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Darger and Surplus #1
Dancing with Bears
Dancing With Bears follows the adventures of notorious con-men Darger and They’ve lied and cheated their way onto the caravan that is delivering a priceless gift from the Caliph of Baghdad to the Duke of Muscovy. The only thing harder than the journey to Muscovy is their arrival in Muscovy. An audience with the Duke seems impossible to obtain, and Darger and Surplus quickly become entangled in a morass of deceit and revolution. The only thing more dangerous than the convoluted political web surrounding Darger and Surplus is the gift itself, the Pearls of Byzantium, and Zoësophia, the governess sworn to protect their virtue.
285 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
September 17, 2016
I normally love a heist novel, and that wasn’t my problem with this book. My problem with this book was the amount of weird sex. The genetically engineered dog-man who is 100% dog DNA but… seems pretty humanoid in shape and intelligence and what-not — and the genetically manipulated harem girls — and the sex-drug giving priest who is preaching goodness knows what, and —
Honestly, I couldn’t pay attention to the heist and the buddy dynamics between the main characters, because what the hell is going on with the sex. And why are almost all the female characters sex-obsessed and/or empty-headed and just… I feel like I’m missing something profound here, but maybe I’m just really not the audience and it’s meant to be harhar women harhar sex?
The setting, the post-post-apocalyptic Russia, is an interesting one, and I kind of wanted to know what was going on with the machines. But the rest of it just either bored or horrified me. I’m not interested in books where part of the plot revolves around some genetically engineered women being purposefully crafted so they can only be touched by one man, and their utter focus on getting to said men so they can have sex. Whaat.
Originally posted here.
Honestly, I couldn’t pay attention to the heist and the buddy dynamics between the main characters, because what the hell is going on with the sex. And why are almost all the female characters sex-obsessed and/or empty-headed and just… I feel like I’m missing something profound here, but maybe I’m just really not the audience and it’s meant to be harhar women harhar sex?
The setting, the post-post-apocalyptic Russia, is an interesting one, and I kind of wanted to know what was going on with the machines. But the rest of it just either bored or horrified me. I’m not interested in books where part of the plot revolves around some genetically engineered women being purposefully crafted so they can only be touched by one man, and their utter focus on getting to said men so they can have sex. Whaat.
Originally posted here.
December 30, 2011
When I first read Swanwick’s Surplus and Darger stories in a collection of his I wished that he would craft more of them, and just maybe a full length. My wish came true. While much of the novelty and compressed energy of the stories is lost in the transition but their world is more filled out. The strange combination of biopunk grotesquery, 19th century ambiance, myths, and post-apocalyptic future combined with tales of unredeemed roguery on wider canvas, true the characters aren’t given much more depth, but Swanwick crafts this like a comic novel with endless disasters, double crosses, action, and a cast exhibiting the depth of human folly. The stories also traffic in the particular myths of the area they are set in and this story does so for Russia with revolution, Lenin, Baba Yaga, Koschei the deathless, a brutal secret policeman, economies run on cigarettes, Rasputin, wolves, and bears being elements of the story. This book is mostly Swanwick having a lot of fun, granted his sense of fun maybe darker and more grisly than your willing to take, but I had a blast.
April 23, 2022
Wow, what a ride! Recommended.
November 6, 2014
A Fine Post Utopian Dystopian Steampunk Romp Courtesy of Darger and Surplus
Vampire novels to the left of us, zombie novels to our right, with dystopian novels in our midst; such is the current dismal state of affairs in publishing science fiction. Most of these aren't worth the paper they are printed on, even if they are from some of our best known authors or the latest literary darlings aspiring toward artistic and commercial success, claiming to have both a firm appreciation and understanding of science fiction's storied past. That one of science fiction's greatest writers, Michael Swanwick, can have his newest novel published only by a boutique publisher, Night Shade Books, not a major publisher like Simon and Schuster, is emblematic of what is amiss now in publishing science fiction. It's a bleak status that can be rectified only if readers go out and buy in droves, the very good to great literature written still by the likes of Swanwick and others.
"Dancing with Bears" isn't Michael Swanwick at his best, but it comes quite close, reminding us that he remains among our finest prose stylists in contemporary science fiction literature. It's an irresistible swashbuckling dystopian steampunk page turner chronicling the latest exploits of con artists Aubrey Darger and Sir Blackthrope Ravenscairn de Plus Precieux (aka Surplus), his bioengineered humanoid canine companion, whose previous adventures have been noted in such classic Swanwick short stories like "The Dog Said Bow-Wow" , "The Little Cat Laughed To See Such Sport", and "Girls and Boys, Come Out To Play" (all three collected in his recent short story collection "The Dog Said Bow-Wow"). While fans of Darger and Surplus will miss their constant companionship in "Dancing With Bears", they will be delighted with the snappy, often insolent, dialogue uttered by both, as they seek their fortune and confront danger in a PostUtopian (distant future) Moscow. However, the reader doesn't require prior familiarity with Darger and Surplus to enjoy reading this novel on its own merits; Swanwick has added other, equally compelling, characters, like Anya Pepsicolova, Darger's frequent companion as they confront those seeking to revive a Russian "tsar" from Russia's Utopian past (early 20th Century).
If you are new to Swanwick but have enjoyed Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" and Gary Shteyngart's "Super Sad True Love Story", then you won't be disappointed with "Dancing With Bears". Like those other two great works of comedic science fiction, I found it impossible to put down, and, all too often, hilarious, even in scenes replete with ample mayhem and gore. "Dancing With Bears" may not exhibit the same high literary craft Swanwick has demonstrated previously in his great novels "Stations of the Tide", "The Iron Dragon's Daughter" and "Jack Faust", but remains astonishingly close, and is a better, far more entertaining, read than virtually all of the newly published novels in science fiction and fantasy. If nothing else, Swanwick demonstrates once more that he is as fine a literary stylist as his fellow cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson, and one worthy of comparison not only to him but also to the likes of Samuel Delany, Ursula K. Le Guin and China Mieville.
