Nova Swing

By: M. John Harrison

Narrated by: Jim Frangione

A highly acclaimed author, M. John Harrison is well known for his reality-bending tales. In this sci-fi noir, the physics-defying Saudade Event Site is a place to find strange landscapes and seemingly impossible physical phenomena - perfect for tourism. Into this environment comes Vic Serotonin, a "travel agent" whose newest client is a mysterious woman with a hidden agenda.©2007 M. John Harrison (P)2008 Recorded Books,LLC

Critic reviews

"The miracle ... Harrison performs is to expand the possibilities of perception." ( Guardian (UK))

Setting versus Story

Being a fan of China Mieville (Perdido Street Station) I read an interview where Mr. Mieville touted the talents of Harrison's other novel "The Course of the Heart." As I could not find that book on audible, I decided to give this one a try. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

The book follows the exploits of a criminal "travel agent" known as Vick Serotonin who for a fee will take "tourists" into the "event site," an alien region where time and space behave erratically. Harrison's strengths are his attention to characterization. There is a large assortment of interesting and fascinating people that are lifted with great skill from the detective-noir stories of the 1950s (think of the film Double Indemnity) and their speech and mannerisms are conveyed well. You really get a sense for how these people speak and act.

The characterization unfortunately uses up the authors talents and leaves no room for a decent plot. The story meanders back and forth through the assortment of characters, and the novel fails for a long long time to offer any truly convincing motives for its characters. For example, there is truly no reason given as to why tourists eschew the law and want to visit the event site, other than some oblique references to a desire "to find that which they seek." There is also the requisite old-time detective who is chasing Vick throughout the novel. His backstory is the weakest and his motives border on cliche. Why he wants to catch Vick with such fervor ultimately comes down to the fact that Vick is a criminal and he is a cop, which to me is a very weak motive.

I don't believe that all novels must be plot driven, but here I found myself fascinated by the characters, but immensely bored with awkwardly paced plot that many times seemed to take a back seat to the creation of characters. Jim Frangione's narration is well executed and nuanced, but the novel itself doesn't give him much to work with. Skip this one.

A very poor reading with virtually no Soul…

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

This is a great book. I just suggest you buy the actual book itself and not waste time with this recording

What didn’t you like about Jim Frangione’s performance?

I thought the performance was incredibly amateurish. It sounded like a 1st read through with almost surprised stops at the end of sentences as if he wasn't expecting them while over inflating other parts of sentences that required no emphasis. Among other things when someone is "secunded" it should not be read as seconded and one would assume if the reader didn't pick it up the director would've corrected it.The reader also has no range for alternate voices and when you pay this much money for performance you expect it would not just be a read through without any voice acting of any kind.

Any additional comments?

Very uneven audio publications from this company. I've had some very good productions from this company but both titles by this author have been far from acceptable.

Down Kefahuchi tract

M John Harrison’s Nova Swing is the second installment in his Kefahuchi tract trilogy. The Kefahuchi tract is an anomaly in space that seems to be at odds with conventional physics. Various intelligent entities have been studying it forever to no avail. This installment takes place about half a century after the later time period (2400AD) of the prior volume. A portion of the tract has ‘crashed’ or collided with a planet and has evolved into a sort of tourist attraction. The main character functions as a tour guide. There are strict rules about removal of ‘artifacts’ from the site and a policeman shadows the tour guide constantly.

Harrison creates a noir quality to this installment that seems more focused on an eclectic crew of char-acters including those drawn to the site with a kind of weird fascination. While this is the second installment in a trilogy, the story is fairly standalone in that events in the first installment are not crucial to this story line.

The narration is quite good with solid character distinction. Pacing is brisk.

Not a well produced audio book.

The chapters don’t match the actual chapters from the book. It takes forever to find the chapters as printed in the physical book. I was reading the book in print and hope my to listen to the book as I drove/worked. Didn’t work out. The voice acting is trash and there are inexplicable pauses, 10 seconds or so, in the middle of chapters. It’s a good book but you’d be better if finding a paperback than fighting through this garbage.

Could Not Finish

Narrator did not make significant vocal distinction among the characters. Storyline was too drawn out and jumped around so much that, combined with the problems with the narration, I lost interest after an hour or so.