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Empty Space (Light #3)

4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 · rating details · 112 ratings · 33 reviews

We thought we had filled space with a civilization spread across the stars, held together by ships that warped reality.

But there is a lot of empty space in the universe.

The impossible empty space beneath a corpse floating in a dank, future alley way.

The vast empty space inside every atom.

The aching empty space between a mother and a daughter in a quiet west London suburb.

T...more

Paperback, 302 pages

Published July 2012 by Gollancz (first published January 1st 2012)

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Sep 11, 2012 Leonard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There's an almost impossibly extended sequence of mindfuckery and mysticism toward the end that I'm not sure I fully grasp. But whatever: Harrison is smart and sly enough to slip in a few self-referential asides about ungraspability. I was left feeling, I dunno, spun around, ravished, awed despite a predictability or two. The question of whether the language of intentionally impenetrable postmodern space opera is really the best medium for this sort of thing nagged me a bit. As shaped by Harriso...more

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Apr 04, 2013 Tamahome is currently reading it · review of another edition

The perfect formula for the opposite of a best seller in America:

1) it sounds British
2) has a very good vocabulary
3) has some scifi words
4) doesn't skimp on the violence (or weird sex)
5) unlikeable characters

It's as immediately unappealing as I remember Light being (which I didn't finish). Whenever he makes a comparison in his descriptions, I just shrug and go "I don't know what that is". A lot of people respect him, so I'll keep plugging. I've read 2 chapters. Some of the chapters are in the pr...more

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Oct 05, 2012 Gerhard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

One of my favourite SF books ever is Nova by Samuel R. Delany, and Harrison's Kefahuchi Tract trilogy reminds me so much of Delany. The sense of a wild frontier, crazy characters caught up in a maelstrom of events in a dark and unredictable universe, where nothing is as it seems and everyone is damaged in one way or another.

A lot of modern SF seems sanitised and focused on technology; Harrison's 'singularity without an event horizon' is dirty, smelly, sexy, and filled with danger and dangerous /...more

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Apr 21, 2013 Martin M rated it 5 of 5 stars

EMPTY SPACE is a space adventure. We begin with the following dream:

An alien research tool the size of a brown dwarf star hangs in the middle of nowhere, as a result of an attempt to place it equidistant from everything else in every possible universe. Somewhere in the fractal labyrinth beneath its surface, a woman lies on an allotropic carbon deck, a white paste of nanomachines oozing from the corner of her mouth. She is neither conscious nor unconscious, dead nor alive. There is something wron

...more

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Aug 24, 2012 zxvasdf rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

In his blogs, Harrison often states that the act of writing is a quest for identity, a means for him to understand himself in this world. So, Empty Space essentially is the psyche of Harrison himself, laid out as visceral as neon entrails left in the garden at dusk. He crafts tantalizing clues, slight references to inspirations, influences, and secret obsessions. A viewpoint is rehashed out between multiple characters, and the emergent property is of disassociation.

Everyone's trying to find the...more In his blogs, Harrison often states that the act of writing is a quest for identity, a means for him to understand himself in this world. So, Empty Space essentially is the psyche of Harrison himself, laid out as visceral as neon entrails left in the garden at dusk. He crafts tantalizing clues, slight references to inspirations, influences, and secret obsessions. A viewpoint is rehashed out between multiple characters, and the emergent property is of disassociation.

Everyone's trying to find themselves a place in this world, from the codependent mona, the twink out assistant who drapes herself with names to be discarded with the necessity of a woman in a fitting room, the man at the edge of empty space in the face of the K-tract speaking with an alien voice in the void. Code as person, spread out in a pre-programmed routine gives opinions and remembers something stainless steel reflecting neon pink and green when it sleeps for the last time. A thin man who eats his anxieties like a fat man, and the man who walks through walls in estrangement with the love of his life. The great physicist's ex-wife who finds herself by becoming lost. A rocket captain coming unmoored from herself in the face of death. And life.

These vectors cross, echo away, and return in a tangled knot at the conclusion of Empty Space. You finish reading, your head buzzing, and you turn to pick up your copy of Light. You see dangling threads demanding to be connected by your yearning mind, little clues that fluoresce from Light, and Nova Swing. You get the feel you're not seeing the big picture just yet, that the narrative exists at a higher scale Harrison rewards the most diligent of readers.

