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New Clone City
"A hell of a ride"—Exberliner magazineAn urban fiction thriller set in a cyberpunk world, New Clone City tells the story of a down-at-heel metropolis. A melting pot of tribes, technology, poverty, and chaos. New Clone City is a rollicking compulsive read, as queer and captivating as its inhabitants.This is a slipstream world where a refugee crisis looms, the environment is in chaos, and an authoritarian political movement threatens the very fabric of the city. These dark forces battle a colourful cast of heroes, from anarchist rednecks to genderfluid sex workers. Mike Hembury’s prose is urgent, sexy and “unprecedented”. Sharp and poetic, compelling and passionate, the political and environmental themes resonate for these troubling times. This is a novel to be read today.
328 pages, Paperback
First published May 30, 2018
2 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 12, 2018
What a surprise! I picked this one up on a whim through Netgalley and let all my expectations rest on the cool cover. And title. :) But you know what?
Totally satisfied.
It has a lot of quirky cool characters and a futuristic city that is full of cyberpunk elements, but at its core, it's hipsters, rednecks, reactionary hate-types, gays, druggies, hackers, and revolutionaries. :)
And the way it reads is a delight. It has a polished and wicked cool voice throughout.
What really stuck with me wasn't the feminist Kali revolutionaries or the reactionary types importing thugs and ex-military to push an anti-gay movement in New Clone City, but the ex-hipster artist-sometime-druggy cool cat who learns he has cancer. He gets himself embroiled in a wicked plot to get his hands on an experimental treatment and my goodness... what a ride that was. :)
At its core, it's a character novel. But don't let that fool you. The plot is pretty wild and fun and I had a great time. Excellent world-building, great sex, and people, people, people doing what they've always done. There's nothing one-dimensional about this novel.
Totally recommend.
Totally satisfied.
It has a lot of quirky cool characters and a futuristic city that is full of cyberpunk elements, but at its core, it's hipsters, rednecks, reactionary hate-types, gays, druggies, hackers, and revolutionaries. :)
And the way it reads is a delight. It has a polished and wicked cool voice throughout.
What really stuck with me wasn't the feminist Kali revolutionaries or the reactionary types importing thugs and ex-military to push an anti-gay movement in New Clone City, but the ex-hipster artist-sometime-druggy cool cat who learns he has cancer. He gets himself embroiled in a wicked plot to get his hands on an experimental treatment and my goodness... what a ride that was. :)
At its core, it's a character novel. But don't let that fool you. The plot is pretty wild and fun and I had a great time. Excellent world-building, great sex, and people, people, people doing what they've always done. There's nothing one-dimensional about this novel.
Totally recommend.
May 31, 2018
"It’s not often you’ll see a congregation of the Muslim faithful handing over a six-foot semi-conscious transvestite to a carload of militant queer prostitutes wielding baseball bats. "
New Clone City, or NC as it is commonly referred to colloquially throughout the novel, is a vibrant city as I've ever read. While I would not label them prose exactly, Mike Hembury is fantastic with descriptive detail, weaving a dense relationship from setting to the characters. The narrative begins with separate chapters for each, gradually interspersing them into longer chapters after the narrative begins to weave their respective stories together into common threads; cast about somewhat superstitiously, even seemingly haphazardly, from the start.
“Walk around the NC, and you will see what I mean. Ethnicities from all over the planet rub along together, women can walk the streets at night unmolested, dykes and faggots can be found sharing the same streets with fundamentalists of all persuasions. Such is the reputation of the NC, such are its forms of social interaction. And it is this cultural ballast which forms a heavy counterweight to our society’s need for fundamental change.”
Jimmy Lee Chang, of the Singapore Irish Changs, is an immigrant and an older, a little bit rough around the edges guy with a good heart that gets diagnosed with cancer.
"So if you want to be heroic, stay and build this weird movement of yours. Everything else…” says Jimmy, pushing back his chair. “Is just pissing in the wind”"
Claire works as an activist as a vegan eco-revolutionary but is consumed with conflicting feelings. Seemingly not making a difference as she goes to work and sees the drones and the fear of the authority baked into every individual she knows makes it hard to fathom just what difference her work actually does. That is until she meets Laila and Llya and is forced to confront both ends of that spectrum.
