A LONG DESCENT INTO MUDDLE
Ever had a deja-vu moment, when something that happened in the past unexpectedly repeats itself? We’ve all had one, probably between the ages of 15 and 25 when experts say they occur more frequently. They supposedly tail off as we get older which (sort of) makes sense as I recently had my own deja-vu moment after a two year hiatus. It wasn’t a conversation or event that was replayed, but the opening scene of a book. I had been looking forward to reading Nova Descent, the sequel to David Kimberley’s excellent debut novel Galahad Suns. Kimberley is an extraordinary writer with a complex imagination and a visually authentic style of writing that flashes with razor edge dialogue and enough seat gripping action to split the behind of a pair of trousers! Galahad Suns thoroughly deserved the critical accolades that followed its publication which meant the sequel either had to match or exceed its brilliance. Unfortunately Nova Descent, the second instalment of Kimberley’s Antecedent series, doesn’t really cut the mustard. It’s a hit and miss affair with a scattergun narrative that only redeems itself halfway through the story when everything (finally) begins to make sense.
Like Galahad Suns it opens with a cinematically broody chase scene (deja-vu moment), where the fear of the pursued feels convincingly real. The empty streets of a dead planet with a grisly alien secret, is the backdrop for a terrifying cat and mouse game between a “dark spectre” and the last man standing from a doomed space mission. A woman’s scream pierces the heavy silence as the man runs to stay ahead of the faceless predator that’s beginning to move in on him. Raw fear is burning through his lungs but adrenaline keeps him going, that and the faint hope of reaching his spaceship alive. So far so good, except that a terrific piece of scene writing descends into a maddening, incomprehensible read!
The problem is that Kimberley’s chapters are like a series of directionless camera cuts. They’re over- burdened with sequences that might or might not be connected, and a character list that gets longer with every page turn. Although everything comes right in the end it takes more than a hundred pages to clear up the confusion and bring clarity to how the characters are linked to each other. Admittedly the cast list at the back of my review copy was a bit of a help, but that’s not the point! Readers will either abandon a novel if the opening doesn’t grab their attention, or if the narrative is so muddled and incoherent that it brings on a migraine!
Don’t get me wrong, there are things about this book that are definitely worth liking and it would be wrong to condemn it to a scrap heap because of some negatives. Davian Kercher, Galahad Suns anti-hero, still cuts an imposing figure in a story where he is no longer the central player. In Nova Descent he is one of the most reviled men in the universe, for whom obliterating an enemy is as casual as lighting a cigarette. Blood trails follow him everywhere he goes yet Kircher neither cares or notices as he is locked in an epic mental battle of his own making. He is a drug addict in withdrawal, tormented by memories of narco highs and the mocking whispers of dead colleagues and enemies. Is he really being plagued by the voices of the newly departed, or is it a miserable side effect of cold turkey? Kimberley subtly teases the concept, accentuating the ticking time bomb quality of a man who’s about to implode in a big way. What, when, or who will trigger the mother of all galactic melt downs is a provocative thought and one that is magnified in the stifling depths of the pirate ship where Kircher has been given conditional refuge.
Essentially Nova Descent is a story about betrayal, greed, revenge, power struggles, and destructive ambition, typical Shakespearian themes although this is not a sci-fi reworking of the Bard’s greatest hits. While the book has its faults, it does match the prequal in its depiction of an eerily claustrophobic universe and characters who are human despite their flaws. Davian Kircher might not be the ideal BFF, but he does have a sense of right and wrong, however brutally it plays out. That makes him no different to Jaffren Hewn, leader of the pirate organisation Echo who protects Kircher because he’s useful. Hewn may be a ruthless opportunist, but that doesn’t stop him worrying about his wife and child who are hiding from his enemies on another planet. Although Kimberley has fallen short with Nova Descent, it would be wrong to dismiss him as a second-rate writer who got lucky with his first book. He has a sharp ear for dialogue, a meticulous eye for detail, and a gift for producing tightly structured sentences that convey so much with few words. He needs to distance himself from Nova Descent’s mistakes and play to his formidable strengths if part three of the Antecedent series is to equal the brilliance of Galahad Suns.
Reviewed by Juliette Foster
Why not add Galahad Suns and Royal Gambit, books 1 and 3 in the Antecdent series, to your David Kimberley collection?
Click on the covers to find out more about these books by the author.
