Microreview [Book]: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi is a deceptively simple story that's transcendent at its core.

Piranesi is a tremendously imaginative and powerful novel proposing that an ideal home isn’t universally agreed upon. It’s not just predicated on whether the floors should be hardwood or carpeted, but how the dispositions of those around you should be. Or how which preferred culture has molded their general beliefs. Piranesi shows that progress constantly changes how we believe the world must be formed. Oftentimes, progress is a boon, but sometimes it taps into a malicious part of humanity that makes us yearn for before. Nostalgia is rose-colored glasses, tinted with a shade of truth. Susanna Clarke has the ability to delve into this topic with an unprecedented level of depth even though she's writing about a character trapped in a giant house, isolated from Earth, with only one other person to intermittently talk to. It’s a story that strips the hustle and bustle of Earth, and allows the story to develop in an ominously quiet environment.

Piranesi lives in an infinitely expansive house. He’s lived there since he can remember. There are human remains in the house, along with live animals. But the only other living person there is a man he calls The Other, who delivers him goods He's nice enough, but mostly stays apart from Piranesi. Things are going great for Piranesi—he never tires of exploring the house’s myriad halls and statues. But then another live inhabitant is found in the house. And things methodically unravel, leading to major revelations.

I’m not going to dig deep into the characters because much of the suspense of Piranesi is figuring out who the players in the story are. But I will say that they’re written in a unique way that forces a sense of distance because of Piranesi’s structure, yet they feel fully realized despite the confines. And as for Piranesi, he has one of the most zesty, original, and endearing voices I’ve read in some time. Writing the story from his first person perspective was a great choice. His hunger for exploration, and dedication to learning and transcribing about every nook and cranny of the house is infectious. It’s propped up with bubbly language that elevates what could’ve been depicted as a drab environment into a labyrinth that I’d rather read about than even the most exciting Greek mythology.

The novel keeps you guessing by both having things that are what they seem to be in one instance, and the opposite in the next. A character cloaked in foreboding mystery isn’t a good person. A slimily charismatic leader spouting what sounds like lunacy is often telling the truth. Despite not categorically embracing progress, it works hard to be its own original beast, not beholden to tropes of the past. And by showing me that stories still have untrodden avenues available to take, it made me want to march forward, not looking back.

I want to keep this review brief, so I won’t go on about the rich imagery that begs for dozens of literary essays. Instead, I will end with this: a story that progresses the genre forward while simultaneously criticizing aspects of worldly progress is a tough trick to pull off. But having it take place in an expansive house, with limited characters and a narratorial voice that I could’ve read for one-thousand more pages is the best way to do it. Because it strips down all the superfluous elements of our world, and shows that when we are stripped of the flashy but vapid qualities that drain our time, leaving us worse than where we were before, we are left fulfilled. Progress is important to us, in a time when It feels like the world is covered in superfluous thorns. Piranesi encourages its readers to walk forward along a pleasurable path, because the world shouldn’t be covered in thorns in the first place.

The Math

Baseline Score: 9/10

Bonuses: +1 For conjuring incredible mystery and tension out of a premise that in theory doesn't sound like it'd have any.

Nerd Coefficient: 10/10

POSTED BY: Sean Dowie - Screenwriter, stand-up comedian, lover of all books that make him nod his head and say, "Neat!"

Clarke, Susanna. Piranesi [Bloomsbury, 2020].

New Books Spotlight

Welcome to another edition of the New Books Spotlight, where each month or so we curate a selection of 6 forthcoming books we find notable, interesting, and intriguing. It gives us the opportunity to shine a brief spotlight on some stuff we're itching to get our hands on.

What are you looking forward to? Anything you want to argue with us about? Is there something we should consider spotlighting in the future? Let us know in the comments!

Bear, Elizabeth, The Stone in the Skull [Tor Books, 2017]

Publisher's description:

The Stone in the Skull, the first volume in her new trilogy, takes readers over the dangerous mountain passes of the Steles of the Sky and south into the Lotus Kingdoms.

The Gage is a brass automaton created by a wizard of Messaline around the core of a human being. His wizard is long dead, and he works as a mercenary. He is carrying a message from a the most powerful sorcerer of Messaline to the Rajni of the Lotus Kingdom. With him is The Dead Man, a bitter survivor of the body guard of the deposed Uthman Caliphate, protecting the message and the Gage. They are friends, of a peculiar sort.

They are walking into a dynastic war between the rulers of the shattered bits of a once great Empire.

 Why We Want It: When I hear there is anything new from Elizabeth Bear I am already in line. Seriously. Bear's novels never fail to sweep me up and away. Her last, Karen Memory, was a phenomenal weird western I've given multiple times as gifts. I suspect this one will be on my gift-giving guide as well.

Toptas, Hasan Ali, Shadowless [Bloomsbury, 2017]

Publisher's description:

In an Anatolian village forgotten by both God and the government, the muhtar has been elected leader for the sixteenth successive year. When he staggers to bed that night, drunk on raki and his own well-deserved success, the village is prosperous. But when he is woken by his wife the next evening he discovers that Nuri, the barber, has disappeared without a trace in the dead of night, and the community begins to fracture.

