Thomcat
8/9/2015
This story follows people connected to Arthur Leander, an actor who dies in the first (and last) chapters of the book. These characters are mostly survivors of a superflu which kills off 99.99% of the human race. The title comes from an elaborate comic book drawn by Arthur's ex-wife Miranda.
The book is primarily set 20 years after the apocalypse, and focuses on a traveling band of musicians and actors, who play classical music and perform Shakespeare. The theme here is the survival of culture more than the survival of humanity.
As the bard said, the play's the thing, and this post-apocalyptic world feels like a play. No gritty realism, starving dogs, or warlords. People get by. This theme carries into the flashbacks, showing various of Arthur's connections sleepwalking through their lives.
The storytelling is rich, but for me the characters feel flat. The jumps are interesting, but the tale before the apocalypse is far better than afterward. The religious zealout who plays the part of the villain is caricatured at first, and less believable because of it.
This won an Arthur C Clarke award for best science fiction novel of 2015. I liked it, but I didn't love it.