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The Fractured Europe Sequence #2
Europe at Midnight
In a fractured Europe, new nations are springing up everywhere, some literally overnight.
For an intelligence officer like Jim it's a nightmare. Every week or so a friendly power spawns a new and unknown national entity which may or may not be friendly to England's interests. It's hard to keep on top of it all.
But things are about to get worse for Jim. A stabbing on a London bus pitches him into a world where his intelligence service is preparing for war with another universe, and a man has appeared who may hold the key to unlocking Europe's most jealously guarded secret...
For an intelligence officer like Jim it's a nightmare. Every week or so a friendly power spawns a new and unknown national entity which may or may not be friendly to England's interests. It's hard to keep on top of it all.
But things are about to get worse for Jim. A stabbing on a London bus pitches him into a world where his intelligence service is preparing for war with another universe, and a man has appeared who may hold the key to unlocking Europe's most jealously guarded secret...
304 pages, Paperback
First published November 5, 2015
About the author
Dave Hutchinson
55 books228 followersUK writer who published four volumes of stories by the age of twenty-one – Thumbprints, which is mostly fantasy, Fools' Gold, Torn Air and The Paradise Equation, all as David Hutchinson – and then moved into journalism. The deftness and quiet humaneness of his work was better than precocious, though the deracinatedness of the worlds depicted in the later stories may have derived in part from the author's apparent isolation from normal publishing channels.
After a decade of nonfiction, Hutchinson returned to the field as Dave Hutchinson, assembling later work in As the Crow Flies; tales like "The Pavement Artist" use sf devices to represent, far more fully than in his early work, a sense of the world as inherently and tragically not a platform for Transcendence. His first novel, The Villages, is Fantasy; The Push, an sf tale set in the Human Space sector of the home galaxy, describes the inception of Faster Than Light travel and some consequent complications when expanding humanity settles on a planet full of Alien life. Europe in Autumn (2014), an sf thriller involving espionage, takes place in a highly fragmented and still fragmenting Near-Future Europe, one of whose sovereign mini-nations is a transcontinental railway line; over the course of the central plot – which seems to reflect some aspects of Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 – the protagonist becomes involved in the Paranoia-inducing Les Coureurs des Bois, a mysterious postal service which also delivers humans across innumerable borders.
- See more at: http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/hutc...
Works
* The Villages (Holicong, Pennsylvania: Cosmos Books, 2001)
* Europe in Autumn (Oxford, Oxfordshire: Rebellion/Solaris, 2014)
Collections and Stories
* Thumbprints (London: Abelard, 1978)
* Fools' Gold (London: Abelard, 1978)
* Torn Air (London: Abelard, 1980)
* The Paradise Equation (London: Abelard, 1981)
* As the Crow Flies (Wigan, Lancashire: BeWrite Books, 2004)
* The Push (Alconbury Weston, Cambridgeshire: NewCon Press, 2009)
After a decade of nonfiction, Hutchinson returned to the field as Dave Hutchinson, assembling later work in As the Crow Flies; tales like "The Pavement Artist" use sf devices to represent, far more fully than in his early work, a sense of the world as inherently and tragically not a platform for Transcendence. His first novel, The Villages, is Fantasy; The Push, an sf tale set in the Human Space sector of the home galaxy, describes the inception of Faster Than Light travel and some consequent complications when expanding humanity settles on a planet full of Alien life. Europe in Autumn (2014), an sf thriller involving espionage, takes place in a highly fragmented and still fragmenting Near-Future Europe, one of whose sovereign mini-nations is a transcontinental railway line; over the course of the central plot – which seems to reflect some aspects of Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 – the protagonist becomes involved in the Paranoia-inducing Les Coureurs des Bois, a mysterious postal service which also delivers humans across innumerable borders.
- See more at: http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/hutc...
Works
* The Villages (Holicong, Pennsylvania: Cosmos Books, 2001)
* Europe in Autumn (Oxford, Oxfordshire: Rebellion/Solaris, 2014)
Collections and Stories
* Thumbprints (London: Abelard, 1978)
* Fools' Gold (London: Abelard, 1978)
* Torn Air (London: Abelard, 1980)
* The Paradise Equation (London: Abelard, 1981)
* As the Crow Flies (Wigan, Lancashire: BeWrite Books, 2004)
* The Push (Alconbury Weston, Cambridgeshire: NewCon Press, 2009)
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 163 reviews
February 10, 2017
Running parallel to the times and events of the first novel, this one is still full of spycraft and intelligence work from both sides of a very, very strange divide.
On one side, we have a true Invisible College, in spirit and in reality, that is barely accessible to the real world of our near future after a plague has decimated the world badly and even worse for Europe. Civilization is still around, though, and so is the politics that make life living there damn stressful.
So what happens when a mystery of a map in the first book, a place that doesn't, and can't exist, then meets up with the Invisible College that has been purposefully estranged from modern society so as to continue or enact research that is frowned upon by the modern world?
Well, obviously, it's a true security nightmare.
The plot and the pacing works as well as the later portions of the first novel, using the hops and jumps to good effect while having a stronger and more established Intelligence officer taking the lead.
No spoilers here. Things happen. And we get to see a lot of both sides of the equation.
But that brings me to a single word that I love.
Cartocalypse. I love this. A destruction of Maps. :) An apocalypse of cartography! :) For those who've read the first one, I'm sure this'll mean something to you. Let's bring it to the next level! :)
And now I'm looking forward to reading the next one, which I just got from Netgalley. Woo!
On one side, we have a true Invisible College, in spirit and in reality, that is barely accessible to the real world of our near future after a plague has decimated the world badly and even worse for Europe. Civilization is still around, though, and so is the politics that make life living there damn stressful.
So what happens when a mystery of a map in the first book, a place that doesn't, and can't exist, then meets up with the Invisible College that has been purposefully estranged from modern society so as to continue or enact research that is frowned upon by the modern world?
Well, obviously, it's a true security nightmare.
The plot and the pacing works as well as the later portions of the first novel, using the hops and jumps to good effect while having a stronger and more established Intelligence officer taking the lead.
No spoilers here. Things happen. And we get to see a lot of both sides of the equation.
But that brings me to a single word that I love.
Cartocalypse. I love this. A destruction of Maps. :) An apocalypse of cartography! :) For those who've read the first one, I'm sure this'll mean something to you. Let's bring it to the next level! :)
And now I'm looking forward to reading the next one, which I just got from Netgalley. Woo!
December 31, 2015
Somebody please give this to Trump and Cruz. The most geopolitically relevant SF series I've encountered in a long time, and I'm thrilled that this highly imaginative yet grounded sequel approaches 'Fractured Europe' from an entirely different angle. Series-phobes need not fear: this easily standalone novel gently contributes to the plot in 'Europe in Autumn,' without relying on it. I'm eagerly looking forward to the next novel in the cycle.
April 1, 2016
New review! It'll be up at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud for a few weeks before coming here.
Author Dave Hutchinson takes so many strands from EUROPE IN AUTUMN and they are weaving together. This entry in the sequence does an excellent job of resolving puzzles, adding puzzles, and making the next book (out from Rebellion Publishing in November!) torture. Oh, and this is another great cover!
Author Dave Hutchinson takes so many strands from EUROPE IN AUTUMN and they are weaving together. This entry in the sequence does an excellent job of resolving puzzles, adding puzzles, and making the next book (out from Rebellion Publishing in November!) torture. Oh, and this is another great cover!
August 15, 2016
Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.
I have to start out by saying I didn’t really want to read Europe At Midnight. The only reason I bought it is because it was nominated for the Arthur C Clarke award this year and I decided to review the whole shortlist. I didn’t want to read this because that I wasn’t a fan of Europe In Autumn, but I think it’s partly my own fault that I didn’t like it. I went into that book expecting a sci-fi story (I mean you would expect that if a book has been nominated for a sci-fi award right?) and what I actually found was a very well written spy novel with a little bit of science-fiction bolted on at the end. And I think that shock at not getting what I expected was a large part of the reason I didn’t like that book, to the point where I want to go read it again knowing it’s really more of a spy novel.
