The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu
Oct. 2nd, 2023 12:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Hayden Lichfield’s life is ripped apart when he finds his father murdered in their lab, and the camera logs erased. The killer can only have been after one thing: the Sisyphus Formula the two of them developed together, which might one day reverse death itself. Hoping to lure the killer into the open, Hayden steals the research. In the process, he uncovers a recording his father made in the days before his death, and a dying wish: Avenge me …
With the lab on lockdown, Hayden is trapped with four other people - his uncle Charles, lab technician Gabriel Rasmussen, research intern Felicia Xia and their head of security, Felicia’s father Paul - one of whom must be the killer. His only sure ally is the lab’s resident artificial intelligence, Horatio, who has been his dear friend and compassion since its creation. With his world collapsing, Hayden must navigate the building’s secrets, uncover his father’s lies and push the boundaries of sanity in the pursuit of revenge.
It’s 2047.
Hayden Lichfield works in the Elsinore Laboratory in Denmark with his father Dr Graham Lichfield (the celebrated creator of the Neuromapper, a recording device for thoughts). Together they have been working on the Sisyphus Formula, a drug that is designed to promote rapid healing and which may one day even reverse death. While Hayden and his father focus on the science side of Elsinore’s work, Hayden’s uncle Charles Lichfield runs the business side. Also working at the lab are Hayden’s ex-girlfriend, Felicia Xia, a biochemist who works directly on projects for Charles and whose father, Paul Xia, is the lab’s head of security and Gabriel Rasmussen, a laboratory technician fresh out of Copenhagen University. Watching over them all is Horatio, the Laboratory’s artificial intelligence system who monitors events in the lab through a web of cameras and sensors.
But one night Hayden finds his father murdered in the lab and Horatio reveals that 2 hours of his logs have been erased. No one has entered or left the Lab, however, which means that the murder must have been committed by either Charles, Felicia, Paul, or Rasmussen. When Hayden uses the Sisyphus Formula to recover the memories from his father’s Neuromapper, he learns things about the Lab that he had never previously known and that his father wants Hayden to avenge him.
Before the night is over, Hayden will learn more about his family, himself and even death itself as events unfold that will change everyone in the Laboratory forever more, but the events that unfold will be debated and pored over for years after …
Em X. Liu’s SF novel is a tech take on HAMLET that explores themes of mortality, fear, intimacy and revenge. Although I enjoyed how Liu updates Felicia (the Ophelia character), I wasn’t gripped by the story and the fragmented style, while true to the underlying themes of the play, further distanced me from the story. Ultimately, this is a clever and thoughtful book but not one that vibes with me, although I’d still check out Liu’s other work.
I’m going to be honest and open this review with the statement that HAMLET is not a play that I enjoy. I do like Shakespeare - MACBETH, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING and KING LEAR are all favourites of mine - but I have just never been able to get into HAMLET. For me it’s too long, too mopey and I don’t like Hamlet or Ophelia so I don’t really care about what happens to them. However, I am a sucker for books that take a famous story and riff on it and I thought that this had an intriguing idea and Liu is a new-to-me author with a background in biochemistry so I was excited to see what she brought to it.
I will also say that from the Blurb on the Back I thought this book was going to focus on the murder mystery element, which is my favourite part of the play. So the fact that this book does not do that (and it’s pretty clear early on that it’s not going to do that) was a bit of a disappointment. That is not Liu’s fault at all - she has written a clever book that really riffs on the play and the mythology surrounding it - but I did feel a bit let down and misled by that blurb, which I think is a big part of the reason why I didn’t vibe with the book.
One of the big positives in the book for me is how Liu updates Ophelia. Liu’s Felicia character, while emotionally connected with Hayden (and I liked the fact that they’re ex lovers in this book because it gives the events in this book and the impact on them more depth) very much has her own sense of agency and one of the twists in the book was something that I thought worked very well. Liu has Felicia recounting her own view of what happened after the events with the narrative conceit that she wrote a book about it, which also helps bring out depth to the story and feeds into a wider theme of everyone having their own interpretation of the events in HAMLET (or, in this case the events that happen to Hayden).
