End of the World Blues

A veteran's slightly dangerous life gets a lot more so when an explosion and murder attempt fails to kill him, thanks to a strange Japanese girl who may or may not be a far future denizen. Then there's a somewhat hardboiled crime story about many millions of dollars of the sort you find in books like that - which involves a lot more people that would like to track down, knock off said veteran and his unlikely saviour. ... Read Full Review

Jon Courtenay Grimwood is an incredibly intelligent and inventive writer, and readers looking for intricately plotted cerebral fiction will love the dark and mysterious depths of his novels. The other reviewers here have used the word "convoluted" to describe this story and they're right, because Grimwood's bizarrely twisted plotlines tend to overwhelm his fascinating characters and vibrant settings. Note that the novel is... Read Full Review

Jon Courtenay Grimwood's "End of the World Blues" is a stylish, often convoluted, post-cyberpunk thriller which will easily remind readers of William Gibson's early "Cyberspace" trilogy. However, Grimwood's depiction of a near future Japan owes more to Haruki Murakami's vision of Japan than Gibson's in its realism (which isn't surprising since Grimwood has, unlike Gibson, resided there). Young British expatriate Kit Noveau... Read Full Review

This is supposed to be literary science fiction which I don't usually read. Which might explain why I think this barely qualifies as science fiction. Magic realism or Fantasy would be a better categorization, although half the book is a straightforward whodunit. Let me get the verdict out of the way - I enjoyed reading the book and would recommend it to anyone. I found the book a bit unsettling because of the dreamlike... Read Full Review

In Tokyo, runaway teenager Lady "Countess of High Strange" Neku hides fifteen million dollars in a in a train station locker. Soon afterward she saves the life of former Iraq war veteran Kit Nouveau when she efficiently kills a mugger attacking him. The Pirate's Mary bar owner tells Neku he owes her. Many groups are after Neku because of the money she hid; this includes the yakuza syndicate and, British espionage agents;... Read Full Review