Anyway that’s enough about the first book. Europe At Midnight is the sequel to Europe In Autumn and is partially set in one of the pocket universes you are introduced to at the end of the first book. This particular universe is essentially a large university campus and our main character is a type of detective who lives there. Look I’m going to be totally honest. I read this and I still don’t fully understand the whole plot, you’re better off reading the blurb than reading my attempt at summarising it.
I suppose that may also give you an idea of how I feel about this book (you may also like to know I finished it and immediately put it on my to-be-donated pile). Basically this book was just okay. I really liked the spy aspect of it but the rest was kind of boring. The characters were fine, you have two main characters and because of the way it was written I found it really difficult telling who’s point of view the story was being told from. The beginning wasn’t so bad for this because the characters were in two separate places but by the end I had no idea what character was talking.
The ending was very meh. It didn’t have any real conclusion, it sort of just stopped. In fact I vaguely remember having this same problem with Europe In Autumn. The only good thing I can tell you about this book is you don’t need to read the first to understand what is going on in this one (and I can say that with complete certainty because I remember very little of what happened in the first book). Basically it was just okay. But if you want a good spy novel go read something by John Le Carre instead.
I have to start out by saying I didn’t really want to read Europe At Midnight. The only reason I bought it is because it was nominated for the Arthur C Clarke award this year and I decided to review the whole shortlist. I didn’t want to read this because that I wasn’t a fan of Europe In Autumn, but I think it’s partly my own fault that I didn’t like it. I went into that book expecting a sci-fi story (I mean you would expect that if a book has been nominated for a sci-fi award right?) and what I actually found was a very well written spy novel with a little bit of science-fiction bolted on at the end. And I think that shock at not getting what I expected was a large part of the reason I didn’t like that book, to the point where I want to go read it again knowing it’s really more of a spy novel.
Anyway that’s enough about the first book. Europe At Midnight is the sequel to Europe In Autumn and is partially set in one of the pocket universes you are introduced to at the end of the first book. This particular universe is essentially a large university campus and our main character is a type of detective who lives there. Look I’m going to be totally honest. I read this and I still don’t fully understand the whole plot, you’re better off reading the blurb than reading my attempt at summarising it.
I suppose that may also give you an idea of how I feel about this book (you may also like to know I finished it and immediately put it on my to-be-donated pile). Basically this book was just okay. I really liked the spy aspect of it but the rest was kind of boring. The characters were fine, you have two main characters and because of the way it was written I found it really difficult telling who’s point of view the story was being told from. The beginning wasn’t so bad for this because the characters were in two separate places but by the end I had no idea what character was talking.
The ending was very meh. It didn’t have any real conclusion, it sort of just stopped. In fact I vaguely remember having this same problem with Europe In Autumn. The only good thing I can tell you about this book is you don’t need to read the first to understand what is going on in this one (and I can say that with complete certainty because I remember very little of what happened in the first book). Basically it was just okay. But if you want a good spy novel go read something by John Le Carre instead.
February 24, 2016
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I've skimmed through the predecessor to this book, "Europe in Autumn", and as I skimmed I didn't get drawn into the story enough to slow down and really concentrate on it. These books do require concentration, as they deal with complicated political problems and how they affect your average Joe and Jane. (For these books, it's mostly Joe.) "Europe at Midnight" grabbed me sooner, mostly because the book starts right off in a very strange setting. Our POV character is a professor who's also an intelligence officer who is trying to maintain the equilibrium of his world, which is also a university, in the wake of a coup. There's a murder, of course. For the first chapter I was fascinated by trying to figure out the setting. It's a university, it's a whole world that's only a few hundred miles in diameter, everyone is a Student, Research Assistant, or Professor, it seems like the coup has just overthrown a fascist regime, there's a food shortage... it felt very much like post WWII in central Europe.
And then- we're thrown into another world altogether, our world. Our new POV character is Jim, someone in government service who's asked to investigate a strange attack that took place on a bus. Eventually these two characters become aware of each other and begin working together.
The book reminds me of "The City and the City" by China Mieville because of the hidden worlds that are part of this convoluted plot. It reminds me of John LeCarre because of its description of spy work that is at one detached and intensely personal, boring and tedious with brief bursts of incredible danger, and also because of the Britishness of our two intelligence officers. These guys are quite aware that they are cogs in a vast machine, and while they believe that they can hopefully make a difference, they never overestimate their value to their controllers. It's a jaded, sad, yet somehow chivalrous world view.
I think I probably missed some plot convolutions here and there, because things happen to these men that aren't always explained, and I can only hope I figured out what was really going on. The books are definitely very male-centered. Even with that bit of confusion and neglect of complex female characters, I was drawn into the story and I'd definitely be interested to read the next book.
I've skimmed through the predecessor to this book, "Europe in Autumn", and as I skimmed I didn't get drawn into the story enough to slow down and really concentrate on it. These books do require concentration, as they deal with complicated political problems and how they affect your average Joe and Jane. (For these books, it's mostly Joe.) "Europe at Midnight" grabbed me sooner, mostly because the book starts right off in a very strange setting. Our POV character is a professor who's also an intelligence officer who is trying to maintain the equilibrium of his world, which is also a university, in the wake of a coup. There's a murder, of course. For the first chapter I was fascinated by trying to figure out the setting. It's a university, it's a whole world that's only a few hundred miles in diameter, everyone is a Student, Research Assistant, or Professor, it seems like the coup has just overthrown a fascist regime, there's a food shortage... it felt very much like post WWII in central Europe.
And then- we're thrown into another world altogether, our world. Our new POV character is Jim, someone in government service who's asked to investigate a strange attack that took place on a bus. Eventually these two characters become aware of each other and begin working together.
The book reminds me of "The City and the City" by China Mieville because of the hidden worlds that are part of this convoluted plot. It reminds me of John LeCarre because of its description of spy work that is at one detached and intensely personal, boring and tedious with brief bursts of incredible danger, and also because of the Britishness of our two intelligence officers. These guys are quite aware that they are cogs in a vast machine, and while they believe that they can hopefully make a difference, they never overestimate their value to their controllers. It's a jaded, sad, yet somehow chivalrous world view.
I think I probably missed some plot convolutions here and there, because things happen to these men that aren't always explained, and I can only hope I figured out what was really going on. The books are definitely very male-centered. Even with that bit of confusion and neglect of complex female characters, I was drawn into the story and I'd definitely be interested to read the next book.
April 17, 2016
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2608840.html
I hugely enjoyed Europe in Autumn, which we shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award last year and which also got onto the BSFA shortlist. Here Dave Hutchinson returns to his future world of a fragmented Europe, but from a very different angle: rather than exploring the new frontiers that have been erected in our world, his spy hero finds himself exploring also parallel maps to societies which are liminally linked to us, there and yet not there. It's a book with One Big Idea, explored at leisure and in a way that made me care very much about the outcome of the main characters' investigations. Given the current febrile state of relations between the UK and the rest of Europe, it's a timely reminder that things could be very different. I loved it.
I hugely enjoyed Europe in Autumn, which we shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award last year and which also got onto the BSFA shortlist. Here Dave Hutchinson returns to his future world of a fragmented Europe, but from a very different angle: rather than exploring the new frontiers that have been erected in our world, his spy hero finds himself exploring also parallel maps to societies which are liminally linked to us, there and yet not there. It's a book with One Big Idea, explored at leisure and in a way that made me care very much about the outcome of the main characters' investigations. Given the current febrile state of relations between the UK and the rest of Europe, it's a timely reminder that things could be very different. I loved it.
January 11, 2017
This is a terrific series, highly recommend.
