Travel Documents 114: A New Life In Autumn
Genre: social change, economic change, cli-fi, speculative fiction
The Dust Cover Copy
RETURN TO THE MEAN STREETS OF AUTUMN
Valerius Bakhoum is dead and buried.
Too bad he’s still flat broke and behind on the rent.
Unsure what to do with himself—and of who he is—Valerius resumes his career as a detective by taking up the oldest case in his files: where do the children go?
Throughout his own youth on the streets of Autumn, last of the Great Flying Cities, Valerius knew his fellow runaways disappeared from back alleys and other hiding places more than anyone realized. Street kids even had a myth to explain it: the Gotchas, who steal urchins away in the night.
With nothing but time on his hands, Valerius dives in head-first to settle the question once and for all and runs smack into a more pressing mystery: who killed one of Valerius’ former lovers?
And do they know Valerius is still alive?
Stalk the shadows of Autumn’s hidden places by Valerius Bakhoum’s side as he shines a light on secrets both sacred and profane, ones with shockingly personal connections to who he was—and who he might become.
New Life in Autumn is the sequel to the Manly Wade Wellman Award-winning A Fall in Autumn.
The Scene
Worldbuilding
It feels good to walk the misty streets of Autumn again. To drink her pure water and breathe her heady air. In this second edition of the Autumn series, Williams takes us deeper into the foundations of the flying city, historical and physical alike. And what’s waiting in its forgotten corners and underground chambers is a thrill, a tragedy, a horror and a delight wrapped in an enigma.
I’m in love with the way this universe is expanding as the series continues. Once again we have that fascinating cloth of words wrapped around us: city grit and ethereal splendor acting as the warp and woof of the story as it’s woven. Seeing concepts hinted at in Book 1 expand in Book 2 is like walking into a well-curated boutique and seeing a new item: it’s novel, but it fits the place perfectly. Children put out with the trash because their genome didn’t measure up to specs? Yeah, that sounds about right. Seamstresses who cut and stich patterns in both your clothes and your genome? Why yes, that would be a good business combination. A great catacomb of the ancient and recent dead, all bones laid with art and reverence by the animal-human hybrids who do the dirtiest jobs? Yes of course. And that’s just the beginning of what will be discovered.
The Crowd
Characterization
And here’s poor Valerius again. He’s got a brand new body. No more cancer, lots more freedom, lots more energy. But wait…it’s not quite brand new. It’s a Golem body, able to upload a consciousness…and not so great at deleting one. Valerius might have a spiffy new shape to walk around in, one that isn’t trying to kill him every day. But he keeps bumping into memories the last tenant left in the mental closets, and man, is he getting tired of the last guy’s junk.
I love the way that Williams’s writing creates a voice in my head. In the classic Bronx accent of a noir flatfoot, I read about Valerius’s struggles to come to terms with his new mode of existence and am enthralled. I sympathize pretty often. I laugh pretty hard. And I kind of want to buy the guy a drink at the bar.
Around him, the city moves on and so does time. The people in his life are real enough to bump into on the street: from poor sweet Frankie the dog-human hybrid with all the loyalty of a good pooch, to the Seamstress who barely speaks outside the particulars of her work, to the poor urchin girl who’ll pick your pocket to survive another day, every person we meet feels both believable and complete.
And here’s Alejandro again, the sweet and secretive Golem who may just have won Valerius’s craggy old heart. My highest compliment to an author is the emotions their characters pull out of me, so I’ll say this: my partner looked over at me because I was grumbling things like ‘why you sneaky lying little…’ at the book. The cat looked up when I sighed ‘just kiss him, you jerk.’
It’s that kind of story. These people pull the reactions right out of you.
The Lingo
Writing Style
Oh the writing style of this series. It’s glittering poetry in grimy wrapping. It’s the noir gumshoe who reads Walden. It’s a treat for the senses, an ode and an indictment, paen and philippic on the human condition: the way our markets and our needs rule us. It is everything we love and hate about being us, knowing our history, hoping for our future, and everything we love and hate about what it is to live in a city. The lines of this work sing, they cry out, and they may haunt you like a specter until you exorcise them by getting up and doing something to make the world a little better. Something. Anything.
The Moves
Plot
With the deep history of the best fantasy wed to the self-deprecating and cynical pragmatism of the best noir whodunits, this plot will take you to disturbing places, make you wonder, and keep you guessing all the time.
Overall Rating
You need this read. I needed it. Curled up with it while the rain came down, I was able to reach a place I need to be: a place where I can accept the brokenness of the world, appreciate the glimmer and shine on all its shards without judgement. Then I can get the glue out and start deciding how to stick it back together in some sort of decent shape. If the people of Autumn can do it day by day, so can I. So can you.