The Smoke by Simon Ings

The Smoke Reviews

• 
  Charles

  This is literary science fiction. It’s an alt-history set in a 1950s Britain with biotech and atomic rockets. Tangled family relations played a large part of the story. A tech-inspired species split has occurred to host the story’s British class-theme, although I thought the novel to be more Darwinist than class-related. This book was well written and complex. It wasn’t an easy read, and won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
  
  This book was a slim 300-pages, although it felt longer than that.
  
  I used to read books by this author a long time ago.
  Hot-head was an excellent cyberpunk novel in its day. Then he stopped writing. This is one of the first books he’s written in about 10-years. It’s very different from earlier books.
  
  The prose was excellent. There were several wonderful ‘turns of phrase’. I thought descriptive prose to be better than dialog, through use of a rich vocabulary drawing from the end of the last century. This carried over into the protagonist’s inner dialog, but most of the dialog was in regional or class-based vernacular. There were several different POVs, which I found disconcerting. There was more than one first-person in addition to second-person narration. Flashbacks make-up a large part of the story. They are handled well.
  
  There was a small set of characters. The nominal protagonist was Stuart (can’t recall last name, even if given). He was a young, Yorkshireman architect disenfranchised by biological and technological change in the new "struggle for existence”. His love interest is Fel Chernoy. She was a member of the new homo superior species. Her father Georgy Chernoy was a wealthy, influential luminary. Oddly Georgy elected to remain an old-style human. Georgy's paramour was Stuart’s aunt, a famous stage and screen actress. A further POV came from an unnamed ‘Chickie’. Minor characters included Stuart’s father, mother and brother. In general, the level of character development was good and they had an interesting entanglement.
  
  There was minimal sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll in the story. Folks had sex. It was spoken of, but never descriptively. Substance abuse was in-line with the alt-1950’s. Alcohol was consumed, occasionally to the point of drunkenness. Tobacco was likewise consumed. Drugs are present and easily available. Folks self-medicate with "Greenies", to take "the edge off". I would consider indulging in the pheromonal excretions of the Chickies to be a drug of sorts too. The only music mentioned is Fel's facility with the piano. There was a small amount of violence, mostly physical. The violence is tastefully done. The author's talent for description makes the wounds worse than the act. Body count is low. This cannot be considered a YA read, despite the youth of the protagonist.
  
  World building was exceptional. History starts diverging in the 1870’s when the Yellowstone volcano wipes out North America and causes a nuclear-like winter. World War I is decided with nuclear weapons. (The Germans lose.) The British Empire may wane, but does not come apart. A biotech process is invented that changes human evolution by creating two additional species. The ‘Bund’ are the new homo superior species. They’re designer humans. They segregate themselves and quickly begin to diverge from humanity. The compare and contrast between the Bund’s technology and the old-style, human, 50’s “nuclearpunk” was brilliant. Chickies were an accidentally created human-like species considered a sub-human, invasive nuisance. (I liked it!) Then there are old-style humans like Stuart and his family.
  
  Plot was deep. I counted five (5) sub-plots before I threw-up my literary hands and stopped counting. Having been published in the UK in 2018, I continually tried to find BREXIT themes in the story. (That was like searching for faces in the clouds.) There was also a complex use of symbols. My literary symbol-recognition wetware twigged, many times, but I couldn’t decipher all of them. For example, the Chickie ‘cornhusk doll’ Stuart packed around made little sense to me. At its most superficial level, the story is the Uptown Girl trope. The working class, but capable young, Yorkshire guy (Stuart) in uni falls for the young, rich, homo superior girl, even though he knows that she's out of his league. Stuart’s family and a very 50’s British class dynamic is woven into the story. There’s the boy gets girl, boy loses girl plot in-action. However, there is enough spin to distract you. For example, the girl is already lost when the story begins, but the reader gets flashbacks to see the course of their relationship. Things don’t end well. The world ends in interspecies warfare. (Old-style humans lose.) Set this in an alt-1950’s world in social, technological, and political upheaval. Pacing was good, but felt a bit rushed at the end.
  
  This is literary science fiction-- not an sf yarn. There were some parts of the story that I really liked, for example the alt-history world building. I also thought the author’s wordsmithing was very good. However, I was a bit frustrated with knowing there were parts of the story I just wasn’t getting. Everyone is not going to like this book, but you wouldn’t be wasting your time to read it.
  
