Has anyone read Jeff Noon's more recent books?

[Vodkafone]

Jeff Noon wrote the future/sci-fi/drugs classic Vurt, a really good, very vivid novel, as well as the related Pollen which is also excellent. Domino Bones, not so much.

And he's written some stuff more recently which appear to be detective novels. Vurt and Pollen have special places in my heart, so I would be slightly wary of reading the newer stuff if it's shit. But he can be a really good, if slightly pulpy, writer, so if they're good I might have a go. Has anyone read any of them?

[13 schoolyards]

I bought at least the first one (and possibly a second, though I can't see it on the shelves) for exactly that reason - I loved Vurt, and Pollen was excellent too, and though I never quite clicked with his later novels I did always enjoy them to some extent (Automated Alice was a bit of a stand out).

But from what I remember, I got a little way into the first of his detective novels, thought "I'll come back to this later" and never did. I can see why he'd have to put his stories in more of a saleable framework these days, but I think what I liked about Noon's books and what I want from a detective novel are just too far apart.

That said, I saw Vurt mentioned in some online SF discussion recently and it was rapidly and resoundingly #canceled - the underage characters and supposedly pervy tone (especially the incest side of things) mean no new generation of fans for him.

[Vodkafone]

I bought at least the first one (and possibly a second, though I can't see it on the shelves) for exactly that reason - I loved Vurt, and Pollen was excellent too, and though I never quite clicked with his later novels I did always enjoy them to some extent (Automated Alice was a bit of a stand out).

But from what I remember, I got a little way into the first of his detective novels, thought "I'll come back to this later" and never did. I can see why he'd have to put his stories in more of a saleable framework these days, but I think what I liked about Noon's books and what I want from a detective novel are just too far apart.

That said, I saw Vurt mentioned in some online SF discussion recently and it was rapidly and resoundingly #canceled - the underage characters and supposedly pervy tone (especially the incest side of things) mean no new generation of fans for him.

Cheers. It's been a long time since I read Vurt so can't think of what the cancelable bits were, but given the passage of time I wouldn't be surprised I guess.

[Mister Six]

Is Domino Bones Nymphomation? The one about the lottery with the domino tiles? I rather liked that. Those three Vurt books plus Pixel Juice (a brilliant and very funny collection of short stories, poems and other stuff, some of it set in the Vurt universe) were formative reading for teenage Master Six. I didn't really get along with Needle in the Groove and drifted away from him after that.

Anyway, I've only read the first of the Nyquist detective novels, A Man of Shadows, and found it to be jolly good fun, but a bit lacking emotionally. It's really relentlessly paced, a proper thriller, but that comes at the expense of letting us get inside Nyquist's head. The book becomes weirder and more Noony as it goes along, but still plays out like a detective story in the end. I'd recommend it, and I'd love to see an adaptation of it by Villeneuve or someone similar. There's some great imagery in there that'll stick around in your head for a while.

Haven't read the next three books (The Body Library, Creeping Jenny and Within Without, apparently), but I want to. I've seen them placed quite prominently in a few book stores in New York, so I guess either they're doing reasonably well or he just has a bunch of fans around here.

The Body Library is apparently set in a city "where words come to life and reality is contaminated by stories", which is about the most Jeff Noon thing I can think of.

Cheers. It's been a long time since I read Vurt so can't think of what the cancelable bits were, but given the passage of time I wouldn't be surprised I guess.

Spoiler alert

The protagonist was shagging his sister before she got pulled into the Vurtworld.

[close]

I suppose a lot of 90s fiction, influenced by Trainspotting and American Psycho and The Wasp Factory, would probably be out of step with the more puritanical youth of today. But the next generation will react against all their shit and it'll come back into fashion again. Just got to keep the torch alive until the youth are ready to pick it up again.

Which SF forum was it, @13 schoolyards? I'd be fascinated to read what they wrote.

[13 schoolyards]

It may very well have been on Reddit - I think someone was asking for cyberpunk recommendations outside of the norm and someone else mentioned Vurt as one not to pick up despite what people had said about it in the 90s.

It stuck with me because I hadn't seen anyone mention Vurt (or Noon really) in ages, so I'd assumed he was still seen as the cool, quirky semi-poet guy from the turn of the century and not some antiquated sex pest.

Turns out I do have The Body Library alongside A Man of Shadows, but no sign of the other two - I really should track them down (and then read the ones I do have)

[Vodkafone]

Cheers @Mister Six I might give that a go then. And yes, it was Nymphomation I was thinking about. Had entirely forgotten about Automated Alice so I guess I can chalk that one off as literally forgettable.

[Mister Six]

Ha, me too. That that was the first book that made me realise I wouldn't like everything Noon did. I might have a go at Channel SK1N before I return to the Nyquist books. Not sure.