Black Table — Lions In The Fog

Black Table, Antimatti Pennanen (2020)

I came to this book by an indirect route: this fairly negative review at Boundary’s Edge. Reviewer Alex Hormann dissected his dislike of the book, which was a quarter finalist in the ongoing Self Published Science Fiction Competition 2. The strength of his negative reaction to it was surprising. I started poking around and after looking at other reviews and finding a bit of a polarized reaction, decided to read it for myself.

In short, Hormann’s beef with Black Table started with the depiction of protagonists Jon and Gus, two Finnish kids heading to Comic Con:

Jon and Gus are absolutely insufferable. It’s not that they’re bad people. It’s that they’re annoying. They’re a stereotype of the male nerd that doesn’t become any more appealing on account of how tragically accurate the stereotype can be.

So the problem is that they’re depicted with...nauseating accuracy? Snark aside, these are not the best-developed characters ever. They are, though, more believable for what they are than many of the cardboard cut-outs which populate large swathes of indie/self-published SF.

His second objection was the writing itself. It’s a sentiment I feel all the time looking at books in the same field:

There are no glaring grammatical errors. No standout typos. No long and meandering, pretentious sentences leading the road to self indulgence. Yet, I can’t for the life of me say this was a well-written book.

I think Hormann is probably correct when he speculates that author Anttimatti Pennanen wrote in English, of which he is not a native speaker. Either way, two thoughts: I’d generate completely illiterate drivel if I had to actually write in either of the foreign languages I speak and read. And I spend inordinate time complaining about the voluminous dreck output by many writers who are native English speakers.

So either way, I’m willing to give Pennanen considerable slack. His prose may be stripped down, but at least it’s clean. And sometimes, particularly for Americans, hey, you might have to work for it a little bit. Just saying.

So no surprises here that my experience with the book was more positive. I was expecting Bill and Ted with infuriatingly good Anglo-Nordic accents, so I wasn’t disappointed. I also thought there was a bit more nuance in the story than typical for this part of the genre. Look, no one will be mistaking this for Dune. But it’s a celebration of pop culture in a lot of ways and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Plus, taking it on the level of what it is, it’s just a fun read.

Poking around the author’s very minimalist website, it also looks like it was a finalist for the 2022 “Next Generation Indie Book Awards” (missing out on a munificent $100 prize...)

I’m looking forward to the next two.

Smirk factor: All clear: 2 pts (2 smirks, both used correctly.)

Immersion factor: Shallow water: 1 pt (Didn’t drive me away, didn’t suck me in.)

Writing quality: Average: 1 pt

Character/plot development: Average: 1 pt

Innovative/interesting: Average: 1 pt

Total: 6/10

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