Fiction Reviews
In the Lives of Puppets
(2023) T. J. Klune, Tor, £9.99, pbk, 458pp, ISBN 978-1-529-08804-5
This new wave novel is very touchy-feely, and what with the current rise of the 'romantasy' sub-genre, there is clearly an audience for this sort of thing.
We very quickly learn that a man (who was not a man) lived in a forest collecting bits of machinery and electronics to tinker and build things. The one day a couple burst in. They are being chased and they leave him with a baby boy. The couple flee and the man who was not a man never sees them again.
Jump forward over a decade and the boy (Victor) assists the man who was not a man salvaging bits and pieces from an automated scrap yard not too far from the forest. They live together with a robot medical nurse with a superficially sadistic attitude, and a somewhat needy vacuum cleaner. Until, that is, robots arrive and take the man who was not a man away. Victor and the robots were in hiding, but once the coast was clear they decide to set off to a far away (several hundred miles) to the City of Electric Dreams to rescue the man who was not a man…
This is a very well constructed and written novel that, as said, will undoubtedly prove popular with new wave types into touchy-feely books centred on faithfulness, friendship and loyalty. If that's your bag then you will lap this up.
Having said that, I am not this author's target reader. I prefer my SF up front: I am not a die-hard new wave fan, even though saying that would have had me crucified back in the day in the late 1970s when there was a fierce debate from the then nascent new wave types and more traditional SFnalists in Britain's SF book orientated conventions. Yet, strip away all the lovey-dovey and fantasy riffs and there is a solid SF story lurking underneath. There has been a robotic-apocalypse that has seen humanity wiped out and Victor may well be the last human alive…
So, if you like, this has two novels in one book: a new wave one centred on characterisation and emotion with a fantasy riff, and a firmly science fiction one based on a robot-induced extinction of humanity. If you enjoy such heart-warming, enchanting mixes then this book will certainly hit the spot.
As I said, I prefer my SF up front. If you are like me – and there is no reason why you should be – then may I point you in the direction of the Clarke Award short-listed Day Zero and Sea of Rust by Robert Cargill which fairly recently and vividly features a robo-apocalypse. Nonetheless, In the Lives of Puppets will surely garner its own substantive readership, and it truly deserves to.
Jonathan Cowie
See also Peter's take on In The Lives of Puppets.
See also Steven's take on In The Lives of Puppets.
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