In a nameless town far away, Nuri walks into a barbershop as if from a dream, not knowing how he has arrived. Try as he might, he cannot grasp the strands of his memory. The facts of his past life shift and evade him, and as other customers come and go, they too struggle to recall how they got there.

Blurring the lines of reality to terrific effect, Shadowless is both a compelling mystery and an enduring evocation of displacement from one of the finest, most exciting voices in Turkish literature today.

 Why We Want It: I love finding genre in translation and after stumbling on this cover I knew I had to put this one on my list. I'm not sure I've read any Turkish literature yet so this will be such a wonderful addition to my shelves.

Alderman, Naomi, The Power [Little, Brown and Company, 2017]

Publisher's description:

In THE POWER, the world is a recognizable place: there's a rich Nigerian boy who lounges around the family pool; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family. But then a vital new force takes root and flourishes, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power--they can cause agonizing pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world drastically resets.

From award-winning author Naomi Alderman, THE POWER is speculative fiction at its most ambitious and provocative, at once taking us on a thrilling journey to an alternate reality, and exposing our own world in bold and surprising ways.

Why We Want It: It has a blurb from Margaret Atwood on the cover and the premise sounds flipping incredible. I want this book so much!

Hearne, Kevin, A Plague of Giants [Del Rey, 2017]

Publiser's description:

From the author of The Iron Druid Chronicles, a thrilling novel that kicks off a fantasy series with an entirely new mythology—complete with shape-shifting bards, fire-wielding giants, and children who can speak to astonishing beasts

MOTHER AND WARRIOR
Tallynd is a soldier who has already survived her toughest battle: losing her husband. But now she finds herself on the front lines of an invasion of giants, intent on wiping out the entire kingdom, including Tallynd’s two sons—all that she has left. The stakes have never been higher. If Tallynd fails, her boys may never become men.

SCHOLAR AND SPY
Dervan is an historian who longs for a simple, quiet life. But he’s drawn into intrigue when he’s hired to record the tales of a mysterious bard who may be a spy or even an assassin for a rival kingdom. As the bard shares his fantastical stories, Dervan makes a shocking discovery: He may have a connection to the tales, one that will bring his own secrets to light.

REBEL AND HERO
Abhi’s family have always been hunters, but Abhi wants to choose a different life for himself. Embarking on a journey of self-discovery, Abhi soon learns that his destiny is far greater than he imagined: a powerful new magic thrust upon him may hold the key to defeating the giants once and for all—if it doesn’t destroy him first.

Set in a magical world of terror and wonder, this novel is a deeply felt epic of courage and war, in which the fates of these characters intertwine—and where ordinary people become heroes, and their lives become legend.

Why We Want It: I love Kevin Hearne's writing and his approach to world-building. I am beyond stoked for this upcoming epic fantasy.

Moreno-Garcia, Silvia, The Beautiful Ones [Thomas Dunne Books, 2017]

Publisher's description:

Antonina Beaulieu is in the glittering city of Loisail for her first Grand Season, where she will attend balls and mingle among high society in hopes of landing a suitable husband. But Antonina is telekinetic, and strange events in her past have made her the subject of malicious gossip and hardly a sought-after bride. Now, under the tutelage of her cousin’s wife, she is finally ready to shed the past and learn the proper ways of society.

Antonina, who prefers her family's country home to the glamorous ballrooms of the wealthy, finds it increasingly difficult to conform to society’s ideals for women, especially when she falls under the spell of the dazzling telekinetic performer Hector Auvray. As their romance blossoms, and he teaches her how to hone and control her telekinetic gift, she can't help but feel a marriage proposal is imminent.

Little does Antonina know that Hector and those closest to her are hiding a devastating secret that will crush her world and force her to confront who she really is and what she's willing to sacrifice.

Why We Want It: I think Silvia Moreno-Garcia is too often overlooked when people are looking for their next favorite read. Pick up any of her novels and you better settle in because you will be sucked in and not want to leave her world.

Stearns, R.E., Barbary Station [Saga Press, 2017]

Publisher's description:

Two engineers hijack a spaceship to join some space pirates—only to discover the pirates are hiding from a malevolent AI. Now they have to outwit the AI if they want to join the pirate crew—and survive long enough to enjoy it.

Adda and Iridian are newly minted engineers, but aren’t able to find any work in a solar system ruined by economic collapse after an interplanetary war. Desperate for employment, they hijack a colony ship and plan to join a famed pirate crew living in luxury at Barbary Station, an abandoned shipbreaking station in deep space.

But when they arrive there, nothing is as expected. The pirates aren’t living in luxury—they’re hiding in a makeshift base welded onto the station’s exterior hull. The artificial intelligence controlling the station’s security system has gone mad, trying to kill all station residents and shooting down any ship that attempts to leave—so there’s no way out.

Adda and Iridian have one chance to earn a place on the pirate crew: destroy the artificial intelligence. The last engineer who went up against the AI met an untimely end, and the pirates are taking bets on how the newcomers will die. But Adda and Iridian plan to beat the odds.

There’s a glorious future in piracy…if only they can survive long enough.

Why We Want It: Yes. Yes. Yes. Give this to me now please and thank you. I have been waiting for this book since I first heard about it a year ago.