Vampire novels to the left of us, zombie novels to our right, with dystopian novels in our midst; such is the current dismal state of affairs in publishing science fiction. Most of these aren't worth the paper they are printed on, even if they are from some of our best known authors or the latest literary darlings aspiring toward artistic and commercial success, claiming to have both a firm appreciation and understanding of science fiction's storied past. That one of science fiction's greatest writers, Michael Swanwick, can have his newest novel published only by a boutique publisher, Night Shade Books, not a major publisher like Simon and Schuster, is emblematic of what is amiss now in publishing science fiction. It's a bleak status that can be rectified only if readers go out and buy in droves, the very good to great literature written still by the likes of Swanwick and others.
"Dancing with Bears" isn't Michael Swanwick at his best, but it comes quite close, reminding us that he remains among our finest prose stylists in contemporary science fiction literature. It's an irresistible swashbuckling dystopian steampunk page turner chronicling the latest exploits of con artists Aubrey Darger and Sir Blackthrope Ravenscairn de Plus Precieux (aka Surplus), his bioengineered humanoid canine companion, whose previous adventures have been noted in such classic Swanwick short stories like "The Dog Said Bow-Wow" , "The Little Cat Laughed To See Such Sport", and "Girls and Boys, Come Out To Play" (all three collected in his recent short story collection "The Dog Said Bow-Wow"). While fans of Darger and Surplus will miss their constant companionship in "Dancing With Bears", they will be delighted with the snappy, often insolent, dialogue uttered by both, as they seek their fortune and confront danger in a PostUtopian (distant future) Moscow. However, the reader doesn't require prior familiarity with Darger and Surplus to enjoy reading this novel on its own merits; Swanwick has added other, equally compelling, characters, like Anya Pepsicolova, Darger's frequent companion as they confront those seeking to revive a Russian "tsar" from Russia's Utopian past (early 20th Century).
If you are new to Swanwick but have enjoyed Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" and Gary Shteyngart's "Super Sad True Love Story", then you won't be disappointed with "Dancing With Bears". Like those other two great works of comedic science fiction, I found it impossible to put down, and, all too often, hilarious, even in scenes replete with ample mayhem and gore. "Dancing With Bears" may not exhibit the same high literary craft Swanwick has demonstrated previously in his great novels "Stations of the Tide", "The Iron Dragon's Daughter" and "Jack Faust", but remains astonishingly close, and is a better, far more entertaining, read than virtually all of the newly published novels in science fiction and fantasy. If nothing else, Swanwick demonstrates once more that he is as fine a literary stylist as his fellow cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson, and one worthy of comparison not only to him but also to the likes of Samuel Delany, Ursula K. Le Guin and China Mieville.
January 31, 2021
If you look at a selection of the other reviews here, well, opinions are mixed. As was mine. I don't really remember that much about it, except that I thought the D&S idea works better as short stories. I'm currently reading & reviewing the Compleat Collection of those. So far, really good!
This one: good but one of his weaker novels, I thought. 3.5-ish stars, by memory.
This one: good but one of his weaker novels, I thought. 3.5-ish stars, by memory.
May 14, 2020
Una lectura mucho más extraña de lo que me imaginaba. Planteado como una novela de estafas y sinvergüenzas acaba siendo más bien el lento y estable descenso a la locura de una ciudad entera.
October 19, 2011
http://www.rantingdragon.com/dancing-...
Darger and Surplus are con men who have lied there way onto a caravan carrying a gift of immense value from the Caliph of Baghdad to the Duke of Moscovy. But there are obstacles in the way of getting the gift to the Duke, which embroils the characters in political schemes, the agendas of religious zealots, drug rings and so forth. So yes, this is our earth. But the difference is in the details—and there are a lot of details.
A world both familiar and alien
The most important aspect of this book for me was the worldbuilding. Swanwick has created a masterpiece in this book. While some novels with an alternate earth coast by and change a few things here and there, often just lifting a Feudal or Victorian era society and tweaking it, Swanwick has made a world so detailed and unique that it grabs you by the throat and screams, “Be interested.”
The back-story is something I won’t go into details about to avoid spoilers, but I will say that this is a future earth, despite its deficiencies and advances in science. Electric wizards and gene manipulators, Neanderthals from the gene vats of the new Byzantium Empire and part man, part bear hybrids are just a fraction of the new society. While this book is classified as steampunk, it is more science fiction, since genetic manipulation is the biggest scientific advancement of this world.
The small, often frivolous things that people create with technology are overlooked by many authors, who focus instead on the story-changing ideas that, while important, make the world quite shallow, only existing in the epic dimension. In Dancing with Bears, however, inventions such as alcohol with nanoprogrammers that teach poetry and language when drunk or bioluminescent fungi for non-flammable lighting give the book an air of reality and firmness that few authors pull off.
A dizzying but slightly disappointing story
When I picked this book up, I was expecting a story similar to the Gentlemen Bastards series by Scott Lynch. I imagined a daring tale of thievery and intricate plans that ends in glory or defeat.
Dancing with Bears takes a more intricate route, though. It builds a story with over half a dozen viewpoint characters that jump around faster than you can turn pages. It grows, keeping you guessing, revealing new twists and information with each chapter to keep you interested. Despite this, I felt a tad disappointed; it lacked much of the action and actual conning that I expected until the last quarter of the novel.
This story is extremely layered. We have the protagonists’ attempt to gain the audience with the Duke of Moscovy, the religious zealots with a hedonistic philosophy spreading drugs around the city’s gentry, and the underground of shady figures dealing in large transactions that relate to the land above as well as below. It all mixes and crosses over in a way that is best appreciated in a second read.
