You know, I’ve watched the trailer for Richard Flanagan‘s The Unknown Terrorist a couple times now, and I don’t think I’m any closer to knowing what it’s about than what I’ve learned from the tagline: “Five days, three unexploded bombs, every truth of your life turned into a lie: What would you do?” And I’ve got to warn you: If loud techno beats and topless pole dancers might bother your coworkers, you really shouldn’t play the video at work. It all seems like a very odd approach to marketing the latest novel from “one of the most brilliant writers working in the English language today,” whose last novel was described by Michiko Kakutani as “a Melvillian meditation on art and politics and nature, the evils of colonialism and the limits of Enlightenment reason.”
Not exactly the sort of pedigree one expects from the writer of what’s being presented as a gripping thriller. (Speaking of which, kudos to the publisher for not wasting any time in creating the shelftalker abouve out of last week’s NYT review.) But it certainly sounds like it’s worth a shot. Here’s a question, though: Considering that they’re both set in what Kakutani calls “the postmodern, post-sci-fi world of globalized terror and trade,” will Tor be able to get the same kind of recognition for Ken MacLeod‘s The Execution Channel as Grove Atlantic is putting behind this novel? Here’s hoping…