In M. John Harrison’s dangerously illuminating new novel, three quantum outlaws face a universe of their own creation, a universe where you make up...
read full description
reviews
Feb 10, 2011
Ceridwen
rated it: 
Now this is one of the weirdest ass books I've read in a long while. This is not a criticism, just an observation. It's really defying me to encapsulate the story and themes in 50 words or less, but I'll try to give it a whirl. Three different plots lines follow three different people in three different times. This is not really accurate either: two of these time periods are the same, or overlap, and one of these people is not really a person anymore, but a sentient space ship working on the pur
More...
35 comments
like
(38 people liked it)
Jul 06, 2008
Evan
rated it: 
M. John Harrison is under the impression that plot and character can be totally abandoned in favor of a frantic and sloppy exercise in "cyberpunk" style.
Far future cyberpunk just doesn't work.
First of all, the voice of the book is off: some deep future hep cat telling you like it is about quasars, dark matter, and quantum physics, baby, in language so opaque and "snappy" that a sense of wonder or even simple coherence is never achieved.
If More...
Far future cyberpunk just doesn't work.
First of all, the voice of the book is off: some deep future hep cat telling you like it is about quasars, dark matter, and quantum physics, baby, in language so opaque and "snappy" that a sense of wonder or even simple coherence is never achieved.
If More...
3 comments
like
(14 people liked it)
Nov 06, 2007
John
rated it:
Picking up this book was like waking up tired and groggy then talking to someone who has already been awake for three hours and drank a pot of coffee. In other words, it throws you into this weird world without much explanation, moving very quickly through a fairly complex bifurcated story structure (one part set in the present, another in space several centuries into the future). But despite the minimal amount of exposition here, you eventually figure out what is going on, and maybe even come
More...
2 comments
like
(4 people liked it)
Sep 18, 2008
Rook
rated it: 
I normally don't take the time to add specifics to the rating I give a book, but this one necessitates it.
There are things about <book: Light> that frustrated me deeply. For most of the book, the point and the plot were discouragingly unclear. It was difficult to tell what anything had to do with anything, in the most general of senses. There was also a kind of oversexualization of the world setting that seems common nowadays, I think because of the lifting of the Western taboo on More...
There are things about <book: Light> that frustrated me deeply. For most of the book, the point and the plot were discouragingly unclear. It was difficult to tell what anything had to do with anything, in the most general of senses. There was also a kind of oversexualization of the world setting that seems common nowadays, I think because of the lifting of the Western taboo on More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Apr 03, 2008
Res
rated it:
The one that interweaves three stories: physicist and serial killer Michael Keaton in the contemporary world, plus cyborg pirate ship Seria Mau Genlicher and virtual-world junkie Ed Chianese in the far future.
A-plus for worldbuilding, here. Far-future worlds are tough; half of them are implausibly similar to contemporary life, and the other half are so different they're incomprehensible, but Harrison doesn't fall into either of those traps. I loved the far future and the way he turns More...
A-plus for worldbuilding, here. Far-future worlds are tough; half of them are implausibly similar to contemporary life, and the other half are so different they're incomprehensible, but Harrison doesn't fall into either of those traps. I loved the far future and the way he turns More...
Dec 29, 2007
Will
rated it:
I suppose this is the future of "hard" SF. A pretty entertaining read if your in to this sort of thing, the ideas are good and really the characters have good depth.
I call it hard because there is a certain amount of focus on the tech and science, but it doesn't make the sort of demands on the reader that can hamstring hard sf. It's all very easy to assimilate, and it works with the story. This certainly isn't a rayguns n' rockets book (even though it has those things).
More...
I call it hard because there is a certain amount of focus on the tech and science, but it doesn't make the sort of demands on the reader that can hamstring hard sf. It's all very easy to assimilate, and it works with the story. This certainly isn't a rayguns n' rockets book (even though it has those things).
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Oct 15, 2007
Mary
rated it:
Baffling but compelling.
I'm still not entirely sure what happened in this book, as it's short on explanation. It's one of those sci-fi books that drops science terms like there's no tomorrow; they come so fast and furious that you hardly know which ones are real and which ones are entirely made up. That isn't a bad thing, but it is something that, if you aren't used to it, can ruin a book.
There's no real point offering a synopsis of the book. It follows three seemingly More...