Characters that are interesting yet relatable
The characters of Dancing with Bears are generally complex. Considering that there are at least eight recurring point of views in the story, you have to keep track of who is who and what are they doing. But the characters are all unique and different enough from one another that there is little confusion.
However, I felt that the titled characters, Darger and Surplus, may have not had enough page time to warrant them being the key characters of Dancing with Bears. While Darger was my favourite character with his subtle and sophisticated humor, he did perhaps the least of any of the viewpoint characters story-wise.
Surplus was interesting, as he was not human but a genetically altered dog from America. He was much more heavily integral in the story and had an air of affable solidity that made him a very relatable character.
Why should you read this book?
If you are looking for a book that doesn’t feel full of stale tropes and clichés, then this is for you. It has some amazing worldbuilding and characters. If you enjoy a complex story that will keep you guessing, you will definitely enjoy Dancing with Bears.
Darger and Surplus are con men who have lied there way onto a caravan carrying a gift of immense value from the Caliph of Baghdad to the Duke of Moscovy. But there are obstacles in the way of getting the gift to the Duke, which embroils the characters in political schemes, the agendas of religious zealots, drug rings and so forth. So yes, this is our earth. But the difference is in the details—and there are a lot of details.
A world both familiar and alien
The most important aspect of this book for me was the worldbuilding. Swanwick has created a masterpiece in this book. While some novels with an alternate earth coast by and change a few things here and there, often just lifting a Feudal or Victorian era society and tweaking it, Swanwick has made a world so detailed and unique that it grabs you by the throat and screams, “Be interested.”
The back-story is something I won’t go into details about to avoid spoilers, but I will say that this is a future earth, despite its deficiencies and advances in science. Electric wizards and gene manipulators, Neanderthals from the gene vats of the new Byzantium Empire and part man, part bear hybrids are just a fraction of the new society. While this book is classified as steampunk, it is more science fiction, since genetic manipulation is the biggest scientific advancement of this world.
The small, often frivolous things that people create with technology are overlooked by many authors, who focus instead on the story-changing ideas that, while important, make the world quite shallow, only existing in the epic dimension. In Dancing with Bears, however, inventions such as alcohol with nanoprogrammers that teach poetry and language when drunk or bioluminescent fungi for non-flammable lighting give the book an air of reality and firmness that few authors pull off.
A dizzying but slightly disappointing story
When I picked this book up, I was expecting a story similar to the Gentlemen Bastards series by Scott Lynch. I imagined a daring tale of thievery and intricate plans that ends in glory or defeat.
Dancing with Bears takes a more intricate route, though. It builds a story with over half a dozen viewpoint characters that jump around faster than you can turn pages. It grows, keeping you guessing, revealing new twists and information with each chapter to keep you interested. Despite this, I felt a tad disappointed; it lacked much of the action and actual conning that I expected until the last quarter of the novel.
This story is extremely layered. We have the protagonists’ attempt to gain the audience with the Duke of Moscovy, the religious zealots with a hedonistic philosophy spreading drugs around the city’s gentry, and the underground of shady figures dealing in large transactions that relate to the land above as well as below. It all mixes and crosses over in a way that is best appreciated in a second read.
Characters that are interesting yet relatable
The characters of Dancing with Bears are generally complex. Considering that there are at least eight recurring point of views in the story, you have to keep track of who is who and what are they doing. But the characters are all unique and different enough from one another that there is little confusion.
However, I felt that the titled characters, Darger and Surplus, may have not had enough page time to warrant them being the key characters of Dancing with Bears. While Darger was my favourite character with his subtle and sophisticated humor, he did perhaps the least of any of the viewpoint characters story-wise.
Surplus was interesting, as he was not human but a genetically altered dog from America. He was much more heavily integral in the story and had an air of affable solidity that made him a very relatable character.
Why should you read this book?
If you are looking for a book that doesn’t feel full of stale tropes and clichés, then this is for you. It has some amazing worldbuilding and characters. If you enjoy a complex story that will keep you guessing, you will definitely enjoy Dancing with Bears.
June 9, 2018
I'm generally a fan of Darger and Surplus stories, and this novel is fun. It's set in an alternative reality in Russia. It's all a bit quick though, (even for a heist story) and I didn't feel overly invested in the relationships and characters. Some of the mechanical- futuristic elements were a little far fetched for my own liking, and although it's a good read, I suppose I wanted more from a writer of Swanwick's ilk. Entertaining and pacey, but not Swanwick at his best.
September 19, 2012
This was an interesting book, although some aspects were rather off-putting. I liked the vision of a post-apocalyptic Russia. This isn't a book where you can say, "Wow, that's a really good person!" Everyone is highly flawed. This is one of those books I'd love to sit down the author and ask what he was thinking when he wrote this.
Reviewed for Bitten by Books. http://bittenbybooks.com
Reviewed for Bitten by Books. http://bittenbybooks.com
December 25, 2015
Not nearly as fun as book 2. I'm glad I read that one first instead of this one or else I never would have read the second book. My advice? Just skip this one. It is fun and shows a lot of promise, but it is definitely a case where book one is used for the author getting his legs.