"For a bunch of vegan eco-revolutionaries the hacker guy with the lank black hair is something they can’t quite pin down, classify, categorize."
While dating her boyfriend Llya, a hacker trying to balance his work, hobby, and obsession with hacking; trying to dredge up a large payday and simultaneously putting his relationship with Claire in jeopardy in the doing. Both of which tend to be the narratives that insert the most cyberpunk technology.
"Even if you just do it old school—no overlay, no augmentation—it’s hard to ignore the screens everywhere, vying for your attention."
"Most just fiddle with their phones. Worry their implants. Surreptitiously wipe the pus from seeping wetware. Noodle the weeb. Perform the spastic eye movements required to check their incoming on their spex."
Laila embodies that previously mentioned authority Claire hates and fears so much. Serving her country after also immigrating to the NC, she has worked her way up in the security sector of the government. Intelligent, intimidating, and independent she is in charge of a new operation to destabilize NC in order to enact the machinations of forces larger than her. When she bucks against the authority, despite her accrued position and power, her boss, Al, and she comes to a bloody conflict.
"Part of Laila wishes that she could just let her love off the leash, just let it flow, and take its course."
Gene, or Jeanie, has been a sex worker since he was young. When working a particular area of the city policed by their own, another younger girl, Ursula, is picked up by a predator after Jeanie dismisses them, sensing danger, and it is Ursula who pays for it in the harshest of ways. Gene takes it upon himself to see justice done, no matter the cost.
“I’m Gene. Or Jeanie. Depending.” “Depending? On what?” “Oh, time of the day, time of the month, spur of the moment, whims, urges, wings of desire, that kind of thing.”
As the book proceeds, the at-times-strange narrator will drop some flavor from a third person point of view. One minor quibble that comes along with a couple others. For instance, the ending makes it seem like this may not be the first book but this was not telegraphed beforehand so it ends a bit suddenly. I am honestly unsure if it's setting up another book or not, so knowing one way or the other definitively would be good. Another is how Claire and Llya initially meet in the book feels really contrived and stilted. Thankfully the subsequent fiction focusing on their relationship is rich and heartfelt, so it doesn't matter much, but it did stick out as a thorn until I'd gotten further in the book because it was so odd. He kind of stalks her a bit and then, as young as they are, pretty much want to sleep together right away after she confronts him following her. Kind of strange.
“Well, we’re a bit like the Buddhists. They have a deeply spiritual religion, but don’t believe in god. That works for us too. Our spiritual practice encompasses all manifestations of the female principle, in all religions, with a particular focus on the more combative, antipatriarchal manifestations. We’re not into dogma, we’re just into what works.”
The signage on the press kit gave me the impression that the book would be more action-packed, as indicative of the tropes of cyberpunk which it is so labeled as. This is not the case at all. It's almost a slice of life through much of it. But more like urban fiction coupled with a cyberpunk, futuristic world. Once I shifted gears I enjoyed it despite my expectations that there would be bullets, mirrorshades, and blood.
Lastly, I thought Laila was underused throughout the book. She's unapologetically queer and badass and seemed cut short. I wish she was more of the main character than a side character. The main characters are Claire, Jimmy, and Gene; though chapters are dedicated to others like Laila. She certainly has her own aims and purpose in the fiction. I just wish she got more chances to beat the snot out of someone or something.
Speaking of queer characters and people of color, this book has plenty, I'm happy to say. On top of that, they are all fairly intersectional with current issues. Perhaps my favorite part of what this book does is recharacterizing "punks". All of them, in one way or another, at one time or another, are poised against systematic oppression. Resisting and rejecting the notions of social pressures and conformity. Gene's story of becoming Jeanie and the notion of the Church Of Kali, empowering queer people in an introspective way without being a traditional, organized religion.
"These days, incidents are kept to a minimum. The johns are for the most part polite and on their best behaviour. The new ones are quick to sniff the mores of the street. And anyone who steps out of line rapidly finds themselves surrounded by a bunch of incensed and militant trans and drag queen sexworkers who really have zero tolerance for that kind of thing."
This story, with my very limited knowledge of queer spaces, was the one I was unsure as to how well it was handled. It felt like it was done well to me, but that means very little. When Gene is navigating the fiction the pronouns are he/him when Gene becomes Jeanie, the pronouns change to she/her. A drag queen, this character was absolutely my favorite one of the bunch. That said, there is basically no typical cyberpunk character to speak of at all in this atypical cyberpunk story. Particularly, Claire's situation was initially quite bland and flourished into something interesting and refreshing.
