Rating: 
Summary: Left Hanging
Review: I read the glowing reviews of this book before reading it, and I just felt that someone should balance out all of this gushing Erickson worship. I've read him before (Arc d'X) and thought that he was very original and his stories are very compelling. He walks a very thin line with his interwoven plotlines, making them confusing in a way that strings you along without being so obtuse that you wind up throwing the book away in disgust. And his characters are memorable and you do care what happens to them, which for me is the sign of a good writer. My complaint then about this particular book is that it brings together the interwoven lives of a dozen very interesting people--a la Don Delillo's Underworld, which is a better book, in my opinion--and ultimately gives us nothing. There's no closure to any of the stories. One major character's demise occurs offstage and can only be surmised from what happens forty years later to another character a couple of chapters later. There's an awful lot of obsessing about a time capsule, and when it's opened, we're left to guess at the contents. And in the final pages of the book, Erickson almost completely abandons storytelling for some over-the-top, self-consciously arty prose that only clouds up what should be a much more satisfying ending. In other words, after a promising start, he just leaves you hanging.
Rating: 
Summary: Luminous. Does the work that tragedy should...
Review: In 1991 I read Erickson's *Tours of the Black Clock*, and came away touched to the core by his reckoning with evil, loss, and the secret history of the Twentieth Century; I felt in finishing the book as if I had been given an incredible gift. He was definitely going to be one to watch.Well, I devoured *Amnesiascope* and *Arc D'X* and *Rubicon Beach*, but despite the appearance of the same tropes (like J.G. Ballard, Erickson obsessively redeploys the same imagery, in his case fractured time, deserted Chinatowns, flooded cities) they didn't bring me off quite the way *Tours* did. Now *Sea* does, again. It's a haunting and beautiful meditation on time, loss, evil, and redemption - call it a scruffier alternate take on DeLillo's *Underworld*, for post-boomers. It's uneven in spots, but it did the work that all great writing is supposed to do: it triggered the simultaneous grief, acceptance, and joy in that acceptance that means you've arrived, at long last, at your own life. You should buy this book. Oh, and: thanks, Steve.
Rating:
Summary: MINDBENDING.
Review: Steve Erickson is on his own. The best author around at the moment. Read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating but Flawed
Review: Steve Erickson is one of the most challenging and visionary of all contemporary American writers and the fact that many of his books are going out of print is certainly cause for alarm. While some critics have compared Erickson to Pynchon and DeLillo, and there may be some similarities, "The Sea Came in at Midnight" shows Erickson moving past such comparisons and developing a style and technique that is very much his own. "The Sea Came in at Midnight" is certainly his finest novel to date but it is, unfortunately, plagued by some of the same inconsistencies of his previous work. The thematic and stylistic elements of which this novel is composed are the stuff of undeniable brilliance. The innovative structure of the novel is also an asset through most of the novel but by the time we near the end it has become one of the most problematic elements. In this novel Erickson tells several stories at once, weaving each into the others with intricacy and skill. Among the many plots that emerge are a teenage girl's attempt to dream, a madman's attempt to document the world's slide into apocalypse and another teenage girl's brush with death on film. Each plot thread makes for engrossing reading and as I read I was constantly surprised by how Erickson managed to tie one plot thread to the others. The problem is that by the time the end of the novel approaches, which is far too fast, none of the plot lines actually terminate, they just trail out into space. It is possible that Erickson tried to do too much in too small a space - just over 250 pages. This novel might have been better if it had been a hundred or so pages longer and Erickson had been able to bring everything together and create some sort of closure. As it is thing never come full circle, and while perhaps it was not Erickson's intention to close the circle for a while he makes it look like he is definitely trying. Even so "The Sea Came in at Midnight" is a fantastic and absorbing novel, one which is well worth reading more than once. I am eagerly anticipating Erickson's next work and I can only hope that his genius will not continue to go unnoticed.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating "Midnight"
Review: Steve Erickson is one of the most exciting and inventive writers alive today, and it's a shame he's not more widely known. This is a really dazzling book, full of three times as many ideas, and twice as much gorgeous writing as most other books around. One of it's most intriguing ideas is the bordello full of people representing various dates in history, which opens up the theme of people being able to "sleep" with various significant dates of their lives (i.e., constructing a life out of the days that are most important to them). The whole concept of the "memory hotel" is fascinating, too, and I love the way the characters' stories dovetail each other, though there are a few too many characters and stories in the end. But no one else today seems to take as many risks as Erickson, or to be as audaciously fascinating .
Rating:
Summary: What is The Sea?
Review: The three nights I spent reading Erickson's "The Sea Came at Midnight" were both riveting and disturbing. Rarely do I dream, but Erickson's fantasy gave my nights urgent and almost panicked visions. In retrospect I fancy my mind unable to process the wild implications and subconscious import driven to point by only the experiences of his few characters. "The Sea Came at Midnight" is not only beautifully written and well-composed, but it is also ominous... Like all significant works of writing it leaves you hungrier than sated, straining to bring into focus the looming world you know lays waiting behind the words -- A world that is more your own than Erickson's, because he has only given you a fleeting, piercing glimpse at all you refuse to perceive about humanity.
Rating:
Summary: What is The Sea?
Review: The three nights I spent reading Erickson's "The Sea Came at Midnight" were both riveting and disturbing. Rarely do I dream, but Erickson's fantasy gave my nights urgent and almost panicked visions. In retrospect I fancy my mind unable to process the wild implications and subconscious import driven to point by only the experiences of his few characters. "The Sea Came at Midnight" is not only beautifully written and well-composed, but it is also ominous... Like all significant works of writing it leaves you hungrier than sated, straining to bring into focus the looming world you know lays waiting behind the words -- A world that is more your own than Erickson's, because he has only given you a fleeting, piercing glimpse at all you refuse to perceive about humanity.
Rating:
Summary: Erickson returns to form.
Review: This book definitely marks a return to form for Erickson following the disappointing 'Amnesiascope'. This book meastures up in every way to his earlier masterpieces, 'Arc D'X' and 'Tours of the Black Clock'. Earlier reviewers who miss a nice, tidy little ending with all threads tied up and all stories neatly concluded had better go read Stephen King or something. Where have you been? Ever since Joyce's 'Ulysses', the classic Dickensian novelistic style (you know, the one that ties up every thread and winds up with "God bless us, every one", or some such thing) has been left behind by forward-looking writers such as Erickson. One cannot expect him to write in such a reassuring, predictable fashion.
Rating:
Summary: A journey from despair to hope
Review: This is a remarkable achievement in plot and character, although it is certain to leave some readers dissatisfied, confused, or possibly uncomfortable. An assortment of men and women whose moods range from desperate to indifferent are set toward goals they barely comprehend: lost loves, personal identity, procreation, past mistakes they hope to correct, penance for their own sins and those they did not dissuade from evil. The milieu is the usual Erickson almost-real world, a damp, dark place where beings are never fully in control of their energies, needs, and cravings. This is a very erotic book, but one that also crosses into the realm of sexual violence. There are no stereotypes. Every one of the many characters lives and breaths in a macrocosm in which paths continually cross at critical moments. Some readers will not like the complexity. Some would rather not read about sexual exploitation. Some will fail to recognize the remarkable and fully credible transition from despair to hope that this story tells.
Rating:
Summary: Another terrific Erickson!!
Review: This is another incredible example of Steve Erickson's visionary writing. It's great literature with an MTV edit, it's dark, it's the future, it's the past, it's so sexy. He's definitely one of the most underrated writers around.
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