July 12, 2021
This was dark, very, seriously dark. My introduction to Swanwick as well as Darger & Surplus came in several volumes of short stories. While those had a dark flavor there was usually one villain whom the pair of grifters would readily outfox and be on their way to their next con. Granted they did leave Buckingham Palace in flames when they fled London. But this novel had the room the short stories didn't have to reall dig into the darkness that is the postutopian world Darger & Surplus inhabit. Attempting to reach Moscow to pull some ambitious scam the pair happen upon a caravan also heading there to bring the Duke of Muscovy a group of genetically enhanced brides. They come across signs of the Utopian age when man and his marvelous AI made war upon each other and brought both groups low. Technology, even things as simple as radio are outlawed, detested and destroyed. Meanwhile monstrous beings with multiple minds/brains are bred in vats to be the thinking and processing power of the new postutopian world. Languages are learned with a pill. Drugs giving supernatural strength and the feeling of having encountered God are passed about like candy. Machines plot the death of every living thing down to bugs and grass. Humans are surgically altered to be slave beings. And through this Darger & Surplus stumble quite possibly bringing ruin to mother Russia. It was a good read, well put together but a little too dark for my mindset these days.
February 20, 2022
Good, funny, dark, twisting and everchanging story with unexpected turns.
January 2, 2016
Si tratta di un libro strano, in bilico tra moltissime cose.
Talmente in bilico da risultare alla fine destabilizzante.
Siamo nel futuro, un futuro postapocalittico successivo alla rivolta delle Macchine.
L'umanità si è salvata e si è evoluta, l'ingegneria genetica galoppa a briglie sciolte e vecchi e nuovi imperi si sono formati. Bisanzio, la Russia, l'America, il Giappone...
Anche le macchine sono sopravvissute, resistendo in città nascoste e impermeabili alla vita, meditando e progettando piani malvagi per sterminare gli umani.
Incontriamo i nostri protagonisti mentre accompagniano una delegazione di Bisanzio a Mosca, per portare in dono al potentissimo Duca di Mosca le sette Perle senza Prezzo.
Sette ragazze create in laboratorio dagli ingegneri genetici, progettate per soddisfare ogni desiderio del Duca e per esserne anche fedeli e saggie consigliere, tra le altre cose.
I nostri protagonisti sono Darger e Surplus.
Darger è un americano dotato della capacità di passare inosservato, di non risaltare mai, di venire ignorato.
Surplus è un incrocio genetico tra il cane e l'uomo, un uomo dalle fattezze canine, che si comporta da aristocratico e ha un nome nobile e lunghissimo, abbreviato in Surplus.
Sono due truffatori, unitisi alla spedizione con un piano ben preciso per sottrarre ricchezze alla capitale russa e al suo Duca.
Ma non sono gli unici ad avere un piano.
Il capo della polizia segreta russa progetta di prendere il potere al posto dell'onniscente ma impresentabile Duca; tre predicatori itineranti sognano l'avvento di Dio tra fiamme e sangue; nel sottosuolo, cinque Macchine studiano il modo di sterminare tutte le odiose forme di vita a partire dagli abitanti di Mosca.
E ancora doppiogiochisti, droghe, piccoli truffatori, soldati ligi al dovere e soldati corruttibili, orge, tradimenti, demoni, guardie orsi e guardie Neanderthal, poesie da bere...
Una fantasia degna di China Mieville, e una buona trama incentrata sulla truffa e sulla rivoluzione.
Ma quello che mi ha destabilizzato è il tono dell'opera.
La trama è seria, e spesso i personaggi si comportano così, seriamente. Ma c'è sempre una vena ironica e sarcastica che permea le pagine, e che a volte prende il sopravvento facendoci quasi pensare a un libro di Benni.
Senza però mai riuscire a essere realmente un libro di quel tipo, ma allo stesso tempo impossibilitato a essere un libro davvero serio, visto che mentre si legge distorciamo tutto con una chiave di lettura ironica, aspettandoci comicità e assurdità anche laddove non ci sono.
Swanwick cammina lungo una linea molto sottile tra serio e faceto, e probabilmente ci riesce anche bene, l'effetto però che ha avuto su di me come lettore è stato di distrarmi e di non riuscire a farmi immergere nella lettura, sempre attento a cercare di capire su che versante ci stessimo trovando e se aspettarmi o meno altre risate o piuttosto una virata verso la serietà.
Peccato perché altrimenti si tratta di un libro davvero fantasioso e piacevole.
Nota di merito all'edizione italiana: mentre leggevo avevo notato diversi congiuntivi "stonati", nella postfazione viene spiegato che non si tratta di errori del traduttore ma di precisa scelta, visto che in determinate situazioni e con certi personaggi una grammatica precisa fino a questo punto sarebbe potuta essere fuori luogo.
In più forniscono anche spiegazioni sulla scelta di scrivere "se stessi" senza accento.
Una postfazione graditissima, e spiegazioni che sono più uniche che rare, complimenti.
Talmente in bilico da risultare alla fine destabilizzante.
Siamo nel futuro, un futuro postapocalittico successivo alla rivolta delle Macchine.
L'umanità si è salvata e si è evoluta, l'ingegneria genetica galoppa a briglie sciolte e vecchi e nuovi imperi si sono formati. Bisanzio, la Russia, l'America, il Giappone...
Anche le macchine sono sopravvissute, resistendo in città nascoste e impermeabili alla vita, meditando e progettando piani malvagi per sterminare gli umani.
Incontriamo i nostri protagonisti mentre accompagniano una delegazione di Bisanzio a Mosca, per portare in dono al potentissimo Duca di Mosca le sette Perle senza Prezzo.
Sette ragazze create in laboratorio dagli ingegneri genetici, progettate per soddisfare ogni desiderio del Duca e per esserne anche fedeli e saggie consigliere, tra le altre cose.
I nostri protagonisti sono Darger e Surplus.
Darger è un americano dotato della capacità di passare inosservato, di non risaltare mai, di venire ignorato.
Surplus è un incrocio genetico tra il cane e l'uomo, un uomo dalle fattezze canine, che si comporta da aristocratico e ha un nome nobile e lunghissimo, abbreviato in Surplus.
Sono due truffatori, unitisi alla spedizione con un piano ben preciso per sottrarre ricchezze alla capitale russa e al suo Duca.
