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A review by porge_grewe
The Usurper by Peter Michael
4.0
This is a bit of a lost gem! I came across the book in a second hand shop and was taken with the blurb (especdially of the idea of having a "dangerous mate Knife") and tried it out of curiosity - This is a really well-observed, well-written story, with a solid narrative voice which deftly brings you into the world and helps to characterise our POV character throughout in a way which reminded me most of Stephen Graham Jones' brilliant narration.
The concept is solid - In the near future, there are no jobs to be had and the economy is ruined, so the City of London has been walled off. Inside, the Working Class have it good, while, Outside, the jobless live small, sad lives or they Usurp, sneaking inside and killing a Worker for their job. It's one of those really clever dystopian ideas which just breeds possibilities, and throughout the book the fun the author is having in fleshing out this world is clear.
Only two issues present themselves. One is that it feels obvious in the last 50 pages that the author was rushing to finish this, as concepts, characters, and twists come and goo with a rapidity which makes me really wish Peter Michael had had another 100 pages, or possibly even a sequel, to work with.
The other issue is that this book uses some pretty unacceptable terminology for queer people, as well as a couple of unpleasant remarks about race and Islam. It only occurs on about five pages total, but it does colour reading the book and puts a caveat onto any recommendation. The reason this doesn't affect the score of the book, however, is that this feels like an intentional choice, rather than the effect of bigotry. The book makes it clear throughout, in description and narrative voice, that its main characters are deeply unpleasant people and that the world of London, especially London Outside, has become very small and a lot less liberal even than Britain in the then-present of the 1980s. By contrast, the actual queer characters in the book are, if not always presented as the best people, absolutely presented as people, and quite a lot more nice than our main characters.
Those caveats out of the way, then, this is a really very good book which deserves significantly more attention than it has.
The concept is solid - In the near future, there are no jobs to be had and the economy is ruined, so the City of London has been walled off. Inside, the Working Class have it good, while, Outside, the jobless live small, sad lives or they Usurp, sneaking inside and killing a Worker for their job. It's one of those really clever dystopian ideas which just breeds possibilities, and throughout the book the fun the author is having in fleshing out this world is clear.
Only two issues present themselves. One is that it feels obvious in the last 50 pages that the author was rushing to finish this, as concepts, characters, and twists come and goo with a rapidity which makes me really wish Peter Michael had had another 100 pages, or possibly even a sequel, to work with.
The other issue is that this book uses some pretty unacceptable terminology for queer people, as well as a couple of unpleasant remarks about race and Islam. It only occurs on about five pages total, but it does colour reading the book and puts a caveat onto any recommendation. The reason this doesn't affect the score of the book, however, is that this feels like an intentional choice, rather than the effect of bigotry. The book makes it clear throughout, in description and narrative voice, that its main characters are deeply unpleasant people and that the world of London, especially London Outside, has become very small and a lot less liberal even than Britain in the then-present of the 1980s. By contrast, the actual queer characters in the book are, if not always presented as the best people, absolutely presented as people, and quite a lot more nice than our main characters.
Those caveats out of the way, then, this is a really very good book which deserves significantly more attention than it has.