For his biggest fans, Empty Space builds a void within, complete and entirely sucking when the final page is consumed. The worlds of New Venusport, Old Earth, and the tales of the boys from Earth are lit, knocking about in your head. And there's nothing more. And you think, "Hey, the Reborn Men of Viriconium sound familiar..."(less)

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Apr 18, 2013 Eoghann Irving rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

Empty Space is a challenging and frustrating book to read.

Certainly it doesn't help that it's the third part of a trilogy so you are rather thrown in at the deep end here. But that's certainly not the only reason.

The text of the book is thick. You can't skim this stuff. It's laden with meanings and inferences Skip a page and you will end up completely lost. That also means of course that if you put it down to do something else, it can take a while to immerse yourself in it again.

It's also a book...more Empty Space is a challenging and frustrating book to read.

Certainly it doesn't help that it's the third part of a trilogy so you are rather thrown in at the deep end here. But that's certainly not the only reason.

The text of the book is thick. You can't skim this stuff. It's laden with meanings and inferences Skip a page and you will end up completely lost. That also means of course that if you put it down to do something else, it can take a while to immerse yourself in it again.

It's also a book that quite deliberately engages in mindfuckery. Not only are stories being told in two different time frames, but several of the characters seem to have a rather loose grip on their own reality. So half the time you're not entirely sure what is "real" and what is not.

I don't say this as criticism, rather to try and give you a feeling for the sort of book this is. It's neither a light or quick read. And in truth I'm not sure I entirely grasped everything that was going on.

There's definitely a bleak tone to the story with many of the characters seeming trapped in their lives rather than enjoying them. And while the central mysteries of the story are essentially resolved by the end, I couldn't honestly tell you what the point of it all was exactly.

Unlike many science fiction authors Harrison doesn't seem very interested in explaining the science that makes the background of his universe. Not that there's a shortage of science. We have time, and weird physics and all sorts of things. But it's the background while the characters are the foreground.

Harrison's language and choice at times seem deliberately provocative. Not only is there disturbing violence, there's also sexual imagery and some of that will seem disturbing as well. At other points his characters language is abruptly frank, which stands out from the stylized prose. I don't think this is accidental.

There is a lot to recommend about this book. It will most likely take you out of your comfort zone. The universe the characters live in is rich and deep. This is definitely adult science fiction.

From a purely technical perspective the rating should probably be 4 stars. If you enjoy stories that push limits and don't sit inside genre cliches then I think you may really like this book. Though you're probably better starting with the first in the trilogy.

But I just couldn't quite warm to the story so my personal rating is 3.(less)

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Oct 11, 2012 Kevin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the third book in the series that began with "Light" and continued with Nova Swing; you will want to read the first two before starting "Empty Space", or else prepare to be utterly confused. Some of the more peripheral characters from the earlier books become protagonists in this novel, which like the first book has three interwoven storylines: one set in near-future England, the others in a remote stretch of our galaxy during the 25th century. The characters are drawn somewhat more thre...more

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Sep 15, 2012 Jani rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In retrospect I wish a had read Nova Swing again before I embarked on this the third volume of the Kefahuchi Tract -trilogy (as it will be henceforth probably known as). While I love Light and know it by heart, Nova never really astounded me as much and so I have forgotten many things about it that might have brought extra to reading this novel. Then again I don't really know about how this might have changed my experience until one day when I will read the whole set in order. Thankfully, Empty...more In retrospect I wish a had read Nova Swing again before I embarked on this the third volume of the Kefahuchi Tract -trilogy (as it will be henceforth probably known as). While I love Light and know it by heart, Nova never really astounded me as much and so I have forgotten many things about it that might have brought extra to reading this novel. Then again I don't really know about how this might have changed my experience until one day when I will read the whole set in order. Thankfully, Empty Space in its sometime mindbogglingness a book that invites rereading.

As perhaps the earlier text implies, Empty Space was sometimes hard to separate from its forebearers. While the main protagonists were only minor characters in the previous novels, the connections to the earlier works were profound. Hell, some passages describing the world of the Tract were almost copypasted from Light, whether out of sheer audacity/laziness or as a technique I'm still not sure. On the other hand, this might not have bothered some one not familiar with the earlier books a much, but it is hard too see this as a novel that can be truly enjoyed on its own.

