The Memory of Fire

Rating:
Summary: literary SF
Review: I gave this book five stars because it is the only book I have read in the last ten years that I would consider reading again immediately after finishing it. Its plot is not strong, as other reviewers have remarked, but I imagine the author would not claim that this book is written for those who demand a lively plot. The book is set in the future, and there are some interesting futuristic scenes as well as a framework for the story line based on conjectures about the consequences of corporations that extend past national boundaries, abuse of the media to form public opinion, and excessive influence of corporations on official policy. The real power of this book, though, is its ability to put you in this future world and acquaint you with the intimate thoughts of someone who lives there.

One of the professional reviewers pans the writing, but I put the quality of the writing at the top end of the spectrum. The writing is strongly evocative. It provides a strong mood for the book, and a very unusual solidity of surroundings. In a way I have rarely, if ever, before experienced in a futuristic novel, I finished the book thinking that I would not be at all surprised to be able to buy an airline ticket to Bamaca, and disembark to see exactly what the book described. And though the San Francisco of The Memory of Fire does not exist, if one is willing to suspend one's knowledge of the facts, the book gives its city the same feeling of reality we experience when we think of the real San Francisco.

As another reviewer remarked, the protagonist, Solidad MacRae, is not someone we would be likely to meet on the street. On the other hand, she comes across as a very real person. Many SF books give characterization short shrift. Most of the best put believable people into the plot. In contrast, MOF builds the plot around an improbable character, and somewhere along the line gives her life.

There is much in the book about Solidad's personal relationships. Relationships with her mother and father, her past and current lovers, even her lover's daughter. This focus on her relationships is what makes Solidad so real. It is also what makes this book a distinctly literary sort of book rather than SF. It is also the aspect of the book that comes close to putting the plot in the back seat. Someone who has trouble understanding people who are not like them will probably not enjoy this book, because they will fail to appreciate what the words about Solidad are doing. My view is the following. If I want a book likely to have a riveting plot, I can read John Grisham or Michael Crichton or Stephen King. If I want to feed my mind with new technical ideas, I really should read some book on programming, because it furthers my career. I do often choose science fiction because it has both of these, but what I am really looking for in my SF is books about people in an interesting situation. And this book is about someone in spades, even to the extent that it does not come across much as science fiction despite its distinctly futuristic setting.

Another interesting aspect of the book is its attempt to describe musical experiences. It is extremely difficult to describe the experience of music in words. I have been a musician, and I would say the author comes amazingly close to the mark as he relates to us Solidad's thoughts about her instrument, her performances and nervousness, and her music. This facet of the story could have been reduced without doing serious damage to the plot, but that would have deprived us readers of a rare opportunity to learn something of the meaning music has to the serious musician.

I said I would read the book again immediately. That's so because this book is packed so full of comments on life and about the envisioned future that I felt I was only able to take in about 50% of what is there to get on the first reading, and experiencing the mood of the book is so interesting that it would not be a chore to read it a second time. In reality, I probably won't go through it again because "So many books, so little time." But I got far more than my time and money's worth just from the 50% of the meat that my efforts garnered me.

This book is decidedly not for everyone. It's not for the hardcore SF fan or the typical fantasy reader. It IS for a sensitive person for whom experiencing other people's lives through the written word is a valued gift, and who is wide open to living that life vicariously in a world that does not exist. It is for someone who appreciates mood and literary style. And it is for someone who is of pretty liberal persuasion, and for whom social issues have some interest. If this description fits you, then I cannot recommend this book too highly. And if you love music, so much the better!

Rating:
Summary: Intense but not gratifying
Review: I like the writing of George Foy enough to buy every one of his books that appears. I thoroughly relished "The Shift", found "Contraband" less pleasing and more difficult, and find "The Memory of Fire" to be even more so.

The characterization is excellent, as is Foy's wonderful use of language and his ability to evoke vivid and realistic scenes in which to place his action. I enjoyed getting to know a great deal about Soledad MacRae; her personal experiences, her inner life as a musician, her relationships with Jorge and Stix and the other characters that crossed her path. Foy made life in the Cruces very real in my mind, and I liked "being there".

In spite of its intriguing exotic atmosphere, I found the novel wanting. It moves very slowly, but jumps erratically between the time frames and places from which Soledad is escaping. Even though the story gradually heats up to a violent action packed conclusion, I felt that I was getting ever more bogged down and plodding through it. I wasn't carried along by its final energy.

I suggest passing on this one, and keeping an eye on whatever comes next from Foy. I love his writing and hope that his next effort has more than atmosphere.

Rating:
Summary: Intense but not gratifying
Review: I like the writing of George Foy enough to buy every one of his books that appears. I thoroughly relished "The Shift", found "Contraband" less pleasing and more difficult, and find "The Memory of Fire" to be even more so.

The characterization is excellent, as is Foy's wonderful use of language and his ability to evoke vivid and realistic scenes in which to place his action. I enjoyed getting to know a great deal about Soledad MacRae; her personal experiences, her inner life as a musician, her relationships with Jorge and Stix and the other characters that crossed her path. Foy made life in the Cruces very real in my mind, and I liked "being there".

In spite of its intriguing exotic atmosphere, I found the novel wanting. It moves very slowly, but jumps erratically between the time frames and places from which Soledad is escaping. Even though the story gradually heats up to a violent action packed conclusion, I felt that I was getting ever more bogged down and plodding through it. I wasn't carried along by its final energy.

I suggest passing on this one, and keeping an eye on whatever comes next from Foy. I love his writing and hope that his next effort has more than atmosphere.

