Really interesting question. The problem with the notion of ‘transition’ is it suggests, at least to me, an ineluctable and/or irreversible shift from one moment to another – the implication that the tendency of prose, for me, is from more to less prolix. That may be the case, but I’m not convinced. Rather, how it feels is a constant development, an attempt to inhabit a different, specific (though inevitably related!) voice for each book, and that doesn’t preclude going back, or continuing to go forward but discovering that you end up somewhere similar-looking to where you started. I don’t know whether that will happen, but it might.
As to why, I think probably it’s a combination of several factors. It’s more interesting to try new voices book to book; it’s part of the effort to develop as a writer, to experiment; it’s a corollary, I think, of becoming more conscious of and careful with prose; it’s a real pleasure to try to shift, and a very grateful privilege concomitant on the fact that a good proportion of people who read my stuff are open to letting me experiment. In the case of The City & The City there was the additional and slightly more contingent fact that it was an attempt to perform obeisance and homage, to some extent, to a terser, noire style than the one I started out with, but I think that was an acceleration and extrapolation of tendencies already going on.
As to why, I think probably it’s a combination of several factors. It’s more interesting to try new voices book to book; it’s part of the effort to develop as a writer, to experiment; it’s a corollary, I think, of becoming more conscious of and careful with prose; it’s a real pleasure to try to shift, and a very grateful privilege concomitant on the fact that a good proportion of people who read my stuff are open to letting me experiment. In the case of The City & The City there was the additional and slightly more contingent fact that it was an attempt to perform obeisance and homage, to some extent, to a terser, noire style than the one I started out with, but I think that was an acceleration and extrapolation of tendencies already going on.