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Resolution Way
A financially comfortable but troubled young London author, Alex Hargreaves, stumbles across the work of an unknown writer from the early 1990s, Vernon Crane, and, presuming the missing Crane is dead, decides to pass the work off as his own.The problem is that the novel he wishes to plagiarize has been split among Crane's disparate and scattered group of friends, all of whom, twenty years later, are struggling with the demands of a life in a Britain in which current trends toward inequality and the concentration of political power have accelerated. Hargreaves' mission to track down Crane's work sets in motion a series of encounters alternately tragic, redemptive and liberating - and threatens to destroy Hargreaves' own world in the process. Combining the best elements of a literary thriller and speculative fiction, Resolution Way is a bleakly humorous satire on contemporary Britain, a meditation on the power of the past, the forces that shape our lives and the ways in which the possibility of the miraculous still remains.
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Published January 1, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 3, 2016
A strange one. Was not particularly enthusiastic by the end of the first section – the protagonist is simply too much of a heel for me to enjoy spending much time in his head. But as the focus shifts to other characters in his orbit, Neville's world-building and grasp of the novel's social themes becomes apparent.
This is an excellent bit of speculative fiction for the 'austerity' era, presenting contemporary trends stretched just far enough to become absurd – but never, really, funny. If you thought Phillip K Dick's protagonists being charged a few cents by their apartment door for the luxury of coming and going seemed prescient, you ain't seen nothing yet.
It's Neville's frustrated, thwarted and oppressed characters who really make this book, navigating a bleak and seemingly hopeless world with tenacity, determination and surprising optimism. At times the bleakness gets too much: I found myself cringing and almost dreading to read on. I cared about these people and what happened to them, found myself saying "it surely couldn't REALLY work out like this?"
And I really hope it couldn't. At times Neville's world-building lacks subtlety – but then, we don't live in subtle times. The credible, the actually-existing and the (hopefully) too-absurd-to-contemplate blend effortlessly. The result is chilling.
The greatest flaw in the book is that its initial mystery – concerning a long-missing author and a quest to pursue and compile his unpublished novel – never quite comes together. You get the sense that this was the original thrust of Neville's story, before the world and characters he's created took on lives of their own.
But with a world and characters like this, that's not too much of a criticism. This is the most blisteringly contemporary work of SF I've read in a long time – and if you're a sometime fan of the genre who, like me, spends more time reading works that make political critiques formulated 30+ years ago, you owe it to yourself to read this excoriating take on our own blighted times.
This is an excellent bit of speculative fiction for the 'austerity' era, presenting contemporary trends stretched just far enough to become absurd – but never, really, funny. If you thought Phillip K Dick's protagonists being charged a few cents by their apartment door for the luxury of coming and going seemed prescient, you ain't seen nothing yet.
It's Neville's frustrated, thwarted and oppressed characters who really make this book, navigating a bleak and seemingly hopeless world with tenacity, determination and surprising optimism. At times the bleakness gets too much: I found myself cringing and almost dreading to read on. I cared about these people and what happened to them, found myself saying "it surely couldn't REALLY work out like this?"
And I really hope it couldn't. At times Neville's world-building lacks subtlety – but then, we don't live in subtle times. The credible, the actually-existing and the (hopefully) too-absurd-to-contemplate blend effortlessly. The result is chilling.
The greatest flaw in the book is that its initial mystery – concerning a long-missing author and a quest to pursue and compile his unpublished novel – never quite comes together. You get the sense that this was the original thrust of Neville's story, before the world and characters he's created took on lives of their own.
But with a world and characters like this, that's not too much of a criticism. This is the most blisteringly contemporary work of SF I've read in a long time – and if you're a sometime fan of the genre who, like me, spends more time reading works that make political critiques formulated 30+ years ago, you owe it to yourself to read this excoriating take on our own blighted times.
October 28, 2019
Ah. The drawbacks of writing near future SF. In this novel Scotland seems to be independent (not that much is made of that) yet there hasn’t been an EU referendum. What there is, is an extrapolation of what life might look like under a right wing regime which treats workers as scum and non-workers as even worse.