March 27, 2017
When I reread my review of Europe In Autumn, I realized I’d actually written a review for Europe At Midnight already. Nearly everything I mentioned there holds true for this second installment in the Fractured Europe Sequence: no filler, solid prose, interesting geopolitical setting, some references to spy novels, no pretension, entertaining, fresh, snappy, imaginative, gritty. As you might know Midnight is not a sequel to Autumn, but more of a companion volume.
So, what’s the new?
(...)
If you haven’t read the first book, do not read the next two paragraphs. While reading it struck me that Europe At Midnight is a kind of 21st century version of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. That might sound a bit goofy, but bear with me… Just like Susanna Clarke’s 2004 masterpiece, it has Englishness all over it it. And even more importantly, it also deals with characters wanting to explore a hidden alternate reality, an alternate reality that is woven from a different fabric, but very connected nonetheless. This other universe is also at odds with our own, and is of a conservative nature, a universe stuck in a bygone era.
(...)
Please read the full review on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It
So, what’s the new?
(...)
If you haven’t read the first book, do not read the next two paragraphs. While reading it struck me that Europe At Midnight is a kind of 21st century version of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. That might sound a bit goofy, but bear with me… Just like Susanna Clarke’s 2004 masterpiece, it has Englishness all over it it. And even more importantly, it also deals with characters wanting to explore a hidden alternate reality, an alternate reality that is woven from a different fabric, but very connected nonetheless. This other universe is also at odds with our own, and is of a conservative nature, a universe stuck in a bygone era.
(...)
Please read the full review on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It
November 25, 2016
This reminds me of The City & the City by China Miéville, but not nearly as deliberately obscure, ambiguous or outrightly (new) weird. Instead, Hutchinson’s take on mirror/pocket polities plays like a straight thriller, and is therefore likely to appeal to non-genre fans (who are likely to pat themselves on the back for dipping a toe into the genre ocean). The SF trappings here are sprinkled very, very lightly, to the extent that the obvious (well, to real genre readers) quantum underpinnings are largely intuited than stated explicitly. Hutchinson is a keen observer and scene-setter, with a rather mordant wit, which makes for a fun and occasionally droll read. I am unsure if the second instalment improves much on the first; our understanding of the mysterious Community and its opaque motives is still too fragmented for any cohesive conclusion.
December 18, 2016
More excellent post-EU cartomantic espionage with new protagonists and a new perspective. It got away from me a little at the end, but gripping stuff. And it now feels like a world with women in it, yay!
Full review.
Full review.
December 10, 2015
Even better than Europe in Autumn and such a perfect reading experience in these times, when Europe is on the brink of collapse or at least is preparing for great changes.
July 5, 2016
A little more confusing to follow, but neat to see how even with the time differences, Rupert's story coincides and meets up with Rudi's. Really enjoyable ideas!
July 1, 2017
One of the few good things about growing up in the 80s was the horror, be it in movies or a political reality that meant instant death after a four-minute warning. The emotion also underpinned spy fiction at the time in print and other media; Ian Bannen’s terrified expression when he is cornered at the beginning of the TV production of ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ is as terrifying as anything on Elm Street. Horror was a visceral response to the meeting in the human imagination of personal vulnerability and vast, impersonal forces – would we have been all that surprised if Raegan had turned out to be Cthulu?
Since the end of the Cold War, spy fiction has struggled a bit. In the derivative, infantile 90s James Bond went up against media moguls and the like, who were hardly the nightmare figures of Goldfinger or Blofeld. It could look like irony that the best contemporary source of that bleak, realist thrill is Dave Hutchinson’s ‘Europe’ science fiction series, although much spy fiction shares the same roots as SF, perhaps because both genres are rooted in a sense of alienation. Spies are usually where they are not meant to be, and much is made of culture clashes and loosening grips on reality, not to mention outright SF like the brainwashing machine in ‘The Ipcress File’ movie, which takes these tropes to their logical extreme.
Fittingly, I started the Europe series with ‘Europe at Midnight’, which at the time of writing is the middle book of a trilogy. I didn’t feel I’d lost anything by starting here, and have since been advised that it’s best to read the first book next, then the third because despite the rigorous narrative things get a bit timey wimey.
Another SF element is that the series examines a fracturing Europe and was written before the loathsome EU referendum and its cretinous result. As the fallout from that calamity continues, it’s a curious feeling to read a novel that examines an alternative reality consisting of an idealised England that for all its Miss Marple-in-Ealing tweeness is dull, tasteless and psychopathic.
Not since ‘The Man in the High Castle’ have I read a novel and wondered halfway through if in fact it was reading me. SF rightly celebrates its ability to inspire a sense of wonder; however, of equal value is a feeling of displacement from what we could call normal reality, but which could equally be a self-perpetuating bubble of deluded nationalism. Given the insidious fashioning of the national psyche by foreign-owned, tax-avoiding entities using push-button politics based on race to further purely commercial interests, such displacement has a political as well as imaginative urgency. Indeed, political science – always the poor relation to the gleaming cheerleaders of physics and astronomy – tends to enjoy a greater longevity than those improbable rockets filled with improbably singular racial crews. Everyone knows ‘1984’ even if they haven’t read it. Can we say the same about ‘Triplanetary?’.
The hero here is a chef called Rudi from one of the alternative English realms. Known as the Campus, the place is a suitably Orwellian nightmare of intractable vested interests and abysmal facilities management. For all that, the place has a genuine sense of community, unlike another of the alternative realms called the Community that is anything but.
There’s much in the novel to leaven its underlying, bracing bleakness. The two main things are humour, such as the line about the English not minding Europe providing they are in charge of it, and subtle, deft characterisation. The latter is best exemplified by the relationship with Rudi, who escapes into our realm, and Jim, his MI5 handler. It’s a relationship that survives missions over great lengths of time, with Jim’s concern for Rudi personal as well as professional, despite the awful situations Rudi is placed in while carrying out Jim’s instructions. That Jim is always working Rudi on one level or another despite his regard for him doesn’t make the outcome any less moving. Rather, the author’s grasp of genre is so subtle that it’s even woven into story’s emotions. Jim and Rudi are never completely sure of each other; their relationship a correlative for the political reality around them, as ‘our-world’ Europe breaks into ever-smaller corporate nation states. There are shades of ‘Neuromancer’ here, particularly in the super-wealthy walled European city/country that may be the data nexus for more than one reality. That Rudi can penetrate it due to an underestimate of sewage capacity is a brilliant and very English twist that leads to a predictably nauseating odyssey through a genuine underworld, accompanied by a psychopathic female torturer who I must guiltily admit is one of my favourite characters.
She at least is honest, unlike the Community. The Community is nice. Really, jolly nice. It’s full of those villages John Major was always going on about; stodgy food and no bloody foreigners. The lower classes know their place, which is to shut up and get on with whatever lumbering tedium it is their betters don’t want to sully their soft, pink hands with, like farming and fishing. Some fishermen kick off, upset about their version of zero-hour contracts and are duly never heard of again. Spiffing.
Then the Campus annoys the Community, and we come to a resolution that, like all the best horror, gets worse each time you read or think about it. The best that can be said about the sequence is the introduction of an SAS officer, who represents the best of Englishness with an insane degree of cheery practicality while doing his life-threatening, impossible job very well.
I would recommend this book any time, but especially now. It has such a fine grasp of national identity and the author is such a good SF thriller writer that the drubbing he gives the various factions never feels vicious or partisan. The story achieves all the tensions and excitement I mentioned at the beginning of this review and takes them in new and unexpected directions. For all the bleakness, it never loses heart; particularly in the character of Rudi, who despite being an immigrant from another dimension embodies the kind of battered, bloody-minded intelligence and creative resolve that England can do so well.
