Starred review from August 27, 2007
In this dense quasi-noir tale set in the universe of Light
(2004), Harrison introduces Vic Serotonin, a ne'er-do-well who makes his living running illegal tours of the Saudade event site, where hallucinatory and impossible experiences are the norm. When rich tourist Elizabeth Kielar hires him as a guide and then disappears in the area around the site, things get even stranger than usual. Police detective Lens Aschemann, who usually turns a blind eye to the tourism business, threatens dire consequences for Vic's sideline of event site artifact smuggling, while shady club owner Paulie DeRaad buys an artifact that begins to change him in bizarre ways. Harrison privileges atmosphere over plot, using grotesquely beautiful narration and elliptical dialogue to convey the beautifully delineated angst of Saudade's extraordinary inhabitants. Although not for everyone, Harrison's trippy style will appeal to sophisticated readers who treasure the work of China Miéville and Jeff VanderMeer.
September 1, 2007
The sequel to Light (2002) returns to a world transformed by the Kefahuchi Tract to introduce illegal tour guide Vic Serotonin, who takes people up to the Saudade Event Sitealways a risky business when maps are unreliable at best, and reality is malleable. Something new is coming out of the site, something with consciousness or at least a distressing tendency to wander around town, clearly looking for something. Vics latest client, obsessed with going into the site but also terrified, is just the the first link in a chain of people and events on the fringes of a town full of underground clubs, stolen goods, and men broken by their travels in the tracta chain that could end in disaster for reality as we know it. With its gritty, noirish atmosphere, elements of space opera, and some impressive moments of explosive action, this is a tasty, entertaining morsel, deeply enough flavored to satisfy the thoughtful.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)