"And so it was that Gene was initiated into the rites and practices of the domination trade. And that in turn gave rise to Jeanie. Not so much gave rise to perhaps, as formalized. For Jeanie was certainly always there with Gene, but she was without form in the world."
There is page count given to sex scenes between a cross-dresser and a man, a man and a woman, and two women. There's an organized riot against the establishment, protesting a good cause, while also being realistic about what it will accomplish and how they must do so in order to not have the protesters be hurt should the police decide to feel provoked. If cross-dressers and queer folk banding together in common cause against a totalitarian-like government isn't punk, I don't know what is, really.
"There something about this guy. Something that spells trouble, casual violence, anger issues, pent-up rage. Money, power, and a habit of being obeyed."
I have lobbied for cyberpunk as a genre to be continuing despite the punk movement being gone and the sub-genre going "mainstream" and entering the general consciousness. Resistance still happens! It's important for new protagonists with alternate viewpoints and representations to be injected into cyberpunk fiction such as this. In most stories like this characters are moved about as though they were on a chess board, usually by inscrutable powers and generally omnipresent. In the NC though, these powers are humanized and grounded. Complicated by the ordinary, quiet revolutions of queer people not allowing for anything less than justice for one of their own. It is not uncommon in cyberpunk to have fiction centered on the marginalized navigating spaces not meant for them and forging the path forward in the future we'd like to see, despite these many dangers staying progress and attempting to dehumanize the socially unacceptable. I feel very happy to classify it as cyberpunk and enjoyed this for being so blatantly, unapologetically queer housed in a city made to feel like another living character we get to see much of and from many perspectives. 4/5 with a release date of May 30th.
"...in that split second before maximum twilight and re-illumination, there was a brief moment of uncertainty. A moment, Jeanie felt sure, that anything was possible."
New Clone City, or NC as it is commonly referred to colloquially throughout the novel, is a vibrant city as I've ever read. While I would not label them prose exactly, Mike Hembury is fantastic with descriptive detail, weaving a dense relationship from setting to the characters. The narrative begins with separate chapters for each, gradually interspersing them into longer chapters after the narrative begins to weave their respective stories together into common threads; cast about somewhat superstitiously, even seemingly haphazardly, from the start.
“Walk around the NC, and you will see what I mean. Ethnicities from all over the planet rub along together, women can walk the streets at night unmolested, dykes and faggots can be found sharing the same streets with fundamentalists of all persuasions. Such is the reputation of the NC, such are its forms of social interaction. And it is this cultural ballast which forms a heavy counterweight to our society’s need for fundamental change.”
Jimmy Lee Chang, of the Singapore Irish Changs, is an immigrant and an older, a little bit rough around the edges guy with a good heart that gets diagnosed with cancer.
"So if you want to be heroic, stay and build this weird movement of yours. Everything else…” says Jimmy, pushing back his chair. “Is just pissing in the wind”"
Claire works as an activist as a vegan eco-revolutionary but is consumed with conflicting feelings. Seemingly not making a difference as she goes to work and sees the drones and the fear of the authority baked into every individual she knows makes it hard to fathom just what difference her work actually does. That is until she meets Laila and Llya and is forced to confront both ends of that spectrum.
"For a bunch of vegan eco-revolutionaries the hacker guy with the lank black hair is something they can’t quite pin down, classify, categorize."
While dating her boyfriend Llya, a hacker trying to balance his work, hobby, and obsession with hacking; trying to dredge up a large payday and simultaneously putting his relationship with Claire in jeopardy in the doing. Both of which tend to be the narratives that insert the most cyberpunk technology.
"Even if you just do it old school—no overlay, no augmentation—it’s hard to ignore the screens everywhere, vying for your attention."
"Most just fiddle with their phones. Worry their implants. Surreptitiously wipe the pus from seeping wetware. Noodle the weeb. Perform the spastic eye movements required to check their incoming on their spex."
Laila embodies that previously mentioned authority Claire hates and fears so much. Serving her country after also immigrating to the NC, she has worked her way up in the security sector of the government. Intelligent, intimidating, and independent she is in charge of a new operation to destabilize NC in order to enact the machinations of forces larger than her. When she bucks against the authority, despite her accrued position and power, her boss, Al, and she comes to a bloody conflict.
