Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #92553 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-09
• Binding: Paperback
• 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

Stylish, If Convoluted, Post-Cyberpunk Thriller from Grimwood
Jon Courtenay Grimwood's "End of the World Blues" is a stylish, often convoluted, post-cyberpunk thriller which will easily remind readers of William Gibson's early "Cyberspace" trilogy. However, Grimwood's depiction of a near future Japan owes more to Haruki Murakami's vision of Japan than Gibson's in its realism (which isn't surprising since Grimwood has, unlike Gibson, resided there). Young British expatriate Kit Noveau must contend with the unexpected demise of his wife and of the bar that she had owned. His only chance at redemption lies in an ex-girlfriend who left a suicide note before vanishing. His only friend is a rather bizarre young Japanese girl, Neku, who believes that she is an aristocrat from Earth's distant future. Together they travel through the urban jungles of Japan and Great Britain in search of the missing keys that will explain who was ultimately responsible for the death of Kit's Japanese wife. Without question, Grimwood is one of Great Britain's best young writers of literary science fiction and fantasy; "End of the World Blues" merely reinforces the ample critical and popular acclaim he's earned on both sides of the Atlantic.

Sudden surprise
Having previously read 9Tail Fox, I picked up this title without knowing anything about it, I think thats why I enjoyed it a little more than most. The sudden jump into story, the complex rules of the fantasy land, the imagination and awful character names made this and entertaining and unique read.
As I said, this book took me quite by surprise, while it was not difficult to stop reading I always returned to this wanting to know more.
Another good title from Mr. Grimmwood :)

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.