow weirder

My rating is only based on the audiobook, which is probably inferior to the print version in a number of ways. Have you ever listened to an audiobook and realized that the narration, while well done, detracts from a personal interpretation that would have been more enjoyable? I think there's a solid chance that I wouldn't have grown so tired of the slowly building story if every character didn't sound like Mary from Downton Abbey.

The world building is exquisite; the narrative style inventive and interesting. I adore pulp and there is a fantastic, interplanetary femme fatale story line, into which I grew impatient to go deeper throughout the many, many hours of languid (and beautiful) exposition that ultimately wore me out. After 6 hours of listening, my interest in this gorgeous solar system has waned to the point where I've lemmed it.

That said, one day I will pick the book back up and finish it. I know, from other reviews, that the story picks up in the last third and is wonderful.

I would watch the hell out of the movie. David Lynch would be a perfect choice to direct the film (and the films within the film) of this novel. Because it's written so visually, with such painstaking emphasis on every element of the setting, a movie version would be able to introduce plot elements before the viewer lost interest.

Radiance is a work of art, and someday I will be up to the challenge of enjoying it on its own terms.

Like a lot of people, I did not care for this book. I think it's very well executed but I could not get into the story. I almost stopped after 20% or so. I finished it but did not enjoy the ride.

This science fiction book, which is not really a science fiction book, tells a story, which is not really a story that is part tone poem, part pulp novel, part experimental romance, and parts of many other things. In fact it's not really a book is it? Just pieces of one. And yet, I love it right in the face.

Bounced pretty hard off this one. Writing style just not to my taste.

Executive Summary: This book just wasn't for me, but then I don't like literary fiction. The parts I enjoyed were just too infrequent.

Full Review
This book wasn't on my radar at all. Ms. Valente was on the Sword & Laser podcast late last year, but I apparently forgot all about it. That should have been my first warning.

I'm a big fan of movies. I'm a pretty big fan of science-fiction. This should have been a happy marriage for me, but it wasn't. I've seen hundreds of films. I've read hundreds of books. I do both for fun. I don't enjoy to study either. I don't find having to work for what the story is about. This book was a lot of work. In the end it wasn't worth it for me. I'm still not sure what exactly I read.

This whole book seemed more like an exercise in clever writing than it was about telling a story. Maybe I'm just not smart enough for this book. I suspect this is more a case of not my kind of smarts. I imagine many people would feel just as uncomfortable reading books on computers as I did during parts of this. I don't like books that make me feel dumb.

I think I'd have been less frustrated with this book if I simply didn't like it. The underlying mystery of Severin and the world building were intriguing. I particularly enjoyed the chapters with Erasmo and Cynthia and Mary Pellam's diary entries. Unfortunately that was it. If the whole book had been written like those chapters, I'd have been a lot happier.

I found the chapters for Percival's final movie extremely confusing and often nonsensical. Most of the other chapters were unmemorable or equally confusing. It just feels like I was always missing something. I'd reread passages and whole pages and came away just as confused.

The book seemed to have 2 endings. Much like the book, I found the first one confusing and frustrating. However I was surprised to find I liked the second. It kind of sums things up nicely for me. Confused and frustrated most of the time, with some parts I was surprised to like. Maybe you'll have a better experience with it than I did.

Woah. This is a truly weird story. I don't know that is good weird or bad weird, but it certainly a trip. The author's vision of her universe is awe inspiring, and the scenes are painted with an enviable grasp of language.

Having said all that, I don't yet know if this is a good story. You need considerable staying power to get beyond the first 25% of the book, which is like being hit across the head with a wad of genres. It is not until the final 25% that is finally starts to come together, and even then there is a feeling that you are witnessing something great but lack sufficient understanding to comprehend it.

In some respects this reminds me of 2001 - the movie rather than the book. There are hints of a similar, largely unexplained “evolution of conciousness”, although I think the imagination on display in Radiance makes the journey of man from Ape to Star Child seem positively staid.

I'll give this 4 stars, since this is genuinely a unique example of story telling, however I am still not sure I really know what is going on.

Huh...
This is a difficult book to review. It's a difficult book to read, jumping between genres as quickly as the characters jump between planets and times. I do a lot of my reading in the little waiting spots of life, during commercial breaks or in restaurants. I couldn't really do that with this book as it required all of my attention to keep pace with what was going on and even giving it all my attention didn't guarantee I was going to understand anything.

The book is billed as a modern take on sci-fi classics where the whole solar system is habitable and mankind sprawls across it the way we so often do when we find some extra room and consequences be damned. It's also about movies, set in a future where Edison hung on to talking film patents thus never really graduating us from silent films and the style they embodied. There's a found girl lost and a lost boy found. There's murder, drugs, and all that jazz. More than anything, I feel like it's about Story and humans' persistance in writing ourselves in as the stars without fully understanding the plot.

At first, I felt the tropes were gimmicky and hard to follow, but as I kept reading, I found myself enjoying it more, trying to put the pieces together. There's a Rashamon element of hearing the same story again and again, not just from a different perspective but through a different lens (see what I did there?). Valente really understands what it's like to be on camera, and she casts her story with characters who are always on camera, even in their most unguarded moments, always posing, always quipping, always trying to make something that is both real and right.

I'd recommend the book if you like mysteries, David Lynch films, and golden age sci-fi. Also if you have time on your hands to sit and devote to the story.