![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Empire State by Adam Christopher
Nov. 6th, 2013 11:09 pmThe Blurb On The Back:
The Empire State is the other New York.
It’s a parallel-universe, Prohibition-era world of mooks and shamuses that is the twisted magic mirror to our bustling Big Apple. It’s a city where sinister characters lurk around every corner, while the great superheroes who once kept the streets safe have fallen into deadly rivalries and feuds. Not that its colourful residents know anything about the real New York … until detective Rad Bradley makes a discovery that will change the lives of all its inhabitants.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Adam Christopher’s debut science fiction novel is jam-packed with ideas – pocket universes, robots, superheroes and Chandler-style noir – but the story itself never really came together and was slightly too episodic for me. Rad’s a curiously passive character, dragged along by events rather than driving them and I was disappointed that Rex, having started off so strongly, disappears from the page for too long, leaving him somewhat underdrawn. This is a shame because Christopher’s New York and Empire State are fascinating worlds with some great concepts underpinning them and I desperately wanted to know more about the City Commissioners, the robots staffing the ironclads and the Pastor of Lost Souls but there’s simply so much going on and insufficient pages to explore all of them properly. I did love the bonus interview with Christopher at the end and the creative commons licence is fascinating – all in all I’ll read Christopher’s next book even though this didn’t quite do it for me.
It’s a parallel-universe, Prohibition-era world of mooks and shamuses that is the twisted magic mirror to our bustling Big Apple. It’s a city where sinister characters lurk around every corner, while the great superheroes who once kept the streets safe have fallen into deadly rivalries and feuds. Not that its colourful residents know anything about the real New York … until detective Rad Bradley makes a discovery that will change the lives of all its inhabitants.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Adam Christopher’s debut science fiction novel is jam-packed with ideas – pocket universes, robots, superheroes and Chandler-style noir – but the story itself never really came together and was slightly too episodic for me. Rad’s a curiously passive character, dragged along by events rather than driving them and I was disappointed that Rex, having started off so strongly, disappears from the page for too long, leaving him somewhat underdrawn. This is a shame because Christopher’s New York and Empire State are fascinating worlds with some great concepts underpinning them and I desperately wanted to know more about the City Commissioners, the robots staffing the ironclads and the Pastor of Lost Souls but there’s simply so much going on and insufficient pages to explore all of them properly. I did love the bonus interview with Christopher at the end and the creative commons licence is fascinating – all in all I’ll read Christopher’s next book even though this didn’t quite do it for me.