Ma non sono gli unici ad avere un piano.
Il capo della polizia segreta russa progetta di prendere il potere al posto dell'onniscente ma impresentabile Duca; tre predicatori itineranti sognano l'avvento di Dio tra fiamme e sangue; nel sottosuolo, cinque Macchine studiano il modo di sterminare tutte le odiose forme di vita a partire dagli abitanti di Mosca.
E ancora doppiogiochisti, droghe, piccoli truffatori, soldati ligi al dovere e soldati corruttibili, orge, tradimenti, demoni, guardie orsi e guardie Neanderthal, poesie da bere...
Una fantasia degna di China Mieville, e una buona trama incentrata sulla truffa e sulla rivoluzione.
Ma quello che mi ha destabilizzato è il tono dell'opera.
La trama è seria, e spesso i personaggi si comportano così, seriamente. Ma c'è sempre una vena ironica e sarcastica che permea le pagine, e che a volte prende il sopravvento facendoci quasi pensare a un libro di Benni.
Senza però mai riuscire a essere realmente un libro di quel tipo, ma allo stesso tempo impossibilitato a essere un libro davvero serio, visto che mentre si legge distorciamo tutto con una chiave di lettura ironica, aspettandoci comicità e assurdità anche laddove non ci sono.
Swanwick cammina lungo una linea molto sottile tra serio e faceto, e probabilmente ci riesce anche bene, l'effetto però che ha avuto su di me come lettore è stato di distrarmi e di non riuscire a farmi immergere nella lettura, sempre attento a cercare di capire su che versante ci stessimo trovando e se aspettarmi o meno altre risate o piuttosto una virata verso la serietà.
Peccato perché altrimenti si tratta di un libro davvero fantasioso e piacevole.
Nota di merito all'edizione italiana: mentre leggevo avevo notato diversi congiuntivi "stonati", nella postfazione viene spiegato che non si tratta di errori del traduttore ma di precisa scelta, visto che in determinate situazioni e con certi personaggi una grammatica precisa fino a questo punto sarebbe potuta essere fuori luogo.
In più forniscono anche spiegazioni sulla scelta di scrivere "se stessi" senza accento.
Una postfazione graditissima, e spiegazioni che sono più uniche che rare, complimenti.
February 5, 2017
I enjoyed this book. I open with that because I was about to give it only three stars due to some vague irritation I felt. Then I realized that my irritation had nothing to do with the story and everything to do with marketing and trends and people who enthusiastically follow them without review or analysis.
A digression follows.
I am working on a project involving steampunk. This novel showed up somewhere in my research (at this writing, nine people on Goodreads have shelved it as such), and I checked it out from the library to investigate. I'd read Michael Swanwick's Jack Faust years ago and enjoyed it (news flash: it's not steampunk either). Darger & Surplus seemed like interesting characters, so I tracked down the short stories and read them, enjoyed them, and then started Dancing with Bears (the book, not actually dancing... nevermind).
IT'S NOT STEAMPUNK. Even the jacket flap calls it a "steampunk-esque adventure...." What does that even mean? You want to know what's steampunk about this book? The dust jacket. On the lower right quarter of the cover, waaaay off in the background, just under the line that reads "A Darger and Surplus Novel" is depicted... an airship! Maybe half an inch long. Pure artistic license at work. Neither Darger nor Surplus fly/steal/blow up/or make a dramatic escape in an airship. Nor does anyone else. It is possible I have missed some minor mention, but I do not recall even a tangential reference to airships. Or any other steampunk trope that I can bring to mind.
It's obvious why marketers do this-- steampunk is a popular trend, and if we associate our product with popular trends we sell more product! Yay! But why do people-- consumers and/or readers-- play along? This is mostly a rhetorical question, because I think I already have an idea. Also, this book was published by Night Shade Books, which was having some serious problems at the time (it is now owned by another publisher) and this may have been an attempt to capitalize. So I realize I'm venting, and jerks are gonna jerk. I don't have to like it, though. KNOCK IT OFF, JERKS!
Yeah, anyway. I really did like this book. It's not quite a super awesome five-star read, but it earned a solid four. It was worth the distraction from my project, and now I have a new series to read. Win! There's a new Darger & Surplus book (Chasing the Phoenix: A Science Fiction Novel) coming out soon, and I'm looking forward to it-- though it most likely won't be steampunk, either.
UPDATE Jan2017: Chasing the Phoenix: A Science Fiction Novel is a fun read (yay!), still not Steampunk (so what!), and I got both books autographed by Michael Swanwick. BOOM.
A digression follows.
I am working on a project involving steampunk. This novel showed up somewhere in my research (at this writing, nine people on Goodreads have shelved it as such), and I checked it out from the library to investigate. I'd read Michael Swanwick's Jack Faust years ago and enjoyed it (news flash: it's not steampunk either). Darger & Surplus seemed like interesting characters, so I tracked down the short stories and read them, enjoyed them, and then started Dancing with Bears (the book, not actually dancing... nevermind).
IT'S NOT STEAMPUNK. Even the jacket flap calls it a "steampunk-esque adventure...." What does that even mean? You want to know what's steampunk about this book? The dust jacket. On the lower right quarter of the cover, waaaay off in the background, just under the line that reads "A Darger and Surplus Novel" is depicted... an airship! Maybe half an inch long. Pure artistic license at work. Neither Darger nor Surplus fly/steal/blow up/or make a dramatic escape in an airship. Nor does anyone else. It is possible I have missed some minor mention, but I do not recall even a tangential reference to airships. Or any other steampunk trope that I can bring to mind.
