Time to explain, or choose the miracle. I choose the miracle.
Think I’ve read three novels by Kraus: Scowler, Rotters, and Whalefall; enjoyed them all. I started Angel Down but it completely fried my brain (I’ll pick it up again one day). Although Whalefall is brilliant, I think The Sixth Nik is my favorite. Assigning stars to art is pretty meaningless, as is rehashing jacket copy and synopsis, so I’ll hit the meat and potatoes here, maybe the way it made me feel.
The Sixth Nik is a brutal journey of self-discovery, that self being a nine-year-old who isn’t built the way most nine-year-olds are. It’s science fiction, sure, and horror and fantasy and a bunch of other shelves to fit on, and yeah, it’s akin to ‘Alien’ and maybe ‘Murderbot’ but so much more. The prose is absolutely insane! I mean, even if there were no characters and no plot I probably would have read the whole thing. I got tired of writing amazing lines in my notebook. Here are a few. ‘Smart fiber optics hanging from hooks like horse whips.’ ‘The cabin’s other socket gazed out into an ebony outer space enlivened by the colorful cauliflower of a distant nebula.’ ‘I looked and felt like a Murder but moved like an eleven-year-old fresh off a clumsy abortion.’ I had to read this in ten percent bursts because the prose just had me smiling, was kinda overwhelming in some spots. And Kraus doesn’t let up, not sure how he keeps up that level of writing for so long.
The world building was really easy to absorb and visualize because I got the feeling that the story took place in the not so distant future, like it might actually exist someday, and most of the backstory was based on historical events, didn’t feel far-fetched or too abstract. The biological terms are solid, and I’m pretty sure Kraus had fun creating/combining systems for the descriptions of The Sickness. It’s a tumorous ship with a killer placenta—I mean, doesn’t get better than that. The use of color and texture and taste in the descriptions was deft as hell, some so spot-on that you just laugh about it.
Arzan, Feng, Jayne, Murder 005, Roy, Pug the Rust Man, Tuma, Talfa and Joe, all unique and rendered with a depth that slowly chips away at Sisilla’s snail shell. The Iron Sea sections were awesome: you ever flipped your bike to put that greasy chain back on its sprocket? That’s what it’s like. The Nik Six was a great way to explore the characters through Sisilla’s perspective, a great set of questions to ask yourself, really, and they resurface at a crucial point in the story.
There’s a chapter where the crew of The Sickness port in to a kind of internet analogue called the Snarl, formatted in these strange wavy columns of text, that will totally suck you into the experience.
Don’t get me wrong, none of this story is sunshine and rainbows. It’s super brutal, visceral, and horrific, and there were times when I said to myself, ‘Man, is this girl ever gonna catch a break?’ As soon as she starts to catch her breath, BAM! Another one bites the dust. Back into the meat grinder. Truth hurts, though, and kids go through hell, and sometimes found family and good memories, real or not, are the only things that get you through. The ending was apt, wonderful, artful, even, and I feel like Sisilla GA! was always going to end up GA! closest to what made her GA! feel like she was home GA!
Quote: ‘As a result, it is arguable that it does not matter if the niks work at all. The story of the niks works, and it seems like that is all the world requires.’
Big thanks to Netgalley, Saga Press, and Daniel Kraus for the opportunity to experience this.