Half the Day Is Night

Rating:
Summary: Another fine novel from Maureen McHugh.
Review: "Half the Day Is Night" is not a sequel to her first novel, "China Mountain Zhang," but it seems to take place in the same fully realized future world of the latter work. It is also written in the same matter-of-fact style, with the same day-in-the-life sort of plot, and the same depth of character. This is not a novel for someone interested in typical SF fare--space adventure, science detectives, epic trilogies, and the like. Although the future imagined here has clearly been carefully constructed, at no point does the narrator intrude upon the characters and the events that unfold to explain things. The effect is one of complete immersion in a different reality, but one that (in retrospect) can easily be extrapolated from our own. That, to me, is one definition of great science fiction. This, to me, is a great science fiction novel. Maureen McHugh is the sort of author who deserves a much wider audience; at the same time, she is the sort of author one knows will never command that audience, by the simple criterion that she writes fiction, not novelizations. I can't recommend this book more highly.

Rating:
Summary: Another fine novel from Maureen McHugh.
Review: "Half the Day Is Night" is not a sequel to her first novel, "China Mountain Zhang," but it seems to take place in the same fully realized future world of the latter work. It is also written in the same matter-of-fact style, with the same day-in-the-life sort of plot, and the same depth of character. This is not a novel for someone interested in typical SF fare--space adventure, science detectives, epic trilogies, and the like. Although the future imagined here has clearly been carefully constructed, at no point does the narrator intrude upon the characters and the events that unfold to explain things. The effect is one of complete immersion in a different reality, but one that (in retrospect) can easily be extrapolated from our own. That, to me, is one definition of great science fiction. This, to me, is a great science fiction novel. Maureen McHugh is the sort of author who deserves a much wider audience; at the same time, she is the sort of author one knows will never command that audience, by the simple criterion that she writes fiction, not novelizations. I can't recommend this book more highly.

Rating:
Summary: Another fine novel from Maureen McHugh.
Review: "Half the Day Is Night" is not a sequel to her first novel, "China Mountain Zhang," but it seems to take place in the same fully realized future world of the latter work. It is also written in the same matter-of-fact style, with the same day-in-the-life sort of plot, and the same depth of character. This is not a novel for someone interested in typical SF fare--space adventure, science detectives, epic trilogies, and the like. Although the future imagined here has clearly been carefully constructed, at no point does the narrator intrude upon the characters and the events that unfold to explain things. The effect is one of complete immersion in a different reality, but one that (in retrospect) can easily be extrapolated from our own. That, to me, is one definition of great science fiction. This, to me, is a great science fiction novel. Maureen McHugh is the sort of author who deserves a much wider audience; at the same time, she is the sort of author one knows will never command that audience, by the simple criterion that she writes fiction, not novelizations. I can't recommend this book more highly.

Rating:
Summary: More life at the bottom
Review: After China Mountain Zhang, I wondered whether McHugh could write anything quite as good. But she has. Again, in terms of physical action, nothing much happens, indeed this book is much more enclosed and claustrophobic than Zhang, not least because of its setting in an undersea city. But the real enclosure is not physical but economic and political; most people are unable to leave because they are too poor or somehow unable to obtain the necessary permits. Like CMZ this is a story about the people left behind in sci-fi's glorious visions of the future, and even though David Dai is in some ways much more of a traditional action hero than Zhang (he's a mercenary and bodyguard), his profession is not glamorous, and the heroic potential is further subverted by necessity which forces him into dangerous and tedious construction work. The politics of Half the Day is Night are more overt than CMZ, more immediately about the vast masses of poor and marginalised in our own world, but, hey, what's wrong with that? There are too few politically engaged fiction writers. Another very thoughtful and satisfying book.

Rating:
Summary: How many ways can you spell B-O-R-I-N-G?
Review: Apparently Maureen McHugh knows dozens for she manages to keep the reader on the edge of their seat. Not through anticipation of events but because they have fallen asleep and can't help but try to escape. It's the future and there are underwater cities and there are problems and crises. At least there are in the boring lives of the boring characters. Sorry, this is one for insomniacs.

Rating:
Summary: How many ways can you spell B-O-R-I-N-G?
Review: Apparently Maureen McHugh knows dozens for she manages to keep the reader on the edge of their seat. Not through anticipation of events but because they have fallen asleep and can't help but try to escape. It's the future and there are underwater cities and there are problems and crises. At least there are in the boring lives of the boring characters. Sorry, this is one for insomniacs.

Rating:
Summary: If Jerry Seinfeld wrote SF¿
Review: Seinfeld's show was about "nothing". So was this book. The characters wandered aimlessly, and they weren't interesting to start with. The undersea world was well-realized, though. It's a good thing I got this from the library, or I'd have been very unhappy with it. I hope her next book is better.

Rating:
Summary: If Jerry Seinfeld wrote SF¿
Review: Seinfeld's show was about "nothing". So was this book. The characters wandered aimlessly, and they weren't interesting to start with. The undersea world was well-realized, though. It's a good thing I got this from the library, or I'd have been very unhappy with it. I hope her next book is better.

Rating:
Summary: Big disappointment
Review: The book starts well but after 170 pages I completely lost interest. The underwater scenario is very promising but the whole atomoshpere is destroyed by boring politics and all too sudden events. After a while I stopped caring for the main characters because their aimless wandering (very realistic, no doubt) was simply boring. I don't want to give any spoiler, anyone who still considers reading this book will soon know what I mean.

This is not a real SF book and it doesn't come close to the great "China Mountain Zhang" or the moving "Nekropolis". Considering the hazzle to get this book in Germany it was a big disappointment.