Since the end of the Cold War, spy fiction has struggled a bit. In the derivative, infantile 90s James Bond went up against media moguls and the like, who were hardly the nightmare figures of Goldfinger or Blofeld. It could look like irony that the best contemporary source of that bleak, realist thrill is Dave Hutchinson’s ‘Europe’ science fiction series, although much spy fiction shares the same roots as SF, perhaps because both genres are rooted in a sense of alienation. Spies are usually where they are not meant to be, and much is made of culture clashes and loosening grips on reality, not to mention outright SF like the brainwashing machine in ‘The Ipcress File’ movie, which takes these tropes to their logical extreme.
Fittingly, I started the Europe series with ‘Europe at Midnight’, which at the time of writing is the middle book of a trilogy. I didn’t feel I’d lost anything by starting here, and have since been advised that it’s best to read the first book next, then the third because despite the rigorous narrative things get a bit timey wimey.
Another SF element is that the series examines a fracturing Europe and was written before the loathsome EU referendum and its cretinous result. As the fallout from that calamity continues, it’s a curious feeling to read a novel that examines an alternative reality consisting of an idealised England that for all its Miss Marple-in-Ealing tweeness is dull, tasteless and psychopathic.
Not since ‘The Man in the High Castle’ have I read a novel and wondered halfway through if in fact it was reading me. SF rightly celebrates its ability to inspire a sense of wonder; however, of equal value is a feeling of displacement from what we could call normal reality, but which could equally be a self-perpetuating bubble of deluded nationalism. Given the insidious fashioning of the national psyche by foreign-owned, tax-avoiding entities using push-button politics based on race to further purely commercial interests, such displacement has a political as well as imaginative urgency. Indeed, political science – always the poor relation to the gleaming cheerleaders of physics and astronomy – tends to enjoy a greater longevity than those improbable rockets filled with improbably singular racial crews. Everyone knows ‘1984’ even if they haven’t read it. Can we say the same about ‘Triplanetary?’.
The hero here is a chef called Rudi from one of the alternative English realms. Known as the Campus, the place is a suitably Orwellian nightmare of intractable vested interests and abysmal facilities management. For all that, the place has a genuine sense of community, unlike another of the alternative realms called the Community that is anything but.
There’s much in the novel to leaven its underlying, bracing bleakness. The two main things are humour, such as the line about the English not minding Europe providing they are in charge of it, and subtle, deft characterisation. The latter is best exemplified by the relationship with Rudi, who escapes into our realm, and Jim, his MI5 handler. It’s a relationship that survives missions over great lengths of time, with Jim’s concern for Rudi personal as well as professional, despite the awful situations Rudi is placed in while carrying out Jim’s instructions. That Jim is always working Rudi on one level or another despite his regard for him doesn’t make the outcome any less moving. Rather, the author’s grasp of genre is so subtle that it’s even woven into story’s emotions. Jim and Rudi are never completely sure of each other; their relationship a correlative for the political reality around them, as ‘our-world’ Europe breaks into ever-smaller corporate nation states. There are shades of ‘Neuromancer’ here, particularly in the super-wealthy walled European city/country that may be the data nexus for more than one reality. That Rudi can penetrate it due to an underestimate of sewage capacity is a brilliant and very English twist that leads to a predictably nauseating odyssey through a genuine underworld, accompanied by a psychopathic female torturer who I must guiltily admit is one of my favourite characters.
She at least is honest, unlike the Community. The Community is nice. Really, jolly nice. It’s full of those villages John Major was always going on about; stodgy food and no bloody foreigners. The lower classes know their place, which is to shut up and get on with whatever lumbering tedium it is their betters don’t want to sully their soft, pink hands with, like farming and fishing. Some fishermen kick off, upset about their version of zero-hour contracts and are duly never heard of again. Spiffing.
Then the Campus annoys the Community, and we come to a resolution that, like all the best horror, gets worse each time you read or think about it. The best that can be said about the sequence is the introduction of an SAS officer, who represents the best of Englishness with an insane degree of cheery practicality while doing his life-threatening, impossible job very well.
I would recommend this book any time, but especially now. It has such a fine grasp of national identity and the author is such a good SF thriller writer that the drubbing he gives the various factions never feels vicious or partisan. The story achieves all the tensions and excitement I mentioned at the beginning of this review and takes them in new and unexpected directions. For all the bleakness, it never loses heart; particularly in the character of Rudi, who despite being an immigrant from another dimension embodies the kind of battered, bloody-minded intelligence and creative resolve that England can do so well.
July 23, 2017
Europe at Midnight is the second in Dave Hutchinson's Fractured Europe series; although it isn't quite a sequel to Europe in Autumn and could reasonably easily be read as a standalone novel, reading Europe in Autumn first fills in some of the background, and reading Europe at Midnight first would take away the impact of one of the major plot twists in Europe in Autumn.
Like Europe in Autumn, Europe at Midnight is basically a Le Carre-esque spy thriller which replaces the Cold War with the complicated politics of a fragmented near-future Europe. Its events take place on the same timeline as those of Europe in Autumn, with limited points of intersection. It's clever and plotty and interesting and I enjoyed it a great deal. I did, however, have one reservation, which was that I counted no fewer than three separate incidents where female characters who were important to the two male protagonists died violently in order to advance the men's plots (and a fourth where a woman was only seriously injured). It's true that the novel belongs to the gritty spy thriller genre and that comes with a lot of violence, death and general unpleasantness, and it gets points for having a reasonably wide range of female characters who are as likely to be dishing out the violence and general unpleasantness as on the receiving end of it, but by the third death I couldn't help feeling that this was starting to feel a bit like a pattern, especially as none of the deaths of men had the same emotional resonance for the two protagonists.
Like Europe in Autumn, Europe at Midnight is basically a Le Carre-esque spy thriller which replaces the Cold War with the complicated politics of a fragmented near-future Europe. Its events take place on the same timeline as those of Europe in Autumn, with limited points of intersection. It's clever and plotty and interesting and I enjoyed it a great deal. I did, however, have one reservation, which was that I counted no fewer than three separate incidents where female characters who were important to the two male protagonists died violently in order to advance the men's plots (and a fourth where a woman was only seriously injured). It's true that the novel belongs to the gritty spy thriller genre and that comes with a lot of violence, death and general unpleasantness, and it gets points for having a reasonably wide range of female characters who are as likely to be dishing out the violence and general unpleasantness as on the receiving end of it, but by the third death I couldn't help feeling that this was starting to feel a bit like a pattern, especially as none of the deaths of men had the same emotional resonance for the two protagonists.
May 23, 2020
Confused and muddled. Hard to follow. Fractured story to follow the fractured world. There was a moment early on in which our pov character is talking to his friend Anna. And that relationship looked interesting and intriguing, like a compelling story was going to come out of it. And then I turned the page. Interesting ideas though I definitely have read stories of alternative worlds overlaid with ours with passages between them. Readable enough to continue with the sequel, but I would have preferred a more straightforward story with characters that you could know.
July 20, 2018
Last one in the Fractured Europe series, it falls short from the expectations created in the two previous books. Too many new players and the protagonists are shown to have almost no protagonism, which is a bad thing for the story.
At certain points it seems the writer painted himself in a corner and needed a lot of magic to break out. Much weaker and left me with a bad taste when finished.
However if you have reached this point, you need to know what is behind. At least most important points are explained, even if I do not like many of the explanations.
At certain points it seems the writer painted himself in a corner and needed a lot of magic to break out. Much weaker and left me with a bad taste when finished.
However if you have reached this point, you need to know what is behind. At least most important points are explained, even if I do not like many of the explanations.
October 27, 2020
It's been too long since I read the first in the Fractured Europe series, but luckily it's fine to jump into this second volume as a standalone. Midnight adds a pocket universe and portals to a future continent already divided into hundreds of nations, yet still manages to be a classic spy novel.
January 29, 2023
So, so good!! A cold war meets Sci Fi. Amazing book (though start with book 1, "Europe in Autumn").
November 18, 2015
I only read Europe in Autumn last week. I enjoyed it so much I went straight from that into Europe at Midnight.
