Aurorarama by Jean-Christophe Valtat

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Poll question: Aurorarama by Jean-Christophe Valtat

Why I'm posting this: Salon has a review on this, which links to Barnes & Noble (below).

I'm intrigued by the premise (I'm a sucker for anything that includes "an ominous black airship that hovers over the city"), and turned off by what could be a few groaners ("with suffragette riots led by an underground music star")...

...not sure if this is something that would show up in the local library, but it will probably hit used book stores at some point. Unless it's a masterpiece, I probably wouldn't pay $25 for a new copy.

Your thoughts?

:toast:

Synopsis

A startling, seductive literary novel that entwines suspense, science fiction, adventure, romance and history into an intoxicating new genre.

1908: New Venice--"the pearl of the Arctic"--a place of ice palaces and pneumatic tubes, of beautifully ornate carriage-sleds and elegant victorian garb, of long nights and vistas of ice.

But as the city prepares for spring, it feels more like qaartsiluni, "the time when something is about to explode in the dark." Local "poletics" are wracked by tensions with the Eskimos circling the city, with suffragette riots led by an underground music star, with drug round-ups by the secret police force known as the Gentlemen of the Night. An ominous black airship hovers over the city, and the Gentlemen are hunting for the author of a radical pamphlet calling for revolt.

Their lead suspect is Brentford Orsini, one of the city's most prominent figures. But as the Gentlemen of the Night tighten the net around him, Orsini receives a mysterious message from a long-lost love that compels him to act.

What transpires is a literary adventure novel unlike anything you've ever read before. Brilliant in its conception, masterful in its prose, thrilling in its plot twists, and laced with humor, suspense, and intelligence, it marks the beginning of a great new series of books set in New Venice-and the launch of an astonishing new writer.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?r=1&EAN=[phone]&afsrc=1

[GeorgeGist]

1. Soon to be seen at Cosco or Sam's bookbins ...

judging from the 'cover'.