Summerland

With the disaster that is Brexit looming over the UK, some popular culture has been harkening back to those rose-tinted good old days when we all pulled together like in, er, World War II… Er, WTF? How exactly does WWII map onto Brexit? Anyway, the fact Brexit is bending UK culture, as well as the economy, out of shape is a given, but it seems to have manifested a bit oddly in genre fiction, Yes, I know Rajaniemi is Finnish, but he’s been a resident of the UK for a number of years, and his career has been chiefly with English-language publishers. And if he’s a Finnish writer, then Geoff Ryman is a Canadian writer, Lisa Tuttle and Pat Cadigan are both American writers, Tariq Ali is a Pakistani writer, Leila Aboulela is a Sudanese show more writer… Um, that’s starting to fall apart. But never mind. Anyway, with Summerland and Simon Ings’s The Smoke, we have two very strange, and not so very different, approaches to science fiction, a very British form of science fiction, in fact, that owes much more to HG Wells than it does to the US tradition. Explicitly so in Summerland, as the man who looms over the entire plot, Prime Minister Herbert Blanco West, is in fact a thinly-disguised HG Wells. The novel is being sold as a science fiction spy story, and it’s true that its central plot could have come from a Le Carré novel, but, as a spy novel, I don’t think it’s entirely satisfactory. Fortunately, the rest of it is very satisfactory indeed. The world-building is especially good, and Rajaniemi has cleverly worked out not just the technological ramifications of Summerland‘s central premise but also the social ones. I think this one will do much better than The Quantum Thief; it’s much more approachable, for a start. show less

What if it turned out that Victorian spiritualists were right about the afterlife? That ghosts existed and we could communicate with them? In an alternate 1938, even death can't set a sun on the British Empire. The Summer Court rules from the afterlife, committees of Etonian spirits directing the business of Empire. Of course, there's an alternative to ectocapitalism and the business of Queen Victoria's Summer Court. The Soviet Union is ruled by a vast godlike intelligence, built around the soul of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Two two sides are engaged in a classic war of espionage, with a hot front in the Spanish Civil War, and in a reflection of the historical Cambridge Five, the British Secret Intelligence Service is hopelessly compromised show more by a mole.

Peter Bloom is that mole, a double agent who believes he's serving the interests of peace and the power of the Soviet Presence. Against him is Rachel White, one of the few women in the SIS. White is by far the more interesting character, full of pent up rage about her stalled career, sexism, and her invalid husband, a retired living weapon from the First World War. Unfortunately, Bloom is our viewpoint into the more unique world of the dead, a profoundly strange four-dimensional space overlaid with a facade of Victorian normalcy, and he's much less interesting, despite being the mole.

This book is at it's best exploring the consequences of a real afterlife, and the way that society changes when the real powers are all on the other side. Subtle nods to the real world are also a high-point, Kim Philby makes a guest appearance, and the British Prime Minister is Herbert Blanco West, speculative fiction author of The War of the Worlds and The Invisible Man. Stalin is a Communist renegade, trying to develop a human network to destroy the Presence. The aetheric technology of transdimensional phones and ectoplasmic IT is unique.

Yet Bloom's character in particular never clicked for me, and his chapters were perennial flat notes. Great spy novels in the tradition of John Le Carre play on intimacy and betrayal. The relationship between a source and a handler is closer than marriage. Yet spies can't be seen as people; they're assets to be used, turned, and ultimate burnt for the cause. And knowing the Peter is the mole, and also seeing inside his head, eliminates the amazing tension that a more conventional Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy structure has.

The last act tries to wrap everything up, the origins of Peter's betrayals, the bigger picture of the afterlife, but it comes out of left field. Summerland is a good story, but it isn't as tightly wound as a great one. show less

If 19th-century scientists found a way to preserve identity after death and maintain communication with the departed, then of course the British Empire would expand Her Majesty’s realm into the afterlife. Of course the Soviet Union would construct an immortal collective consciousness out of Lenin. Of course neither would be prepared for the eldritch truth lurking beneath this plane of existence.