  Folks interested in this author might want to read his book
  Wolves , which I found an easier read. A better British alt-history novel might be
  The Alteration, which is also an easier read.
• 
  Steve Gillway

  Ballardian type tale told with a more emotional edge. I found the concoction of time and culture both comforting, the northern coal fire, pub etc, and beguiling, the secretive cult(with racist overtones) and different human forms etc. This book leaves you thinking and it will take some time to digest fully.
• 
  Ella (The Story Collector)

  To be totally honest, this book had me pretty confused. I don’t really know what happened or why, or even when the book is meant to be set. Just about the only things I understood were the location and who the main characters were (although I still don’t fully understand what the Bundists are). Because of that, writing my own synopsis is kind of impossible.
  
  Some sections of this book are written in the second person, which is unusual and I really liked it. However, I think this contributed in a big way to my lack of comprehension. It made the book harder to follow and I really struggled to stay focussed while reading.
  
  I did enjoy the parts I was able to understand. The Smoke contains some really interesting and dark concepts, which I absolutely loved. It’s super intriguing with very complex themes. I would say it is worth a read, but requires levels of concentration that I did not give it to fully enjoy.
  
  I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  yingying

  dnf 😭 i couldn’t read more than 12 pages LOL. i didn’t like the way it was written, it was rather dull sorry
• 
  Ian Mond

  In The Smoke, Simon Ings takes familiar science fiction ingredients – alternate history, immortality, genetic manipulation/mutation, space exploration and body swapping – and bakes a magnificent, albeit utterly insane, cake. If you were pitching this novel to a Hollywood executive… well you wouldn’t… but if you were you’d say it’s set in an alternate history where the Second World War never happened, and Yiddish socialists took over the world. That’s without mentioning the truly weird stuff, a toss-up between the creation of a new species from dead first World War soldiers or a piss-take of Gerry Anderson’s UFO.
  
  The remarkable thing is all these elements come together. Yes, the chickies (the name for the mutant species) are a little underdeveloped, I felt there was more to their story, but overall it’s astonishingly coherent. It’s because each of these elements is in service of telling a story about the wonders, the drawbacks and the existential crisis of post-humanism. Rather than apply a utopian gloss where humanity transcends to the next stage of evolution, Ings argues that, as is often the case with progress, good people will be left behind, except this time it’s all of us, or at least those of us who aren’t Bund. This is very much a novel about class, about the haves and have-nots, about the imposition of a new paradigm on a world that wasn’t expecting it.
  
  There’s also something confronting about the substitution of Nazis with ubermensch Jews. Yes, the Bund is very different to the rabbinical Judaism they’ve repudiated, they don’t resemble me in any way shape or form and yet even in Ings counterfactual, the Bund face garden variety anti-semitism. No matter how much they distance themselves, no matter that the word Jew is no longer spoken, the Bund are identified as Jews by those who loathe them (which appears to be many people). And given how far the Bund will go to impose their vision of the future, you could certainly read the novel as saying that we would have been better off with the Holocaust, unless, that is, you see the Bund’s version of post-humanism as something to strive for. (Not that it’s an either-or equation, but the novel does lend itself to this sort of comparison). I did joke (to myself) that The Smoke might, be the most anti-semitic book ever written. It certainly a provocative book that’s worthy of a much deeper analysis then I provide here. Again, Ings has left me perplexed, excited, horrified and thoughtful.
• 
  Phoenix Scholz-Krishna

  That was... definitely different. Ings' style is enjoyable to read, and/but his books are always devastating to some degree (and, Z and I agree, so far have never really been books that we feel like re-reading). My favourite things in this one were the best shift in narrative perspective I've ever come across (right as you turn from page 63 to page 64) and a long passage that reminded me of M. John Harrison's alien event site in the Empty Space trilogy (p. 145/146). I also really liked the final juxtaposition/metamorphosis.
  
  ETA: In addition to the final page/paragraph, which I liked so much, this book also contains the ultimate sublime moment of confrontation and - without posting spoilers - salvation. I'm in awe.
• 
  Jrubino

  First, let me point out the annoying usage of the second person narrative: "You find yourself wondering" or "You get up from the bed" etc. I suppose it’s meant to be an echo of the quainter 1800s style, but in reality it is simply a constant distraction.
  
  Yet even beyond that bad decision, the plot is so convoluted. Alt History can be interesting (and fun) but this is such a mishmash of events that nothing seems real. Could be Earth. Could be any other planet. It doesn’t matter because nothing seems connected. This defeats the whole purpose of Alt History. In this novel, I don’t wonder at how subtle tweaks can ripple into huge changes; I only struggle to understand why Ings bothered to root this in any of Earth’s history at all.
• 
  Arend

  A novel that has so much going for it: excellent writing (some dazzling use of second-person, mimicking the bewilderment of the protagonist in his alternative version of Britain), frank engagement with class, race, and family, and ideas that don’t go where you naively would expect them to go, and poetic plot development (use of the Aeneid is spot on). It is a science fiction novel that is a worthy scion of Brave New World, though not with the same clarity or emotional impact. It was mostly the relationships that missed the mark for me, feeling more constructed than organically grown.
• 
  Sue Davis

