Dead Romance

Faction Paradox Dead Romance

Author	Lawrence Miles
Published	2005
ISBN	0 97259 595 3
Publisher	Mad Norwegian Press

Synopsis: A republishing (and slight reworking) of the acclaimed original, with additional short stories, essays and a new introduction.

• Still Romantic by Jamas Enright

Still Romantic by Jamas Enright 1/3/06

Some editing was done for this version, undoing strange editorial decisions, changing the 'Time Lord' references to 'Houses', etc., but this is basically the same Bernice New Adventure book as before. Or is it? Rereading this, I came across a lot of passages that completely failed to strike any memory cords. Now, I can't remember every little detail, but I expected to have more familiarity with it than this. Still, some of the iconographic images I do remember are still there, so they were pleasing to see.

This book interprets a little differently the second time around, when the reader knows 'the truth' (or what he remembers of it). In some passages, I was able to go 'that's that bit, then', but in a lot of ways this book still kept surprises from me. So, what I'm saying (confessing?) is that I enjoyed reading this a second time around. Perhaps I might appreciate all of Mad Larry's works better on a second reading (indeed a part of me would like to give Alien Bodies another go), but somehow I just can't bring myself to do it.

(A side note: I have come to realise that I hate the word 'natch'.)

Christine Summerfield is the... I was about to say heroine, but 'observer' is more appropriate... in this story. It is her story, but while Christine gets wrapped up in events (the end of the world, the reality of her existence and a bad coke habit), she doesn't really participate aside from one 'battle'. In fact, in many ways, Dead Romance isn't about a person, but a culture, the culture of Christine's world (such as it is), and the culture of Cwej and the Houses, in contrast and conflict (although the conflict is rather one-sided).

Probably the worst aspect of this book is that it doesn't get mentioned elsewhere. Although it was a Bernice New Adventure, the events here didn't really get followed up on much in later novels (aside from Cwej's regeneration), and although it's a proto-Faction Paradox box, it doesn't really get a lot of mention there either (certainly the bottle idea has since gone pear-shaped). It does have some very nice ideas in it, but it's also tied into other story universes and however big your ideas might be, unless they have an impact elsewhere, was there really any point to them? (Especially for the big ideas.)

Stylistically, Dead Romance is much like other Lawrence Miles works, in that the style is completely different to other books out there. Inspired by Benny's diary style, we get journal entries, with more than one journal page to a book page. It works well, allowing quick cutting from one idea, from one story point, to another. While there is a general linear flow, this allows the book to suddenly incorporate other scenes to keep the story fresh and diverting.

So, Dead Romance shines well under a second reread, but just highlights the frustration that nothing more came of most of the plot elements.

But that just might be me. Natch.

And, as an added bonus, in the Mad Norwegian version of Dead Romance, there are some extra pieces.

Previously published in Perfect Timing 2, Toy Story is a short story seemingly about a woman arguing with a ship. At least, superficially, and I have to wonder about how it was treated by a general audience when you have to know a fair bit about the history Lawrence Miles had introduced to get that it is in fact two ships talking to themselves. Even then, the events Lolita refer to are kept oblique and 'enigmatic' (which can be mistaken for 'annoying' in another light), which just makes me wonder if this is yet another Lawrence Miles internal reference which no-one but he understands. (Which can be said for a lot of his stories...)

It is an interesting wee story in its own way, but unless you know the larger picture you'll just be confused. Having it reproduced with Dead Romance helps place it in correct context, and context, for this story, is needed.

The Cosmology of the Spiral Politic is an essay Lawrence Miles wrote for Faction Paradox authors discussing how universes "evolve", at least in the context of the Faction Paradox universe. Given the nature of the pseudo-scientific components that are bolted on (child-universes being spawned by sentient beings in the parent-universe), the main ideas are surprisingly scientific and well presented, even down to explicitly stating that evolution is a process that happens rather than a driving force.

This essay is well constructed, and ideas are set up and carried out to their conclusions, within the structure of the fiction universe Lawrence Miles has set up. Indeed, one could almost imagine it being published in one of the less formal scientific journals (being as it is broadly descriptive in nature, rather than extremely detailed technobable (which is also has)), but one item doesn't fit. Namely that the Houses can't encounter their future selves, because they can't (read: the author doesn't want that to happen).

That quibble aside, an interesting piece that I'm glad has been included.

Previously printed in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Grass is... actually, I don't know. I completely failed to get the point of it. There are some mammoths, Lewis and Clark, Lucia Cailloux and President Thomas Jefferson, but aside from retelling the story, I have no idea what happened.

Lawrence Miles (in his introduction) considers this story one of the best things he's ever written, but as ever (it seems) the more Lawrence Miles likes something, the less likely I am to (c.f. Christmas on a Rational Planet). Perhaps the events here are referred to in The Book of the War, but there are just leaps of understanding I'm not making.

Ultimately, liking or disliking this story isn't an issue. I don't get it, so I can't judge it.