However I did have an issue with the overall narrative style of the book. It’s based on the conceit that there’s a historian who is pulling together different sources (including Felicia’s book) and piecing together events from Hayden’s Neuromapper and Horatio’s records. As a personal thing, I found that all a bit too complicated and it makes the book feel more artificial at times, especially as Liu throws in excerpts from interviews with Felicia after the events and clips from telephone conversations. Again, this is all intended to draw on the fact that there are so many interpretations of Hamlet and what happens within it and I get it, but it wasn’t something that I enjoyed.
And that brings me to my biggest issue with the book, which is the central character of Hayden. In some ways, he is exactly like Hamlet - mopey and self-involved - but here he is, at least, more decisive, if stricken by anxiety. My big problem was that I didn’t understand his obsession with beating death, his relationship with his father or his relationship with Horatio (which takes a very weird turn at one point that I did not get at all). I got that this is part of the point of the book - that everyone in the future is still arguing about why Hayden does what he does - but like the original play, I just didn’t care.
Ultimately, this just wasn’t my jam. That’s not to say it’s a bad book - I think that what Liu has done is clever and if you’re into that kind of update that focuses on themes and thinks about what the original work represents, then you’ll get an awful lot out of this. I would certainly check out Liu’s other work, even though this book wasn’t for me.
The Verdict:
Em X. Liu’s SF novel is a tech take on HAMLET that explores themes of mortality, fear, intimacy and revenge. Although I enjoyed how Liu updates Felicia (the Ophelia character), I wasn’t gripped by the story and the fragmented style, while true to the underlying themes of the play, further distanced me from the story. Ultimately, this is a clever and thoughtful book but not one that vibes with me, although I’d still check out Liu’s other work.
THE DEATH I GAVE HIM was released in United States on 12th September 2023 and in the United Kingdom on 14th September 2023. Thanks to Rebellion Publishing for the review copy of this book.
Hayden Lichfield’s life is ripped apart when he finds his father murdered in their lab, and the camera logs erased. The killer can only have been after one thing: the Sisyphus Formula the two of them developed together, which might one day reverse death itself. Hoping to lure the killer into the open, Hayden steals the research. In the process, he uncovers a recording his father made in the days before his death, and a dying wish: Avenge me …
With the lab on lockdown, Hayden is trapped with four other people - his uncle Charles, lab technician Gabriel Rasmussen, research intern Felicia Xia and their head of security, Felicia’s father Paul - one of whom must be the killer. His only sure ally is the lab’s resident artificial intelligence, Horatio, who has been his dear friend and compassion since its creation. With his world collapsing, Hayden must navigate the building’s secrets, uncover his father’s lies and push the boundaries of sanity in the pursuit of revenge.
It’s 2047.
Hayden Lichfield works in the Elsinore Laboratory in Denmark with his father Dr Graham Lichfield (the celebrated creator of the Neuromapper, a recording device for thoughts). Together they have been working on the Sisyphus Formula, a drug that is designed to promote rapid healing and which may one day even reverse death. While Hayden and his father focus on the science side of Elsinore’s work, Hayden’s uncle Charles Lichfield runs the business side. Also working at the lab are Hayden’s ex-girlfriend, Felicia Xia, a biochemist who works directly on projects for Charles and whose father, Paul Xia, is the lab’s head of security and Gabriel Rasmussen, a laboratory technician fresh out of Copenhagen University. Watching over them all is Horatio, the Laboratory’s artificial intelligence system who monitors events in the lab through a web of cameras and sensors.
But one night Hayden finds his father murdered in the lab and Horatio reveals that 2 hours of his logs have been erased. No one has entered or left the Lab, however, which means that the murder must have been committed by either Charles, Felicia, Paul, or Rasmussen. When Hayden uses the Sisyphus Formula to recover the memories from his father’s Neuromapper, he learns things about the Lab that he had never previously known and that his father wants Hayden to avenge him.
