レビュー要約

• 犯罪小説としての鋭い会話と暴力的な展開を評価する声が強い。未来の神話性と私的な喪失が重なる点も、この作品を単なるノワールに留めない魅力として読まれている。

レビュー

• (nahezu) Gegenwart und ferne Zukunft

  "End of the World Blues" war eine Empfehlung nach dem Kauf von Büchern, die John Meaney geschrieben hat (Nulaperion-Zyklus und die ersten Zwei Teile der Ragnarök Triologie: unbedingt lesen!). Die Empfehlung war wirklich gut, auch wenn es etwas brauchte mit der Story warm zu werden. Für Fans von "The Windup-Girl" und William Gibson empfehlenswert, mir war es ein klein wenig zu sprachverliebt (kann aber auch an meinem schlechten Englisch liegen).

• Grimwood on good form

  This follows a familiar Grimwood pattern; two parallel stories, one cyberpunk-flavoured one set in the near-future and a harder science-fiction one set in the far future. Characters connect with both threads, and as always with this writer, it takes a while to figure out quite what's going on and how the two stories connect. Grimwood captures the flavour of street-level Tokyo beautifully and also the less glamourous and cyberpunk South London. There is the usual attention to detail with bands and cultural icons namechecked at appropriate moments. The story is fast paced and is somehow more accessible than one or two of his previous offerings. Some more familiar Grimwood themes are explored as the lead character works through issues of identity, guilt, and commitment. A great read!

• Excellent sci-fi noir

  A really well-written mystery which pulls the reader along while weaving two storylines about a British expat in Tokyo and a mysterious Japanese girl who may also be a princess from a far distant future Earth. Solid characters,settings,and action. For fans of William Gibson and Neal Stephson.

• Cross-genre shenanigans

  This is my first experience of John Courtney Grimwood, and it is a positive one. His characters are well rounded, with a particularly good ear for dialogue. He's also keen on cross-genre writing - a concept as a writer I'm in favour of. When mixing genres it's important to maintain the integrity of the story underneath: the mix is nothing without a compelling narrative. End Of The World Blues succeeds, but in spite of this. In End of The World Blues (henceforth known as EOTWB) we have two parallel stories - one set in modern day Japan and the other in a future version of what appears to be a dying Earth. While the story following Kit, an English bar owner in Tokyo, soon to have a number of live changing events is a conventional thriller, the parallel narrative following Neku, a princess living within a 'sentient' castle in the future, jarrs in its execution. Yet apart from Neko and her appearance in Kit's life in modern day Japan, these parallel narratives keep a firm distance apart. Barring the odd tweak you could remove the science fiction mix from EOTWB without being any the worse off. The question is: why is it there? My problem with the sci-fi element is not that it's unwelcome, but that less attention has been furnished to the future world than with more conventional real world. Grimwood doesn't give the reader the time to relate to characters in the future earth - each one is weak, unmemorable and for the most part unlikeable, whereupon in the real world each character has depth and and human, modern day interest - that Grimwood has been unable - or unwilling - to translate to the future portion of the novel. Grimwood is an engaging writer, sharp and witty, yet is subtle enough with his characterisations that cliches are avoided and surprises are unexpected. He puts me in mind of a less romantic Michael Marshall Smith, thin on hyperbole but generous with allowing his characters space. I will look forward to reading more of his work.

• Word woose, good but strangely unmemorable

  A page turner from Grimwood, with his usual intertwined multi-layered story telling. The two connected stories are a present +20 minutes thriller and a dystopian far future "end of the world". The connection between the two is the schoolgirl Nijie who may or may not carry the memories of a power player from the far end of time. I liked the conceit that the far future is linked to the near present via threads stronger than mere causality but I question the effectiveness of the dual stories, I found myself rather more intrigued by Nijie's near present story than Lady Neku's far future one and as such I wonder if this is really a Sci-Fi novel at all but more of a contemporary thriller with some Sci-Fi metaphor bolted on in parts. As such this focus on only one half of the story makes the other rather less memorable to this reader and as such almost fragments the narrative into chunks of interesting thriller spaced by all too forgettable end of time padding.

購入リンク