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Airside (SF) - Christopher Priest *****

There have been many attempts to define what science fiction is - I've always thought the most feeble is probably 'what SF writers write' - yet that's probably the best reason to call Airside science fiction. Christopher Priest has been a major force in the genre since the 1970s. Thanks to the film, he's probably best known for The Prestige, but his work has always challenged both the expected shape of what science fiction is and the reader's mind.

In some ways, Airside reminded me of Gene Wolfe's classic fantasy novel There Are Doors. These are both books where the reader is left for most of the book unsure as to quite what is going on. But Priest is able, far more so than Wolfe often was in his (brilliant) novels, to tie it all up at the end. I don't mean by this that there is a clear, everything explained scenario, but you are left thinking 'Aha, that's why we had that bit I didn't understand'.

According to the blurb, this is a book about the disappearance of a Hollywood actress in 1949. However, that is just one component in a much richer whole. The central character Justin is an obsessive film buff and professional writer on the subject. Perhaps in part because of a couple of childhood experiences, he is obsessed with airports and particularly their inner structures. He is also determined to find out what happened to Jeanette Marchard, the missing actress. All this comes together in a mix that also weaves in a number of Justin's reviews (of real films), which all tie into the structure of the book and Justin's worldview.

What is most surprising is how effective the book is given that a lot of is written more in the style of a long newspaper article than a novel. There is an awful lot of 'tell' rather than 'show', particularly when relating past events, and Priest makes frequent use of relatively short descriptive sentences. There isn't any dialogue to speak of until page 33, and although there are longer passages later, the journalistic style continues to dominate. This is clearly deliberate, and although it feels like it should make the book less easy to get into, somehow, it doesn't. I felt a pressure to read on, even though I was well aware there was unlikely to be a resolution of all the mysteries at the end.

Returning finally to whether or not this is science fiction, it certainly mostly isn't. There are a few elements that feel a little like fantasy, though you could see them as suggestions that there is something physical that connects certain locations, putting them outside the conventions of normal space. It has been remarked that Priest has a tendency to link landscapes and the psyche - here, the very particular landscapes of airport terminals - and particularly their weird-feeling no-persons'-land airside portions - do certainly have a kind of connection. If you come at this book expecting a typical SF novel, you will be disappointed. It is driven by a technology - but one that was futuristic in the original 1949 event, not now. But take it on with an open mind and it is both fascinating and surprisingly approachable for what could be regarded as piece of avant garde work 

I hesitate to use the word, but for me this is something of a masterpiece.

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Review by Brian Clegg - See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free here

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