Before the night is over, Hayden will learn more about his family, himself and even death itself as events unfold that will change everyone in the Laboratory forever more, but the events that unfold will be debated and pored over for years after …
Em X. Liu’s SF novel is a tech take on HAMLET that explores themes of mortality, fear, intimacy and revenge. Although I enjoyed how Liu updates Felicia (the Ophelia character), I wasn’t gripped by the story and the fragmented style, while true to the underlying themes of the play, further distanced me from the story. Ultimately, this is a clever and thoughtful book but not one that vibes with me, although I’d still check out Liu’s other work.
I’m going to be honest and open this review with the statement that HAMLET is not a play that I enjoy. I do like Shakespeare - MACBETH, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING and KING LEAR are all favourites of mine - but I have just never been able to get into HAMLET. For me it’s too long, too mopey and I don’t like Hamlet or Ophelia so I don’t really care about what happens to them. However, I am a sucker for books that take a famous story and riff on it and I thought that this had an intriguing idea and Liu is a new-to-me author with a background in biochemistry so I was excited to see what she brought to it.
I will also say that from the Blurb on the Back I thought this book was going to focus on the murder mystery element, which is my favourite part of the play. So the fact that this book does not do that (and it’s pretty clear early on that it’s not going to do that) was a bit of a disappointment. That is not Liu’s fault at all - she has written a clever book that really riffs on the play and the mythology surrounding it - but I did feel a bit let down and misled by that blurb, which I think is a big part of the reason why I didn’t vibe with the book.
One of the big positives in the book for me is how Liu updates Ophelia. Liu’s Felicia character, while emotionally connected with Hayden (and I liked the fact that they’re ex lovers in this book because it gives the events in this book and the impact on them more depth) very much has her own sense of agency and one of the twists in the book was something that I thought worked very well. Liu has Felicia recounting her own view of what happened after the events with the narrative conceit that she wrote a book about it, which also helps bring out depth to the story and feeds into a wider theme of everyone having their own interpretation of the events in HAMLET (or, in this case the events that happen to Hayden).
However I did have an issue with the overall narrative style of the book. It’s based on the conceit that there’s a historian who is pulling together different sources (including Felicia’s book) and piecing together events from Hayden’s Neuromapper and Horatio’s records. As a personal thing, I found that all a bit too complicated and it makes the book feel more artificial at times, especially as Liu throws in excerpts from interviews with Felicia after the events and clips from telephone conversations. Again, this is all intended to draw on the fact that there are so many interpretations of Hamlet and what happens within it and I get it, but it wasn’t something that I enjoyed.
And that brings me to my biggest issue with the book, which is the central character of Hayden. In some ways, he is exactly like Hamlet - mopey and self-involved - but here he is, at least, more decisive, if stricken by anxiety. My big problem was that I didn’t understand his obsession with beating death, his relationship with his father or his relationship with Horatio (which takes a very weird turn at one point that I did not get at all). I got that this is part of the point of the book - that everyone in the future is still arguing about why Hayden does what he does - but like the original play, I just didn’t care.
Ultimately, this just wasn’t my jam. That’s not to say it’s a bad book - I think that what Liu has done is clever and if you’re into that kind of update that focuses on themes and thinks about what the original work represents, then you’ll get an awful lot out of this. I would certainly check out Liu’s other work, even though this book wasn’t for me.
The Verdict:
Em X. Liu’s SF novel is a tech take on HAMLET that explores themes of mortality, fear, intimacy and revenge. Although I enjoyed how Liu updates Felicia (the Ophelia character), I wasn’t gripped by the story and the fragmented style, while true to the underlying themes of the play, further distanced me from the story. Ultimately, this is a clever and thoughtful book but not one that vibes with me, although I’d still check out Liu’s other work.
THE DEATH I GAVE HIM was released in United States on 12th September 2023 and in the United Kingdom on 14th September 2023. Thanks to Rebellion Publishing for the review copy of this book.
