Not Superman

[threemonkeys]

I have a sad little story for you readers of science fiction out there. Once upon a time there was a pretty good science fiction writer. He wasn't at the very top of his profession, but he was in Sturgeon's 10 percent. I for one greatly enjoyed his work. We cannot know for sure, but we can guess that someday he realised that he was never going to make it big from the sf mid-list. He also realised that the step from telling near future sf to hi-tech crime thrillers was not that big. So he started writing such books and got them published. We can assume they sold pretty well because he wrote another one and yet another one after that. To start with, they had a fair bit of the sf about them. You could tell that he wasn't letting go of his old habits and by extension his old readership. Smart thinking that. It certainly kept me reading his work - anyway, I like good crime thrillers. But now the time has come where those links to sf have been more or less severed. What is left is a rather shambolic mid level crime thriller. Not something I would ever read from a cold start. I guess I will have to stop reading this author. As I say, sad.

The author in question is Paul McAuley and the book which pushed me over the edge is Players. It is a fair effort I suppose, but it isn't great. In particular, the organisation of the book is very poor. It does have a gaming aspect which may lure a few people over from the sf realms but it isn't convincing and certainly not beyond the normal. Interestingly, this book gets good blurb by Michael Marshall - another author to whom the above tale could apply. I still have a book by Marshall on my to read shelf. I wonder if reading that will bring the same result as Players.

Comments

[cat-i-th-adage.livejournal.com]

Paul McAuley!?! Good heavens - he was one of the last I would have picked to jump ship.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Sadly I think it comes down to money - there is more of it in the crime biz. Heck, even Greg Bear is dipping his toe in these waters.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

I've read the Michael Marshall crime books. They have a slight sort of genre feel to them - they feature a conspiracy that while not explicitly fantasy, is so extraordinary as to have a similar feel and make it not feel like straight crime. There is actually a distinct genre element in the second one, but actually that feels kind of poorly fitted into the story.

Its hard to say whether I prefer him as SF or crime author - I hadn't really read enough of his SF, but Only Forward was kind of bursting with originality, but confused and weirdly structured when taken as a whole. The crime novels are less exuberant, but better structured.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I rate Spares as his best SF work or in fact work of any genre - vibrant and fun but much better structured than Only Forward. I realise after I wrote the above that I actually have two of his crime books to read. I may pass judgment after reading those.

[fishlifter.livejournal.com]

I'd guessed McAuley by the end of your fourth sentence...

I've been a fan of his sf since about 1990, and we just kept reading his novels when he did the genre slide. I haven't read Mind's Eye yet, though -- Mark has, but it just never quite made it to the top of my to-read pile (or, rather, shelves) -- and we don't even have Players. I'm not encouraged.

(And I've never read the Michael Marshall novels -- again, we've got at least two and Mark's read at least one of them, but I haven't yet quite found time -- but I very much enjoyed the first three Michael Marshall Smith novels.)

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I think its fair to say that both these authors still write to the same standard as before. It is just that, for me personally, the subject matter is no longer as interesting.