"Part of Laila wishes that she could just let her love off the leash, just let it flow, and take its course."
Gene, or Jeanie, has been a sex worker since he was young. When working a particular area of the city policed by their own, another younger girl, Ursula, is picked up by a predator after Jeanie dismisses them, sensing danger, and it is Ursula who pays for it in the harshest of ways. Gene takes it upon himself to see justice done, no matter the cost.
“I’m Gene. Or Jeanie. Depending.” “Depending? On what?” “Oh, time of the day, time of the month, spur of the moment, whims, urges, wings of desire, that kind of thing.”
As the book proceeds, the at-times-strange narrator will drop some flavor from a third person point of view. One minor quibble that comes along with a couple others. For instance, the ending makes it seem like this may not be the first book but this was not telegraphed beforehand so it ends a bit suddenly. I am honestly unsure if it's setting up another book or not, so knowing one way or the other definitively would be good. Another is how Claire and Llya initially meet in the book feels really contrived and stilted. Thankfully the subsequent fiction focusing on their relationship is rich and heartfelt, so it doesn't matter much, but it did stick out as a thorn until I'd gotten further in the book because it was so odd. He kind of stalks her a bit and then, as young as they are, pretty much want to sleep together right away after she confronts him following her. Kind of strange.
“Well, we’re a bit like the Buddhists. They have a deeply spiritual religion, but don’t believe in god. That works for us too. Our spiritual practice encompasses all manifestations of the female principle, in all religions, with a particular focus on the more combative, antipatriarchal manifestations. We’re not into dogma, we’re just into what works.”
The signage on the press kit gave me the impression that the book would be more action-packed, as indicative of the tropes of cyberpunk which it is so labeled as. This is not the case at all. It's almost a slice of life through much of it. But more like urban fiction coupled with a cyberpunk, futuristic world. Once I shifted gears I enjoyed it despite my expectations that there would be bullets, mirrorshades, and blood.
Lastly, I thought Laila was underused throughout the book. She's unapologetically queer and badass and seemed cut short. I wish she was more of the main character than a side character. The main characters are Claire, Jimmy, and Gene; though chapters are dedicated to others like Laila. She certainly has her own aims and purpose in the fiction. I just wish she got more chances to beat the snot out of someone or something.
Speaking of queer characters and people of color, this book has plenty, I'm happy to say. On top of that, they are all fairly intersectional with current issues. Perhaps my favorite part of what this book does is recharacterizing "punks". All of them, in one way or another, at one time or another, are poised against systematic oppression. Resisting and rejecting the notions of social pressures and conformity. Gene's story of becoming Jeanie and the notion of the Church Of Kali, empowering queer people in an introspective way without being a traditional, organized religion.
"These days, incidents are kept to a minimum. The johns are for the most part polite and on their best behaviour. The new ones are quick to sniff the mores of the street. And anyone who steps out of line rapidly finds themselves surrounded by a bunch of incensed and militant trans and drag queen sexworkers who really have zero tolerance for that kind of thing."
This story, with my very limited knowledge of queer spaces, was the one I was unsure as to how well it was handled. It felt like it was done well to me, but that means very little. When Gene is navigating the fiction the pronouns are he/him when Gene becomes Jeanie, the pronouns change to she/her. A drag queen, this character was absolutely my favorite one of the bunch. That said, there is basically no typical cyberpunk character to speak of at all in this atypical cyberpunk story. Particularly, Claire's situation was initially quite bland and flourished into something interesting and refreshing.
"And so it was that Gene was initiated into the rites and practices of the domination trade. And that in turn gave rise to Jeanie. Not so much gave rise to perhaps, as formalized. For Jeanie was certainly always there with Gene, but she was without form in the world."
There is page count given to sex scenes between a cross-dresser and a man, a man and a woman, and two women. There's an organized riot against the establishment, protesting a good cause, while also being realistic about what it will accomplish and how they must do so in order to not have the protesters be hurt should the police decide to feel provoked. If cross-dressers and queer folk banding together in common cause against a totalitarian-like government isn't punk, I don't know what is, really.
"There something about this guy. Something that spells trouble, casual violence, anger issues, pent-up rage. Money, power, and a habit of being obeyed."