Near future Europe is falling apart, nation by nation. The United Kingdom is now far from united, and on the European mainland many other countries are following suit. As if this constantly shifting political landscape wasn’t complicated enough, it turns out there is a parallel version of Europe who have their own agenda when it comes to diplomacy. Now imagine you are tasked with trying to unpick all this, and figure out just what the Hell is going on? Jim finds himself in that unenviable position and we get to follow his journey, from innocent to established player.
Though focusing primarily on different characters from book one, there is still an air of political thriller about proceedings. Like a mildly demented literary shell, the author keeps the plot rattling along and you need to pay attention to keep up with all the espionage and counter espionage that is going on. At one point, a character points out that he is effectively spying on everyone on behalf of everyone else. You might be put off thinking this all sounds terribly complex. I’m not denying that there is a certain amount on intricate plot to untangle, but that is half the fun. Who is working for who? Is there anyone who doesn’t have an ulterior motive? With all these spies will we ever discover anyone’s real name? The good news for fans of book one is that I can confirm that Rudi does make an appearance :)
When it comes to sequels, I’m always keen to see the original premise of a book is successfully expanded upon and explored in more depth. Hutchison’s writing accomplishes exactly that. The narrative moves between Europe, The Community and another location known as The Campus. How, and why, do these pocket universes exist? It feels like some unseen power is playing a long game.
The locations in the novel are particularly well realised. The descriptions of the Campus and the Community are wonderfully evocative. I remember years ago watching the television adaption of The Tripods and initially being quite taken with the idyllic scenes depicted. The Community gives off that same sort of vibe. At one point, a character describes it as a picture perfect version of England. At first glance, it certainly seems to be the case, but of course looks can be deceptive. There is plenty of trouble lurking just under the surface in this pocket universe. I love fiction that picks apart that thin veneer of civility that a society pretends to encourage.
This book does exactly what I would hope for in a sequel; it answers some of the questions raised in its predecessor but leaves you with many more. Damn you Dave Hutchison, damn you and your consistently addictive fiction. I’ve said it before, and I’ll likely say it again, the fiction that I really connect with is the stuff that forces me to engage my brain. This book, and by extension this series, explores some genuinely thought provoking ideas wrapped up in a science fiction flavoured coating. Picking apart the nature of power and how it shapes a society is utterly engrossing stuff. Politics and power plays make for engrossing bedfellows, adding parallel universe theory into the mix only makes for something that much more intriguing.
On an entirely personal note, I’m always pleased when my adopted home of Nottingham gets a mention in any book, so Mr Hutchinson gets extra points for that name check. Mentioning how the Eurovision song contest is destined to evolve was also a winner.
The Fractured Europe Sequence is proving to be a real treat. Taking the best from science fiction and cold war era spy thrillers, Dave Hutchison has created something uniquely his own. I cannot recommend this series highly enough. This is a smart, well executed ongoing story that delivers on multiple levels. Do yourself a favour and discover what all the fuss is about.
Near future Europe is falling apart, nation by nation. The United Kingdom is now far from united, and on the European mainland many other countries are following suit. As if this constantly shifting political landscape wasn’t complicated enough, it turns out there is a parallel version of Europe who have their own agenda when it comes to diplomacy. Now imagine you are tasked with trying to unpick all this, and figure out just what the Hell is going on? Jim finds himself in that unenviable position and we get to follow his journey, from innocent to established player.
Though focusing primarily on different characters from book one, there is still an air of political thriller about proceedings. Like a mildly demented literary shell, the author keeps the plot rattling along and you need to pay attention to keep up with all the espionage and counter espionage that is going on. At one point, a character points out that he is effectively spying on everyone on behalf of everyone else. You might be put off thinking this all sounds terribly complex. I’m not denying that there is a certain amount on intricate plot to untangle, but that is half the fun. Who is working for who? Is there anyone who doesn’t have an ulterior motive? With all these spies will we ever discover anyone’s real name? The good news for fans of book one is that I can confirm that Rudi does make an appearance :)
When it comes to sequels, I’m always keen to see the original premise of a book is successfully expanded upon and explored in more depth. Hutchison’s writing accomplishes exactly that. The narrative moves between Europe, The Community and another location known as The Campus. How, and why, do these pocket universes exist? It feels like some unseen power is playing a long game.
The locations in the novel are particularly well realised. The descriptions of the Campus and the Community are wonderfully evocative. I remember years ago watching the television adaption of The Tripods and initially being quite taken with the idyllic scenes depicted. The Community gives off that same sort of vibe. At one point, a character describes it as a picture perfect version of England. At first glance, it certainly seems to be the case, but of course looks can be deceptive. There is plenty of trouble lurking just under the surface in this pocket universe. I love fiction that picks apart that thin veneer of civility that a society pretends to encourage.
This book does exactly what I would hope for in a sequel; it answers some of the questions raised in its predecessor but leaves you with many more. Damn you Dave Hutchison, damn you and your consistently addictive fiction. I’ve said it before, and I’ll likely say it again, the fiction that I really connect with is the stuff that forces me to engage my brain. This book, and by extension this series, explores some genuinely thought provoking ideas wrapped up in a science fiction flavoured coating. Picking apart the nature of power and how it shapes a society is utterly engrossing stuff. Politics and power plays make for engrossing bedfellows, adding parallel universe theory into the mix only makes for something that much more intriguing.
On an entirely personal note, I’m always pleased when my adopted home of Nottingham gets a mention in any book, so Mr Hutchinson gets extra points for that name check. Mentioning how the Eurovision song contest is destined to evolve was also a winner.
The Fractured Europe Sequence is proving to be a real treat. Taking the best from science fiction and cold war era spy thrillers, Dave Hutchison has created something uniquely his own. I cannot recommend this series highly enough. This is a smart, well executed ongoing story that delivers on multiple levels. Do yourself a favour and discover what all the fuss is about.
August 25, 2015
Europe at Midnight parte de uma premissa fantástica para gerar o seu mundo ficcional. Lê-se a bom ritmo, com um enredo interessante que nos mantém agarrados à obra para perceber por onde é que a história se vai desenvolver. Apesar disto, tem alguns defeitos estruturais que dificultam a sua compreensão.
Vamos por partes. Primeiro, o mais interessante. O mundo ficcional deste romance que mistura ficção científica com distopia e policial procedimental desenrola-se num futuro próximo. A Europa colapsou, vítima das pressões trazidas por crises económicas e uma misteriosa pandemia que matou milhões. Os próprios estados colapsaram, com micro-países a irromper um pouco por todo o território de uma União Europeia que parece ainda existir no papel. A Inglaterra já não é um reino unido, com a Escócia e Gales independentes, e a Cornualha a travar uma guerra civil.
Mas há mais territórios, e mais Europas. Numa curiosa mistura entre ficção científica hard e fantasia, Hutchison fala-nos de dois territórios paralelos, pequenos mundos circunscritos que coexitem com o nosso planeta. A explicação para a sua existência mistura topologia n-dimensional com um acto de criação levado a cabo séculos antes por um casal de geógrafos, que ao mapear regiões ficcionais acabou por lhes dar origem. É este o elemento mais interessante do romance, fazendo recordar um dos episódios do arco narrativo de Air, comic de G. Willow Wilson e M. K. Perker, em que os personagens aterram num território encastrado entre a Índia e o Paquistão esquecido pelos mapas. Se bem que a principal inspiração talvez tenha sido a ideia de que o mapa forma o território, tão bem lançada pelo magistral conto Tlön, Uqbar e Orbis Tertius de Borges.
O romance vive de tensões de espionagem e jogos de poder entre o mundo real e as realidades paralelas. Uma é um enorme campus universitário, outra uma segunda Europa que se estende da península ibérica a Moscovo que se assemelha a uma gigantesca Inglaterra idílica. Há pontos de contacto entre os mundos, caminhos que parecem seguir um percurso mas levam a outro. E há algo mais soturno. Se o nosso mundo desconhece as realidades que lhe são paralelas, o mundo universitário vive encerrado numa espécie de redoma conceptual. Já a Europa paralela, colonizada por famílias vindas da Europa real, conhece bem e influencia o mundo mais vasto que está para lá da sua topologia.
