Reading Michael Marshall Smith's Only Forward is like a revelation of sorts. And to think I didn't even know who this guy was in the first place! All hail the internet and the powers that be in the form of book review forums and websites.
Also, the book is reminding me strongly of a period in my school life when my primary obsessions were anime and reading. This was back in Class 9. And anime was probably my first proper introduction to all things cyberpunk. I got around to science fiction and Bill Gibson much, much later, and Neuromancer isn't exactly the most accessible read for someone who was a bit of a noob when it came to these things. Now I can appreciate what an impact that novel might have had, but not so much back then.
Well, the experience of reading Only Forward is akin to a sustained, happy surge of memory. It features a kind of energetic, entertaining writing I haven't come across in science fiction in forever. Cancel that: I haven't had this much fun reading a book since...since....
Shit. When's the last time I had fun reading?
Having typed this, I go over to my Goodreads account and find that, with a few exceptions, most of the stuff I've been reading of late have been very...heavy. Very very well written perhaps, not to mention disturbing. You could say I had fun with Stepan Chapman's The Troika, or Coetzee's Disgrace, or Kafka's The Castle, but it would call for an entire redefinition of 'fun'. Not one of them was as viscerally entertaining as Smith's novel. Its like PKD on steroids. Very reminiscent of Ubik, too, which can only be a good thing!
Okay, maybe Light by M John Harrison was the one exception. But Harrison's prose, while never measured enough to feel stilted or not smooth flowing, wasn't as consistently full of wit.
Its good to be a reader! Thank you Mr. Smith!
Also, the book is reminding me strongly of a period in my school life when my primary obsessions were anime and reading. This was back in Class 9. And anime was probably my first proper introduction to all things cyberpunk. I got around to science fiction and Bill Gibson much, much later, and Neuromancer isn't exactly the most accessible read for someone who was a bit of a noob when it came to these things. Now I can appreciate what an impact that novel might have had, but not so much back then.
Well, the experience of reading Only Forward is akin to a sustained, happy surge of memory. It features a kind of energetic, entertaining writing I haven't come across in science fiction in forever. Cancel that: I haven't had this much fun reading a book since...since....
Shit. When's the last time I had fun reading?
Having typed this, I go over to my Goodreads account and find that, with a few exceptions, most of the stuff I've been reading of late have been very...heavy. Very very well written perhaps, not to mention disturbing. You could say I had fun with Stepan Chapman's The Troika, or Coetzee's Disgrace, or Kafka's The Castle, but it would call for an entire redefinition of 'fun'. Not one of them was as viscerally entertaining as Smith's novel. Its like PKD on steroids. Very reminiscent of Ubik, too, which can only be a good thing!
Okay, maybe Light by M John Harrison was the one exception. But Harrison's prose, while never measured enough to feel stilted or not smooth flowing, wasn't as consistently full of wit.
Its good to be a reader! Thank you Mr. Smith!
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