I have lobbied for cyberpunk as a genre to be continuing despite the punk movement being gone and the sub-genre going "mainstream" and entering the general consciousness. Resistance still happens! It's important for new protagonists with alternate viewpoints and representations to be injected into cyberpunk fiction such as this. In most stories like this characters are moved about as though they were on a chess board, usually by inscrutable powers and generally omnipresent. In the NC though, these powers are humanized and grounded. Complicated by the ordinary, quiet revolutions of queer people not allowing for anything less than justice for one of their own. It is not uncommon in cyberpunk to have fiction centered on the marginalized navigating spaces not meant for them and forging the path forward in the future we'd like to see, despite these many dangers staying progress and attempting to dehumanize the socially unacceptable. I feel very happy to classify it as cyberpunk and enjoyed this for being so blatantly, unapologetically queer housed in a city made to feel like another living character we get to see much of and from many perspectives. 4/5 with a release date of May 30th.
"...in that split second before maximum twilight and re-illumination, there was a brief moment of uncertainty. A moment, Jeanie felt sure, that anything was possible."
January 2, 2019
A headlong rush into the depraved and the divine
Loved this book and found it hard to put down—or to stop thinking about. The writing has a propulsive, cinematic quality that will keep readers riveted. Over-the-top (but somehow very believable) characters make love and war in a gritty urban landscape Hembury has conjured out of his ingeniously warped imagination. This vivid novel explores themes that feel vitally important these days—such as authoritarianism, paranoia, and surveillance—as well as some that are perennially important—like community, compassion, and the quest for great sex that just might turn into something more.
Loved this book and found it hard to put down—or to stop thinking about. The writing has a propulsive, cinematic quality that will keep readers riveted. Over-the-top (but somehow very believable) characters make love and war in a gritty urban landscape Hembury has conjured out of his ingeniously warped imagination. This vivid novel explores themes that feel vitally important these days—such as authoritarianism, paranoia, and surveillance—as well as some that are perennially important—like community, compassion, and the quest for great sex that just might turn into something more.
October 29, 2018
A lightning-paced journey through a spectacularly seedy urban jungle. Mike Hembury creates a convincing dystopia, not short on noirish settings from coffee bars to rainy sidewalks, and populated with deliciously unorthodox characters (a talking magpie!). Readers who like their Jay McInerney spiked with Armistead Maupin and served with a 'Bladerunner' chaser will love this book.
November 14, 2018
This is my first venture forth into the whole cyberpunk genre. I have read some of the more traditional science fiction and dystopian fiction, but this was quite different than both. And I enjoyed it! I felt like I was missing some of the basic canon of the genre that might have opened the book up more to me, but place that blame on myself and not the author. I was disheartened to read that Mr. Hembury still sees homophobia and racism to be rampant in our alternative future, but the book was really about relationships, both with technology and with each other. In that, Mr. Hembury did a great job of showing both the positive and the negative that don't really change regardless of what is going on in the world. I felt his writing style reflected the world he was presenting and will look for more from him in the future!
A copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and The Wild Word in exchange for an honest review.
A copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and The Wild Word in exchange for an honest review.
April 23, 2023
Really liked this book - it’s a mix of dystopia/crime/thriller/romance novel set in a fictional city. Interesting how the author intertwines all the main characters (even if it’s somewhat predictable).
October 24, 2018
New Clone City is a book that was pitched to me as "a blend of cyberpunk, literary prose and thrilling mystery . . . with a host of genderfluid characters who are fun, fierce and authentic (and sexy)." Really, how could I possibly resist that?
To be honest, the style of Mike Hembury's novel was not initially to my taste, and that is why it has taken me so long to finish reading it. Much of it is written in present-tense, and it tends to bounce between short, staccato statements and long, dense blocks of rambling text. It is a unique style, and not one that lends itself to a quick or easy read.
While I am tempted to call this a dystopian science fiction tale, that is only half of the story. It is dystopian, and very much so, especially in terms of the city itself and the community that resides there. Hatred, intolerance, prejudice, discrimination, and violence continue to poison the human landscape, with some particularly gruesome acts of violence punctuating the text.
