Review Summaries

• Readers strongly praise the inventive ideas and urban imagery, though the unusual structure and leaps in narration will not suit everyone.

Reviews

• うーん・・？

  近未来的でユニークな世界観がとても新鮮だった。序盤中盤では謎が謎を呼ぶ展開で、一日中ぶっ続けで読んでいたが、終盤が中途半端でなんだかなぁ・・と思ってしまった。中盤まではＳＦなのに、ラストは結局恋愛ものになっちゃって、拍子抜けでした。

• Wow, wow, wow!

  Wow! Wow, wow, wow! I could just go on saying that, cover the page, and it would probably do as much justice to this book as anything else I’m going to write. This, omg, this is truly one of the most amazing books I’ve ever read; by turns haunting, hilarious, gripping, and utterly mind-bending, but also, perhaps surprisingly, quite deeply moving. It opens with a brief, disturbing vignette, a scene at once poignant, horrific and surreal, leaving us with a mind-boggling mystery that won’t be solved until nearly the end of the book. The first chapter starts with quite a different feel: We immediately meet Stark, our first person narrator, who introduces himself and his world in a comically wry, self-mocking voice. Stark’s world is a strange one, almost like something out of a futuristic board-game, a place divided not into nations but into a patchwork of sectors known as Neighborhoods, each of them with its own unique theme, ranging from amusing to dystopian to variations of “normal”. There’s the one where everything is silent, and the one devoted to color coordination, there’s the one about living like the good-old-days, and the one inhabited entirely by cats . . . You get the picture. And then there’s Stark himself. Stark is a . . . fixer, of sorts, the man always brought in by the powers that be to solve a very particular sort of problem. Stark is quirky and charming, his exploits typically hilarious, often exciting, always entertaining, but he also hints, cagily, that there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface. Beneath the surface of Stark, as well as of his world. And slowly you realize that pretty much nothing is what it seems. Except, as Stark himself might observe, for when it absolutely is . . . We spend a bit of time getting to know Stark and the strange world he lives in. And it’s all very intriguing and amusing. But once the story really gets going, it becomes completely enthralling! I read the first couple of chapters rather slowly, but fairly tore through the rest of it, literally on the edge of my seat. However there’s another aspect of this story that is, I think, the core of it, the whole point of it. A darkly melancholic thread runs through it, of heartache, loss and regret, of tragedy, and cruelty, but also of hope, humanity, and love. That was the part of this book I truly loved, the part I found so moving, painful but also beautiful. Because it’s like a map of the human heart in there. Which the really good stories always are, I think. The psychological underpinnings of this story are dead on. And some of that spoke to me so loudly it was almost triggering. I mean, there’s resonance, and then there’s *resonance*. There were a few times when the main character’s observations felt like they could have been drawn from my own thoughts or feelings or life. And there’s not much a book can do that feels more powerful than that. Toward the end, I confess this stuff kind of tore my heart out. It was harrowing, but then, it was okay again. There was sadness, more than a little, but there was healing and resolution too. And ultimately, there was a wonderful surprise; a happy ending. Not something you can really count on in Science Fiction :) I’m going to wrap this up with some of my favorite quotes: This one is a life metaphor I find particularly salient, and particularly poignant. It also kind of felt like the universe speaking to me when I first read it. But there seems to be a lot of that going around in this book: “People always find it so frustrating that there’s no structure they can see, that they just have to follow the river downstream and see what they find. They want to know the plot so they can guess the end, because they’re afraid of what it might be. I can understand that, even though I know it’s not the way things work. I never know what the hell’s going to happen next, but I can live with that.” And there’s this which, I think, speaks for itself: “When you're born a light is switched on, a light which shines up through your life. As you get older the light still reaches you, sparkling as it comes up through your memories. And if you're lucky as you travel forward through time, you'll bring the whole of yourself along with you, gathering your skirts and leaving nothing behind, nothing to obscure the light. But if a Bad Thing happens part of you is seared into place, and trapped for ever at that time. The rest of you moves onward, dealing with all the todays and tomorrows, but something, some part of you, is left behind. That part blocks the light, colours the rest of your life, but worse than that, it's alive. Trapped for ever at that moment, and alone in the dark, that part of you is still alive.” But *this*, omg, I find this to be one of the most heartbreakingly true and perfectly, succinctly expressed observations of the human condition I’ve ever read: “Everyone's alone in their world, because everybody's life is different. You can send people letters, and show them photos, but they can never come to visit where you live. Unless you love them. And then they can burn it down.” I’m not a tattoo person? But those words almost tempt me. They have a lot of meaning for me, and have haunted me since the first time I read them in someone else’s review, long before I ever read the book itself. In fact, it was sharing this quote in a Facebook group recently that prompted me to finally read the book, which had been languishing inexcusably in my TBR for about 2 years. And I’m really, really glad that I did. I’m also linking to the full quote here, which you should read because it expands upon the short version above in important ways, I think: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/123899-only-forward In a way though, the best quote of all was this one, because it was how the book ended: “Everyone deserves a happy ending. Even me.” This is another of those books I'd like to give 6 or 7 stars, if I could. Very highly recommended.

