A Year in Linear City

Another electronic vacation read.

I'll admit to not being very familiar with Paul Di Filippo's works. Most of his books seem to come out from small presses, and I'm always hit or miss with that market. Based on what I read here, I'm going to have to start hitting his publishers!

This long tale was very enjoyable, our universe...but different. The characters inhabit a universe that is a city and a city that is a seemingly infinite narrow strip, with heaven on one side and hell on the other. Underneath? The Worm Ouroboros perhaps?

The main character is a writer of what we might call science fiction. He deals with an editor that strongly resembles John W. Campbell, Jr. in many ways. He eats foods that we mostly recognize, has friends with problems (like heroin addiction) that we recognize. But then you run across the differences. Why is the city the world and the world the city? What lies beneath? Are there other worlds? Is ours just a fictional exercise by the main character?

Di Filippo seems to have written this one not only as an exercise in creating a very odd atmosphere and setting, but as a way of exercising his ability to make up odd (but appropriate) words and use many obscure (but real) words. Good stuff, here. May we have a novel, please?

Another Fictionwise purchase.

Counts as one (1) entry in the 2006 Short Story Project.