São estas tensões que formam uma linha narrativa próxima do romance de espionagem. Oscilamos entre o ponto de vista de um agente de segurança inglês, que descobre, atónito, a existência destes mundos paralelos, e um refugiado do mundo universitário, também ele um agente secreto que se verá envolvido em diversas conspirações que, metodicamente, nos vão revelando os segredos deste mundo fascinante.
É na duplicidade de pontos de vista que o romance falha. Oscilamos entre narração de primeira e terceira pessoa com alguma desconexão, nem sempre sendo aparente quem é o narrador. A sequenciação da linha narrativa depende de uma multiplicidade simultânea de eventos que só nos é apresentada, muitas vezes, demasiado tarde. Apesar destas falhas, é um romance intrigante que desperta a atenção pela premissa em que se baseia. Uma ficção sobre ficções que se tornaram reais. Não resisto a destacar o pormenor da arma cronenberg, uma pistola totalmente orgânica de um só tiro que não deixa quaisquer pistas sobre a sua utilização. Quem se recorda de Videodrome percebe o aceno.
Vamos por partes. Primeiro, o mais interessante. O mundo ficcional deste romance que mistura ficção científica com distopia e policial procedimental desenrola-se num futuro próximo. A Europa colapsou, vítima das pressões trazidas por crises económicas e uma misteriosa pandemia que matou milhões. Os próprios estados colapsaram, com micro-países a irromper um pouco por todo o território de uma União Europeia que parece ainda existir no papel. A Inglaterra já não é um reino unido, com a Escócia e Gales independentes, e a Cornualha a travar uma guerra civil.
Mas há mais territórios, e mais Europas. Numa curiosa mistura entre ficção científica hard e fantasia, Hutchison fala-nos de dois territórios paralelos, pequenos mundos circunscritos que coexitem com o nosso planeta. A explicação para a sua existência mistura topologia n-dimensional com um acto de criação levado a cabo séculos antes por um casal de geógrafos, que ao mapear regiões ficcionais acabou por lhes dar origem. É este o elemento mais interessante do romance, fazendo recordar um dos episódios do arco narrativo de Air, comic de G. Willow Wilson e M. K. Perker, em que os personagens aterram num território encastrado entre a Índia e o Paquistão esquecido pelos mapas. Se bem que a principal inspiração talvez tenha sido a ideia de que o mapa forma o território, tão bem lançada pelo magistral conto Tlön, Uqbar e Orbis Tertius de Borges.
O romance vive de tensões de espionagem e jogos de poder entre o mundo real e as realidades paralelas. Uma é um enorme campus universitário, outra uma segunda Europa que se estende da península ibérica a Moscovo que se assemelha a uma gigantesca Inglaterra idílica. Há pontos de contacto entre os mundos, caminhos que parecem seguir um percurso mas levam a outro. E há algo mais soturno. Se o nosso mundo desconhece as realidades que lhe são paralelas, o mundo universitário vive encerrado numa espécie de redoma conceptual. Já a Europa paralela, colonizada por famílias vindas da Europa real, conhece bem e influencia o mundo mais vasto que está para lá da sua topologia.
São estas tensões que formam uma linha narrativa próxima do romance de espionagem. Oscilamos entre o ponto de vista de um agente de segurança inglês, que descobre, atónito, a existência destes mundos paralelos, e um refugiado do mundo universitário, também ele um agente secreto que se verá envolvido em diversas conspirações que, metodicamente, nos vão revelando os segredos deste mundo fascinante.
É na duplicidade de pontos de vista que o romance falha. Oscilamos entre narração de primeira e terceira pessoa com alguma desconexão, nem sempre sendo aparente quem é o narrador. A sequenciação da linha narrativa depende de uma multiplicidade simultânea de eventos que só nos é apresentada, muitas vezes, demasiado tarde. Apesar destas falhas, é um romance intrigante que desperta a atenção pela premissa em que se baseia. Uma ficção sobre ficções que se tornaram reais. Não resisto a destacar o pormenor da arma cronenberg, uma pistola totalmente orgânica de um só tiro que não deixa quaisquer pistas sobre a sua utilização. Quem se recorda de Videodrome percebe o aceno.
March 12, 2017
Please give my review a helpful vote on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/review/R1PG40Z...
This is the second installment of author Dave Hutchison's "The Fractured Europe Sequence." I gave the first installment five stars but I noted that the reader should be warned that the first installment was not truly a complete novel so much as the first part of a larger novel. I think that observation implies a recommendation that a reader should start with the first book in order to get a full flavor for the backstory in this story and the clever way that his story hooks up with Europe in Autumn.
So, since the reader is duly warned to start with the first book, this review will contain spoilers for the prior book.
When we ended Europe in Autumn, we had followed Rudi from his evolution from chef to agent for Les Courier de Boise, and had learned about a Europe that had been ravaged by a mysterious Xian Flu and was devolving into smaller and smaller units. At the end, Rudi had stumbled onto a fantastical story about a family of Englishmen who had spent generations mapping a part of England that had never existed in our world, which is associated with an even more fantastic place called the Community. By the end of Autumn, we discover that the story isn't a fantasy....and the story ends.
This book picks up without Rudi. Instead, we are in a world that exists purely as English academia. The unnamed first-person narrator lives in the Campus, which we come to learn has a society organized around a university. Residents are Students, Teaching Assistants, Doctors, and Professors as a matter of heredity. The Campus is organized into geographic areas defined by the Faculty of Science, Law, Medicine, etc. There has been a revolution, ousting the Old Board. The New Board has discovered that the Old Board was sanctioning bizarre medical experiments and there are technological assets beyond its apparent early 20th century level of technology.
The narrator comes into contact with a mysterious woman who seems to know more about things than he does, which is interesting since he is the spy chief of the New Board. Then, he is forced to flee the Campus and comes to Europe. He becomes an intelligence asset who is used to infiltrate a spy cell for the Community and the Community itself.
We get a lot of information from the inside about the Community and the Campus.The Campus is a terrific bit of sociological imagination. I really enjoyed the detailing of the Campus and the claustrophobic storyline of conspiracies unknown and suspected. The move into the Community is equally good as we see a society where 19th century Toryism prevailed over radicalism and labor unions.
The writing is excellent with a lot of wry humor. The focal character is interesting and observant and likable. The story is filled with conflict and adventure which keeps it interesting.
What happened to Rudi? If you pay attention to the last several pages you can see where the conclusion of Midnight hooks up with the conclusion of Autumn. Since this is a story about topologically-related parallel universes, this bit of topological linkage is appropriate and clever.
I am doing something I hardly ever do, which is to immediately purchase and read the next installment.
February 9, 2019
A fantastic progression of the story. I had some trouble keeping up with the steady flow of names, often for the same person, and a couple that appear at the end I had forgotten who they were. However it was as fascinating as the first and I just want to keep finding out more about this strange and familiar world.
January 13, 2016
I seem to recall having read somewhere that this is the second of a trilogy of books. I am not sure that the third part of the trilogy should be attempted.
The story here picks up the thread where Europe in Autumn left off. We begin in one of the parallel Europes, one in which the world, only about 200 miles in diameter, is a giant university campus. It has been dominated by the science faculty for some time, and, after an apparently short and violent revolution, is coming to terms with itself again. There is a little leakage of people to and from the Campus World to what we would recognise as the Europe of today.
Only it isn't. The Europe of today - or in the near future, to be exact - continues to be fragmented into a number of small polities. The EU has fragmented. The UK left the EU, whereupon Scotland swiftly left the UK. In this sense, that scenario could well start to play out this year. This is the part of the story that quite interests me, but that part of the story is rather neglected in the book. It does have some nice touches, such as the future of the Eurovision Song Contest in a fragmented and divided Europe, but the main part of the story swerves around this point.