• Una maravilla

  Uno de los más bellos textos en el género que jamás he leído. Se lee en warp speed y te deja meditando sobre la naturaleza de la realidad y el tiempo. Una verdadera maravilla literaria.

• Fantastic journey, great read.

  Smith has a wonderful way bringing the reader into the story. Stark is a great character, and Only Forward is great read from start to finish.

• Für Sci-Fi Fans ein Leckerbissen

  Only Forward ist witzig, ernst, spannend, hat einen großartigen Protagonisten und liest sich sowohl auf Englisch als auch auf Deutsch echt schön. Die Welt ist erfrischend neu erfunden (nun, das Buch ist von 1994 daher vielleicht nicht ganz so neu) und macht absolut Spaß weil ständig was neues Verrücktes kommt! Das Format ist normales Taschenbuch, allerdings vergilben die Seiten sehr schnell und die Auflage ist leider eine andere als abgebildet (anderes Coverbild etc). Also auf die ISBN achten, wer eine spezielle Auflage wünscht. Ich würde gerne mehr als 5 Sterne für die Story geben! Kann das Buch nur empfehlen!

• Sci-fi with soul

  This is the second MMS book I have read (Spares the first) and I found both had the same 'issue' (I avoid the word 'problem', as this isn't necessarily the case) - they start off going in one direction and then suddenly go off in an entirely different direction about halfway through. In Spares, I found this a little annoying as I liked the way the book was going, and thought the end neglected the earlier build up and was ultimately a disappointment (although the book as a whole is definitely worth a read) whereas in Only Forward this improved the book. Without wanting to spoil the book too much (and this is hinted at on the cover), the story starts as a futuristic detective story that is predictable, apart from its surreal sci-fi setting. The second part veers into the world of dreams and realities and is a lot more confusing, unpredictable and well written (whilst the earlier sections are engaging and knowingly cliched, the second manages to be both incredibly vivid and disturbingly beautiful at times). The end is heartbreaking, yet feels perfectly apt. The closest works I could compare this to are Clive Barker's Imajica (not as broad a scope, but definitely some overlaps and the direction changes are comparable) and also Colin Bateman's Orpheus Rising (also a funny, unexpected and soulful novel). Overall: it's not perfect, but it's definitely an improvement on Spares and an intriguing and enjoyable (apart from the bits that are disturbing) read. EDIT: A few months ago I mentioned this to my wife, then felt I NEEDED to read it (and Spares), but couldn't find my copy, so had to buy more. Have now re-read both and I can say that, whilst I agree with the points raised in my earlier review, it's better than 4 stars. It is an amazing book which I am sure I will find the urge to re-read every 5 years or so. If you like sci-fi with soul, do yourselves a favour and READ THIS BOOK!

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