Subject: Review: _Farewell Horizontal_ [A

From: [email-masked] (Paul Silver)
Date: Mon, 10 May 1993 18:48:38 GMT

Review of 'Farewell Horizontal' by K W Jeter.

The style of Jeter reminded me of Philip K Dick all through the book, not
particularly his writing style, but the situation of the world and the
characters in it. The part of the world we see is based around a huge
cylindrical building, most of the action takes place on the surface of the
cylinder. On the Vertical.

The story follows the exploits of Ny Axxter - a freelance graffex artist. A
graffex invents symbols and icons for display on the armour of the many
warrior groups vying for territory on the surface of the cylinder. To fill in
time before he can make a break into this scene Axxter does photographic work
to sell to the building-wide (and therefore world-wide, as that seems to be
all that's left of the building) information network, it sells anything it
thinks is worth showing to the rest of the world as entertainment.

There is life on the rest of the world, at least close to the cylinder. Above
the cloudlayer, where the people are on the building (I know this makes it a
very large place, and that it's difficult to survive that high up, but it's
all speculative after all) there are angels. They are mostly human, but are
ultra-light and have a huge sack of helium (or hydrogen) between their
shoulder-blades, which lets them drift around in the air. Axxter befriends one
of them after helping her when she was in an accident.

Axxter has given up life 'on the horizontal', and survives secured to the
building by a smart device with pitons that latch into the building. The
building is all that's left after 'the War', and the angels are thought to be
the results of an experiment that went on before the war. Though Axxter has
given up the Horizontal, he does try to visit an old girlfriend there, by
using a system of virtual reality hardwired into his system, this and the way
he contacts the network by poking his finger into a receiver socket give the
book something of a cyberpunk feel. This is deceptive as the main thrust of
the book is not cyberpunkish, but just the extrapolation of an odd culture in
an odd place. This is another way it is like Dick's work.

During the story we get to follow Axxter not only to the other side of the
building (where it actually gets dark!) but even into the inside of the
building, where the dreaded 'Dead Centers' roam.

Although the book does not get over some of it's larger discrepancies (such as
how did the cylinder they are all in/on come into existance? - even one of the
characters asks this.) nor what has happened to the rest of the world, but it
does give good characterisation of Axxter and his fight for survival in a
world ruled by corrupt economics (and an agent that takes 10%, anything to do
with real life??) and the strange situation of living in a Vertical world if
you want personal freedom.

This is not for people who like straight hard-core SF, with everything
explained and compartmentalised. But if you like your SF with a surreal touch
(such as a motorbike that works vertically, this is explained) then this is
worth a look.

T% Farewell Horizontal
A% K W Jeter
P% Grafton
ISBN% 0-586-20809-7.
D% 1990.
Pp% 253.

Review by Speaker AKA Paul Silver (the second, it appears, hello all in IL.)

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