Wednesday, 18th of September, 2002

Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s latest series, beginning with Pashazade and continuing with Effendi this year, is a fantastic exploration of a near-future alternative history, set in the Middle East. His historical and social extrapolations are excellent, and the characterisation is very lucid… and the science-fictional elements are fascinating and exciting.

I just found a recent (April 2002) interview with him over at SFsite, with some interesting commentary on how alternate history can relate to current affairs, and on the writing process. I’m just now reading ReMix, to be followed by RedRobe, his previous two novels. These are somewhat more “ultraviolent” affairs - described, quite aptly, as “William Gibson meets Quentin Tarantino”. But still, his research is impeccable (with a different alternate history here in which the Napoleonic Empire lives on, and the Fourth Reich is about to overrun Paris, while a rogue nanovirus is eating through all the steal in Europe, from East to West…), the politics convincing and the science (what living with the moon’s 1/6th gravity would be like, for instance) interestingly described.
Grimwood’s known (from the first series) for the bursts of extreme violence, and there are a few - but I actually haven’t found them too extreme… Certainly I think the current series is far better than these books (despite their being very good indeed) - and the violence is toned down somewhat. But I think Grimwood’s also gotten better at constructing plots, worlds, and characters. The “Arabesk” sequence could well be one of the best and most rounded sf series of recent years. Can’t wait for the next one :)

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