A review by zoes_human
A Fall in Autumn by Michael G. Williams
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
2022 REREAD
I enjoyed this every bit as much as the first time. Even better, on the reread, I was able to catch some of the true beauty of the story since I wasn't so frantically racing to find out what was going on. Though set some 10,000 years in the future, this does what the best of scifi does and says so much about who we are right now and what is the essence of humanity. That is done in part through a fully developed and complicated protagonist who is on par with even the best of Stephen King's character writing.
ORIGINAL REVIEW
What happens if you take a hardboiled detective story, locate it 10,000 years in the future, remove the toxic masculinity, and add wry humor with a hint of transhumanism? A Fall in Autumn is what you get.
Fleeing from a past he never chose, down-and-out Detective Valerius Bakhoum finds himself on the trail of a secret larger than he anticipated. Determined to solve the mystery, or at least get his landlady off his ass, he leads us through the last of the flying cities, from the squalid and dangerous markets of the criminal lower class to the pretentious elite neighborhoods of the criminal upper class.
While replete with the action and seediness of the genre, the authenticity of the characters and well-developed society keep it from being clichéd. The author also did some great things with linguistic drift, and I am a sucker for good drift. I loved every minute of it and was already longing for the next book at the halfway point. If all detective stories were like this, my shelves would be covered with them.
I enjoyed this every bit as much as the first time. Even better, on the reread, I was able to catch some of the true beauty of the story since I wasn't so frantically racing to find out what was going on. Though set some 10,000 years in the future, this does what the best of scifi does and says so much about who we are right now and what is the essence of humanity. That is done in part through a fully developed and complicated protagonist who is on par with even the best of Stephen King's character writing.
ORIGINAL REVIEW
What happens if you take a hardboiled detective story, locate it 10,000 years in the future, remove the toxic masculinity, and add wry humor with a hint of transhumanism? A Fall in Autumn is what you get.
Fleeing from a past he never chose, down-and-out Detective Valerius Bakhoum finds himself on the trail of a secret larger than he anticipated. Determined to solve the mystery, or at least get his landlady off his ass, he leads us through the last of the flying cities, from the squalid and dangerous markets of the criminal lower class to the pretentious elite neighborhoods of the criminal upper class.
While replete with the action and seediness of the genre, the authenticity of the characters and well-developed society keep it from being clichéd. The author also did some great things with linguistic drift, and I am a sucker for good drift. I loved every minute of it and was already longing for the next book at the halfway point. If all detective stories were like this, my shelves would be covered with them.