Help: RSS Feed?
Paul Di Filippo reviews Christopher Evans’ Omega
Posted by Paul Raven on June 24th, 2008 at 7:26
Renowned author-turned-reviewer Paul Di Filippo turns the SCI FI Weekly spotlight on Christopher Evans' most recent novel from PS Publishing, Omega - and he likes what he sees:
"Certainly [Omega] will garner deserved comparisons to recent work by Christopher Priest, Brian Aldiss and Ian MacLeod. Evans works in the same rueful, elegiac mode as his fellow Brits. Think also of Alan Moore's V for Vendetta (1988). Unlike American, Turtledovian uchronias, which always seem to be about wresting control of the timestream back toward "normality" or exploiting the altered historical conditions for fun and profit and adventures, U.K. alternate histories revel in fleshing out doomed scenarios that possess an inertia all their own, and which serve as object moral lessons. And indeed, Evans's scenario does just that.
The moody tangibility of Owain's dire circumstances—"Decades of warfare had led to pollution and ionisation of the upper atmosphere so that the skies were seldom truly dark by night or free of murkiness by day."—drives home to the reader exactly what a charmed life we lead nowadays. Despite surging gasoline prices, acts of terrorism, greenhouse effects and other global worries, our world—and thus Owen's—is a utopia by comparison to Owain's. This ability of SF to shine a light on the historical record, giving us a fresh retrospective view of our century, and exactly how lucky we've been, is an extremely useful and valuable tool that mainstream fiction cannot supply."
Another great clipping for Evans' folder - and for ours as well! I know Peter was particularly proud to be publishing Omega, and the steady stream of strong reviews has served to prove his instincts correct.
So, click through below to order your own copy of Omega and find out what all the fuss is about!
- Omega (signed, limited, slipcased hardcover) - £50.00 ($100.00 approx.)
- Omega (hardcover) - £20.00 ($40.00 approx.)
