Recommend: No<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am such a fan of these small aquamarine Penguin Moderns. It\u2019s a fantastic collection of novellas that span a varied authorship. Each edition retails for only $2.50, with the exception of the $8.50 Shirly Jackson at Better Read Than Dead. No staff member could explain that price discrepancy and to this day it remains a mystery worthy of Jackson herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Breakthrough<\/em> could almost be described as science fiction, though the coldly realistic prose strips away much of the wonder of the genre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Stephen is a respected scientist working on projects of some secrecy in Cambridge when he is instructed to take a secondment in Saxmere to assist MacLean, another scientist of questionable reputation. Saxmere is made to sound like it\u2019s not in the middle of nowhere but that it is also not exactly somewhere. The seaside colony is surrounded by sand dunes on one side and marshlands on the other. A rusting remnant of an abandoned surveillance radar looms over the settlement. An airbase functions out of Saxmere too but the scientists and airforce personal never mix. It\u2019s an isolating life and it begs the question: what is the scientific research taking place here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Saxmere MacLean runs a tiny team of research personal of different standing. There\u2019s a doctor, a cook and a small family that maintains the demountable housing. There was an electronics engineer that recently departed Saxmere for undisclosed reasons. It is this staff member that Stephen has been tasked by higher powers, and rather against his wishes, to replace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best part of this tiny short story was the opening. Stephen arrives without fanfare to this desolate location. Stephen’s displeasure at his new ‘home’ is arresting and interspersed with sardonic humour. He has a hefty dose of scepticism about whatever \u2018work\u2019 is being lead by MacLean despite being warmly taken in by everyone on the small team. The tone here is closer to modern day Sad Office Girl literature than science fiction. I liked the cool critique of Saxmere, all the more impactful given Stephen is stuck here indefinitely and hasn’t yet come to terms with this. It’s claustrophobic and suspenseful without needing to be weighted with sci-fi exposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we learn more about the fantastical research project underway at Saxmere the story loses its vision. The technology\u2019s history and the motivation of the inventors is not touched on. We are rushed through the plot with materially less suspense than there was around simply arriving in the rain at the gloomy Saxmere platform. The \u2018science fiction\u2019 elements are the least imaginative part of this otherwise atmospheric tale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, The Breakthrough<\/em> is a great read and I am glad that I was introduced to Du Maurier in this fashion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The energy is there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews_books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1663"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1667,"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1663\/revisions\/1667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaindevil.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}