It seems at first to be about the attempt by Alex Hargreaves, writer of a novel called Gilligan’s Century which plagiarised earlier works but was excused by him as being a kind of remix, into the life and archive of disappeared (and thought dead) 1970s pop musician Vernon Crane. Hargreaves has come across one chapter of a novel written by Crane but knows other chapters were scattered among Crane’s friends. The tale is then broadened out by the use of a succession of different viewpoint characters, a strategy which serves to flesh out this future dystopia (though it doesn’t seem too much of a leap for society to get there as many of the harsher elements are incipient in the concept of austerity) showing it from various angles.
An example of present day trend extrapolation is that the employees of fast food franchise Heart of Chicken have to wear a plastic heart on their chests, an affective monitoring system which glows if they are happy, and if it doesn’t glow customers get a refund. Cue customers making employees lives miserable and the highest staff turnover rate in the world. (A similar technology is used in brothels.) Then there is the Community Giveback scheme where unproductive (or just unlucky) members of society have to work off debt or simply gain subsistence. This can extend into Permanent Giveback, when the recipients of this largesse by the state are obliged to have children so that they can pay off the debt.
It’s a horribly plausible description of a world where solidarity and fellow feeling have all but evaporated and public considerations have devolved into rampant individualism - and outright cruelty. About the only quotable phrase in the novel, though, is the rumination, “Music and love and sentimentality: dangerous drugs.”
The final section, titled Resolution where we revisit the viewpoint characters in much shorter chunks, didn’t work for me and the alternative endings to characters’ stories we are provided with, as well as smacking of an author having his cake and eating it, did not chime with everything that had gone before.
It seems at first to be about the attempt by Alex Hargreaves, writer of a novel called Gilligan’s Century which plagiarised earlier works but was excused by him as being a kind of remix, into the life and archive of disappeared (and thought dead) 1970s pop musician Vernon Crane. Hargreaves has come across one chapter of a novel written by Crane but knows other chapters were scattered among Crane’s friends. The tale is then broadened out by the use of a succession of different viewpoint characters, a strategy which serves to flesh out this future dystopia (though it doesn’t seem too much of a leap for society to get there as many of the harsher elements are incipient in the concept of austerity) showing it from various angles.
An example of present day trend extrapolation is that the employees of fast food franchise Heart of Chicken have to wear a plastic heart on their chests, an affective monitoring system which glows if they are happy, and if it doesn’t glow customers get a refund. Cue customers making employees lives miserable and the highest staff turnover rate in the world. (A similar technology is used in brothels.) Then there is the Community Giveback scheme where unproductive (or just unlucky) members of society have to work off debt or simply gain subsistence. This can extend into Permanent Giveback, when the recipients of this largesse by the state are obliged to have children so that they can pay off the debt.
It’s a horribly plausible description of a world where solidarity and fellow feeling have all but evaporated and public considerations have devolved into rampant individualism - and outright cruelty. About the only quotable phrase in the novel, though, is the rumination, “Music and love and sentimentality: dangerous drugs.”
The final section, titled Resolution where we revisit the viewpoint characters in much shorter chunks, didn’t work for me and the alternative endings to characters’ stories we are provided with, as well as smacking of an author having his cake and eating it, did not chime with everything that had gone before.
September 18, 2021
One of the most terrifying books I've ever read.
Not a horror novel, but horrifically prescient in its depiction of a future Britain. Sometimes verging on absurdity in its satire, but never goes full Black Mirror. The burger joint that monitors people's happiness levels is horrifically plausible, as is the neo-Victorian "Giveback" workhouse system. I can absolutely see the likes of Priti Patel calling for such a thing.
In many ways the book can be compared to The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod, which has a similar vision of a near-future Britain that is coming apart at the seams.
Unfortunately, the novel, much like The Star Fraction, loses its way in its closing chapters, becoming almost incomprehensible. The choice to tell the ending in a non-linear way is an interesting one, but makes for confusion and headaches. There are aspects of the book that seem to verge on magical realism, such as Vernon Crane's music and writing having some kind of spellbinding effect on Alex Hargreaves and others, but when it goes full PoMo I can't tell what in God's name is actually happening towards the end.
Also, just a couple of minor complaints about the setting: I don't think it's ever actually explained what "USG" is. I had at first assumed it meant "US Government", but I don't think that's the case. I was also bewildered by the repeated mentions of "Soft Rail", which appears to be some kind of...inflatable public transport system(?) but that goes largely undescribed and unexplained as well.
