Europe in Autumn; Europe at Midnight; Europe in Winter ~ Dave Hutchinson

The first book in this ‘Fractured Europe’ series was recommended to me by a friend, and I bought it as a ebook for a few dollars. Then I rapidly went out and bought the second. The third, maddeningly, wasn’t yet released, but I placed it on pre-order and it arrived a couple of weeks ago.

So I read these three books in a matter of a few weeks. And then I turned around and immediately read them all through again from cover to cover, and I’m glad I did — so much I had missed or not understood now became clear(er). But even now I’m not sure that I fully understand what has been going on, and I’m wondering if there will be a fourth or fifth book in the series which may reveal more. Talk about ‘a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma’! (A not-inappropriate quotation, as it turns out).

Where to start? Well, first we have to set the scene, which is the near-term future in Europe after the European Union has essentially broken up back into its individual nations. But the rot hasn’t stopped there, and there’s a wave of independent nations, principalities or ‘polities’ breaking off from those nations, as regional and ethnic loyalties come to the fore. This reaches an almost absurd degree, with in some cases a few blocks of some cities declaring their independence. The whole concept of the Schengen Treaty of doing away with borders in Europe is now a sad, half-forgotten joke. Borders and border controls are everywhere.

Even more interesting, a trans-continental railway line has been built from Spain through to Eastern Sibera. On its completion the company promptly declares the railway and the land immediately surrounding it to be sovereign territory, and that the Line is now an independent nation. The Line’s stations are Consulates. One needs a visa to travel on the train, and to become a citizen to work for the Line. The author somehow makes this all seem perfectly rational.

We’re introduced to Rudi, the young Estonian-born chef at Restaurant Max in Kraków, in Poland. Through some shady connections of his boss Max, Rudi is eventually recruited into a shadowy organisation called Les Coureurs de Bois (“the runners of the woods”?). It’s kind of a courier operation, carrying mail and packages from one nation to another — something no longer easy, or even necessarily legal. It’s like a cross between a courier company, a smuggling ring, and an espionage outfit. Most governments heavily disapprove of it.

For most of the first book, we’re learning about Rudi and following him on the various Situations he’s placed in from time to time (while still mostly working as a chef). Some of these go well, a few go wrong, and eventually disastrously wrong. Something very strange is going on, and Rudi finds that he is being hunted and that his life is in danger. All of this (other than the slighly futuristic setting) has the engaging fascination of a spy thriller, or perhaps one of the Jason Bourne movies. Apart from the occasional use of advanced technology like ‘stealth suits’, this all seems barely like science fiction at all.

I can’t describe too much more without spoilers. Suffice it to say that about 80% through the first book, Rudi has finally tracked down what a dying former Coureur tells him is ‘the proof’. It’s in the deciphering of this proof that Rudi discovers a secret which does plunge us into real science fiction territory.

I enjoyed the second book even more than the first, as we encounter the first person narrative of ‘Rupert’ who lives in a vast (really vast) university campus run as a totalitarian regime, which has just undergone a bloody revolution. How this ties in with what Rudi has discovered in the first book takes quite a while to emerge.

It was really worthwhile re-reading the books. So much of what is going on in earlier parts of the narrative is explained by what comes later that you are almost compelled to go back and read those earlier passages again. It’s a tribute to how good the writing is that all three books were just as enjoyable to read again so soon.

Gosh these books are good! Puzzling, challenging, but very good. Written, by someone who seems to know Eastern Europe (and the restaurant trade) very well; very clever plotting; really original concepts; great characterisation. I loved them and look forward to reading more from this author. ( )

(...)

This form is one of the books’ many strengths, but in Winter it is also its weak spot. Remarkably, Kincaid wrote that “there is no point where [Hutchinson] allows the story to flag”, contrasting this with the previous two books. I don’t agree, as for me it was exactly the opposite. I thought the previous books nowhere became tiresome, and it’s only in Winter that the story did flag a bit: the final fourth failed to really grab me. That’s because Hutchinson expands his world in that final part of the novel yet again, and to a certain extent it felt like he stretched it too much.

So I rather agree with Jeroen, who wrote that the ending “seems to come out of the blue. We never really follow Rudi’s explorations from up close, so there is no sense that the story is going places, and when Hutchinson seemed to tire of his short stories he pasted the resolution at the end to round off the novel.” While the books seem intricately crafted, at the same time I get the impression Hutchinson made it up as he went along – nothing wrong with that, to be clear, it’s an interesting paradox that attests to Hutchinson’s writing prowess & skill.

(...)

Full review on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It ( )

Wraps up the series, but the story feels even more fragmented and disconnected than the others. Even more things that don't make a lot of sense, and it just left me feeling disoriented and not really enjoying it that much. ( )

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

I was very happy to get a copy of this early. The story has gotten very, very interesting through the trilogy, and getting my hands on it at this point is simply a delight. The whole thing is more than unusual for any kind of SF or Thriller, and I just have to applaud.

Coureurs* are always a big part of this trilogy, but more than that, it's the mystery and the myth of these men and women who refuse to be bound by borders that makes this spycraft novel into something a bit more than drug-running or refugee-spiriting across arbitrary jurisdictions of Europe.

If that wasn't enough, it's even better because it's a near-future hard-SF tale following not only plagues and exploded bombs and a fantastically interesting rail system into ... elsewhere. And more, because it's a heavily-stressed commentary on expediency, the absurdity of borders, and power, as well.

The SF portions really popped out of the woodwork in the previous novel with an awesome reveal, and in this one, it is now a done deal that the whole world is aware of. We also get a lot more of Rudi this time, learning a lot more about his place in the world, how his actions have changed the world and the Coureurs* and the real meaning of all that money.

Everything ties up very nicely, indeed. I'm very impressed. :) I admit that I was worried at certain places within the previous novels, but making it here and finishing it is very rewarding and very interesting, indeed. :)



*Correction ( )

The stories of the previous two in the series come together but the imaginative ideas and clever plot twists continue. November 2019 ( )