Another Classic

Took a little while to get into but then I loved it.
A word for Peter Kenny I feel is also worth mentioning. He's done most of Claires books and he's an absolute joy to listen to.

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More about life than death

Claire writes excellently. Building a worlds so close to our own it hard to see the separation.
Peter reads wonderfully.

Really enjoyed this book. Even though it about death it really about life. About honoring life. But also the complexity of life because of people's different views points.

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indescribable

I couldn't describe this book if I tried. listen to it. it's weird. it's good.

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It just sort of stops

Really liked the characters and the idea all the way through. The story just ends though with no explanation or resolution which I found frustrating.

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The narrator made this. Brilliant.

This is a brilliant novel made even better by the excellent narrator. I would highly recommend to anyone and especially to those that enjoyed Harry August.

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Another excellent high-concept modern fantasy

I finished this one today, and while it would be more logical to wait until I've absorbed this book a bit over the next few days, I feel the need to get something down.

First of all - the familiar. This is another high-concept fantasy set squarely in the modern world. As usual, the globe is suitably trotted. Our hero visits (among other places) Greenland, Belarus, the USA, Nigeria and London. And he is a bit of a hero, as well. He's Charlie, the Harbinger of Death, originally from Birmingham and working for an office in Milton Keynes and.... he goes before. If that concept sounds a bit Terry Pratchett, it is, but that's pretty much where the comparison ends.

Some of the satirical elements evident particularly in the Sudden Appearance of Hope are here too - the book is very funny in places and horrifying in others. The main torture scene towards the end of the book is so sustained and well drawn that it's quite shocking. Elsewhere, however, the usual thriller elements are largely absent, replaced by an episodic but fascinatingly melancholic meditation on (it seems to me): Mortality, humanity, and the human spirit. It's also a book that could only have written during this turbulent last year. Brexit is mentioned and while Trump isn't, the system that elected him is. The death of reason is an important theme, particularly within the context of the irrational destruction of the earth in the name of big business.

Much is left unsaid and unexplained in the book, and I'm still dissecting what it all means, so for now I'm giving it a "cautious" four stars, since the ride is, as always, magnificent, even if the end result might not be quite as profound as Claire / Catherine wants it to be. But then again it might be. Five starts go to the great Peter Kenny, who delivers what must be the performance of his career. The man is a virtuoso, plain and simple.

Claire has yet to come up with another "concept" as clever and mind-bending as that in he First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, but this new book is definitely a more mature and confident piece of writing.

So, er, anyway, I liked it. I'm just not quite sure how much yet.

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11 people found this helpful

strange, Excellent. depressing, captivating.

An incredibly bleak look at humanity, Excellent look in the mirror.

I didn't get it until the end. Would you like to witness the end of a world?

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Detached and Angry

Which is fair enough I guess, but for a book it means I did not connect and thus could not engage. Compare this to 84k for the same level of angry but much more love and attachment to wondrous people. As always much to think about and talk about. Such a great pair - North and Kenny.

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in-depth reflection of the modern world

fantastic reflection of the modern world, but would shake your belief in humanity. I enjoyed the book though I found it rather frustrating and in parts depressing but very much worth a listen. The narration is first class and very engaging really brings the characters to life.

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Hmmm.....

I had a couple of false starts with this book. Eventually it took me back to winter train journeys in the late1970's reading Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius. Then it made sense.

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