I'm not sure how to describe or review this book and do it justice.
Set in the same timeline as Light, Nova Swing follows an assortment of characters who have come to settle in Saudade (still not sure if this is the planet or the city or the Event Site...): Fat Antoyne and Liv Hula used to fly spaceships, Edith and Emil used to be part of a traveling show, Irene the Mona came from farther up the tract. Now they live in on a backwater world where they can hop in a tank and be whoever or wherever they want to be or go to a gene tailor and create a new persona. But our cast of characters doesn't seem interested in what they can do to themselves, they're interested who they are and who they could have been. They are a group of dreamers.
This is complicated by the Event Site, a place where part of the Kefahuchi Tract fell to ground and warped the way time and space behave. Several of the characters are drawn to it and some are ambivalent, but the Event Site seems to dictate who will do what. Will Fat Antoyne go in? Will Vic ever come out? And what's the deal with the armpit-tattooing serial killer who did in Lens Ashemmans wife?
There are moments of pure brilliance in this book, with great insightful turns of phrases. And there are moments of sheer head-scratchers. I don't care to read a novel and have to sit and decipher what I just read. A good example of this is the blurb on the back of the book just doesn't match what's going on the inside. And I really felt there were too many threads that didn't get resolved. That almost bothers me more than questioning what I just read every couple of chapters.
Still, if you enjoyed Light, you'll probably like this one as well.
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