Product Description

The stunning new novel from the critically acclaimed master of literary SF.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #202713 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-17
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

TRASHOTRON
"Grimwood does suck you in, every time. And he delivers a unique reading experience, every time."

Synopsis
Kit Nouveau didn't escape himself when he flew to Japan. He runs a bar in the Roppongi district of Tokyo and is having an affair with the wife of a High Yakusa ganglord. All things considered being held up at gunpoint isn't a complete shock. The pale girl in the black cloak appearing from nowhere and punching an ivory spike into the man's head on the other hand ...Nijie has stolen fifteen million dollars, she's on the run, she's just killed a man and she has a cat who knows more than it should. It's a lot to deal with when you haven't even left school. But Nijie is really Lady Neku. And it is time for her to stop mewling in the darkness. And suddenly, the girl who became Lady Neku understands she's never really been anyone else. And in a sentient castle at the end of world Lady Neku otherwise known as Baroness Nawa-no-ukiyo, Countess High Strange and chatelaine of Schloss Omga realizes that a man called Kit has stolen some of her memories.

About the Author
Jon Courtenay Grimwood is a fulltime writer. He has also been an editor of and writer for various men's magazines. He reviews SF for The Guardian.

Customer Reviews

Good writing but I'm not sure I followed it
Kit is a burnt out ex-soldier running a bar in a sleazy part of Tokyo. He is mixed up in the business of the Yakuza in Japan through the husband of his lover, and with British gangsters through the mother of his ex-girlfriend.

Lady Neku is an aristocrat from the far future facing an arranged marriage who may or may not also inhabit the body of a runaway schoolgirl in Kit's Tokyo

Good points first. The book is excellently written, the characters are fully rounded, believable, and in their own way endearing. Also the descriptions of Tokyo and London are beautifully evocative.

The two authors this brought to mind were William Gibson and Murukami. While this book is not in the same class as the Sprawl series, it is certainly the equal of Gibson's later work, and in being more grounded in reality and less flashy, could even be preferable. It is the surrealism of Lady Neku that gives echoes of Murukami, although given the choice, I would go for Grimwood, he doesn't have Murukami's laziness in just throwing ideas out without trying to provide any explanation.

On the downside, the story of Lady Neku's future world feels just tacked on, in fact this book may have been better as an evocative near future thriller, without the need for the stuff in the far future.

So, in summary, not perfect, but definitely worth trying as a piece of intelligent, thought provoking fiction.

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.

Proper mental
I had only previously read 9 Tail Fox from Grimwood, but I loved that... and I love this! As with 9 Tail Fox, it's a fairly open ended story leaving the reader to decide which way they believe the story is resolved.

The whole book is very well written, the pieces of humour are witty and sharp and the action is well paced. The characters are all interesting and the way he leaves you wanting more is obviously a good thing.

The setting for the story, a near future Tokyo and London, are equally interesting and appealing. The near dystopian outlook is akin to the Blade Runners of this world and I much prefer this kind of setting to the utopian outlook of other writers.

Overall, the two threads of the book wrap around each other well enough and the ending is so wide open to interpretation that it leaves you wishing it would carry on for another hundred pages. Excellent book.