"Walk around the NC, and you will see what I mean. Ethnicities from all over the planet rub along together, women can walk the streets at night unmolested, dykes and faggots can be found sharing the same streets with fundamentalists of all persuasions. Such is the reputation of the NC, such are its forms of social interaction. And it is this cultural ballast which forms a heavy counterweight to our society’s need for fundamental change."
That, from a scene where a black ops monster looking to undermine the city attempts to motivate the darkest temperament of his recruits.
And yet, almost against all odds, there are glimmers of hope, understanding, and acceptance. There are good people, doing good things, sometimes even despite their beliefs. There are dangerous situations that are revealed to be safe havens, and angry confrontations that turn out to be well-mannered negotiations.
"It’s not often you’ll see a congregation of the Muslim faithful handing over a six-foot semi-conscious transvestite to a carload of militant queer prostitutes wielding baseball bats. For the mosque security detail, this is certainly the first time that they’ve had a bunch of sexy genderbending mommas come up to the gates of their prayer house wielding billy clubs, but they are more intrigued than anything else, and are keeping a remarkably worldly cool about the whole thing."
That, from a scene where a group of Muslim men comes to the rescue of a violently abused transgender prostitute, taking her into their mosque, tending her wounds, and calling her people for help.
On that note, this is a book that flirts with some uncomfortable terminology at times, and which is frustratingly inconsistent with its choice of pronouns, but it is never cruel or mean-spirited. Instead, those seeming miscues are part and parcel of the book's punk, in-your-face, I-dare-you-to-get-mad edginess. Gender and sexuality are a critical part of the book, and not just as a good-queer versus evil-straight fairytale, which makes it even more interesting.
New Clone City does have a story - a conflict/conspiracy, a resistance, and a feminine Church that has nothing to do with god - but it is more a story of characters, a slice of life through which we see friendships tested, love found, and principles defended. Not the easiest read, but a worthy one.
https://bibrary.blogspot.com/2018/10/...
To be honest, the style of Mike Hembury's novel was not initially to my taste, and that is why it has taken me so long to finish reading it. Much of it is written in present-tense, and it tends to bounce between short, staccato statements and long, dense blocks of rambling text. It is a unique style, and not one that lends itself to a quick or easy read.
While I am tempted to call this a dystopian science fiction tale, that is only half of the story. It is dystopian, and very much so, especially in terms of the city itself and the community that resides there. Hatred, intolerance, prejudice, discrimination, and violence continue to poison the human landscape, with some particularly gruesome acts of violence punctuating the text.
"Walk around the NC, and you will see what I mean. Ethnicities from all over the planet rub along together, women can walk the streets at night unmolested, dykes and faggots can be found sharing the same streets with fundamentalists of all persuasions. Such is the reputation of the NC, such are its forms of social interaction. And it is this cultural ballast which forms a heavy counterweight to our society’s need for fundamental change."
That, from a scene where a black ops monster looking to undermine the city attempts to motivate the darkest temperament of his recruits.
And yet, almost against all odds, there are glimmers of hope, understanding, and acceptance. There are good people, doing good things, sometimes even despite their beliefs. There are dangerous situations that are revealed to be safe havens, and angry confrontations that turn out to be well-mannered negotiations.
"It’s not often you’ll see a congregation of the Muslim faithful handing over a six-foot semi-conscious transvestite to a carload of militant queer prostitutes wielding baseball bats. For the mosque security detail, this is certainly the first time that they’ve had a bunch of sexy genderbending mommas come up to the gates of their prayer house wielding billy clubs, but they are more intrigued than anything else, and are keeping a remarkably worldly cool about the whole thing."
That, from a scene where a group of Muslim men comes to the rescue of a violently abused transgender prostitute, taking her into their mosque, tending her wounds, and calling her people for help.
On that note, this is a book that flirts with some uncomfortable terminology at times, and which is frustratingly inconsistent with its choice of pronouns, but it is never cruel or mean-spirited. Instead, those seeming miscues are part and parcel of the book's punk, in-your-face, I-dare-you-to-get-mad edginess. Gender and sexuality are a critical part of the book, and not just as a good-queer versus evil-straight fairytale, which makes it even more interesting.
New Clone City does have a story - a conflict/conspiracy, a resistance, and a feminine Church that has nothing to do with god - but it is more a story of characters, a slice of life through which we see friendships tested, love found, and principles defended. Not the easiest read, but a worthy one.
https://bibrary.blogspot.com/2018/10/...
