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A novel by JMS, and while I've read several of his comics and his autobiography in addition to being a Babylon 5 fan, and having watched The Changeling (for which he wrote the script) and Sense 8 which he co-created with the Wachowski siblings as well, the man still manages to pleasantly surprise me by the way he doesn't rest on his laurels or resort to familiar types but keeps renewing himself creatively.
The novel is, among many other things, a road trip and found family story, as well as a current day take on that 18th and 19th century genre, the letter novel (in this case, the email, blog entry and podcast novel) with a premise that could have gone incredibly wrong. JMS himself must be keenly aware of this, since in the novel he's lampshading the trapfalls via a stern email from - that would be spoilery. Anyway, the premise, laid out on the outset and hence tellable without spoiler cuts, is this: a group of people, strangers to each other, come to together for a shared journey with one specific goal, which they all have in common: each of them wants to die. They all have different reasons, which the format of the novel allows to get into: for some, it's physical illness, others are plain old depression, some have backstory tragedies and some are in a hopeless position for other reasons. In one case, there's definitely payback and spite involved, while in another, it's guilt. But it's different for everyone.
Now, the most obvious trapfalls with such a premise are:
1.) If at the end, these people do in fact kill themselves, won't that feel like either relentless grimdark nihilism and/or glorification/prettifying of suicide?
2.) If, on the other hand, they don't kill themselves, won't that trivialize the subject and make it look like anyone can be talked out of suicide if the right person comes along, no matter how serious their reasons for having made such a decision in the first place?
Then there' the question as to whether a writer can maintain such a story at novel length, can get the readers involved despite them knowing what the characters want to do? After all, it's not a given people who have a stressful life themselves want to relax with a novel where all main characters start out wanting to die.
It helps if the author is someone who far more often than not has made you care, of course. So I read it, and it turned out to be compelling, captivating, and deeply humane. There's a lot of humor, too, with the characters, not about them, and not negating the heartache. On a pure "technical" level, I'm impressed that JMS managed to come up with distinct individual voices for the main characters, since the format means they're all first person narrators, and I know how tricky it is to do first person which sounds individualistic and not too alike. Here, even without reading the headers, you always know who is speaking, and you quickly get an impression of what they are like. When they start to form relationships with each other, these also work in a believable manner.
In terms of JMS' past work, I think it's noticeable thatno one has the initials JS or is told by their father to never start a fight but always finish it the classic hero(ine)/lead character marked as such from the get go and treated as such till the end is not there. Not just because this is an ensemble story, but because the focus and the emphasis keeps changing, and the characters givng the narrative its final form aren't the ones initializing it. There's a bipolar character named Lisa who is very unlike any character I've encountered in a JMS-authored work before, and neither she nor the characters with physical illnesses feel ever like "the one with with #ailment X", they feel like "character Y". Otoh, some other JMS stalwarts are present and accounted for, including love of cat, and a feline in a key emotional role. (I noticed this first in the Crusade episode where Max Eilerson rescues his cat, which is dedicated to one, too; when I read what JMS wrote in his memoirs re: his own cats, something clicked.) And he still has that knack of bringing minor characters to life in just a few words.
Of course, after a while I had strong hopes and fears as to what would/should happen with the characters eventually, and in some cases I was truly torn. In the end, I felt emotionally satisfied, and truly glad I had read the novel.
The novel is, among many other things, a road trip and found family story, as well as a current day take on that 18th and 19th century genre, the letter novel (in this case, the email, blog entry and podcast novel) with a premise that could have gone incredibly wrong. JMS himself must be keenly aware of this, since in the novel he's lampshading the trapfalls via a stern email from - that would be spoilery. Anyway, the premise, laid out on the outset and hence tellable without spoiler cuts, is this: a group of people, strangers to each other, come to together for a shared journey with one specific goal, which they all have in common: each of them wants to die. They all have different reasons, which the format of the novel allows to get into: for some, it's physical illness, others are plain old depression, some have backstory tragedies and some are in a hopeless position for other reasons. In one case, there's definitely payback and spite involved, while in another, it's guilt. But it's different for everyone.
Now, the most obvious trapfalls with such a premise are:
1.) If at the end, these people do in fact kill themselves, won't that feel like either relentless grimdark nihilism and/or glorification/prettifying of suicide?
2.) If, on the other hand, they don't kill themselves, won't that trivialize the subject and make it look like anyone can be talked out of suicide if the right person comes along, no matter how serious their reasons for having made such a decision in the first place?
Then there' the question as to whether a writer can maintain such a story at novel length, can get the readers involved despite them knowing what the characters want to do? After all, it's not a given people who have a stressful life themselves want to relax with a novel where all main characters start out wanting to die.
It helps if the author is someone who far more often than not has made you care, of course. So I read it, and it turned out to be compelling, captivating, and deeply humane. There's a lot of humor, too, with the characters, not about them, and not negating the heartache. On a pure "technical" level, I'm impressed that JMS managed to come up with distinct individual voices for the main characters, since the format means they're all first person narrators, and I know how tricky it is to do first person which sounds individualistic and not too alike. Here, even without reading the headers, you always know who is speaking, and you quickly get an impression of what they are like. When they start to form relationships with each other, these also work in a believable manner.
In terms of JMS' past work, I think it's noticeable that
Of course, after a while I had strong hopes and fears as to what would/should happen with the characters eventually, and in some cases I was truly torn. In the end, I felt emotionally satisfied, and truly glad I had read the novel.
