Liminal States

Like [b:Finch|6582496|Finch|Jeff VanderMeer|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328763914s/6582496.jpg|6775967] and [b:Palimpsest|3973532|Palimpsest|Catherynne M. Valente|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320532857s/3973532.jpg|4019291], Liminal States captures a sense of weirdness, but never feels illogical. Parsons builds the layers of strangeness so expertly, that it never feels overwhelming.

The book is well written, fast paced, filled with likeable characters, and shows an excellent knowledge of genre conventions. This is not a pastiche of westerns, mixed with noir, mixed with sci-fi/horror. This IS a western, and a noir and a sci-fi/horror story all masterfully squished into one book.

The writing for each section is competent, genre appropriate, and most importantly it gets out of the way of the story. However, Parsons does like his big words and sometimes it can seem a bit odd that an uneducated ex-soldier is casually throwing around five syllable words. Also the 2006 part of the story is much less distinctive in its style, and the writing breaks down a bit during the climax, which feels a little bit rushed in places.

The characters are distinctive, but there is a emotional punch lacking from their relationships that I will get into more detail in the spoiler section below.

Overall though, this is an amazing book, especially for a first novel.

Spoilery discussion below...


So now a quick discussion on some of the books specifics...

The relationship between Gideon, Annabelle and Warren never really struck me as strongly as I thought it should have. I was definitely told many times how much they felt for each other, but it never seemed to manifest for me. I never got the sense that Annabelle had any real feelings for Gideon. Additionally, the Veronica duplicates at the end were something of a misfire, as they didn't really have any connection to Warren or Gideon. So they whole love triangle thing fizzled before it got off the ground, by the end of the book Casper was too miserable and Bishop too self absorbed for there to be any focus on what is meant to be the central relationship conflict.

I was a bit confused about what was going on in the third part. Were the spores mutating people (and cats) or were they creatures that had escaped from the Pool? If the Mother hungers for sentient life, why does the alien ecosystem seem so keen on annihilating all the "flakes" why not try to get as many people as possible into the Pool?

However, theses are actually small problems. I really enjoyed the exploration of the idea of immortality, and the mechanics of how a society of unkillable duplicates would work.

The science fiction elements are really good too and that there is a solid explanation for what is happening, and that it actually makes sense. I liked how the Mother is portrayed as both malicious and a mindless. An inexorable force started from a simple act of desperation. She is the antithesis of individuality, of intelligence and consciousness yet she craves it and in her own way nourishes it. It's pretty deep stuff if you want to dwell on it.

I look at this, a book about the end of the world, as a beginning. The characters really are immortal, just because earth is ruined doesn't mean they have ended. Polly, Warren and Bishop will be around until eventually, even the Mother herself dies.