Rating:
Summary: Intense but not gratifying
Review: I like the writing of George Foy enough to buy every one of his books that appears. I thoroughly relished "The Shift", found "Contraband" less pleasing and more difficult, and find "The Memory of Fire" to be even more so.

The characterization is excellent, as is Foy's wonderful use of language and his ability to evoke vivid and realistic scenes in which to place his action. I enjoyed getting to know a great deal about Soledad MacRae; her personal experiences, her inner life as a musician, her relationships with Jorge and Stix and the other characters that crossed her path. Foy made life in the Cruces very real in my mind, and I liked "being there".

In spite of its intriguing exotic atmosphere, I found the novel wanting. It moves very slowly, but jumps erratically between the time frames and places from which Soledad is escaping. Even though the story gradually heats up to a violent action packed conclusion, I felt that I was getting ever more bogged down and plodding through it. I wasn't carried along by its final energy.

I suggest passing on this one, and keeping an eye on whatever comes next from Foy. I love his writing and hope that his next effort has more than atmosphere.

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing from an excellent author
Review: I've loved previous works by Foy but found this one very disappointing. The plot was nebulous; by the time I figured out what was going on, I didn't care. The writing, while always showing talent, was full of "empty" detail which neither elucidated Foy's (rather confusing) world nor advanced the plot. I found the main character petulant, annoying and ethnically improbable (Caribbean/Creole yet occasionally speaks in Scots dialect). This book is like a tangle of lush tropical undergrowth which would benefit from the use of a machete. I could not finish it. Read The Shift or Contraband instead.

Rating:
Summary: Dreamy
Review: If you, like one of the reviewers here on Amazon.com, thought that Foy's previous book, "Contraband", was similar in style to James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", then this is "Ulysses".

Nothing much actually happens in this book, it is mostly a stream of thoughts by the main character Soledad MacRae. The setting picks up on the idea in the quote to chapter 21 in "Contraband". In this quote, BON talks about Hawkley-ites establishing communities called "nodes" that behave like sovereign states and trade freely.

"The Memory of Fire" starts with the destruction of Soledad's node and continues in two main streams. One stream is her memory of the events that led up to the destruction of the node, from her moving from the "normal" city to the node, falling - perhaps - in love, and discovering herself as a woman. The other stream talks about her flight to the American node, the fight for its survival, and Soledad's further self-disovery.

It is a difficult read - much more so than Foy's previous books - but it pays off reasonably well for the patient reader. If you liked the previous works then be aware that this story is quite different: much more thought stream and much less "cyperpunk". And almost no Hawkley quotes! Depending on your tastes, this may be a better or worse starting point. "Contraband" is certainly an easier read. If you don't enjoy the "cyber" elements then you might prefer this volume.

A good effort by George Foy.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites
Review: It's been a while since I read this book, but I remember loving it when I read it (i.e. the five stars). Much of it had to do with Foy's description of the nodes, which given my travels, and associations with artists and musicians, I found very familiar and stirring. Of course I think this goes to the heart of why some people love Foy and some don't. He definitely takes a stand on issues that most authors just float by, and if you're on the other side of these arguements I'm sure he would seem quite absurd; hence the 1 star reviewer, who I'm sure falls firmly in his self-described "no fun crowd." ;)

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites
Review: It's been a while since I read this book, but I remember loving it when I read it (i.e. the five stars). Much of it had to do with Foy's description of the nodes, which given my travels, and associations with artists and musicians, I found very familiar and stirring. Of course I think this goes to the heart of why some people love Foy and some don't. He definitely takes a stand on issues that most authors just float by, and if you're on the other side of these arguements I'm sure he would seem quite absurd; hence the 1 star reviewer, who I'm sure falls firmly in his self-described "no fun crowd." ;)

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful stuff
Review: Like its forerunners, MOF turns on the notion of subversion. Unlike its forerunners, it forgoes a certain page-turning heat in favor of cooler, deeper analysis. This may put off some readers; it didn't put me off. Can you conquer social or political demons without conquering your own? I don't know, but I love this author for tackling the question.

Foy writes with sensuality & immediacy; MOF has the same scary sense of place as his previous novels. He has an unsettling talent of creating scenes you can't forget even when you try to.

This is a super-ambitious novel. For one thing, a male author is trying to create a credible female protagonist. For another, it's in part about music, and "writing about music is like dancing about architecture," as somebody once said. These are high hurdles, but in my opinion, Foy clears them.

Rating:
Summary: Pretentious and Ponderous
Review: So it's about 50 years from now, and everybody's amusing themselves to death, except in the nodes or "cruces" where the fun crowd likes to stay. So: the no fun crowd blows up accordianist Soledad McCrae's "cruce" in Latin America with her lover and all her fun crowd friends and the next thing you know she's in the Bay Area mutely hanging with another fun crowd (and oh oh, tossing her cookies in the morning, uhuh, uhuh) and the no fun crowd is after _them_ too, and the flashbacks are told in the present sense and the present-time events are told in the past tense and Soledad is so _not_ fun herself that you really want to slap her, and there are a lot of Spanish words and so every tenth word is in italics and there's all this arcane musicology stuff.

But this is cyberpunk, so there are also lots of product references and the fun crowd are all heroes and the no fun crowd are fascists, and there's this performance art machine that keeps smashing the carcass of a dead horse against the wall and Doris Lessing likes it and on the back cover compares Foy to Conrad (you cannot make this stuff up) and another blurb mentions Hemingway.

So I guess this is for graduate students in English or American studies who want to deconstruct science fiction. I.e., paraphrasing what Dr. Samuel Johnson once said about a popular drama of his day: "this is a book not to read, but to have read."

Whatever.