It's obvious why marketers do this-- steampunk is a popular trend, and if we associate our product with popular trends we sell more product! Yay! But why do people-- consumers and/or readers-- play along? This is mostly a rhetorical question, because I think I already have an idea. Also, this book was published by Night Shade Books, which was having some serious problems at the time (it is now owned by another publisher) and this may have been an attempt to capitalize. So I realize I'm venting, and jerks are gonna jerk. I don't have to like it, though. KNOCK IT OFF, JERKS!
Yeah, anyway. I really did like this book. It's not quite a super awesome five-star read, but it earned a solid four. It was worth the distraction from my project, and now I have a new series to read. Win! There's a new Darger & Surplus book (Chasing the Phoenix: A Science Fiction Novel) coming out soon, and I'm looking forward to it-- though it most likely won't be steampunk, either.
UPDATE Jan2017: Chasing the Phoenix: A Science Fiction Novel is a fun read (yay!), still not Steampunk (so what!), and I got both books autographed by Michael Swanwick. BOOM.
January 15, 2015
Charismatic and weird, Dancing with Bears tries to be many things at once and you appreciate it as you'd indulge a child her antics. While I didn't reel as much as I did when reading Stations of the Tide, I had fun. This book probably would translate well to cinema.
Darger and Surplus find themselves running a con in Moscow but get caught up in a much bigger plot. At this point, the events just flow, pushing and pulling them places. This world is a strange and beautiful time, where the living seems Victorian, but there is high technology. One could clone clothing from their own flesh, or change their eye colour at whim by a simple pill. GMO creatures are enslaved to allegiances that can easily be overturned by logic. Ideas like this gives credence to my worn and battered argument that fantasy should be relegated to a sub-genre status under sf. You have to quote Arthur C Clarke for this, and consider that it's possible that far in the future nanotechnology has been integrated into the human body so firmly the organism isn't even aware of its presence! This might manifest in unexpected ways, and the hero or heroine goes on a journey to learn and control their powers. Foul and fair creatures are remnants of a decadent genetic wizardy. But I digress, as usual.
I'd love to see what becomes of Kyril, a character with much potential to entertain, especially if his own agenda is followed. I had no idea that Darger and Surplus originated from Swanwick's short stories(definitely checking it out), and a return to this format with this spinoff should be in order.
Dancing with Bears is perfect for a bloody good time if you enjoy drugs, screwing, bloodshed, and gentlemanly thievery.
Darger and Surplus find themselves running a con in Moscow but get caught up in a much bigger plot. At this point, the events just flow, pushing and pulling them places. This world is a strange and beautiful time, where the living seems Victorian, but there is high technology. One could clone clothing from their own flesh, or change their eye colour at whim by a simple pill. GMO creatures are enslaved to allegiances that can easily be overturned by logic. Ideas like this gives credence to my worn and battered argument that fantasy should be relegated to a sub-genre status under sf. You have to quote Arthur C Clarke for this, and consider that it's possible that far in the future nanotechnology has been integrated into the human body so firmly the organism isn't even aware of its presence! This might manifest in unexpected ways, and the hero or heroine goes on a journey to learn and control their powers. Foul and fair creatures are remnants of a decadent genetic wizardy. But I digress, as usual.
I'd love to see what becomes of Kyril, a character with much potential to entertain, especially if his own agenda is followed. I had no idea that Darger and Surplus originated from Swanwick's short stories(definitely checking it out), and a return to this format with this spinoff should be in order.
Dancing with Bears is perfect for a bloody good time if you enjoy drugs, screwing, bloodshed, and gentlemanly thievery.
May 1, 2015
A wonderful novel hard to fit in a category (what about: weird fantasy futuristic steampunk?), at points highly dramatic (i.e. the “training” to become a spy of Anya Pepsicolova), sad (the life of Moscow “street” kids) to humour (lots of that, often dark or about gender stereotypes) ot folk mythology (the drugged Baba Yaga rocks!).
Also a book that (like most other great “fantasy” works) imho tells us something important about our world, and in particular religious fanaticism and the horrors of a brutal dictatorship, even if, in what seems me a typical Swanwick twist the “dictator” of this novel is actually the most caring and generous leader you can imagine!
“Dancing with Bears” is also a “collective” novel, with the notorious Darger and Surplus just two of the many characters, and all of them seeming “real” in their “fantasy weirdness”.
Apparently there's a new novel with the same setting and the same two “antiheroes” as main characters (I'm trying to use as many inverted commas as possible in this “review”) and I'll sure get and read it as soon as it will be published.
Also a book that (like most other great “fantasy” works) imho tells us something important about our world, and in particular religious fanaticism and the horrors of a brutal dictatorship, even if, in what seems me a typical Swanwick twist the “dictator” of this novel is actually the most caring and generous leader you can imagine!
“Dancing with Bears” is also a “collective” novel, with the notorious Darger and Surplus just two of the many characters, and all of them seeming “real” in their “fantasy weirdness”.
Apparently there's a new novel with the same setting and the same two “antiheroes” as main characters (I'm trying to use as many inverted commas as possible in this “review”) and I'll sure get and read it as soon as it will be published.
June 3, 2012
This is really really good.
It continues the adventures of the con men Surplus, the genetically modified anthropomorphic dog, and his friend Darger. If you read the previous short stories, you'll know that they, mostly through no fault of their own, drag a trail of fire and destruction on their travels through postapocalyptic Europe.
Now, they find themselves delivering a priceless gift to the Duke of Muscovy...chaos ensues.
Swanwick is an author who needs and deserves much more love and recognition, because the man is a genius. He is extremely talented at crafting stories that are utterly insane and action-packed, while still being extremely intelligent, funny and emotional.
Read this book!
(no, I'm not getting paid for this ;) )
It continues the adventures of the con men Surplus, the genetically modified anthropomorphic dog, and his friend Darger. If you read the previous short stories, you'll know that they, mostly through no fault of their own, drag a trail of fire and destruction on their travels through postapocalyptic Europe.
