Customer Reviews

Deserted Cities of the Heart

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wouldn't describe this adventure as science-fiction or fantasy - 'magic' is only present in the form of mushrooms. This is a quick, gripping read, with a narrative that switches between the four main characters. Shiner paints a vivid picture of the small towns, jungles, and ruins of Mexico, and manages to make all his characters recognizably human, even the 'bad guys', a band of New Age mercenaries that would be right at home in a Tom Robbins novel. Deserted Cities is a much straighter book than Robbins' work, however - great, well-written entertainment but not off-the-wall brilliant. Notable features include convincingly writing about music and its production, and finely detailed settings based on a list of reference material in the endnote.

There's been a lot of talk lately about the end of the world in 2012 based on the Mayan calendar ending it's last cycle. In Deserted Cities of the Heart, Lewis Shiner was ahead of the game when he wrote in 1988! As the Indians in the book say, the end of the world has to start some place.

Deserted Cities is something like you'd get if you mixed Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan, with Burroughs/Ginsburg's The Yage Letters, and a bit of Paddy Chayefsky's Altered States thrown in. Deserted Cities is about rock star Eddie Yates who disappears from public life. With the help on an Indian shaman he discovers a psychedelic mushroom that sends you on a literal trip, it will take you to the past. Your past, or to the ancient Mayan past. Eddie is followed by his brother Thomas Yates who is an anthropologist and Eddie's ex-wife, Lindsey who try to rescue Eddie from self-destruction. It`s a story of sex, drugs, rock `n' roll, time travel, Mexican revolutionaries, and the Mayan end of days.

Shiner's early novels have been described as cyberpunk, whose best known adherent is William Gibson. I'm don't really understand the label in this case. Deserted Cities is a well written pretty traditionally formatted novel. The action cinematically, ramping up the action for a climatic ending.

Deserted Cities is Shiner's second novel. It was originally published in 1988. Although it uses the political situation in the plot, none of the story or action feels dated. I guess the more politics changes, the more it stays the same. With the talk of the end of the world in 2012 courtesy of the Mayan calendar it's a good time for a republication of Deserted Cities. If you've read a lot of Shiner's later novels, as I have, it's interesting to see his subconscious already working with some common elements, a time traveling protagonist whose trips to the past aren't very healthy for him, disappearing rock stars, Jimi Hendrix, which are precursors of his later works such as Glimpses. In using these elements you can see the evolution of Shiner as a writer.

This book transcends the normal run of the mill sci fi. it tells a story that reads like a great film, with concepts no filmmaker can portray about the inter relations of humans, and what we do to each other. its also a story that involves time travel, albeit in a strange manner. if you can find this book you should get it.

A fellow sci-fi/fantasy fan gave me this book, saying he thought it was the best thing he'd read in the last year. I wish I could more fully agree. I think Shiner writes well, and I will be getting his other novels on the strength of his writing. That in itself is high acclaim.

This book was billed as sci-fi, I suppose because of the time travel element, but it "felt" more like fantasy to me. The characters were well-drawn, the colloquy was well-written -- like I say, he writes well. The setting was very interesting, the political situation laid out very understandably and realistically.

I suppose my basic complaint is that in spite of the good characterization, the interesting setting and political background, very little happens in this book. It felt like the book spent its time building all the disparate characters and getting them to the final battle, and it was interesting to read because they were good characters and Shiner writes well, but not much happens, then the final battle occurs, and still not much has happened. My friend would disagree, I am sure.

It was compelling enough to read in a day, and while I listed 3 stars I would be comfortable giving it 3 1/2 stars for the writing -- but never 4. I hope to be more favorably impressed with Shiner's other work.