This is a good book, a fairly quick read, and probably one that will reward repeat reads. It could be adapted into a decent Channel 4 series, I think. But yeah, the ending is a bit of a headscratcher. I don't think this makes the novel bad, per se, but it's definitely the work of an author who is on his way to a true masterpiece. This just ain't it, I'm afraid.
Not a horror novel, but horrifically prescient in its depiction of a future Britain. Sometimes verging on absurdity in its satire, but never goes full Black Mirror. The burger joint that monitors people's happiness levels is horrifically plausible, as is the neo-Victorian "Giveback" workhouse system. I can absolutely see the likes of Priti Patel calling for such a thing.
In many ways the book can be compared to The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod, which has a similar vision of a near-future Britain that is coming apart at the seams.
Unfortunately, the novel, much like The Star Fraction, loses its way in its closing chapters, becoming almost incomprehensible. The choice to tell the ending in a non-linear way is an interesting one, but makes for confusion and headaches. There are aspects of the book that seem to verge on magical realism, such as Vernon Crane's music and writing having some kind of spellbinding effect on Alex Hargreaves and others, but when it goes full PoMo I can't tell what in God's name is actually happening towards the end.
Also, just a couple of minor complaints about the setting: I don't think it's ever actually explained what "USG" is. I had at first assumed it meant "US Government", but I don't think that's the case. I was also bewildered by the repeated mentions of "Soft Rail", which appears to be some kind of...inflatable public transport system(?) but that goes largely undescribed and unexplained as well.
This is a good book, a fairly quick read, and probably one that will reward repeat reads. It could be adapted into a decent Channel 4 series, I think. But yeah, the ending is a bit of a headscratcher. I don't think this makes the novel bad, per se, but it's definitely the work of an author who is on his way to a true masterpiece. This just ain't it, I'm afraid.
June 26, 2024
Enticing/fast paced. Good political grounding. Maybe cringe in parts (often find this w novels with an explicit political message but I also criticise when a novel shies away from this so I’m a hypocrite). Really enjoyed certain characters, but others less, though the structure lends itself to this.
Could have fleshed out the overarching plot a little more at times I think, but excited to get onto Eminent Domain next! I’m also scared to go to any activist/union meetings now lol, on the hunt for those undercovers !
Could have fleshed out the overarching plot a little more at times I think, but excited to get onto Eminent Domain next! I’m also scared to go to any activist/union meetings now lol, on the hunt for those undercovers !
July 29, 2017
The blurb states this book is a "bleak dystopian comedy" and this seems to be a fair enough description. It picks up on trends and traits in the UK regarding personal freedom, police surveillance, increasingly draconian clampdowns on welfare and the manipulation of housing, in London particularly, to make money. The writer shows great skill in moving through the characters in first person to set out the story in a fragmentary way.
February 17, 2017
This is a weird book. It offers a modern dystopian view of London, written in early 2016, and predicting Brexit, an Independent Scotland (we're not there yet, but...), an authoritarian Government (well...), and developing themes such as inequality, isolation by wealth, corporatism, and the 2011 England riots.
Although it's a pleasantly terrifying page-turner, I think it gets lost a little in its final third, where characters become rather confused (which is, in fact, the author's intent but doesn't work that well). I still allocated some time to finish it and I'd recommend it.
Although it's a pleasantly terrifying page-turner, I think it gets lost a little in its final third, where characters become rather confused (which is, in fact, the author's intent but doesn't work that well). I still allocated some time to finish it and I'd recommend it.
September 7, 2017
An interesting read - I liked the dystopian themes which were not too outlandish, based on real life in Britain today.
The premise of the story, (the missing works of the author Vernon Crane ) didn't come together for me unfortunately. However, the different narratives of the characters kept me reading.
The premise of the story, (the missing works of the author Vernon Crane ) didn't come together for me unfortunately. However, the different narratives of the characters kept me reading.
did-not-finish
July 17, 2018Abandoned at 45%. Started off intriguing but has gone in a rather different direction than the first chapter indicated, and is dragging too much for me to feel continuing is worth it.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews