Rjurik Davidson's Blog, page 9
May 18, 2013
February 8, 2013
The New Old World
The New Old World by Perry AndersonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is composed of articles Anderson had written over a decade or so, mostly for the LRB. This gives the book an uneven structure, as the pieces were written at different times for slightly different purposes. What's more - as surveys of specific nation-states - they'll date. Having said this, they are brilliant examples of synthesis: Anderson is terrifically erudite, and these show his command of other sources (for there is no primary research involved here). Anderson gives sweeping outlines of the various countries: Germany, France, Italy, Cyprus, Turkey. If you want examples of how to do a concrete examination of various nations' political cultures, these are wonderful. Still, one never quite gets a sense of Europe as Europe - as a semi-unified entity, with its own larger dynamics. Indeed, the opening and closing essays only highlight this lacuna, for they examine the history of Europe as a concept and creation and its potential future. What's more, most of the essays were written before the GFC, which means that already they feel a little dated. In a decade, one suspects the book will feel all the more so.
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December 18, 2012
The Next Big Thing
The next big thing is a series of tag team blog posts by writers about their next novel, whether about to be published or 'in development'. SF editor and author extraordinaire Kieht Stevenson graciously tagged me, so here's my contribution to the great Next Big Thing chain letter. My tag will be along shortly.
1) What is the [working] title of your next book?
It's called Unwrapped Sky, which is a play on a Mayakovsky poem. The stanza goes like this:
Behold what quiet settles on the world.
Night wraps the sky
in tribute from the stars,
In hours like this, one rises to address
The ages, history, and all creation.
Past One O’Clock – Vladimir Mayakovsky
2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
When I was about 20 years old, I came up with the idea of magicians who were oppressed and had to carry out a revolt to liberate themselves. But the New Weird hadn't happened and I didn't know how to write it and in any case I was busy with other things. So this idea is actually many years in the making.
3) What genre does your book fall under?
New Weird, Steampunk, Fantasy - somewhere there.
4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Well, there are three characters. Kata will be played by Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Maximilian by Ben Whishaw (who plays Q in the new Bond movie), and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) will play Boris.
5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
An assassin is hired to infiltrate a group of rebels who plan to overthrow an oppressive regime.
6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
It's signed with Tor through John Jarrold literary agency. Tor will publish the novel at the start of 2014.
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Uh. Erm. Cough. Six years. But with breaks! With other projects in between! Honest....
8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
It's set in the city of Caeli-Amur, so anyone who has read my stories set there will get an idea of what that's like. "The Passing of the Minotaurs" is still up online and forms an early sequence in Unwrapped Sky, so if anyone wants to read the start, check it out. I think you may like it.
But there are some who say it's a bit like China Miéville's Bas Lag stuff, others who say it's like Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series, though I hadn't read either when I started work on it.
9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I've always been interested in political movements against oppressive regimes. And I've always been fascinated by stories about those movements: in particular, the way that those involved have quite often been morally compromised themselves. Those in charge have been forced to be hard, to make decisions about life and death, to enact strict discipline in their group. The best - like the various Resistance movements against fascism in World War Two - have been terribly brave. The worst have committed atrocities themselves. I wanted to tell a story about these kinds of people, but set in a fantastic world, a weird world, both like and unlike ours. It's fantastical - but also, I think, quite modern.
10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?
It involves: ancient Minotaurs, philosopher-assassins, hidden hideouts, a cruel and oppressive political system, crushed strikes, a journey to a city submerged beneath the sea, bizarre and creepy creatures hidden away inside a mountain, thaumaturgy which warps its users like radiation, captured Sirens forced to perform at the opera, subterfuge, lying, deceit, betrayal - and love. Sound all right?
1) What is the [working] title of your next book?
It's called Unwrapped Sky, which is a play on a Mayakovsky poem. The stanza goes like this:
Behold what quiet settles on the world.
Night wraps the sky
in tribute from the stars,
In hours like this, one rises to address
The ages, history, and all creation.
Past One O’Clock – Vladimir Mayakovsky
2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
When I was about 20 years old, I came up with the idea of magicians who were oppressed and had to carry out a revolt to liberate themselves. But the New Weird hadn't happened and I didn't know how to write it and in any case I was busy with other things. So this idea is actually many years in the making.
3) What genre does your book fall under?
New Weird, Steampunk, Fantasy - somewhere there.
4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Well, there are three characters. Kata will be played by Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Maximilian by Ben Whishaw (who plays Q in the new Bond movie), and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) will play Boris.
5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
An assassin is hired to infiltrate a group of rebels who plan to overthrow an oppressive regime.