The story has a further twist that interests me. Behind the scenes is the parallel Europe of Ernshire. Europe in Autumn touches upon Ernshire, whilst Europe at Midnight travels there. It seems that Ernshire has been manipulating Campus World. It is possible that Campus World was set up by Ernshire to conduct its more dangerous research. Either way, the storyline unfolds where Campus World, at the behest of Ernshire, has genetically engineered a weapons grade flu virus - the Xian Flu - and has unleashed it on Europe of today. Not only do we have political fragmentation, but also a virulent flu pandemic as well.
This interested me because we have written one or two flu pandemic wild card scenarios in recent years. The book provides us with no details of how the flu was distributed, how it spread, what the lethality of the virus was, or how it came to run its course. I do feel that there is something important, but missing, from the book. The good news is that it gives me scope to fill in the gaps within the story.
The final twist in the story wasn't entirely necessary. As a link between Campus World and the Europe of today became officially known, Ernshire responded with the nuclear obliteration of Campus World. I felt that it was too blunt a plot device. It's very convenient that the population has all been wiped out and that no further contact across the portal could be undertaken. I would have preferred a messier result, where some contact remains, but is not mutually beneficial.
All in all, I found the book to be a disappointment. The character changes were a bit confusing, and the reader is asked to remember too much of the characters. The book flowed well in places, but became bogged down in others. All the time I was reading it, I was wanting a recent history of the Xian Flu, and the process by which Europe fragmented. I didn't get that, so I left the book both unsatisfied and dis-satisfied.
The story here picks up the thread where Europe in Autumn left off. We begin in one of the parallel Europes, one in which the world, only about 200 miles in diameter, is a giant university campus. It has been dominated by the science faculty for some time, and, after an apparently short and violent revolution, is coming to terms with itself again. There is a little leakage of people to and from the Campus World to what we would recognise as the Europe of today.
Only it isn't. The Europe of today - or in the near future, to be exact - continues to be fragmented into a number of small polities. The EU has fragmented. The UK left the EU, whereupon Scotland swiftly left the UK. In this sense, that scenario could well start to play out this year. This is the part of the story that quite interests me, but that part of the story is rather neglected in the book. It does have some nice touches, such as the future of the Eurovision Song Contest in a fragmented and divided Europe, but the main part of the story swerves around this point.
The story has a further twist that interests me. Behind the scenes is the parallel Europe of Ernshire. Europe in Autumn touches upon Ernshire, whilst Europe at Midnight travels there. It seems that Ernshire has been manipulating Campus World. It is possible that Campus World was set up by Ernshire to conduct its more dangerous research. Either way, the storyline unfolds where Campus World, at the behest of Ernshire, has genetically engineered a weapons grade flu virus - the Xian Flu - and has unleashed it on Europe of today. Not only do we have political fragmentation, but also a virulent flu pandemic as well.
This interested me because we have written one or two flu pandemic wild card scenarios in recent years. The book provides us with no details of how the flu was distributed, how it spread, what the lethality of the virus was, or how it came to run its course. I do feel that there is something important, but missing, from the book. The good news is that it gives me scope to fill in the gaps within the story.
The final twist in the story wasn't entirely necessary. As a link between Campus World and the Europe of today became officially known, Ernshire responded with the nuclear obliteration of Campus World. I felt that it was too blunt a plot device. It's very convenient that the population has all been wiped out and that no further contact across the portal could be undertaken. I would have preferred a messier result, where some contact remains, but is not mutually beneficial.
All in all, I found the book to be a disappointment. The character changes were a bit confusing, and the reader is asked to remember too much of the characters. The book flowed well in places, but became bogged down in others. All the time I was reading it, I was wanting a recent history of the Xian Flu, and the process by which Europe fragmented. I didn't get that, so I left the book both unsatisfied and dis-satisfied.
January 12, 2020
Dave Hutchinson has created a fascinating alternative universe, a fragmented Europe with added extras. In Europe at Midnight, the second in the series, it is the extras that play a major role.
We start on a University Campus, itself a mini-state. There's just been a revolution and everything has that grey quality when things are hard and the old regime has to be sanitised. Grave crimes are being exposed as the soil is turned. But then it develops, and before long we're in Nottingham and then London and recruited by MI5... and things start to get really interesting.
We start on a University Campus, itself a mini-state. There's just been a revolution and everything has that grey quality when things are hard and the old regime has to be sanitised. Grave crimes are being exposed as the soil is turned. But then it develops, and before long we're in Nottingham and then London and recruited by MI5... and things start to get really interesting.
August 6, 2015
https://koeur.wordpress.com/2015/08/0...
Publisher: Rebellion
Publishing Date: November 2015
ISBN: 9781781083987
Genre: SciFi
Rating: 3.5/5
Publisher Description: In a fractured Europe, new nations are springing up everywhere, some literally overnight. For an intelligence officer like Jim it’s a nightmare. Every week or so a friendly power spawns a new and unknown national entity which may or may not be friendly to England’s interests. It’s hard to keep on top of it all. But things are about to get worse for Jim. A stabbing on a London bus pitches him into a world where his intelligence service is preparing for war with another universe, and a man has appeared who may hold the key to unlocking Europe’s most jealously guarded secret…
Review: Pocket universes, evil cabals, dynamic characters and espionage round out this fascinating novel by Dave Hutchinson.
This style of writing takes some getting used to. The story line just starts without any preamble or explanation of the world or events that have transpired leading up to the present condition. It is really inventive, although not a new concept. This novel was not without some story line and plot frustration due to this style of writing. This occurred in the sewer tunnels when a new set of characters were introduced and the story line abruptly ended. There was no gradual reveal. In this case, Rupert is somehow inserted as a spy into some opposing organization?? and Eleanor is introduced and abruptly terminated. We never know who she is and whom she represents. Her colleague??, Leo, gets a pass when Rupert shoots her.
There are bits and pieces within each scene throughout the novel that you hope will get sorted at some point. But it doesn’t. I can follow the most complex of SciFi novels to the jumbled ramblings of E. Lustbader, and I could neither manufacture a story line to fill in the gaps nor was there any cumulative resolution. Towards the end, the story kind of rambles off into the distance and what would have been a solid 4 star rating dropped to 3. 5.
Still, this was an enjoyable read with epic world building that is somehow housed within contemporary Europe.
Publisher: Rebellion
Publishing Date: November 2015
ISBN: 9781781083987
Genre: SciFi
Rating: 3.5/5
Publisher Description: In a fractured Europe, new nations are springing up everywhere, some literally overnight. For an intelligence officer like Jim it’s a nightmare. Every week or so a friendly power spawns a new and unknown national entity which may or may not be friendly to England’s interests. It’s hard to keep on top of it all. But things are about to get worse for Jim. A stabbing on a London bus pitches him into a world where his intelligence service is preparing for war with another universe, and a man has appeared who may hold the key to unlocking Europe’s most jealously guarded secret…
Review: Pocket universes, evil cabals, dynamic characters and espionage round out this fascinating novel by Dave Hutchinson.
This style of writing takes some getting used to. The story line just starts without any preamble or explanation of the world or events that have transpired leading up to the present condition. It is really inventive, although not a new concept. This novel was not without some story line and plot frustration due to this style of writing. This occurred in the sewer tunnels when a new set of characters were introduced and the story line abruptly ended. There was no gradual reveal. In this case, Rupert is somehow inserted as a spy into some opposing organization?? and Eleanor is introduced and abruptly terminated. We never know who she is and whom she represents. Her colleague??, Leo, gets a pass when Rupert shoots her.
There are bits and pieces within each scene throughout the novel that you hope will get sorted at some point. But it doesn’t. I can follow the most complex of SciFi novels to the jumbled ramblings of E. Lustbader, and I could neither manufacture a story line to fill in the gaps nor was there any cumulative resolution. Towards the end, the story kind of rambles off into the distance and what would have been a solid 4 star rating dropped to 3. 5.
