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Bezig met laden... Ascension: A Novel (editie 2023)door Nicholas Binge (Auteur)
Informatie over het werkAscension door Nicholas Binge
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. It says on Nicholas Binge's website that he writes 'literary science-fiction'. Fellow Goodreaders, you can imagine therefore the excitement with which I picked up this book (which I notice in fact by blissful serendipity is a Goodreads 'most anticipated read of 2023). What a refreshing change this will be, I thought, from all that non-literary or worse, contra-literary, SF, here is a chance to use my intellect and enjoy myself. As you might understand, I have been trying to work out what Binge's particular literary SF ingredients might be. Well. for a start there is a quotation from 'Le mythe de Sisyphe' as the epigraph. Pretty literary, no? Disappointingly it's in an English translation but credit to Binge for trying to meet all those readers picking up his book to better themselves by meeting them halfway. There is the form of the novel. Is Binge trying to revive an 18th Century tradition in modern SF by creating the first (asymmetric) epistolary literary SF/horror? Then, not very far in, there is a(n admittedly rather pedestrian) quotation from Cicero pulled out by one of the characters. Quite literary, although I couldn't help reflecting that Philip K Dick, that old literary charlatan, would by this stage have referred to Wagner, Schopenhauer and Teilhard de Chardin at least once. So perhaps the supreme literary device might be the fact that one of the characters is named The Warden'? Very All Souls. Indeed, I was hoping that it would be revealed that the Warden's mysterious companion would turn out to be the Sub-Warden and that somehow the book would become a SF allegory of the struggles between John Sparrow and AL Rowse. Afraid not. So whilst I am still scratching my head trying to identify the particular killer literary skills and tricks deployed which raise this above the quotidian in SF terms, the one thing I can definitively reveal which is not literary is the actual prose itself. Indeed of the dialogue I think it's certainly true to say that Binge demonstrates, as the late, great Martin Amis said of Cyril Connolly, 'what appears to be an anti-knack for catching human speech'. (The late, great Martin Amis: given Binge's indispensable addition to our critical taxonomy I suppose we should describe Amis now as the author of 'literary literary fiction'. I expect it will grow on me). Anyway, given it's unlikely that Terry Eagleton is an avid Goodreads user I will be vulgar and non-literary enough to mention narrative. 'Ascension' is a about a huge mountain that appears in the middle of an ocean. It turns out to be a better yarn than you might expect given that premise, although incoherence is the dominant characteristic of its last third. I'm hovering between 3 and 4 stars. The god-bothering is amazingly pretentious. The action scenes contain way too much naval gazing. Also, the author 'pays homage' to a lot of other works, and it frequently pulls the reader out of the story. Stop it. Be your own work. I also have to comment on the visual similarities of a certain movie and the god-like being at the end. WTF. This book would have probably been better written in first-person narrative, but the epistolary is fine, given that I forgot that I was not the original recipient while reading. The action on, and effects of, the mountain move at a fast clip. The only thing that drags is the navel-gazing of the various characters. Character building is fine, but surrounded by life-threatening danger generally isn't the time to remember what led you to all of your poor choices in life. OTOH, that seems to be a feature rather than a bug. Going into this novel I had certain expectations, mostly that this was going to be some sort of "weird" story, possibly inching up to the boundary of cosmic horror. In the end though, Binge upset most of those expectations with some dramatic plot twists, which I'm not sure I'm buying, and which veer dangerously close to shaggy dog territory. Still, this is far from a bad first-time novel, and I'll be happy to consider the man's future books. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Prijzen
Fiction.
Literature.
Science Fiction.
Thriller.
HTML:NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2023 BY ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, THE WASHINGTON POST AND GOODREADS A mind-bending speculative thriller in which the sudden appearance of a mountain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean leads a group of scientists to a series of jaw-dropping revelations that challenge the notion of what it means to be human An enormous snow-covered mountain has appeared in the Pacific Ocean. No one knows when exactly it showed up, precisely how big it might be, or how to explain its existence. When Harold Tunmore is contacted by a shadowy organization to help investigate, he has no idea what he is getting into as he and his team set out for the mountain. The higher Haroldâ??s team ascends, the less things make sense. Time moves differently, turning minutes into hours, and hours into days. Amid the whipping cold of higher elevation, the climbersâ?? limbs numb and memories of their lives before the mountain begin to fade. Paranoia quickly turns to violence among the crew, and slithering, ancient creatures pursue them in the snow. Still, as the dangers increase, the mystery of the mountain compels them to its peak, where they are certain they will find their answers. Have they stumbled upon the greatest scientific discovery known to man or the seeds of their own demise? Framed by the discovery of Harold Tunmoreâ??s unsent letters to his family and the chilling and provocative story they tell, Ascension considers the limitations of science and faith and examines both the beautiful and the unsettling sides of huma Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)823.92Literature English English fiction Modern Period 2000-LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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What follows is a pastiche of horror, speculative fiction and family drama. It starts off really strongly and then at one point it just goes totally wild. There are so many different elements put together that I can't really decide whether it works or not. Ultimately, it was fun for the most part, but can't help to think it is a huge wasted opportunity.
I would even go so far as to forgive the weird alien twist if it wasn't for Bettan becoming a god and then killing himself(???). That did not make any sense at all for such an alpha, power-thirsty character.
I tried to reason it as if he represents power-thirsty humanity not yet ready for spiritual ascension, but it was done in such a poor, anti-climactic way. It ruined the whole book for me.
I enjoyed the horror atmosphere and mystery in the first part by far the most.