6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
It's signed with Tor through John Jarrold literary agency. Tor will publish the novel at the start of 2014.
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Uh. Erm. Cough. Six years. But with breaks! With other projects in between! Honest....
8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
It's set in the city of Caeli-Amur, so anyone who has read my stories set there will get an idea of what that's like. "The Passing of the Minotaurs" is still up online and forms an early sequence in Unwrapped Sky, so if anyone wants to read the start, check it out. I think you may like it.
But there are some who say it's a bit like China Miéville's Bas Lag stuff, others who say it's like Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series, though I hadn't read either when I started work on it.
9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I've always been interested in political movements against oppressive regimes. And I've always been fascinated by stories about those movements: in particular, the way that those involved have quite often been morally compromised themselves. Those in charge have been forced to be hard, to make decisions about life and death, to enact strict discipline in their group. The best - like the various Resistance movements against fascism in World War Two - have been terribly brave. The worst have committed atrocities themselves. I wanted to tell a story about these kinds of people, but set in a fantastic world, a weird world, both like and unlike ours. It's fantastical - but also, I think, quite modern.
10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?
It involves: ancient Minotaurs, philosopher-assassins, hidden hideouts, a cruel and oppressive political system, crushed strikes, a journey to a city submerged beneath the sea, bizarre and creepy creatures hidden away inside a mountain, thaumaturgy which warps its users like radiation, captured Sirens forced to perform at the opera, subterfuge, lying, deceit, betrayal - and love. Sound all right?
December 10, 2012
Overland Blog
Much of my blogging has been happening over at Overland. I'll update here sporadically, from now on, at least for the next month or so. But I will be back at some point soon.
July 26, 2012
Miracles of Life
Ballard's autobiography begins with the following line:
I was born in Shanghai General Hospital on 15 November 1930, after a difficult delivery that my mother, who was slightly built and slim-hipped, liked to describe to me in later years, as if this revealed something about the larger thoughtlessness of the world.
June 17, 2012
June 7, 2012
Snapshot
Jason Nahrung interviewed me for the Australian Speculative Fiction Snapshot, 2012. It was also really nice that Jack Dann and Scott Westerfeld mentioned me in their interviews. Scott said that my "shorts stories are all darkly atmospheric, both in their themes and their language, which gives them an impact that’s more like a novel than a divertimento." Keith Stevenson said these kind words in his:
I’ve also been lucky to read an almost finished draft of Rjurik Davidson’s Unwrapped Sky forthcoming from Tor. Like Trent, Rjurik creates beautifully intricate worlds and mixes eldritch weirdness with genuine human emotion. Hopefully Unwrapped Sky will cause a stir in SF circles not just here but overseas too.
June 3, 2012
May 23, 2012
The great gothic novel
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Marx's "Das Kapital": A Biography by Francis Wheen
My rating:
It's hard to explain how good an introduction to Marx's 'Das Kapital' this is. Wheen has already given us a good account of Marx's life, and here he takes on the biography (conception, composition, content and reception) of Marx's famous work. Marxist economics can be pretty dull (as anyone who has tried to get through Mandel's Marxist Economic Theory will know). But Wheen's book is terrifically lively. Not only does he give us a sense of Marx (and his friend Engels) but also reminding us that Das Kapital should be read as a great gothic novel, on the shelf next to 'Frankenstein.' Marx himself considered 'Das Kapital' as a work of literature and it is filled with references to Shakespeare and Dante. In the book, Marx takes us into the dungeons of industrial capitalism, filled with smoke and spectres, infernal flames and devilish overseers. Wheen manages to convey the wonder of this while giving us its central theses in clear and concise form. His survey of its reception is equally efficient, even if there are plenty of disagreements one might have with him.
View all my reviews
My rating:
It's hard to explain how good an introduction to Marx's 'Das Kapital' this is. Wheen has already given us a good account of Marx's life, and here he takes on the biography (conception, composition, content and reception) of Marx's famous work. Marxist economics can be pretty dull (as anyone who has tried to get through Mandel's Marxist Economic Theory will know). But Wheen's book is terrifically lively. Not only does he give us a sense of Marx (and his friend Engels) but also reminding us that Das Kapital should be read as a great gothic novel, on the shelf next to 'Frankenstein.' Marx himself considered 'Das Kapital' as a work of literature and it is filled with references to Shakespeare and Dante. In the book, Marx takes us into the dungeons of industrial capitalism, filled with smoke and spectres, infernal flames and devilish overseers. Wheen manages to convey the wonder of this while giving us its central theses in clear and concise form. His survey of its reception is equally efficient, even if there are plenty of disagreements one might have with him.
View all my reviews
