Reviews

On Ersatz Nation...

"Kenyon has a wild and prodigious imagination and his oddball Unation society reads like a conflation of all the best Galaxy satires ever written, with a special edge of weirdness all Kenyon's own. This is a writer to keep an eye on." Paul di Filippo, Asimov's Science Fiction [Read full review]


"Ersatz Nation is thought provoking and challenging in its vision and highlights the wonderful talent of Kenyon." Publishers Weekly


"Kafka would clang his bars in salute...Riveting, unflinching prose." Mark DeCarteret, author of The Great Apology.[Read full review]


"Due to its readability, clarity and occasional lyrical passages...I give this book a rating of three alternate universes up." V.T. Borger, Ultraverse [Read full review]


"This is an engrossing novel of cerebral science fiction...I would rate Ersatz Nation as a successful example of thoughtful (and thought-provoking) science fiction." Nick Austin, New English Library [Read full review]


"the X Files turned inside out." Rebecca Rule, Concord Monitor [Read full review]


"An impressively assured debut...[a] subtle, intelligent novel." Martin Lewis, Alien Online [Read full review]


"Tim Kenyon is a new name but I am sure he will not remain new for long. Ersatz Nation is thought provoking and challenging in its vision and highlights the wonderful talent of Kenyon. A first novel of this quality is usually rare but when they do come along you'd better be prepared." Altair Australia


"Tim Kenyon has made a worthwhile contribution to the welter of parallel universe scenarios, all the more so because it is a first novel." Jane Palmer, SF Crowsnest

 

Nick Austin of New English Library on Ersatz Nation

This is an engrossing novel of cerebral science fiction that draws the reader into its story of parallel worlds very effectively. The author is obviously at home with one of the abiding main concerns of "intellectual" SF-the problem of illusion versus reality as perceived through the consciousness of the main protagonists-and manages to ring some interesting changes on this theme. (I suspect Mr. Kenyon is no stranger to the work of the late, great Philip K. Dick, probably the greatest explorer of this particular area in or out of the confines of genre fiction. If I am correct, then Mr. Kenyon has chosen his influences very wisely.)

Mr. Kenyon also sets out in Ersatz Nation to make various political and environmental points-another hallmark of serious science fiction-and, to my mind at any rate, does so very effectively. His juxtaposition of "our" Earth with the totalitarian yet strangely consumerist world (the "Unation") of Mother Necessity is a clever device that gives a fresh perspective to several important current global concerns: environmental degradation, the limits of economic freedom, and so forth. Again, this places Ersatz Nation squarely in the tradition of that vital strand of science fiction that actually reflects the contemporary world and its problems in a fresh-sometimes satirical-way while ostensibly depicting the features of a wholly imaginary alien planet, parallel world, future society or what-have-you.

In a literature of ideas such as science fiction, characterization will usually be secondary to the exploration and interplay of concepts. Ersatz Nation is no exception-and is none the worse for it: with this kind of fiction, the ideas are what count most with the readers. Which is not to say that Mr. Kenyon's characters are mere ciphers. They're not-the episode in which Dolan has to grapple with the pain of his bullet wound is genuinely affecting, for example-but neither is the author over-concerned to portray them in the kind of depth that would, in this kind of story, slow down the narrative and distract the reader from the exploration of the important conceptual content.

All in all, I would rate Ersatz Nation as a successful example of thoughtful (and thought-provoking) science fiction. For a first novel…it is an impressive achievement.

 

Mark DeCarteret, author of The Great Apology, on Ersatz Nation

Gripping right from the get-go, an opening sequence super-charged, nearly cinematic in scope. Incisive, pitch-perfect prose that really serves the inventiveness of the plot but manages to adjust when necessary, adopting a pithy, detective-style tone (there are even other elements of the private eye novel such as this idea of assignments, stake outs) in some places, a stulted, overworked, near-manic voice/pace (such as when Selmar suffers his mini-breakdown after discovering his life isn't following his plans--that's an understatment!) in others. Always with the dramatic action in mind.

 I especially like the passage about Dolan's assorted vices ("There was a consciousness in the smoke that wasn't Mother.") and the way the contents of his "caps," these visions, are so spookily rendered. The book would be a marvel for only its major themes (any [not touched] upon?) but I was most engrossed with the more ambiguous ones: desperation and discouragement (this obsession with status, servitude), paranoia (this motif of the eyes--these character's worlds always being more than they seem, more than they are seen, this sense that there are always "eyes on him"), and this overwhelming feeling of disorientation, consciousness-overload ("I've seen too much..."). These "individuals" have serious dependency issues. S's imprisonment…delivers a stifling, nightmarish, predicament that Kafka would clang his bars in salute for. Riveting, unflinching prose. I also was intrigued by this notion of "poison" and how one's afflictions settle into the body and take residence. This inability to not only process, evaluate, what one encounters but even talk through, has one "choking on his own saliva." The anxiety here is palpable, all the more menacing because it can be removed from the skin, made out to be a spider--no more harrowing, horrific, than when Theman threatens--"Don't make me have to cut your neck open myself." And the less visceral (but certainly not alarming) decree--"I'm taking what's in your head..." (some "bloody, bullet holes thrown in like two periods for the stressing of its cessation).

The finale, driven by both action and the resolution of its numerous themes (not to mention sprinklings of humor, ingenuity--"the sound of his voice was one long word," "used his body for recreational toys, or engine parts, or a ham sandwich") continues to provide the same tension and surprise as the pages before it, situating our protagonist at last, in the world he half-imagined, one exhumed from out sacrifice and loss, but certainly one that holds obstacles and apprehensions one never dreamed of.