Teaser

In a world wracked by disaster, there remains one untouched paradise. A virtual reality where you can flee the troubles of daily life. Yet even this utopia is not free from the taint of crime . . .

Review

I’ll begin with a quick note. New York Nights and New York Blues are the first and second books of the Virex trilogy. I’ve decided to review just the two and not the third for two reasons. First, I don’t own the third book. Second, based on the opening of the series, I have no interest in continuing. So this is not quite a series review, but is fairly close to being one.

Up until now, I’ve been having a great experience with the works of Eric Brown. Engineman and Penumbra were not perfect, but were very much my style of science fiction. I expected more of the same, but the simple fact is that every great author has a bad book in them somewhere. You might not believe this, but there are even Asimov novels I don’t fawn over. The Virex series is where Brown and I find our first dispute.

Whereas his previous novels had a certain space-based focus, the Virex trilogy is set firmly on the ground. It’s a near-future crime series set in New York, but also within a virtual reality. Because these books were published in the early 2000s, we find ourselves in a post-Matrix world. Given publishing schedules, I don’t think there’s any direct influence, and for sure the Wachowskis did not invent everything in their famous trilogy. The idea of virtual realities has been around for a while. Nevertheless, the imagery is familiar. People strap themselves into pods to escape depressing reality, and drown their sorrows in a world they can shape to their whim. there are no evil robot overlords harvesting our delicious essence, but it’s remarkable how one film can colour our imaginations so strongly.

I’ve spoken previously about how well crime and science fiction go together. Unfortunately, that is not the case here. Brown’s story has a hint of cyberpunk, a heavy lashing of noir, but never chooses a lane, and thereby fails to assert a proper identity. The noir front is particularly egregious, with beautiful dames and crooked criminals pouring out of the pages, but the books lack the spark that makes noir so iconic. It feels more like lots of pieces than a fully formed whole. Then there’s the sex. New York Blues features several key scenes which take place in a virtual sex club, and it is precisely as cringe-inducing as you’re imagining. The mature (for a teen boy’s fantasy version of the word) is the biggest weakness of Brown’s work, and it’s on full display here.

If this were coupled with a better plot, it would have been more tolerable, but it isn’t. The investigation is paint-by-numbers, the characters flat, and even Brown’s prose feels more lifeless than usual. It wins points by wrapping up a story in each book rather than dragging out a single case through the trilogy, but neither case is all that compelling. If this were any other author, New York Blues would have been the point at which I call it a day.

This, however, is Eric Brown, sometimes hailed as an unrecognised champion of British science fiction. In that light, I’ll persevere. After all, next up on my list of Brown books to read is Helix, arguably his most famous work. The Virex trilogy may have been a misfire, but my hopes are raised for the path ahead. Only time will tell if those hopes are fulfilled.