Still, this was an enjoyable read with epic world building that is somehow housed within contemporary Europe.
Read
September 12, 2016Despite the title, there's much less of Hutchinson's prescient fractured Europe this time around, which is a bit of a shame; most of the action relates to the revelation from the end of Europe In Autumn, though of course it still speaks to Europe if you unveil a secondary world which, in place of dragons and wizards, instead more resembles a Telegraph fantasia of rural England as was. As often happens, turns out the pocket dimensions bred, so we also have Kafkaesque chapters set in a university campus the size of a small country, engaged in fitful reconstruction efforts after overthrowing a Ceaucescu-style Board. And back in our future, mainly we're in a slightly more battered and expensive London, but one where Crouch End restaurants are still chaotic and the 134 bus route remains recognisable. Nevertheless, even if it's not perhaps the sequel I'd expected, it works nicely as a pacey espionage yarn with a twist, and there's some lovely writing: I especially liked "the bored expression of someone who has been round a public aquarium one too many times."
March 9, 2018
A spy thriller, without much of what we think of spying or thrills. The world-building remains fascinating (different, but on par with the first book), and a hidden realm very much suits itself to a slow exposition. But to me it feels like a pulpy story, with all the pulpy bits carefully avoided.
As an example of what I mean, the second section (after a tabula rasa "three week's early" opening) is in the aftermath of the overthrow of a totalitarian Government. We don't see the battles. We do see the arguments with the new bureaucracy about hiring of a librarian to investigate the poorly catalogued documents of the old regime.
Rather than having a Secret Agent smashing through a sky light, we get someone cut off from their supervisors spending a couple of years working part time in a bookshop.
Possibly I'm just suffereing from middle book issues. This is a complete story for one character, but the arc was mostly about getting an incomplete view of exactly how bad things are in this world. With no changes in this world.
As an example of what I mean, the second section (after a tabula rasa "three week's early" opening) is in the aftermath of the overthrow of a totalitarian Government. We don't see the battles. We do see the arguments with the new bureaucracy about hiring of a librarian to investigate the poorly catalogued documents of the old regime.
Rather than having a Secret Agent smashing through a sky light, we get someone cut off from their supervisors spending a couple of years working part time in a bookshop.
Possibly I'm just suffereing from middle book issues. This is a complete story for one character, but the arc was mostly about getting an incomplete view of exactly how bad things are in this world. With no changes in this world.
November 12, 2015
Europe at Midnight manages to be great and funny despite a couple of genocides, only one of which was allegedly accidental.
I had liked Europe in Autumn a lot, but Europe at Midnight broke my heart. In part because it’s about really decent people trying to do decent things and going through a lot of heartbreak, only the lesser one of which is sentimental in nature; and partly because of bits like
The English entry for the Eurovision Song Contest this year was “Reservoir Dogs”, by a band calling themselves Mr Songer’s Wee. Jim, for whom Eurovision was usually something that happened to other people, only knew about it because a distant cousin had produced the band’s album. “Utter shite”, she had confided to Jim.
There were five hundred and thirty-two entries in this Eurovision – up from las year’s five hundred and twenty, but still a long way from the so-far-record of six hundred and eight. [ ]It was not almost fifty years since England – the United Kingdom, as then was – had won.”
And part of it because of this MAGNIFICENT burn:
“I still wasn’t sure whether England was in Europe or not; I had the impression that the English would have quite liked to be in Europe so long as they were running it, but weren’t particularly bothered otherwise.”
And partly because it is a sad and affecting tale of the evils of dividing people the better to oppress them, and of the particular evil of keeping them in their enclave to deprive them of knowledge and power.
GO OUT AND READ IT.
I had liked Europe in Autumn a lot, but Europe at Midnight broke my heart. In part because it’s about really decent people trying to do decent things and going through a lot of heartbreak, only the lesser one of which is sentimental in nature; and partly because of bits like
The English entry for the Eurovision Song Contest this year was “Reservoir Dogs”, by a band calling themselves Mr Songer’s Wee. Jim, for whom Eurovision was usually something that happened to other people, only knew about it because a distant cousin had produced the band’s album. “Utter shite”, she had confided to Jim.
There were five hundred and thirty-two entries in this Eurovision – up from las year’s five hundred and twenty, but still a long way from the so-far-record of six hundred and eight. [ ]It was not almost fifty years since England – the United Kingdom, as then was – had won.”
And part of it because of this MAGNIFICENT burn:
“I still wasn’t sure whether England was in Europe or not; I had the impression that the English would have quite liked to be in Europe so long as they were running it, but weren’t particularly bothered otherwise.”
And partly because it is a sad and affecting tale of the evils of dividing people the better to oppress them, and of the particular evil of keeping them in their enclave to deprive them of knowledge and power.
GO OUT AND READ IT.
July 11, 2016
As with the first book in this series, this is a fish-out-of-water story, in which a character who thinks he understands the basic parameters of the world he lives in discovers that 1) he is completely wrong, and the truth is more weird than he could possibly imagine, and 2) because of this discovery, everyone wants to kill him.
I liked this one even better than the first, which was a little oddly paced, and the fascinating late reveal of the first book forms the basis of this one, which made me very happy. Neither the protagonists nor the antagonists (and often it's hard to tell who's who) are particularly sympathetic or absorbing; the real star of this book, as with the first, is the spectactularly inventive worldbuilding. There's a great deal of wry social commentary embedded in the narrative as well, and a lot of thought-provoking questions raised or implied. What is freedom? How do we balance the interests of a society with the rights of its members? In particular, it was ironic to be reading this book, set in a world in which Europe has splintered into multiple tiny states and an alternative sort-of-English society exists (but without all those nasty French and Germans and so on in it) in the wake of the Brexit vote.
I liked this one even better than the first, which was a little oddly paced, and the fascinating late reveal of the first book forms the basis of this one, which made me very happy. Neither the protagonists nor the antagonists (and often it's hard to tell who's who) are particularly sympathetic or absorbing; the real star of this book, as with the first, is the spectactularly inventive worldbuilding. There's a great deal of wry social commentary embedded in the narrative as well, and a lot of thought-provoking questions raised or implied. What is freedom? How do we balance the interests of a society with the rights of its members? In particular, it was ironic to be reading this book, set in a world in which Europe has splintered into multiple tiny states and an alternative sort-of-English society exists (but without all those nasty French and Germans and so on in it) in the wake of the Brexit vote.
August 17, 2016
*spoilers of the first volume are present*
The second book of the Fractured Europe starts not from the point where the first one finishes and all protagonists are new, a few persons from the first volume make an episodic appearance. Thus it is more a spin-off than a second volume. At the same time, it is essential to read them in sequence to fully enjoy the text.
So, in the first volume we found out that there is a parallel universe with the really great ie large Britain, which encompasses both the Europe and Asia. Protagonists of the second volume will tell us its story. The book starts in the university, the one hinted in the first book, just after some unspecified revolt. The place is to some extent is a parody of old English collages. The ‘feel’ of the book become even more British, with corduroy breeches, tweed suits and five o’clock tea, the Great Britain that existed chiefly, if not fully in the literature and not in reality.
The second book of the Fractured Europe starts not from the point where the first one finishes and all protagonists are new, a few persons from the first volume make an episodic appearance. Thus it is more a spin-off than a second volume. At the same time, it is essential to read them in sequence to fully enjoy the text.
So, in the first volume we found out that there is a parallel universe with the really great ie large Britain, which encompasses both the Europe and Asia. Protagonists of the second volume will tell us its story. The book starts in the university, the one hinted in the first book, just after some unspecified revolt. The place is to some extent is a parody of old English collages. The ‘feel’ of the book become even more British, with corduroy breeches, tweed suits and five o’clock tea, the Great Britain that existed chiefly, if not fully in the literature and not in reality.
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