Tigerman

by Nick Harkaway
337 pgs

Tigerman is the latest book by Nick Harkaway, an author I'm becoming increasingly a fan of the more books he writes. He's the son of John le Carré, but he doesn't write in the same genre as his father. In fact, I'm not quite sure what genre Harkaway's books are in. They don't fit neatly into any of them. Case in point...

Lester Ferris is a 39-year-old Sargent in the British army, who's currently fulfilling a quiet assignment as the British consul on the island of Mancreau, in the Arabian Sea. Mancreau is a dying island. It was left scarred and polluted by decades of chemical manufacturing, so much so that seismic activity, which took place a decade or so ago, released clouds of toxic gases over the island, causing those who live there to face frightening diseases and severe birth defects.

One day, while Ferris is having tea in a small café, armed bandits crash through the doors and murder the owner. Things could have been far worse, if it weren't for Ferris's heroic actions. He single-handedly overpowers the bandits using nothing but a muffin tin, and while doing so, wins over a 10-year-old orphan who witnessed it. The boy goes by the name Robin and he's obsessed with comics and the heroes in their stories. A relationship forms between the two of them and Robin eventually convinces Lester to become a superhero. Together they create an eclectic costume with a gas mask, pieces of metal, and bits of bone and fur, and Lester finds himself stopping crimes in spectacular fashion as his alter ego: Tigerman.

Within the pages of Tigerman, Harkaway manages to successfully cram multiple types of stories together. On the one hand, it's a superhero-origin story, filled with some pretty impressive action scenes. On another hand, it's a mystery, as Lester continually searches for where Robin came from. But at its center is the story of the relationship that forms between the two characters, a relationship that changes both of them forever.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Gone-Away World

by Nick Harkaway
499 pgs

I believe that for the first time ever, I'm at a serious loss as to how to describe/summarize/review a book--and it's not that this is the first book by Nick Harkaway that I've ever read. Awhile back I read his second book Angelmaker and really enjoyed it. But this one is unlike anything I've ever read before.

To start with, I can't decide what genre if fits in. It doesn't easily fit into any of the already established ones. It's part science fiction, but not in a science fictiony way. It's post-apocalyptic, but not in a Cormac McCarthy's The Road kind of way. It's got ninjas battling mimes in it, but they doesn't help classify it. It is what it is, and it really deserves its own bookshelf at the bookstore.

The next problem I have with writing this review is that I can't really decide how much I liked it. Parts of it were absolutely brilliant, but I'll admit that sometimes my mind tended to wander. Harkaway's writing talent is undeniable though and if I hadn't known better, I would have assumed that this book was written by someone who had a Stephen King-sized bibliography already under his belt. He really is that good. Even at the times in the book when my mind wanted to venture elsewhere, I have to admit that those parts were still well written.

The story is narrated by a character whose name is never revealed but who works for the Haulage & Hazmat Emergency Civil Freebooting Company of Exmore County. As the story begins, he and his crew are called upon to put out a fire that has erupted somewhere along the Jorgmund Pipe, which delivers a substance known as "stuff." The world was destroyed during the Gone-Away War, and stuff is what makes the remaining world livable.

The book is absurd and witty, and it's every creative-writing teacher's dream come true. But it's not a beach read, and it's not the type of book that can be read in ten minute installments. You have to be willing to immerse yourself in the story and let Harkaway's writing talent take over. Overall, well worth the effort it took to read it.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Angelmaker

Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway

I would imagine that some people will read Angelmaker and won't enjoy it. If they don't, it won't be the fault of Nick Harkaway though. It'll be due to some mental shortcoming on their end. I, having no such mental shortcomings, enjoyed it immensely.

This was the first book written by Harkaway that I've read. I remember seeing his other book, The Gone-Away World at a bookstore when it came out a couple of years ago--it was hard to miss with its neon pink cover, but I didn't bother buying it at the time. I'm sure I'll be reading it sooner rather than later now that I've had a taste of Harkaway's writing style and story creation.

Joe Spork is an unassuming fixer of antique clocks who may have just inadvertently doomed the entire planet. While repairing an unusual clockwork device, Joe turns it on and unknowingly releases a swarm of mechanical bees. These bees, and the device they had been stored in, had been created by a French genius during WWII with the express intention of increasing the overall level of honesty in the world by nine percent.

The story was interesting, but I think the story was just a vehicle Harkaway used to release an overload of barely-contained absurdism and a biting sense of humor. Harkaway doesn't use that sense of humor in a subtle fashion either. He repeatedly blindsides you with it and keeps you on your toes wondering what he's going to say next. The dialogue between his characters was fantastic. I repeatedly went back a page or two while reading it just because I enjoyed it so much.

Reading Angelmaker takes focus and attention. He skips back and forth in time and the subplots are a stark contrast with each other in both style and tone. So I think some people reading it will either get lost and mentally check out, or simply quit. But again, that would be due to their own shortcomings and not the book's.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