For most of the book, I felt this paranormal spy thriller was too thin for a novel. To be clear, I didn’t dislike it: I thought it clever and inventive, I was amused by the little touches (like mothers who can nag you from their retirement villas beyond the grave), and I greatly enjoyed the sudden dawning upon me of the identity of the Prime show more Minister in this alternate universe.

The lore is rich and the world unfolds from its premise with compelling logic, but I was prepared to rate it okay-ish until the final few chapters. The unfolding revelations are so brilliantly reasonable, and yet so unforeseen (by me, anyway) that they elevated the rest of the book.

I still think this would’ve worked better compressed into a novella, but I’m a satisfied reader and glad I took this crazy ride into the aether. show less

Although it purports to be a very different sort of book, I found ‘Summerland’ strangely akin to Hannu Rajaniemi’s [b:The Jean le Flambeur Trilogy: The Quantum Thief, The Fractal Prince, The Causal Angel|38232422|The Jean le Flambeur Trilogy The Quantum Thief, The Fractal Prince, The Causal Angel|Hannu Rajaniemi|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|59914910]. While the latter are hard sci-fi space adventures, the former is an alternate history supernatural spy story. Yet all are intoxicated by intricate world-building, which crowds out the characters and story. The central concept in ‘Summerland’ is admittedly brilliant: after Marconi managed to contact the dead, the afterlife show more has become part of the British Empire and ghost spies are interfering in the Spanish Civil War. The USSR is ruled by a hive intelligence derived from Lenin’s ghost; the UK by the ghost of Queen Victoria - as far as I could tell. All the aetheric technologies for communicating with and weaponising the dead are fascinating, as are the descriptions of the afterlife. However the plot isn’t anywhere near as complex and nuanced. I found a similar asymmetry in [b:Radiance|18490533|Radiance|Catherynne M. Valente|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1412283972s/18490533.jpg|26174247] and [b:Aurorarama|8089555|Aurorarama (The Mysteries of New Venice, #1)|Jean-Christophe Valtat|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320559915s/8089555.jpg|12832601]: beguiling alternate worlds that are not matched by equally interesting plot or characters. In the case of ‘Summerland’, I never felt the sense of tension or paranoia that should characterise spy stories. The main point of view character Rachel White is unfortunately not that compelling and resorts to some rather tired cliches like getting drunk and making a scene, sleeping with a colleague as cover for spy shenanigans, and having a tragic rift with her husband due to lack of communication. All of these tropes can be done well, but weren't here as they felt rushed. Despite the flashbacks to his youth, Bloom also remains something of a cipher. Perhaps my standards for spy stories are very high thanks to John le Carré? If he wrote a novel set in this alternate universe, it would be incredible. As it stands, ‘Summerland’ has a great deal of potential yet couldn’t quite live up to it. The stakes are unclear then abstract, the plot terribly linear, and the characters much less vivid than the world they inhabit. show less

As a bonafide fanboy of Rajaniemi, first for his trilogy and then for his short story collection, I was really chomping at the bit for ANYTHING he might write next. His imagination is by far some of the most hard-hitting spectacular steam-rolling post-singularity tour-de-force circuses I've ever come across.

So what was my initial reaction when I heard he was writing about 1938 pre-war spy fiction where the afterlife is not only accessible but is actively involved in politics in that alternate world?

COOL.

For me, I've never been a gung-ho fan of Le Carre spy fiction, and although this is apparently written in a very similar style, I can't go completely ga-ga over it because I'm not starting out as a fan. Fortunately, I have read enough show more similar stuff to enjoy it, at least intellectually. And so I dove in. Keeping an open mind.