I'm still not entirely sure what happened in this book, as it's short on explanation. It's one of those sci-fi books that drops science terms like there's no tomorrow; they come so fast and furious that you hardly know which ones are real and which ones are entirely made up. That isn't a bad thing, but it is something that, if you aren't used to it, can ruin a book.
There's no real point offering a synopsis of the book. It follows three seemingly More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jun 21, 2007
Ross
rated it:
Light is easily one of the darkest books I’ve ever read, and that’s saying something. With a taut narrative split between three protagonists, a near-future serial killer/brilliant physicist (why are SF characters almost never mediocre physicists?), a far-future woman/starship with the impulse control of a spoiled and heavily armed child, and a "twink," a sort of futuristic virtual reality addict, Light moves along at breakneck speed, combining SF sensawunda, bleak noir cruelty, and lus
More...
0 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
Jan 05, 2009
Lisa
rated it: 
Waste of a perfectly nice afternoon. Reminded me why I've moved away from sci-fi: the seeming certainty that only humanitiy's worst tendencies will endure. Despite the glowing reviews on the cover, this book wasn't particularly original. Unless you've managed to avoid reading about incest, drug addiction, sexual boredome and debauchery, serial killers, or lonliness in the past few years. And, there are better books on all of these topics.
I disagree strongly with an earlier reviewer w More...
I disagree strongly with an earlier reviewer w More...
Feb 08, 2012
Damon
rated it:
Maybe it's fitting that a book titled Light managed to keep me in the dark for so long. Descriptions promising quantum shenanigans with a cast of quirky characters, including a serial killer and addict, lured me in but I became frustrated with this novel at far too many points.
First off the story has several different diverging and converging plot lines which can get messy. This made much of the early parts of the novel unclear and I found myself re-reading sections. With that said More...
First off the story has several different diverging and converging plot lines which can get messy. This made much of the early parts of the novel unclear and I found myself re-reading sections. With that said More...
Feb 15, 2011
Krishnakumar
rated it:
Light is a difficult read. M John Harrison tries to weave three seemingly distinct narratives together to a single contained conclusion. I'm still skeptical about the success of his venture. The plot revolves around the lives of three people all on the run from some aspect of their past: Michael Kearney<spoiler>, a brilliant physicist who murders women in his spare time</spoiler> ; Seria Mau<spoiler>, a mercenary K-Ship pilot (as explained much later in the narrative, the pilo
More...
Jul 07, 2010
Phoenixfalls
rated it:
This is a difficult novel. Harrison's prose is meaty, but that is not where the difficulty lies; his characters are unlikeable, and while that is a challenge, it is not insurmountable. The main difficulty lies in the novel's structure -- much of it is an elaborate smoke screen, ultimately having little to no effect on the resolution. This also makes the novel particularly difficult to review, as its true nature doesn't become evident until the last four chapters, but any mention of what is in th
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Dec 26, 2009
Michael
rated it:
What a well-written novel.
Early in M. John Harrison’s science fiction novel “Light,” different characters begin to mention “going deep” -- whether deep into areas of space that have never been explored (or explored millennia ago and forgotten), or deep into knowledge, deep into information, also perhaps once explored and since forgotten.
If you choose to go along with the ride, I can promise you -- you’ll go deep -- even the jaded science-fiction geeks out there, who thin More...
Early in M. John Harrison’s science fiction novel “Light,” different characters begin to mention “going deep” -- whether deep into areas of space that have never been explored (or explored millennia ago and forgotten), or deep into knowledge, deep into information, also perhaps once explored and since forgotten.
If you choose to go along with the ride, I can promise you -- you’ll go deep -- even the jaded science-fiction geeks out there, who thin More...
Sep 11, 2009
Belarius
rated it:
It's difficult to pin down what the correct yardstick for evaluating a book like Light. In the end, it negotiates an uneasy truce between poetry, concept fiction, and narrative storytelling, doing so at the expense of all aspects. Light isn't quite a novel, and author M. John Harrison seems perfectly content with this.
If the book fails, it does so to the extent that the author playfully intermixes elements that have a narrative purpose with those that are mere emotional set-dressin More...
If the book fails, it does so to the extent that the author playfully intermixes elements that have a narrative purpose with those that are mere emotional set-dressin More...