  Too much going on without any coherence. Second person narration is ok but masturbating, monsters, chickies, zombies didn’t impress me. The alternate history is intriguing but I wanted more development. Same for the Bund.
• 
  French Giant

  What did I just read and why did I insist on slogging through it?
• 
  Ben Thurley

  I guess The Smoke might be come to be seen as a post-Brexit, English, novel, rather than merely a science fiction novel. The world, and particularly the Britain, Ings builds in his alternate future is as recognisable as it is divergent. The United States never rose to global dominance but was instead devastated by the Yellowstone eruption of 1874, World War I was ended early in Europe through the atomic bombing of Berlin, World War II and The Holocaust never happened, and the invention of the Gurwitsch ray by a Jewish Soviet scientist has created both the hypersexual human hybrids known as Chickies whose aphrodysiac/dyonisiac influence shapes both this world and the in more intimate ways the characters of this story, and also been used to create a transhuman (almost übermensch) collective known as "The Bund", scattered remnants of the Jewish Labor Bund living in enclaves in most of the world's major cities – who have achieved almost alien increases in intelligence. Yet we inhabit an England which is divided by class, seeking to stave off sexual and other revolutions, jingoistically overcompensating for perceived slights or unacknowledged failures, at the mercy of forces that are barely comprehensible, let alone containable.
  
  Plus ça change.
  
  I won't attempt a plot summary, because it would be difficult, a little beside the point for what is a sci-fi, roman-a-clef, elegy hybrid and also because there are some aspects to the plot that are questioned within later narrative frames – whereby the shifts from third-person to second-person to first-person narration both expand and unsettle earlier understandings. It's a messy and sprawling novel in some ways, and explores personal relationships with believability even within its increasingly fantastical world. The racial othering of technological progress and economic progress is extremely uncomfortable, which is (I take/hope) Ings' point. Antisemitism is built into the narrative structure but profoundly questioned as Ings portrays in a transformed world the same personal and political divides that fuel in our own world such destructive insularity, racism and violent annihilationism.
  
  Occasionally puzzling and frustrating, often disquieting, sometimes horrifying, The Smoke never fails to be interesting.
• 
  Doreen

  I read a lot of novels and it is perishing rare for me to feel genuinely intimidated by the intellect of an author but here we are! Simon Ings' terrifying intelligence is palpable throughout the pages of The Smoke, with my only quibble being why London is called such, as the text doesn't seem to offer any explanation. Is this a British thing that has eluded me as a foreigner, albeit an Anglophile?
  
  Anyway, a bright if otherwise ordinary young man named Stu breaks up with his girlfriend, Fel, the daughter of a prominent scientist who has pioneered a means of prolonging life. Stu and Fel lived in The Smoke, near The Bund, as the colony of Fel's people -- a hyper-intelligent race who are evolving to hyper-efficiency -- is known. Years ago, Stu had an unsettling encounter with a member of another of the human races, known somewhat disparagingly as Chickies, that continues to haunt him. Stu's family begins to fall apart as war and destruction loom, and Stu finds himself at the mercy of forces beyond his control.
  
  Mr Ings switches masterfully from third- to second- to first-person narratives and back again in a stylistic carnival ride that takes us from alternate history to space opera to classical mythology homage, all the while touching on class conflicts (in a world cheerfully devoid of America with all its complicated geopolitical neuroses,) anti-Semitism and the sociopolitical ramifications of advancing technology. It is at once an homage to classic British SF and a weirdly bold paean to love, tho not perhaps in the way you'd expect. Personally, I thought the main weakness of the book was in Stu and Fel's relationship. Like everyone else in the novel, I had no idea why she loved him.
  
  The Smoke is a truly weird, profoundly intelligent science fiction novel that dares to extrapolate a richness of both wonders and horrors from our own modern world. Pick it up and prepare to be dazzled by its sheer inventiveness.
  
  Interview with Simon Ings to come soon on
  The Frumious Consortium!
• 
  Rhiannon Mills

  Quick FYI before we begin this review...
  
  You know when you're a kid and you're minding your own business, just sitting down somewhere behaving, and then out of nowhere your older sibling comes along and sideswipes your entire head with a giant, heavy, feather pillow, knocking you into the floor? And before you even knew what happened, they just keep hitting you with the pillow? That's what this book will do to you if you're not carefully paying attention. 
  
  To be completely honest, there is a lot going on in those pages. This novel is not for everyone. However, Simon Ings has clearly grasped and delivered to his readers an unmistakable grief and the loss of any need to go on. Those are emotions I find hard to describe when I'm writing and I know other authors do too. To do this well is commendable, particularly in an alternative history setting. 
  
