After 2006's 'The Swarm,' '[limit]' is the second novel by German bestseller Frank Schätzing to make it to the US. When you pick it up, you might be tempted to think it's his second, third, fourth and fifth. At 1,240 pages it is as long as four average novels. Given that it's a single story — with many strands, but nonetheless, one throughline — we can be glad that it wasn't chopped up and published as a series.
'[limit]' proves to be a pretty good buy for the price. Schätzing offers readers a sweater's worth of ripping yarns, artfully woven, translated by a team of three. Given the diverse hands in the mix, more like a movie than a novel, it hangs together well because Schätzing's strong vision is matched by his storytelling skills. '[limit]' is the sort of book for readers who like to leave this world behind, both in subject and in the immersive level of the reading experience.
Julian Orley has brains and money and in 2025, he's used both to get a space elevator to the moon, where he's planning to open a hotel. But he's about more than space tourism. Using the space elevator to transport Helium 3 from the Moon to the Earth will revolutionize energy, and not make him a lot of friends in the process. Owen Jericho is a detective looking into a seemingly unrelated matter on Earth. But with the Earth actually connected to the moon, more connections are in the mix. The future proves to be hazardous even to those with lots of smarts and even more money.
Suffice it to say that '[limit]' is a book for people who like big, complicated books. That said, Schätzing handles the form well. He knows when to immerse you in detail and when to drop in a huge, tension-inducing scene of action. There are lots of characters in '[limit],' enough to fill up a seven-page list in the back of the book. But credit Schätzing with the wisdom to orchestrate all of this with the grace and power required to keep your interest and satisfy the questions that often go unanswered. The plot is exciting and well-designed for the length of the book.
Schätzing may have a huge cast, but the core characters are strong and nicely nuanced. They're not untarnished heroes; Schätzing gives readers a slightly bitter brew here, and the book is the better for it. Orley and Jericho play nicely off of one another in terms of scope and power, while the author's eye for keeping the book just slightly out of balance gives the supporting cast — and it really does feel like a movie cast — a textured and realistic feel. We may not want to plan our lives around the folks we meet in this book, but they certainly make for a compelling story.
'[limit]' is a great spin on the Space Opera genre, offering lots of outer space action and thought experiments, while eschewing fantastic invention for a very restrained vision of the future. Even as it looks forward to things to come, it's sort of a throwback, in the best possible way. Given the enormity of what's on offer, it can authentically claim that you will be living in the future by the time you finish reading the book. '[limit]' is at once engagingly familiar and excitingly odd. The future, like the past, is (from) another country.
12-09-13:Jean Ferry and Edward Gauvin Hail 'The Conductor'
Swatches of Undone Reality
It's easy enough to think that in today's world of weirdness and extremes, we're inventing all sorts of strangeness, and sending it out in limited editions. But strange exists outside of time. Look back sixty-something years and you'll find record of the publication of just 100 copies of 'The Conductor And Other Tales,' Jean Ferry's collection of surreal and irreal — stories? — prose poems? — parables?
Better call them The Indescribable. Ferry, a charter member of the Surrealist movement, spent most of his time writing films for a living. This book captures his only prose, and with the introduction by Edward Gauvin, gives readers an idea of the man behind the stories. With lovely illustrations by Claude Ballaré, it's a beautiful bargain.
The book begins with a 20 page introduction by the translator, Edward Gauvin, "Ferry, in Fragments." It lives up to its name and more, offering the perfect immersion in the mind and work of Jean Ferry, by shards and slivers, letting readers put together this puzzle of a man for themselves. It's well-written and sets up what follows historically, literarily and inter-contextually so that readers know enough going in about what they're going to read — but not so much that it dilutes the power of the work itself.
Ferry's prose pieces are short and often embrace a tart spirit of self-contradiction. He'll et the reader up with an lavish and sometimes graphic description of a place or an event; a trip to Easter Island — and then deny the truth of what he's written. He makes it real for the reader, then suggests it is not. Of course, where the lies begin and end is the question, and the import of the something being "true" as well. Ferry's stories reflect a deep and thoughtful conception of the reading experience, and he uses this to a degree as a plot point.
There are any number of stories that border on what we might today simply call the fantastic; 'Homage to Baedecker,' 'The Society Tiger' and the title tale all have strong plot elements and strong weird elements. Other pieces are more abbreviated, single paragraphs about "The Chinese Astrologer" or "Robinson." (As in "Crusoe"). "On the Frontiers of Plaster (A Few Notes on Sleep)" creatively explores creativity. That's not a bad summary of the book itself.
Claude Ballaré's illustrations are perfect, surreal collages and black-and-white etchings that capture the underscore of humor that suns through the stories. They also help make this a wonderful coffee-table book for Modern Strangers. This is a perfect one-a-day antidote for reality in all its clunky, gory glory. Consider these seeds, prose to be planted in your mind and left to grow very, very wild in the fertile soil of your unconscious life. It's possible the best effects of reading this book may not be accessible to conscious thought.
New to the Agony Column
09-18-15: Commentary : William T. Vollman Amidst 'The Dying Grass' : An Epic Exploration of Simultaneity
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with William T. Vollman : "...a lot of long words that in our language are sentences..."
09-05-15: Commentary : Susan Casey Listens to 'Voices in the Ocean' : Science, Empathy and Self
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Susan Casey : "...the reporting for this book was emotionally difficult at times..."
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
