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Jun. 21st, 2009 10:10 pmMy day has been spent talking to family history enthusiasts , to an actor and reading Kaaron Warren's almost-on-the-shelves book Slights. Angry Robot (the publisher) has a Robot Army and members of the Robot Army get to read things early. I've read other books from their about-to-be-releases and I'll tell you my thoughts about them soon. I just want to start with Kaaron's because it has coloured my Sunday in a very particular way.
I love the normalcy with which Slights begins. If I didn't know better (having read a fair amount of Kaaron's writing), I would have been lulled. If I had known the writer and not her work, I would have been lulled. As it was, I still let the everydayness suffuse my morning…. until it changed.
The language didn't change. Only what Kaaron did with it evolved, gently, into something peculiar. By 'peculiar,' I mean peculiarly nasty. It's not a nice novel.
Slights touches deep fears. Everyday fears. Everyday fears expressed in everyday language. Inescapable. Inevitable. Nasty. My reading was haunted by thoughts "What if I'm really like this? What if I just think I'm normal?"
I love the 'what if' definition of speculative fiction. That SF and fantasy poses questions and offers alternate visions. Using that 'what if' definition, Slights is very clearly speculative fiction. There's no safety in Kaaron's 'what if'.
The further I got into it, the less normal and the more unsafe it became. The language remained pleasant and everyday, even as one secret after another was released to foul the air. I would hate to live in Stephanie's everyday. Hate. Loathe. Detest. Yet she is a magnetic character. Her mind is strangely untrammeled by who she is and what she does. There are some things she can never learn and others that she can never forget and all the time I'm watching her and wondering how far it will take her.
She has a small and private universe. Not loveable. Not even likeable. Yet I couldn't put the book down. Her story is addictive. Compelling. It is very, very real.
I love the normalcy with which Slights begins. If I didn't know better (having read a fair amount of Kaaron's writing), I would have been lulled. If I had known the writer and not her work, I would have been lulled. As it was, I still let the everydayness suffuse my morning…. until it changed.
The language didn't change. Only what Kaaron did with it evolved, gently, into something peculiar. By 'peculiar,' I mean peculiarly nasty. It's not a nice novel.
Slights touches deep fears. Everyday fears. Everyday fears expressed in everyday language. Inescapable. Inevitable. Nasty. My reading was haunted by thoughts "What if I'm really like this? What if I just think I'm normal?"
I love the 'what if' definition of speculative fiction. That SF and fantasy poses questions and offers alternate visions. Using that 'what if' definition, Slights is very clearly speculative fiction. There's no safety in Kaaron's 'what if'.
The further I got into it, the less normal and the more unsafe it became. The language remained pleasant and everyday, even as one secret after another was released to foul the air. I would hate to live in Stephanie's everyday. Hate. Loathe. Detest. Yet she is a magnetic character. Her mind is strangely untrammeled by who she is and what she does. There are some things she can never learn and others that she can never forget and all the time I'm watching her and wondering how far it will take her.
She has a small and private universe. Not loveable. Not even likeable. Yet I couldn't put the book down. Her story is addictive. Compelling. It is very, very real.