Now, they find themselves delivering a priceless gift to the Duke of Muscovy...chaos ensues.
Swanwick is an author who needs and deserves much more love and recognition, because the man is a genius. He is extremely talented at crafting stories that are utterly insane and action-packed, while still being extremely intelligent, funny and emotional.
Read this book!
(no, I'm not getting paid for this ;) )
October 11, 2011
Halfway through when I was just thinking this is going to my list of top fav books, the author decided to steer the story into full campy mode with plenty of russian cheese (like awkward references to Baba Yaga and such folklore) :(
There's a very thin line between a fun story that doesn't take itself seriously, and a story that has gone off the edge of fun into the kingdom of silly.
It's a nice read and the pages flew by really fast, but I think if the author gave it a little more love after the halfway mark, it could've been fantastic instead of just great.
There's a very thin line between a fun story that doesn't take itself seriously, and a story that has gone off the edge of fun into the kingdom of silly.
It's a nice read and the pages flew by really fast, but I think if the author gave it a little more love after the halfway mark, it could've been fantastic instead of just great.
March 14, 2016
Swanwick can be somewhat formulaic, but still entertaining. Add one part distopian cyberpunk Apocalypse, one part techno-magic, and one part sex, drugs n rocks that roll, and you have the Swanwick novel. In this case, the setting is bizarro Russia, and a couple of scam artists (one of whom is a genetically engineered, bipedal, talking dog, because reasons) are looking to rob Lenin's library, but stumble into an insanely tangled web of political schemes and nihilistic machine gods seeking to exterminate half the city. And that's just Step 1 ...
June 24, 2011
I read Bones of the Earth by Swanwick a few years ago and really loved it- it was a time travel book with dinosaurs- very memorable and I highly recommend it.
This book was strictly SF- a future Russia with machines gone wild and a plot to overthrow the ruler of Moscow. Two very amusing anti-heroes (Darger and altered dog-human Surplus) walk into the middle of a revolution. Very exciting and enjoyable.
This book was strictly SF- a future Russia with machines gone wild and a plot to overthrow the ruler of Moscow. Two very amusing anti-heroes (Darger and altered dog-human Surplus) walk into the middle of a revolution. Very exciting and enjoyable.
December 23, 2014
The first book of the adventures of Darger and Surplus, two exceptional grifters--one a dark and somewhat depressive Englishman, the other an intellectual canine. They cross a Europe of Swanwick's invention and, more often than not, inadevertently leave a path of destruction in their wake. Weird, erotic, wildly inventive, this is Swanwickian steampunk, which is to say, it's not steampunk, it's its own genre. Highly recommended for the discriminating fantasy reader.
September 1, 2011
There might be a good book hiding inside this book but I didn't find it. A semi-apocalyptic novel set in a post singularity Russia. Drugs, Sex, Neanderthals, clever but pointless writing, malevolent artificial intelligences reincarnating Lenin - yes if you name it, it might be in here. But a decent story is not.
September 11, 2017
La rivoluzione russa descritta da un visionario. Questo romanzo di Swanwick è uno strano libro che ci porta a scoprire un mondo post apocalittico ricco di sfaccettature. Leggendo alcune recensioni, trovo scritto che non è un libro “pieno di idee originali”; non sono d’accordo: sarà che è il primo libro che leggo di questo autore, o che è da un po’ che non leggo fantascienza, ma io l’ho trovato pieno di idee incredibili e sorprendenti. La lettura non mi è risultata scorrevolissima, lo confesso, ma mi ha lasciato spesso a bocca aperta per le invenzioni, a metà tra il ridicolo e il geniale. Mi piace leggere di bibite al gusto di poesia o della possibilità di imparare le lingue letteralmente bevendole. Come mi piace leggere di donne geneticamente modificate per potersi accoppiare solo con un uomo, altrimenti destinate a bruciarsi per colpa del loro peccato. Mi piace leggere di mondi sotterranei, dove le persone sono talmente imbestialite da vivere solo per le loro sigarette o le loro droghe. O di eserciti di uomini privati della coscienza di sé, di pilloline magiche che ti portano vicino a Dio (ma che in realtà, alla fine, vengono utilizzate solo come una sorta di Viagra), di vestiti empatici. Tutta la storia è un’alternanza di momenti estatici e sfrenatezza: “da ogni portone i moscoviti si riversavano in strada abbandonando sesso e teologia per assistere ad un evento di portata storica”. La vicenda dei due imbroglioncelli Darger e Surplus ci porta in un’atmosfera ottocentesca, nel futuro, fino al passato: la rivoluzione russa, che si compie con il ritorno di Lenin. Sì. Un libro molto strano, nell’accezione più positiva. Non mancano i personaggi romantici: Arkady, che nella sua ingenuità, dopo mille vicissitudini che lo portano dalla conversione religiosa alla più sfrenata attività sessuale, tornerà alle sue origini, accanto al padre che lo aveva ripudiato; Anya Pepsicolova (e qui, sottolineo l’ironia del nome, caso non unico in questo libro), una guerriera costretta ad atroci nefandezze da un destino crudele e che sprofonderà sempre più nel baratro. Non manca neppure la satira o la recriminazione sociale: un governo che inserisce nel tabacco droghe che creano una dipendenza pericolosissima per i fumatori; uomini che creano il caos per riuscire ad avere il controllo sul loro popolo. Dunque, un romanzo da leggere, anche solo per la curiosità di scoprire le argute invenzioni dell’autore. 4 stelle su 5.