That being said, the novel has a lot of the Harrison charm I so have loved in Light. His writing is sometimes flowing, sometimes just cocky and often hilarious. He certainly is a writer with a lot of gall, not afraid to go into full postmodern at times while still keeping the novel close enough to genre borders to link to its tradition. The novel had a weird gripping quality that kept me hoping for a sort of sense at the end even if I was deeply aware that it might never come (at least on the first reading).

I have to say in the end I was a bit disappointed. The ending didn't really open its self up for me (i.e. I didn't really understand it) and I felt something was lost by not reading the earlier novel. However, I did enjoy reading it a lot and was expecting too much, amount that no novel could probably have risen to. Perhaps next time.
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Apr 17, 2013 Ian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Empty Space is the third and final book of Harrison’s Kefahuchi Tract trilogy, the first of which, Light, marked his return to science fiction after many years away. I’m not sure there’s any value in giving a précis of the plot, since in parts it’s wilfully opaque – as it has been throughout the entire the trilogy. Suffice it to say that some of the plot-threads from the preceding two novels do see some sort of resolution in this book. Harrison’s future is dirty and enigmatic, but it is also ful...more

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Sep 29, 2012 William Gerke rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-reading-list

The third in Harrison's science fiction trilogy, "Empty Space" is both more and less approachable than the other two. Less self-contained, the novel involves characters from both "Light" and "Nova Swing." Harrison's depiction of the future feels less outre than in previous outings, his stylistic nuance easier to engage with. Much like "Nova Swing", he introduces a wide array of characters whose stories intersect, impact, and bounce off each other in ways that reflect even less that magical beast...more

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Jan 12, 2013 James Tierney rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I confess that there were whole passages in Empty Space where I had no clue just what was going on.

Part –but only part- of my confusion was down to the fact that this is the concluding volume in a trilogy of books Harrison commenced in 2002 with ‘Light’ and continued with 2006’s ‘Nova Swing’, neither of which I have read.

But there’s also a graceful inexplicableness at the core of Harrison’s syntax and story, something Gary K. Wolfe calls an “elegant precision about indeterminacy”.

It is at tim...more

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May 13, 2013 Charlie Byers rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Once again, finishing an M. John Harrison novel leaves me deeply satisfied and unable to say why, exactly - I'm not sure what I just read, but I remember being floored at his use of the language, and thinking this is both extremely literary and deeply sci-fi, without apologizing for falling into either category. If I have a criticism, it would be that this book felt a little too similar to both Light and Nova Swing - not just in the obviously shared characters and settings, but in the placement...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Mieneke rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, science-fiction

Empty Space is easily the hardest SF I've ever read, in both senses of the word. It is also my first M. John Harrison I've ever read. It might not have been the wisest place to start, but it hasn't put me off reading more Harrison as I loved his prose and the challenges his writing poses to the reader. This book was hard work for me as hard SF isn't something my mind processes easily and I'm proud that I finished it and I found it very much worth the work as in the end the puzzle pieces fell tog...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Marta rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-bookshelf, speculative-fiction

„Pusta przestrzeń” to trzeci, a zarazem ostatni tom trylogii Trakt Kefahuchiego autorstwa M. Johna Harrisona, pisarza na tyle specyficznego, że z reguły albo się jego dzieła kocha, albo się w nich nie gustuje. Obok Chapmana i Duncana należy do najbardziej kontrowersyjnych autorów opublikowanych jak dotąd w serii Uczta Wyobraźni i w gruncie rzeczy trudno jego prozę polecać lub odradzać, nawet znając upodobania konkretnego czytelnika. To lektura-niespodzianka, która budzi skrajne odczucia. Po Harr...more „Pusta przestrzeń” to trzeci, a zarazem ostatni tom trylogii Trakt Kefahuchiego autorstwa M. Johna Harrisona, pisarza na tyle specyficznego, że z reguły albo się jego dzieła kocha, albo się w nich nie gustuje. Obok Chapmana i Duncana należy do najbardziej kontrowersyjnych autorów opublikowanych jak dotąd w serii Uczta Wyobraźni i w gruncie rzeczy trudno jego prozę polecać lub odradzać, nawet znając upodobania konkretnego czytelnika. To lektura-niespodzianka, która budzi skrajne odczucia. Po Harrisona trzeba po prostu sięgnąć i sprawdzić, czy dołączy się do grona zachwyconych, czy może rozczarowanych. Ja niestety staję po stronie tych drugich.

