Little Toy Robot

The most highly anticipated genre novels of 2004, both with “mainstream” appeal, are upon us.

M. John Harrison’s Light comes out today (finally!) in the U.S. Jeff VanderMeer, generally one of the most astute reviewers out there and the one whose taste I trust the most, says this of the book:

M. John Harrison’s Light is not just among the best SF novels of the year — it’s without question the best read of the year. Harrison has jettisoned all banality, dead spots, padding, and come up with a novel that moves without sacrificing depth.

And Matthew Cheney has this to say:

North American readers have been impoverished, not having been able to read one of the best science fiction novels ever written: Light by M. John Harrison . . . . Yes, I’m shilling for this book, I’m exhorting you to buy it, I’m threatening you with eternal damnation if you don’t.

And there has been much of the same all over the place. Will it live up to the hype? I already have my copy and am reading it this week.

Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell comes out on September 8th in the U.S. and 30th in the U.K. It has been hyped extensively, most notably by prolific blurber by Neil Gaiman (whose ubiquitous endorsement also graces the cover of Light):

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventy years.

More discerning readers, for whom this is damning praise, will not fail to notice that the book is also on the Booker longlist. At 800 pages, it promises to be Stephensonesque in scope (and of course weight), but by virtue of its description it sounds fascinating:

The drawing room social comedies of early 19th-century Britain are infused with the powerful forces of English folklore and fantasy in this extraordinary novel of two magicians who attempt to restore English magic in the age of Napoleon. In Clarke’s world, gentlemen scholars pore over the magical history of England, which is dominated by the Raven King, a human who mastered magic from the lands of faerie. The study is purely theoretical until Mr. Norrell, a reclusive, mistrustful bookworm, reveals that he is capable of producing magic and becomes the toast of London society, while an impetuous young aristocrat named Jonathan Strange tumbles into the practice, too, and finds himself quickly mastering it.

(A note: I am temporarily lifting my self-imposed embargo of anything that is described by or that employs the word “faerie” to read this book.)

(Another note: Susanna Clarke is kicking off her American reading and signing tour next Thursday here in Atlanta — in fact, four short blocks from where I work.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 31st, 2004 at 1:23 pm and is filed under books.