September 22, 2020
Leggere
Gli dèi di Mosca
spalla a spalla con Brandelli d'Italia di Marco Crescizz è stata una piacevolissima coincidenza, visto che alla fin fine i due libri appartengono al medesimo macrofilone: fantascienza postapocalittica con ricostruzione della civiltà in pseudo-Stati protomoderni, tecnologie astruse saccheggiate dalle antiche rovine, una quantità di scenette comiche sconce (forse anche troppe, in entrambe i romanzi) e un certo qual gusto per la satira sulle grandi religioni teistiche e non – se in Brandelli d'Italia è a base di Cattolicesimo e fascismo, qui ne Gli Dèi di Mosca giustamente abbiamo l'Ortodossia orientale e il bolscevismo. Questo detto, il romanzo di Swanwick non è tanto un thriller, come quello di Crescizz, quanto una heist story corale in cui una mezza dozzina di parti diverse si ritrovano coinvolte in una cospirazione in precario equilibrio, intessuta di intricati doppiogiochismi : la prima metà del romanzo è di preparazione, la seconda di esecuzione, e di carne al fuoco ce n'è tanta. L'esecuzione complessiva è impeccabile e tutti i pezzi alla fine quadrano, cosa encomiabile con tutti quei personaggi in moto, però mi è sempre sembrato che alcuni personaggi fossero sottosviluppati rispetto al loro potenziale, che altri ricevessero fin troppa attenzione per quello che valevano, e che Darger e Surplus, fossero un po' troppo dei "punti di vista di comodo": dei personaggi già noti che Swanwick ha incollato dentro una storia che non li riguarda, per farne l'esca con cui venderla – al prezzo però di sacrificare un po' i veri protagonisti creati ad hoc. Se ho ben capito, però, le heist story usano relativamente spesso questo espediente, quindi banalmente sono un genere poco adatto alle mie corde, ma non così inadatto da non essermelo goduto almeno questa volta.
November 9, 2019
Книгу я прочитал, но так и не понял, что я прочитал. Трудно как-то классифицировать "Танцы с медведями". Это классический Суэнвик, это сюр в чистом виде, это клюква для тех, кто родился в России. Мне интересно, какие эмоции испытывал во время чтения этой книги, например, американец. Для него в книге будет много русских названий и имен, много Московии, самоваров, медведей и странного русского духа. Главные герои под видом послов прибывают в Москву с целью посещения князя Московии (на самом деле это просто авантюристы-воры, которые хотят награбастать побольше богатств). Но на фоне посольских будней в Московии начинается революция во главе с кибер-Лениным.
Т.к. я не из России, то меня в книге просто нечему было обидеть. Мне нормально читалось и про Кощея-дилера, и про наркотические оргии, и бухло из самовара, и медведей-гвардейцев, и механического Ленина.
Но зачем я все это читал, я так и не понял=) Книга сюрная, но совершенно необязательная. Ее посыла я так и не понял. Хотя местами действительно было забавно. 6,5/10
Т.к. я не из России, то меня в книге просто нечему было обидеть. Мне нормально читалось и про Кощея-дилера, и про наркотические оргии, и бухло из самовара, и медведей-гвардейцев, и механического Ленина.
Но зачем я все это читал, я так и не понял=) Книга сюрная, но совершенно необязательная. Ее посыла я так и не понял. Хотя местами действительно было забавно. 6,5/10
March 19, 2018
This isn't the first Swanwick that I'd recommend to a new reader – even to an experienced fan of Swanwick's, in fact. It strikes me that this is the kind of book that was probably much more fun in conception, and perhaps even in the abstract, than it is in the reading. The elements are all there: a retro-futuristic Moscow ridden with sybaritic aristocracy and secret police, Swanwick's dashing con artists Surplus and Darger, a deep layer of misanthropic AI villains, and a mess of riddling characters in between including many fully-fleshed men and women given over to their vices. If it sounds lush, that's because it is. And I haven't even gotten into the elaborate, multi-threaded plot...
...yes, it's over-stuffed. I'm sure that some will find it fun and exhilarating even so, but like others, I'm a little wary of the gendered tropes being employed. I confess that Dancing with Bears just isn't as fun as I wanted it to be.
I hear the sequel is better. Here's hoping.
...yes, it's over-stuffed. I'm sure that some will find it fun and exhilarating even so, but like others, I'm a little wary of the gendered tropes being employed. I confess that Dancing with Bears just isn't as fun as I wanted it to be.
I hear the sequel is better. Here's hoping.
January 21, 2023
DNF about halfway thru, when Koschei predicted a captive woman he scorned to help would die in a state of grace. Turns out Swanwick's "sense of fun [is] darker and more grisly than [I'm] willing to take", as Adam's review at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... predicts. More of unhappy, unpleasant people doing unhappy, unpleasant things--which includes all too much of the sex--than I'm willing to take for the sake of some very mild and occasional humor and a moderately interesting plot.
September 15, 2017
After reading 'Chasing the Phoenix,' I ordered this from Amazon and read it in the course of one long afternoon that somehow turned into night and eventually a bit of very early morning. It's not my favorite work by Swanwick (Dragons of Babel, definitely holds that distinction), but it is pretty close to being that. And, it's a Darger and Surplus story, so you can catch up on the adventures of your favorite dashing rogue and his genetically modified talking dog companion. Plus, Baba Yaga.
April 19, 2023
Gli Dei di Mosca è un pastiche weird di notevole inventiva e altrettanta confusione. Odalische, giganti, bestie antropomorfe, androidi... Swanwick confeziona un futuro steampunk post apocalittico vario e interessante, peccato che si dimentichi di accompagnarlo a una trama di pari spessore. Sufficiente come romanzo, ma quanto potenziale sprecato!
September 7, 2025
The writing is quite good, but everything else varies from bad (world building, just Medieval with non-functional cyber adds) to non-existent (characters) to terribly, ridiculously bad (the "Russian-ness", they are just Americans with Russian names - and even the names are ridiculously wrong in Russian).
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