Customer Reviews

End Of The World Blues (Gollancz S.F.)

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3 star:		(1)
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Jon Courtenay Grimwood's "End of the World Blues" is a stylish, often convoluted, post-cyberpunk thriller which will easily remind readers of William Gibson's early "Cyberspace" trilogy. However, Grimwood's depiction of a near future Japan owes more to Haruki Murakami's vision of Japan than Gibson's in its realism (which isn't surprising since Grimwood has, unlike Gibson, resided there). Young British expatriate Kit Noveau must contend with the unexpected demise of his wife and of the bar that she had owned. His only chance at redemption lies in an ex-girlfriend who left a suicide note before vanishing. His only friend is a rather bizarre young Japanese girl, Neku, who believes that she is an aristocrat from Earth's distant future. Together they travel through the urban jungles of Japan and Great Britain in search of the missing keys that will explain who was ultimately responsible for the death of Kit's Japanese wife. Without question, Grimwood is one of Great Britain's best young writers of literary science fiction and fantasy; "End of the World Blues" merely reinforces the ample critical and popular acclaim he's earned on both sides of the Atlantic.

Jon Courtenay Grimwood is an incredibly intelligent and inventive writer, and readers looking for intricately plotted cerebral fiction will love the dark and mysterious depths of his novels. The other reviewers here have used the word "convoluted" to describe this story and they're right, because Grimwood's bizarrely twisted plotlines tend to overwhelm his fascinating characters and vibrant settings. Note that the novel is not really science fiction, but a slightly cyberpunk-ish crime mystery (and a very complex one) with some sci-fi elements added on. The main character Kit Nouveau gets caught up in a very tangled web of intrigue involving organized crime lords and evil conspiracies in both England and Japan, trailed by the mysterious Lady Neku, a forlorn Japanese street urchin who also inhabits a future alternate reality, or just thinks she does.

Lady Neku's story is intriguing but very vague and ambiguous, which is clearly an intentional strategy by Grimwood to fire the reader's imagination, but some readers may find her far-future sci-fi homeworld too undeveloped for comfort. Meanwhile, Kit Nouveau's adventures in crime and redemption remain exciting, but Grimwood keeps piling on intricate twists and conspiratorial subplots to the point of distraction, with the story nearly collapsing under its own weight. Granted, the sheer power and uniqueness of Grimwood's imagination, and his skills in plot construction, will keep adventurous readers fascinated. But those with more structured imaginations might have to read this book three or four times to really figure out all the twists and turns, which might just be too showoff-ish for their own good. [~doomsdayer520~]

I know this is kind of a short review, but I kind of want to put my thoughts on Grimwood's book in a nutshell. The book follows Kit Nouveau, a wreck of a war veteran who's relatively empty life as a bar owner and husband of an artist in Tokyo is turned upside down by the burning of his bar, death of his wife inside, and rescue by waif/Lady Neku. Additionally, he's also met by the mother of his ex-girlfriend from fifteen years before, the betrayal of whom was the first significant toll he paid for losing his soul in Iraq. The gangster/mother wants him to help track down this woman, who has disappeared, though believed to have killed herself by the police (she did organize her life and leave behind a suicide note, after all). Lacking anything better to do, Kit goes to London to help, is followed by Neku, and further strangeness ensues.

Basically, I enjoyed thebook, and it was an entertaining and gripping read. That being said, it's kind of like a slightly less satisfying Gibson. The whole snail castle at the end of the world feels like a tangent that should have been either more fully developed, or left out altogether. It's perhaps kind of harsh, and I may well have missed the point a bit, but although that part of Neko's world was intriguing, it doesn't really feel fully worked into the story. In the end, I get it, but I'm not sure it added much. The other main problem is how convoluted the whole plot is. If it all came together and was somehow interrelated, I don't think I'd have a bone to pick, but the fact that so many independent different and strange things happen to Kit strains my credulity. I fully recognize that we read science fiction or punk (I hesitate to call this cyberpunk, since the fact that it's set in the future doesn't really change much about the story - it could have been set in 1985 and been just as believable) to see extraordinary things happen. I think, though, that we want those extraordinary things to have their own internal logic, to have something about the situation demand that the events transpire as they do. I really don't get that feeling from End of the World Blues, and that's its biggest weakness.

In Tokyo, runaway teenager Lady "Countess of High Strange" Neku hides fifteen million dollars in a in a train station locker. Soon afterward she saves the life of former Iraq war veteran Kit Nouveau when she efficiently kills a mugger attacking him. The Pirate's Mary bar owner tells Neku he owes her.

Many groups are after Neku because of the money she hid; this includes the yakuza syndicate and, British espionage agents; Several of Kit's former lovers and a few he still sees are after him. Neku also "lives" in an alternate reality as a princess married to an adversarial family. She fears her virtual life has interacted with her real life while Kit feeling an obsession to save a former girlfriend who left a suicide note behind wonders what he has gotten into since Neku saved him from a mugging.

The END OF THE WORLD BLUES is a complex somewhat convoluted character driven thriller that hooks readers who prefer something different yet compelling. Kit with his world ended yesterday philosophy and Neku with her strange kick butt attitude make for a dynamic read as her adventures tie into his past, present, and apparently his future making the double helix look like preschool science. Jon Courtenay Grimwood is at his most complicated best with this strong tale.

Harriet Klausner

This is supposed to be literary science fiction which I don't usually read. Which might explain why I think this barely qualifies as science fiction. Magic realism or Fantasy would be a better categorization, although half the book is a straightforward whodunit.

Let me get the verdict out of the way - I enjoyed reading the book and would recommend it to anyone.

I found the book a bit unsettling because of the dreamlike setting. By dreamlike I am obviously not talking about the story being partly based in a world very different from our own and involving a greater than usual suspension of disbelief. There is a certain lack of clear definitions and amorphous-ness in the characters and the plot, especially Lady Neku. I felt myself just moving with the flow of the story, hoping that things would become clear ultimately. It's been sometime since I have picked up a Murakami, but I suspect it is the same kind of feeling.

The story revolves around Kit Nouveau with Lady Neku playing a supporting role. I wish it were the other way around - perhaps because then the plot would have been more fantasy/sf than whodunit.

A large part of the book is based in Japan and reading it reawakened my secret fascination with contemporary Japanese culture. I have to find out if all this is just a media construct or if things really are as wierd over there!

I had just returned from a trip to Tokyo, Roppongi in fact, when I read this book, and found that while Grimwood captured some of the surface details of life there, it didn't seem to go much deeper--as if he had visited Tokyo for the prospect of making some quick observations to provide background to the book (up to and including the ploys of characters to seduce Japanese women which I'd read on a web-site while in Tokyo ;).

I think that contributed to an overall feeling of "good story idea, not very good story telling". I found the characters to be somewhat engaging, the plot pretty good, but the words themselves didn't seem to flow quite right. There was a pleasant mix of the mysteries of everyday life coupled into the true sci-fi part.

It was a decent read--as the stars say "It's OK", and I would recommend reading it but not expecting glory.