  But, reader beware. It is extremely easy to get completely lost in this book. As a matter of fact, I've had it on my night stand a few months and it has taken me a while to put myself into the right head space to read the story and be able to give it the attention it deserves. That does NOT mean I didn't like it or couldn't get into it, but alternately that after reading a fair bit I realized I needed to be able to concentrate in order to not get completely lost. Books with later release dates were finished before this one as The Smoke is not a particularly easy read. Not by any measure. 
  
  With most difficult tasks, though, I found the reward to be satisfying. Characterization and writing were both wonderful and I enjoyed the plot, too. The story will break your heart if you're not careful. 
  
  For a reader only just beginning to enjoy the science fiction genre, if you're looking for a novel to get your literary feet wet, maybe try something else until you're ready. Or maybe buy it read it slowly in order to keep track of what's really happening within the plot. I most certainly do give my recommendation, though. Well done, Simon Ings. 
• 
  John Rennie

  This is one of those books that you admire for the literary artistry involved. The characters are all rather distant and hard to empathise with, and there isn't much in the way of plot.
  
  The book is set in an alternative universe where the USA was just about destroyed by an eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano in the 19th century. Then atomic weapons were developed in time for the first world war and left all of Europe slightly radioactive. From the ashes two new species have emerged, the technologically advanced Bund and the apparently (slight spoiler there :-) primitive Chickies. The book is set in the UK and follows the rather hapless protagonist Stuart Lanyon through this alternative landscape.
  
  It's an interesting book because the author manages this slightly surreal setting very well. Indeed the standard of the writing is excellent. But it's not an involving book that pulls you in. I quite enjoyed it, but it hasn't filled me with any great desire to read Ings' other books.
• 
  Susan

  It's possible that I'm just getting lazy and easily distracted. It's likely that my attention span is shrinking, and I need to choose more British cozies to lull my brain back into a comfortable space, not challenge it with a narrative that is nonlinear and shifts perspective without warning or signal. Maybe I used to be able to appreciate this sort of thing; I don't recall. The story is certainly an interesting puzzle, and I did enjoy parts of the book. But I'm going to have to say, two stars is sugar-coating my reaction. It normally does not take me this long to read a sci-fi book, but I kept putting it aside. That's generally not a good sign. I wanted to like it, but I kept finding myself wishing it was finished already so I could read something else. Puritan guilt is not a sufficient goad to make me complete a read, and it did get better (or I got more attuned to the rhythm) as it got nearer the end. Do I recommend it? Not really.
• 
  Timothy Nott

  Lovely. Really enjoyed the Scifi-urban-fantasy genre-bend and the fact that there wasn't a nice simple happy ending. It felt a little ripped-from-the-headlines given the pandemic -- especially given how Israel has left everyone else in the dust in terms of vaccination despite having a large portion of its population opposed to vaccines.
  
  Other, more intentional parallels around populist prejudice ring true, as well. We are seeing what happens when a group of people feels left behind by a quickly changing world. Is it the responsibility of those who are moving forward to bring along everyone else? Or, is it progress at any cost? If the latter, do the 'victors' eliminate potential eventual competition?
  
  
• 
  Max

  In an alternate universe, where WW II never happened because of a different outcome of WW I, the Great War (yes, even here), we find an earth where humankind has split into three divergent groups: the chickies, the Bund and the unaccommodated. A sad story of scientific and medical advancement, lost love and missed opportunities, in which especially the shifting focus of the narrator from third to second to third person and back gives the story an extra feeling of estrangement. There are echoes of Brexit (Take back the Moon) and a new dimension is added to the class struggle with the three different groups each with their prejudices and mutual misunderstanding. Worth your time.
• 
  Vuk Trifkovic

  Hard to figure out the book. There are passages where it looks like yet another retelling of a very insular, British, class-obsessed story. There are passages which are just too "spot on" and too obvious. Yet, there are wonderfully weird twists that give it another dimension. Will make sure to read "Wolves" for sure...
• 
  Caitlin G

  Review based on a finished copy provided by the publisher.
• 
  Dave

  i really loved this book... the UFO TV show references, the bigger themes, and I really loved the plastic model kit scene. So much about this book appealed to me.
• 
  Steen Ledet

  Solid alternative history with playful narration.
• 
  Katie

  I couldn't finish this book, although I tried to engage with the story. I realized I was avoiding reading it. Cool concepts but the story was not told in a way that drew me in.
• 
  Jennifer

  The premise of this book is interesting but it was far too vague and metaphysical for my taste.
• 
  Marilyn

  I wanted to like it. I found the narrator in the first part very difficult, it was a relief when the narrator changed. The story was disconcerting.