Ci, których opis specyficznej i niestandardowej prozy Harrisona zachęca, muszą jednak pamiętać o tym, że zaczynanie lektury od „Pustej przestrzeni” nie jest rozsądnym pomysłem. Najpierw czytamy „Światło”, potem „Nova Swing”. A potem decydujemy, czy mamy już dość, czy wręcz przeciwnie. „Pusta przestrzeń” to, niestety, najsłabszy tom trylogii. W „Świetle” najmocniejszym punktem była kreacja świata, na którą składają się zarówno nowatorskie pomysły autora, jak choćby K-statki, jak i skąpienie informacji o tymże świecie i wrzucanie czytelnika na głęboką wodę, by zaoferować mu koło ratunkowe dopiero w którymś z dalszych rozdziałów. Z kolei w „Nova Swing” na pierwszy plan wysunął się klimat — sam pisarz zatytułował jeden z rozdziałów „Kosmos w stylu noir” i był to opis nad wyraz trafny. Tymczasem w „Pustej przestrzeni” otrzymujemy kalki tego, co już znamy, zarówno na poziomie treści, jak i formy.

Największym plusem tomu trzeciego jest połączenie ze sobą wielu wcześniejszych wątków — w czasach współczesnych ponownie spotykamy Annę, żonę Michaela, znajdującą się obecnie w jeszcze gorszym stanie psychicznym niż poprzednio, korzystającą z pomocy specjalisty; śledzimy perypetie załogi Nova Swing, którą tworzą Liv Hula, mona Irene i Gruby Antoyne poznani na kartach drugiego tomu trylogii; towarzyszymy też byłej asystentce detektywa Aschemanna w kolejnym śledztwie w Saudade, gdzie Strefa nie odgrywa już równie znaczącej roli co kiedyś. Cieszy ta rola klamry łączącej ze sobą dwie poprzednie części cyklu, cóż jednak z tego, skoro fabuła, tradycyjnie już u Harrisona, stoi w miejscu i w gruncie rzeczy zmierza donikąd. Bohaterowie — również: jak zawsze — miotają się i nie wiedzą, czego tak właściwie chcą od życia. Oczywiście, trudno nie dostrzegać w tym motywu przewodniego, ale nie jest łatwo przejmować się postaciami skrajnie antypatycznymi, skrzywionymi przez autora do granic możliwości, a momentami wręcz karykaturalnymi.

Bez zmian także na płaszczyźnie językowej. Harrison przemiela w kolejny sposób te same opisy i dialogi, choć ci, którzy mają za sobą poprzednie dwa tomy, zdążyli się już pewnie znieczulić na jego zamiłowania do opisywania ludzi, ich uczuć i ich fizjologii w sposób odpychający. Kolejne sceny, mające — chyba? — szokować, po prostu śmieszą, zwłaszcza gdy autor po raz wtóry z lubością używa tych samych słów i konstrukcji; każdy z bohaterów „rzyga”, każdy „rżnie się”, co jakiś czas rzuci jakąś „kurwą”. Na poziomie językowym, tak samo jak na poziomie koncepcyjnym, fabularnym i formalnym, to po prostu powtórka z tego, co znamy już albo ze „Światła”, albo z „Nova Swing”.

Nie chcę nikogo do lektury Harrisona zniechęcać, ale trudno mi ukrywać, że nie podzielam zachwytów i nie rozumiem fenomenu autora. Owszem, jego powieści wyróżniają się; owszem, trudno je zaszufladkować, przylepić na nich gatunkową etykietę. Ale nie potrafię się wyzbyć wrażenia, że mało kto będzie czerpał przyjemność ze spotkania z tego typu prozą, głównie z uwagi na specyficzne podejście do fabuły, bohaterów i stylu. A szkoda, gdyż potencjał zdecydowanie tkwi w tym świecie i koncepcjach pokroju K-statków, tanków, krawców czy Strefy Zdarzenia. Spróbujcie jednak, sięgnijcie po „Światło” i zdecydujcie, czy Trakt Kefahuchiego jest dla Was. Dla mnie — zdecydowanie nie.

