Norwescon discussion

Have you read 84K? What did you think? Let us know!

I'm excited! Her "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August" was one that has stuck with me to this day.

I've seen a number of people on Facebook excited about this nomination (and the possibility of her attending, which we won't know for a while), either because they've already read it and enjoyed it or because they're already a fan of hers. I'm looking forward to it!

Just started it and already I really like it!

Set in a distressingly plausible near-future dystopic Britain, the unrelenting dreariness was difficult for me. As with post-apocalyptic fiction, I’m not a big fan; I prefer more hope in my futurism.

This isn’t to say that the book is without hope; it ends on a hopeful note, and it can easily be argued that the protagonist’s motivation is based on hope. It just wasn’t present enough to offset the rest of the setting.

I was also not a big fan of the non-linear structure of the book. Again, it’s not a technique I’m adamantly opposes to, but I was a little too often confused as to when things shifted, and what the actual order of events was. I think I got it by the end, but spending that much time confused kept pulling me out of the story as I tried to figure out when we were in the timeline.

It's got a name! Hopepunk

That’s an awesome link. I’ve come across the hopepunk idea before (in several of the links that that article links to, I believe, though that particular article is new to me), and the concept speaks strongly to me, and I did make that connection towards the end of the book. I think that in this case, the balance of grimdark setting to hopepunk motivations was skewed a little too far to one side for me. Maybe it’s also that the protagonist doesn’t seem _actively_ hopeful? He doesn’t really have a conscious goal or ideal, he just sort of stumbles through and eventually comes up with a vague realization/rationalization for his actions, but it wasn’t a major theme until right at the end, by which point I’d pretty much formed my opinion of the book.