Apr 24, 2011
Michael
rated it:
Finished M. John Harrison's "Light". Like his "Viriconium" sequence, this one continues and expands his thoughts and explorations into such lofty studies as what it means to be human and the way we bury all means and abilities to actually "live" and experience life, have relationships, make choices and the consequences resulting from them and vague references to Arthurian grail tale telling. And this is just touching on some of the themes...because this book is, in
More...
Aug 12, 2011
Craig
rated it:
What to say about this one? I picked it up at the recommendation of no other than Mr. Neil Gaiman. I read Signs of Life while waiting for this one to come into the library, and that was pretty astounding. Light was... less so.
One thing I did like was the three apparently disparate and unconnected storylines do, ultimately, connect in a fairly good and understandable way - not that this was unexpected by any stretch of the imagination, but it was quite an experience to be reading More...
One thing I did like was the three apparently disparate and unconnected storylines do, ultimately, connect in a fairly good and understandable way - not that this was unexpected by any stretch of the imagination, but it was quite an experience to be reading More...
Nov 12, 2007
Why is it certain science fiction writers feel compelled to jump around a story like a jack rabbit, and introduce wild, irrelevant new vocabulary just to imbue the story with a sense of "futureness?" For instance, instead of calling something, say, a "cracker," they have to say, "Ferko took a bite of his salty flinky, and thought it would be good in soup." You're going along, and then all of a sudden "flinky" comes up and you're like, "What the hell
Sep 02, 2009
John
rated it:
The Good: M. John Harrison's descriptions are so evocative, so immediate, they thrust me headlong into the scene. The pacing continually picked up as I read the novel, by the end I found myself hitting the next page button on my kindle before I finished the last line or two on the page. Pacing was relentless. The ending was a knockout, and brought revelations that astounded me. Wow.
The Bad: If I hadn't read this for my book club (Other Worlds Book Group, in Lake Oswego, Oregon), I pr More...
The Bad: If I hadn't read this for my book club (Other Worlds Book Group, in Lake Oswego, Oregon), I pr More...
Dec 21, 2009
Chip
rated it:
I have got to stop reading quips from reviewers when deciding which book to read next. "Light" had front and back quotes and three or four pages of quotes inside. "Book of the decade" jumps out in memory. Hype? Yes. Book of the decade? No.
What I liked: the gritty blade-runner-esque landscapes, the concept of The Beach, the K-ships, ten-dimensional space travel.
What I didn't like: the word "ruch" (which apparently was the proud author's More...
What I liked: the gritty blade-runner-esque landscapes, the concept of The Beach, the K-ships, ten-dimensional space travel.
What I didn't like: the word "ruch" (which apparently was the proud author's More...
Dec 06, 2011
Jan
rated it:
Light is a hard book to like and possibly an even harder book to follow - especially when you listen to it in episodes instead of reading it in a few focused sittings. The book is split into the stories of three people, one in present day (well, turn-of-the-century) London, two in the distant future. If and how these stories are connected stays unclear for a long time and it is easy to mix up characters and threads of the story. Especially when flashbacks are involved and most of the characters
More...
Feb 05, 2009
Reviewers call Light "complex," yet seemed more than willing to forgive the complexityas well as the shortage of sympathetic major charactersbecause of the award-winning author's style and sheer intelligence. They also lauded the ending, deemed "suitably transformational" and "connection-rich" (Guardian). Harrison brings a far deeper wisdom and maturity to science fiction than other writers typically do, and poses important questions that reach far beyond the ol
More...
May 28, 2011
Rafal
rated it:
Kolejna dawka zagmatwanego do granic przyzwoitości science - fiction, w której przyjemność z obcowania z lekturą bywa rzadkością, za to pytanie: "o co tu, do cholery chodzi?" pojawia się we wszystkich czternastu wymiarach z częstotliwością piętnastu razy na dwanaście nanosekund.
Sporym zaskoczeniem było to, że akcja tej i nowszej "Novy Swing" toczy się w tym samym uniwersum, co w pewnym sensie ułatwia obcowanie ze "Światłem" - książką łatwiejszą w odbiorze More...
Sporym zaskoczeniem było to, że akcja tej i nowszej "Novy Swing" toczy się w tym samym uniwersum, co w pewnym sensie ułatwia obcowanie ze "Światłem" - książką łatwiejszą w odbiorze More...