Both the Soviets and the English have their own separate afterlives. Not everyone has the means to stick around after they die, however, and so a kind of economy is set up. A Meritocracy. Only the deserving can keep from fading away. But what's worse is the fact that the really old politicos don't go away. Ever. The living is ruled by the dead and wars are a fantastic mixture of Ideology (Communism vs Socialism), Religion (or lack thereof), and of course all the other trappings of temporal power, including resources, economics, and all the other things that the living are interested in. :)

I think the novel was fantastically researched and developed. It's more finding reasons to stay with a particular side kind of novel than discovering who might be the bad guy. Or even if there IS a bad guy. This kind of spy fiction is about ideas, plain and simple. And a few great reveals later that paint the whole situation in a very different light.

For me, I have no problems with the novel as it is. Not the characters, the subjects, or the action. I enjoyed getting to know both the main characters from either side of the ideological (and temporal) divide. :)

FINAL ESTIMATION. It ain't the same kind of novel, by a long shot, to his other trilogy! Don't expect it! It's quite an easy read so long as you're fine with your history, too. You know, like the contents of the Spanish Civil War. Or extrapolations of a world that can't get over Queen Victoria WAY past her expiration date.

Double-crosses, mystery, murder, ectoplasm! Dark secrets, darker times... where life seems rather meaningless because life is almost the same after you die! It's all there. And it's pretty fantastic. :)

So why didn't I give this a five star if I'm such a fan? Because I tend to bounce off Oooooldschool spy fiction. It's okay. I just don't usually resonate that well with it. The same is true here. I liked the novel. The characters, all the elements, but something got sacrificed for the sake of being more accessible, IMHO.

I LOVE his wilder stuff. :) Plain and simple. It's not fair to this novel, of course, because it's very much ahead of its competition. I think of Ian Tregellis's trilogy, in particular, which I liked a lot. Also, Larry Correia.

Rajaniemi kills it on the ideological forefront. :) show less

Amazing worldbuilding. I mean seriously, he has thought this one through!

But it is TOO SHORT. The main plot is a more than little cliche and is only a device to introduce the many mindblowing ideas. Any of whom I would've enjoyed reading more about, but the book progresses too quickly for that.

4 stars in the hope that this is an appetizer, not an entree.

I flailed about for a while trying to decide what it was I was reading as I read Summerland, but in the end, I realized I was reading a thriller in science fiction garb. That's not to downplay the SF element, it's essential to the plot, and it's unusual in that it treats the afterlife, or at least what is known of the afterlife in this society, as something that's just slightly to the left of real life. The dead can still communicate with the living, they go about their lives pretty much as they always have, creating the forms of that life with their thoughts. There's a spiritual price for such creation, though, and if you spend too much of your force on such things, you begin to fade. Once you fade, well, no one is quite sure what show more happens to your soul, or your spark, or whatever it is that was persisting in what is known as the Summerland. Most people work hard to afford "vim" which prevents fading.

Predictably, the Summerland has been nationalized, and the forces at work in the real world during the WWII era, are also at work in the afterlife. Networks of spies work in the ether to protect the interests of England which is still ruled by Queen Victoria from the Summer Court. Rachel White is a spy in the Winter Court, the real world, and when an assignment goes badly wrong and she loses an asset, she's demoted to office work. Between that and her failing marriage, she is desperate to feel as if she's doing something useful, and also to follow up on some information the asset gave her before he died. She believes there's a mole in the Summer Court, and she wants to expose him.

The book is a pretty classic thriller once you get past the science fiction elements. It's fast-paced with intrigues and double crosses, changing allegiances, double agents, and lots and lots of secrets, the greatest of which could spell disaster for all of Summerland. It moves quickly and doesn't waste a lot of time on setting a tone, which is fine. That's not really why we're reading this kind of thing after all. But if I do have one objection, it's that the action sequences involving the dead can be confusing because of the terminology such as soul spark, ether tendrils (one of the easier ones) and luth (apologies if I got that wrong. I was listening to the audiobook and can't find a reference to it online.)

Bottom line is that it's a fun book, it's got some ideas which are worth considering, and it's entertaining as all get out. show less