Excellent thought provoking and very well put together science fiction with a little twist, which left me wanting a little more from it.Ignoring the setting for a moment this is really a story about the rat race and how it affects people. It is set in a strange, slightly unbelievable, environment on the side of a massive building in a dystopian post-apocalyptic future, probably on another planet. However none of that really matters, and the point of the story, which is well crafted, is that sometimes you need to stop and think about things rather than just striving for the next payday.The primary character is a freelancer struggling to make enough income to cover all his costs, and on the point of bankruptcy. He lives on the outside vertical space of the building while he attempts to make enough to get back inside near the top. In the implicit hierarchy of things he sees himself as above those inside because he has his freedom, and he isn’t working as a wage slave. However what he seeks is the ready wealth to live a life of comfort near the top of the building (and by implication being back inside but with his freedom intact).Avoiding spoilers, he has some apparent luck, and makes a start on realising his dream even though it involves mixing with some unsavoury characters. Just when it looks like it is working out his luck vanishes and he ends up in unfamiliar territory, having to think of things for himself and outside his normal networks. This enforced reflection, facilitated by a couple of new characters that treat him almost like an intelligent child, leads him to some startling revelations, and his resulting actions to try and save his skin have wider consequences.The book is rather shorter than most I’ve read recently, but still thought provoking and very well put together. The background doesn’t get in the way of the story, but makes it interesting, and the early quibbles I had about the setting were very effectively dealt with in the last part of the story when the main character starts to question the environment. I think it deliberately leaves a lot of mystery and there are several hooks for a follow-on, although I would have liked the story to continue a bit further, the ending it does have is satisfying and consistent with the general thrust of the story.
The reader's only insights and explanations into the setting--the magnificent, arcology-like Cylinder--are filtered through the lens of the story's protagonist, Ny Axxter. Axxter, like the rest of the Cylinder's morningside inhabitants, is a shallow, self-absorbed individual focused on money, fame, and comfort, with absolutely no interest in large questions. Particularly, no interest in the large questions that occur immediately to the reader: What is the Cylinder? Why was it created? Is this far-future Earth? If so, what happened to the surface? Who are the Angels? What was the "Wars"? Why are the morningside and eveningside so segregated? How can anyone even breathe, outside? These questions have no answers. Axxter goes beyond mere uninterest in these matters, to the point of actively shutting down discussion of 'ancient history'. As a result, the only character who might have shed some illumination never does.As an example of his depraved society, Axxter is a piece of work. He is clearly not as clever as he thinks he is, barely ticking the needle on the self-awareness meter. The fact that he spends the first twenty pages in a series of long bickering whines with an agent and broker do nothing to endear him to the reader. This is all part of the story's noirish atmosphere of a completely mercenary society that has lost touch with whatever greatness it once held. Now in a state of decay, its members have turned inward with brutal War Tribe entertainments and repression of the least fortunate. A society which doesn't make anything anymore as much as market it, where image and perception is all-important. These themes are common in cyberpunk stories, but developing this atmosphere in a story setting that feels more traditionally science fiction (the Big Dumb Object that is the Cylinder) is something new. I can't say that I particularly liked it this way, because by the end I was screaming for explanations of the setting.
What do You think about Farewell Horizontal (1989)?
An interesting enough commentary on the common theme of 'the daily grind' and the lengths one will go to to get out of it and/or achieve one's dreams. After a slow start this one picked up pretty well. The world itself was interesting and there was so much more going on than we really got into. So much so that I'm not entirely sure what to say... The main character was a normal-guy -- someone with dreams and goals and a gray-area character in that he was a generally good guy but willing to do morally ambiguous things for the sake of his bottom line. The time jumping wasn't smoothly done and left me confused for several paragraphs and sometimes pages. Supporting characters were a little TOO conveniently supportive. I'm willing to give a little credit for coincidence but a lot of times it was just too much.The plot didn't really have any holes in it (though it got a bit sloppy in places) and everything generally made sense when or if it was explained. Unfortunately because there was so much going on in the background that was brought up then dropped, the story felt unpolished. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author, though seeing that this one was in the middle of his career, I expect more of the same -- interesting stories but nothing spectacular. I hope to be surprised, though.
—Tara
A typical little cyberpunk novel. It has the underdog, gutter crawling protagonist, the strong opposing forces similar to corporations in which conspiratorial webs he gets caught, a hint of surreal with a form of angels and the fact that everything is happening on vertical walls of a tower-like structure. A good short read. What takes away the points is the fact that the second half of the book seems hurried and starts to contradict itself and adds numerous plot holes which the author is happy to dismiss with the characters simply saying "it isn't important". He also introduces several characters in a hurry and these characters also know everything (without giving any solid explanation for that) and the generally sceptical protagonist all to easily follows their guidance. In short - it is forced and starts falling appart on itself.
—Byakurai
This is a very edgy sci fi book, that not everyone will like. Your mind has to be very elastic to encompass the world created by Mr. Jeter, to understand what is happening in this saga. Personally it is not my cup of tea, though it is well written and very creative on the edge sort of work. It's just a little too far out for my tastes, though a lot of new agers will probably love it. Hard living on the edge of a destroyed civilization, where a man struggling to survive on his terms, finds that the system that he is supposed to use and trust as absolute, is absolutely corrupted by the top people he wants to get lose to and who in the end are out to eliminate him, due to his knowledge. Fast paced, rock 'em sock 'em gore type of novel that the Gen. Exers will love. I give it a 4.5 on my scale out of 5 Stars.
—Richard Sommery-Gade
