Location, location, location

REVIEWS BY GAVIN J. GRANT

The science fictional aspects of William Gibson's Spook Country are so slim that those who like to argue about these things could say that it is as much fiction as science fiction. However, that would miss the point of this hugely enjoyable novel, which could comfortably be dropped into any of half a dozen pigeonholes. Heroine Hollis Henry is one of Gibson's most delightful inventions. In the early 1990s she was part of an influential pop band but now, scraping along as a freelance writer, she is asked by a new magazine to write a piece on a locative artist: art seen only at a certain location when using virtual reality goggles. Curious about the art, the magazine and somewhat desperate for money, Hollis takes the gig and is slowly drawn into a strange game of spy and counterspy. This is where Gibson excels. He introduces several different groups of spooks, none of which seem aligned with traditional notions of countries or other interested parties. There is a family of Cuban-Chinese immigrants who live ready to skip out of their lives in a moment. There is a junkie and his violent kidnapper (the nearest the novel comes to having a government connection). And there is the magazine that hired Hollis, which may exist or may just be an idea of Belgian millionaire Hubertus Bigend. Despite the enticing caper aspect of the plot, Gibson is spot-on in serious critiques of U.S. government efforts to reduce civil liberties and the culture of corruption that arises when wars are waged on multiple fronts. Spook Country is a page-turner and an exploration of art and conspicuous consumption, but neither of those elements is truly the point of the book. Above all, it is an entertainment, and in that it succeeds from first to last.


A royal fight to the finish

Daniel Abraham's second Long Price novel, A Betrayal in Winter, is even better than his debut, A Shadow in Summer. As a child, Otah Machi chose to step away from his royal destiny. However, his father, the Khai, is dying, and his brothers seem intent on following the horrifying traditional path of succession: Last one alive wins. That is not the only blow to palace life. When the Khai dies, all his wives must return to the cities of their births. Otah's sister, Idaan, is frustrated by the limits society has placed on her. She decides that instead of being used as someone's path to success, she will use her fiancé to influence the succession and use her missing brother as the one to blame for any deaths along the way. Idaan is power-hungry yet sympathetic, and her story and Otah's are told in interspersed chapters that keep the tension high. Otah has tried to keep out of family politics but he realizes that his presence endangers everyone he loves and works with. As a result, he returns to the city of his birth to face his family, and perhaps his death, in the hope of changing the succession. A Betrayal in Winter is a novel to inhabit, full of multifaceted characters whose public poses often belie their inner motivations, and full also of hope that men and women can be equal and that systems which degrade us can be changed.


No place like home

Sarah Monette has three books out this year: her first collection of short fiction, The Bone Key; her first collaboration with Elizabeth Bear, A Companion to Wolves; and her third novel, The Mirador, which continues the story begun in her two previous fantasies, Mélusine and The Virtu. Magician Felix Harrowsmith and his half-brother Mildmay the Fox, a reformed cat burglar, have returned to their home city, the Mirador. The Mirador is the only obstacle keeping their country from being invaded by their neighbors, and it has become a nest of spies. Mildmay's obsession, Mehitobel Parr, introduced in the previous book and now a successful stage actress, finds herself being manipulated into spying for the Bastion—a rival power acutely interested in Felix's influence in the city. Felix, however, is an agent of chaos and happily no one can predict what he will do. With its reliance on a few curses rather than the vocabulary-stretching fun Monette had in The Virtu and characters frustratingly unable to communicate with one another, The Mirador moves slowly at times, but for the most part is still compelling reading.


Gavin J. Grant is co-editor of The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, to be published this fall by Del Rey.

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