Nov 21, 2009
Roger
rated it:
This book... M. John Harrison is one of my favorite writers, and he really hit the mark here. This book won the James Tiptree award, which is given to SF books that plumb the depths of gender and body and sex. It's a ballet of storylines, all riffs on people running away from their flesh and the demands it shouts. This book is exactly why SF is important; it provides deep insight into the ape-psychology of the human brain by illuminating it from an unusual angle. And it's beautiful, and it's fun
More...
Jul 13, 2009
Karl
rated it:
If Jack Kerouac were still alive and wrote sci-fi and had something half-way mature to say in story, he might have written LIGHT. The style is "On the Road" by way of William Gibson. The writing is fraught with meaningful metaphor and a sci-fi extrapolation that drives the story, yet with characters who are meaningful and interesting, if not always sympathetic. Some great imagery, some great integration of our world with the future, and at least one good theme (if a bit cliche) that hu
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Aug 04, 2011
Javier_fernandez
rated it:
I've bought LIGHT after an entusiast review in UK magazine SFX, which declare this one the greatest sci-fi novel of the 2000's. Not that I've read many. After a month-long read, I like it. LIGHT is full of bright (but somehow undercooked) ideas, some deep (and some disposable) characters, fluid narrative and, truth be told, a bunch of fine, even poetic pages. LIGHT's legacy will be its bizarre hypotesis about the dangerous crossing of Computers with Biogenetics with Ethics with Quantum Physics.
More...
Oct 17, 2011
Mark
rated it:
Here's what I've learned from the M. John Harrison school of writing:
1 - Make sure that secondary character never directly talk about anything, and be sure that they say plenty of enigmatic statements, by using non-sequitor declarative statements and start/stop conversations abruptly.
2 - It is best to describe physical surroundings and characters well after the reader has made a picture in their own mind. Examples: Shadow Boys are mentioned in the first 10 pages, but are More...
1 - Make sure that secondary character never directly talk about anything, and be sure that they say plenty of enigmatic statements, by using non-sequitor declarative statements and start/stop conversations abruptly.
2 - It is best to describe physical surroundings and characters well after the reader has made a picture in their own mind. Examples: Shadow Boys are mentioned in the first 10 pages, but are More...
Feb 11, 2012
William
rated it:
An alternate title for this book might be, "WTF?"
I rarely have a difficult time following the plot of a book, but I had absolutely no idea what was going on here until at least two-thirds of the way in. I'm glad I finished it because, although I still don't understand everything that happened, some of the concepts I did manage to grasp were mind-blowing.
The author has a real talent for language and dialogue. His writing is, for lack of a better word, beautiful. H More...
I rarely have a difficult time following the plot of a book, but I had absolutely no idea what was going on here until at least two-thirds of the way in. I'm glad I finished it because, although I still don't understand everything that happened, some of the concepts I did manage to grasp were mind-blowing.
The author has a real talent for language and dialogue. His writing is, for lack of a better word, beautiful. H More...
Dec 15, 2011
Michael
rated it: 
The second best new sci-fi novel I've read this year (after The Wind-Up Girl), Light is an explosive, densely intertwined triple narrative that links the near present with the far future, a psychopathic mathematician with a girl who is a star-ship, and delivers eyeball-kicking writing on every page. This is not an easy or obvious book to read; in some places complications pile up so high that they obscure the plot and the characters, but it is a work of staggering Imagination and Fancy. Light i
More...
Jan 06, 2009
Calley
rated it:
I have to admit that I very nearly gave up on this book several times by page 50. It was confusing and at times tedious, and I always had this profound feeling that I just didn't get it (and occasionally that there was nothing to get). But I persisted, and I'm more than glad I did.
The thing that most people find off-putting about Light is its entirely self-concerned structure. Little to no attempt is made to present plot, setting, or character clearly to the reader, at least in the b More...
The thing that most people find off-putting about Light is its entirely self-concerned structure. Little to no attempt is made to present plot, setting, or character clearly to the reader, at least in the b More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Feb 17, 2011
Molly
rated it:
Oneric, dark, original, imaginative and.. huh?.. I could describe this book, but what happened? I am not so sure. Apparently, a serial killer/quantam scientist is trailed through modern times by an alien god- like figure from the future, who misplaces his dice. There is a woman/spaceship, also a mass murder, who roams the galaxy of the future, snubbing some vague authority figures and reliving her memories of being human. There is a "tweek" guy, Ed Chainese, who is addicted to some sor
More...