October 27, 2018
New Clone City is a futuristic metropolis full of diverse characters and disincentive neighborhoods. Almost everyone has wetware and navigates through projections and virtual advertising, trying their best to avoid having psychotic episodes from the stimuli. With New Clone City lies Fuji City, housing the many refugees streaming into the city from war-torn areas.
Within this environment, we meet Jimmy, who is fond of alcohol and drugs but not so much of working, though is loved by his common-law wife, Julia, regardless. Hostile and aloof Claire works at a vegan health food store fronting as an eco-revolutionary collective. Among the transsexual and queer sex workers who frequent Charlie’s Garden, dominatrix Jeannie provides leadership to a well-organized community. And Al, agent of the state police, hates them all. The characters travel their own trajectories, at times intersecting, but ultimately following their own arcs against the treat of climate change, a burgeoning refugee crisis, and Al’s determination to destroy the diversity that gives New Clone City its flavor.
Mike Hembury presents a vivid depiction of the urban environment filled with unusual street names and unique stores, restaurants, and churches. It’s easy to believe, reading the book, that New Clone City is real, not the product of imagination. The themes of climate change, refugees, and state-sponsored terrorism are timely and important but here are not presented in preachy, dogmatic ways. And the primary characters were all diverse, not a straight, white male among them. Although it took me some time to get into the book and acclimate to the unique style and tone, I became very invested in the characters, particularly Jeannie.
Some aspects of the book that I didn’t like included a somewhat choppy way of writing, where most of the sentences are subject+verb without much variety. I also thought that some of the characters were inconsistent. For example, Claire, who when we first meet her is wearing a shirt condemning driving throws out an orange juice carton instead of recycling it. And at times, the dialogue is stilted and unnatural.
Towards the begging of the book, the “U,” New Clone City’s transportation system, offers myriad examples of technology and how the real, or “meatworld,” interface, including Claire’s virtual panthers who are visible to others jacked in. However, this integration disappears as the book progresses, and only Claire and her boyfriend Illya seem to connect to the virtual world. While this could be a function of different characters of different classes and their varying access to technology, it seems strange that in large crowd scenes, such as a riot precipitated by police during a peaceful demonstration, that no one has projections or is jacked in.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the book is that there is less resolution than I like when reading a novel. While the characters have come to a natural pause in their storylines, there was enough open-endedness that I felt unsettled. Hembury has said that he’s developing a sequel, so hopefully, the plot lines will be developed in the next novel in the series. I will definitely be reading it!
Thank you to NetGally and the Wild World for providing an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.
Within this environment, we meet Jimmy, who is fond of alcohol and drugs but not so much of working, though is loved by his common-law wife, Julia, regardless. Hostile and aloof Claire works at a vegan health food store fronting as an eco-revolutionary collective. Among the transsexual and queer sex workers who frequent Charlie’s Garden, dominatrix Jeannie provides leadership to a well-organized community. And Al, agent of the state police, hates them all. The characters travel their own trajectories, at times intersecting, but ultimately following their own arcs against the treat of climate change, a burgeoning refugee crisis, and Al’s determination to destroy the diversity that gives New Clone City its flavor.
Mike Hembury presents a vivid depiction of the urban environment filled with unusual street names and unique stores, restaurants, and churches. It’s easy to believe, reading the book, that New Clone City is real, not the product of imagination. The themes of climate change, refugees, and state-sponsored terrorism are timely and important but here are not presented in preachy, dogmatic ways. And the primary characters were all diverse, not a straight, white male among them. Although it took me some time to get into the book and acclimate to the unique style and tone, I became very invested in the characters, particularly Jeannie.
Some aspects of the book that I didn’t like included a somewhat choppy way of writing, where most of the sentences are subject+verb without much variety. I also thought that some of the characters were inconsistent. For example, Claire, who when we first meet her is wearing a shirt condemning driving throws out an orange juice carton instead of recycling it. And at times, the dialogue is stilted and unnatural.