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Zarówno tę recenzję, jak i wiele innych tekstów znajdziecie na moim blogu: http://oceansoul.waw.pl/ Serdecznie zapraszam!(less)

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Feb 26, 2013 David Marshall rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is, as are all the books by this author, beautifully written and in its own way, it nicely ties together the two books that precede it. That said, I found parts of it heavy going.

http://opionator.wordpress.com/2013/0...

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Aug 02, 2012 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Better than Nova Swing; not as good as Light (but what is?) If Light is full of the "sparks in everything," and Nova Swing is about boundary states, then Empty Space focuses on the nothingness that separates people, places, and times - the "gutters" between two panels in a comic. The subtitle is "a haunting," and the book is certainly haunting.

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May 05, 2013 Ilona added it · review of another edition

I don't know if it's because I hadn't read the previous books or because it truly is a really weird book, but I just couldn't stick with it. The first 50 pages seemed to jump from one thing to another with no rhyme nor reason and after that I just gave up.

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Nov 14, 2012 Peter Johnston rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This a very sad book filled with sour resentment and unfulfilled dreams, which is why I enjoyed it so much. Avoid it if you like pat resolutions or happy endings. I feel foolish for not realising it was part of a trilogy, but it certainly stands alone.

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Apr 05, 2013 Trish Graboske rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Roadside Picnic/the Strugatsky brothers meet The Big Sleep/Raymond Chandler, stirred with a big, quantum stick. This is a novel that should be read more than once.

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Nov 10, 2012 Kyle Muntz rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is difficult, complex, and ingenious--maybe maybe not Harrison's best, but almost definitely his most ambitious. Especially over the first 100 pages, I struggled with it in a way I haven't with a text in a long time: even aside from his prose (which is pretty much flawless), this is a novel so itself, so full of empty space (on every level), that a lot of the time it felt impossible to put together; Harrison somehow managed to create something intensely imagist and strange while still...more

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Aug 15, 2012 !Tæmbuŝu marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-scifi

Reviewed by The Guardian (2 Aug 2012)

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Oct 22, 2012 Kae rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Better than book 2, tied up some loose ends in a way I didn't expect. Subtracted a star due to some rocky parts in the storyline that broke the flow. All in all, a good read.

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Jan 08, 2013 Jayme rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Beautiful prose. But I had no idea what was going on.

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Mar 10, 2013 Anna R rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, uczta-wyobra-ni

Finally finished - this book was so strange that it's hard to say what was it exactly about. Still confused after the ending...

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Jan 01, 2013 Stephen Hull rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A very different experience from Light and Nova Swing, if retaining some of the same style. I'm glad I read it -- Harrison's prose is always worth reading -- but I'll have to digest it for a while longer before I can say how much I enjoyed it. It certainly wasn't what I was expecting -- which, come to think of it, is appropriate for a novel about the Kefahuchi Tract...

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Dec 17, 2012 Sc rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

I was mostly confused as to what was going on, but that may be because I read it in bits and pieces instead of a long session. Anyway, I still enjoyed it.

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Mar 28, 2013 Matthew rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's always rather sad when the last in the trilogy is the weakest. It's great in a lot of ways, and I feel the urge to reread all three to try and figure things out, but it just doesn't quite come together the way the other two did.

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Feb 02, 2013 Tudor Ciocarlie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hugo-numbers, my-best-of-2012

Glorious ending to the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy. I've never read better literature on the unknownness of the universe and of the human being.

How I'll love to write the review of the entire trilogy for Galileo!

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Apr 11, 2013 Ben Norland rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I ought really to give this five stars. But then I would need some way of giving “Light” six. Wonderful, and massively confusing.

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Jan 19, 2013 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

The best book of 2012. There's something magical in Harrison's prose. It leaves me speechless.

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About M. John Harrison

aka Gabriel King (with Jane Johnson)

Michael John Harrison was born in Rugby, Warwickshire in 1945 and now lives in London.
Harrison is stylistically an Imagist and his early work relies heavily on the use of strange juxtapositions characteristic of absurdism.

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Empty Space (Light #3)

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