A review by onceandfuturelaura
Pirate Utopia by Bruce Sterling
3.0
A jewel box depiction of a tiny nation, Fiume, that apparently really existed for a year or four starting in 1920. Most of the characters are historical, and most I had not heard of. Including this guy: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-sex-obsessed-poet-who-invented-fascism. The country is trying to decide who to be. Per the internet, it didn't get to decide that.
I can't say that I liked this little book. I think it depended too much on me knowing who people like Gabriele d’Annunzio -- who may have created racism as an art project -- and the history of 1920s coastal cities near Italy and Yugoslavia. I vaguely know of the clashes between the ideologies of fascism, anarcho-syndacalism and communism, but not enough to really feel the drama unaided.
I was delighted that both H.P. Lovecraft and BOB HOWARD were characters in this, but they didn't do enough. Though there's something vaguely eldritch about HPL and Howard be there, possibly, to recruit someone for what will become the Manhattan Project.
I can't say that I liked this little book. I think it depended too much on me knowing who people like Gabriele d’Annunzio -- who may have created racism as an art project -- and the history of 1920s coastal cities near Italy and Yugoslavia. I vaguely know of the clashes between the ideologies of fascism, anarcho-syndacalism and communism, but not enough to really feel the drama unaided.
I was delighted that both H.P. Lovecraft and BOB HOWARD were characters in this, but they didn't do enough. Though there's something vaguely eldritch about HPL and Howard be there, possibly, to recruit someone for what will become the Manhattan Project.