Towards the begging of the book, the “U,” New Clone City’s transportation system, offers myriad examples of technology and how the real, or “meatworld,” interface, including Claire’s virtual panthers who are visible to others jacked in. However, this integration disappears as the book progresses, and only Claire and her boyfriend Illya seem to connect to the virtual world. While this could be a function of different characters of different classes and their varying access to technology, it seems strange that in large crowd scenes, such as a riot precipitated by police during a peaceful demonstration, that no one has projections or is jacked in.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the book is that there is less resolution than I like when reading a novel. While the characters have come to a natural pause in their storylines, there was enough open-endedness that I felt unsettled. Hembury has said that he’s developing a sequel, so hopefully, the plot lines will be developed in the next novel in the series. I will definitely be reading it!
Thank you to NetGally and the Wild World for providing an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.
January 17, 2019
I´ve reviewed close to one thousand records in my life, but never a book. Not a single one. But we all have to start somewhere, don´t we? So what a better start than Mike Hembury´s "New Clone City".
This book is like a belly. It grows on you over time. It starts slow, perhaps even too slow. I struggled the first handful of chapters where characters were introduced. There was so much information that all this info started getting mixed up in my head. But then, as the story unraveled, it started grabbing me with both hands and not letting go. And it was rolling with inertia. The more I read, the more I wanted to read. There were all these characters that little by little found each other in the dragnet of New Clone City and they were all taking me somewhere that I couldn´t guess just yet. There was action and (hopefully) justice awaiting while I perused page after page of this thrilling novel.
The language plays a big part in it. While it abounds with neologisms and colloquial terms almost to a fault, it´s at the same time extremely poetic and Mike juggles it in great style, like a seasoned street hustler performing his best three-card monte. Language puritans might be put off by such unorthodox approach to written language, but his lingo is modern, direct and, above all, charming.
This is a book you´ll read in one go, if you have enough time to spare. It´s captivating, fluid and real. While you may hear people saying this is a dystopian novel, I was actually wondering the whole time whether the plot was taking place here and now. The realization that the whole idea behind it could easily be real, rather than just realistic, is the biggest kick you may get out of it.
It´s only January and I already have the feeling I´ve read the best book this year. Judging by how it started, 2019 is going to be a great one.
This book is like a belly. It grows on you over time. It starts slow, perhaps even too slow. I struggled the first handful of chapters where characters were introduced. There was so much information that all this info started getting mixed up in my head. But then, as the story unraveled, it started grabbing me with both hands and not letting go. And it was rolling with inertia. The more I read, the more I wanted to read. There were all these characters that little by little found each other in the dragnet of New Clone City and they were all taking me somewhere that I couldn´t guess just yet. There was action and (hopefully) justice awaiting while I perused page after page of this thrilling novel.
The language plays a big part in it. While it abounds with neologisms and colloquial terms almost to a fault, it´s at the same time extremely poetic and Mike juggles it in great style, like a seasoned street hustler performing his best three-card monte. Language puritans might be put off by such unorthodox approach to written language, but his lingo is modern, direct and, above all, charming.
This is a book you´ll read in one go, if you have enough time to spare. It´s captivating, fluid and real. While you may hear people saying this is a dystopian novel, I was actually wondering the whole time whether the plot was taking place here and now. The realization that the whole idea behind it could easily be real, rather than just realistic, is the biggest kick you may get out of it.
It´s only January and I already have the feeling I´ve read the best book this year. Judging by how it started, 2019 is going to be a great one.
January 13, 2019
A deadly chain of events has been set in motion and the lowlifes and the castaways don't stand a chance. New Clone City, a shelter for the gender-deviant, the activists, the immigrants, the lost and the hopefuls, is in imminent danger. But can the denizens' means match their enemy's?
The novel has a Margaret Atwood vibe, describing a future too far and yet too close. It's one of those books you can't let down, and who stays with you for days after you've read it.
The language is quite literary but the book has an actual plot. The characters are people of all ages and backgrounds, and yet there is a mutual understanding, a sense of comradeship, and a sensitivity that makes you think there is still hope.
The novel has a Margaret Atwood vibe, describing a future too far and yet too close. It's one of those books you can't let down, and who stays with you for days after you've read it.
The language is quite literary but the book has an actual plot. The characters are people of all ages and backgrounds, and yet there is a mutual understanding, a sense of comradeship, and a sensitivity that makes you think there is still hope.
March 20, 2023
Do you remember the Norman Spinrad stories from the eighties? The characters were all young people, street people living in a near future that could be a dystopia if it weren't a projection of what today could turn into for the average person. This is like the current version of that.
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