James Lovegrove

...and I'm out. I know Lovegrove's got a lot more Sherlock and Holmes novels out there, but after this one, I kinda don't care.

This felt like it was leading to something epic, until the second half, until the final confrontation, was honestly very dull and it felt like he was simply filling pages before he got to the conclusion.

Lovegrove did his homework with the Lovecraft stuff, as well as the Sherlock stuff, and I was initially very interested in how he'd mash them. But this ending felt rather anti-climatic.

Anyway, I'm glad I gave it a shot, there were some fun moments through the books, but I won't read any more of them.… (more)

I've been reading particularly intensely today, for some reason. I picked up 'Days' and read the first sentence, then somehow got sucked in and read all of the rest. James Lovegrove is a sci-fi writer whose work I've enjoyed before, as he combines interesting concepts with weird, dark humour. I have to say, 'Days' is my favourite novel of his that I've read so far. It is set in the titular massive so-called 'gigastore', and narrates a day in the life of customers, employees, and owners. The setting (an psychologically oppressive, artificial built environment) and themes (how violence underlies consumerism) seem familiar from J.G. Ballard novels, but Lovegrove's treatment of them is somehow more baroque. Ballard's novels tend to slide into indiscriminate mayhem, whereas 'Days' is more ambivalent and full of piquant details. The white tiger, for instance.

I was also struck by how well characterised 'Days' was. The previous two novels I read (also sci-fi) suffered from cypher syndrome, whereas in this nearly everyone who appeared developed into an interesting character. Linda Trivett, Frank Hubble, and Miss Dalloway were particularly well done. The backstory of Septimus Day, the store's founder, and his seven sons was wonderfully bizarre. The store itself was evidently the main character, which worked well. Above all, the novel rang true as a barely-exaggerated portrait of how consumerism can become a destructive obsession and shops take on a quasi-religious significance. I have a fondness for novels that address this, notably J.G Ballard's [b:Kingdom Come|185796|Kingdom Come |J.G. Ballard|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388293120s/185796.jpg|179594] and Tricia Sullivan's [b:Maul|1280157|Maul|Tricia Sullivan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1182462635s/1280157.jpg|1269161]. 'Days' is a brilliant addition to the list.… (more)

I don't know what it was about this one, but it just kind of was...there. It felt better than the first one, perhaps because there was slightly less erasure of the Holmes canon than in the first one. But the entire concept felt far more far-fetched. And Holmes seems to be being written less and less like the classic Holmes.

Change the canon if you feel you must, but changing Holmes is not acceptable.

I'll likely finish off the third in this series, but I doubt I'll carry on with the five past that, unless he pulls a spectacular rabbit out of his hat.… (more)