Considering that the last week has been pretty hellish (pounding around the Midlands looking for a new house and being reminded that most houses are awful) it was quite nice to open up the internet today and find two great reviews of 'Winter' waiting for me.
The first was from 'The Trades' (http://www.the-trades.com/article.php?id=12880) written by R.J.Carter who describes Winter as 'part political satire, part steampunk, part cyberpunk and all parts downhill slalom race ... a ripper of a novel'. A great way to start the day.
The second was from the Lexinton Examiner (http://www.examiner.com/literature-in-lexington/demi-monde-winter-picks-up-where-michael-crichton-left-off-review) written by Jesse Coffey who gave a glowing review but then went a little further by suggesting that I might be the man to fill Michael Crichton's shoes! A trifle embarrassing. Crichton was a brilliant, brilliant writer who came up with some utterly amazing scenarios and storylines ... if I ever get half that inventive I'll be bloody delighted.
But reading Jesse's review reminded me of the great line from 'The Commitments' (a masterpiece of a film by Alan Parker) when Deco (the singer in the band) is told that he'll be jamming with Wilson Pickett. The line goes: 'Deco Cuffe and Wilson Pickett ... together at last!'
Trouble is that Deco and Wilson never did get together ... but I suppose I can dream.
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Just a quick question - on page 65 of the UK edition of "Winter", there's a paragraph that oddly disturbed me:
ReplyDeleteThis sector is populated by people of Anglo-Saxon descent - an equal mix of Americans, of English and of Germans.
I'm not usually a fan of political correctness, but surely Americans are not (exclusively, or even mainly) of Anglo-Saxon descent?
Loving the book so far - the characters are brilliant, and the whole conceit of the Demimonde is brilliant.
Hi Boatboy. Sorry for the delay in replying. I've been distracted big time. Glad you like the book. The problem with writing is that you have to make shortcuts in order to keep the pace going so some blatant generalities creep in. I had to find a place in the DM for a number of American characters so I shoehorned them into the Anglo-Saxon Rookeries (though a couple of my non-WASP favourites, Josephine Baker and Miles Davis do pop-up elsewhere). Sorry if it affended that wasn't the intention.
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