What do you think?
Rate this book
Yarn
From the neo-feudalistic slubs and cornfields of Tane’s youth to his apprenticeship among the deadly saleswarriors of Seattlehama—the sex-and-shopping capital of the world—to the horrors of a polluted Antarctica, Yarn tells a tale of love, deceit, and memory.
Tane Cedar is the master tailor, the supreme outfitter of the wealthy, the beautiful, and the powerful. When an ex-lover, on the run from the authorities, asks him to create a garment from the dangerous and illegal Xi yarn—a psychedelic opiage—to ease her final hours, Tane’s world is torn apart.
Armed with just his yarn pulls, scissors, Mini-Air-Juki handheld sewing machine, and his wits, Tane journeys through the shadowy underworld where he must untangle the deadly mysteries and machinations of decades of deceit.
Tane Cedar is the master tailor, the supreme outfitter of the wealthy, the beautiful, and the powerful. When an ex-lover, on the run from the authorities, asks him to create a garment from the dangerous and illegal Xi yarn—a psychedelic opiage—to ease her final hours, Tane’s world is torn apart.
Armed with just his yarn pulls, scissors, Mini-Air-Juki handheld sewing machine, and his wits, Tane journeys through the shadowy underworld where he must untangle the deadly mysteries and machinations of decades of deceit.
309 pages, Paperback
First published November 16, 2010
13 people are currently reading
448 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
December 24, 2016
A Christmas miracle has occurred! Yesterday I wandered into the library nearby my parents place, which I still have a card for as I hoard them. Lo and behold, I found two science fiction novels that I’d unsuccessfully searched for in my own local libraries! In this case, I’d been looking for years, since reading the prequel, Grey. Jon Armstrong writes bizarre and unique cyberpunk novels set in the world of high fashion. The plots are a string of evocative set-pieces and the characters largely cyphers, however the world-building is exemplary. I found ‘Yarn’ better than Grey as it focused less on a love story and more on the strange details of the feral city-sized shopping mall in which it is mostly set. The narrator, Tane Cedar, is a renowned tailor and much of the book is a flashback to his early years discovering fashion. I liked the fact that most of his formative influences were older women. The use of language is great throughout - ‘fashion’ is an all-purpose synonym for fuck and the descriptions of clothes are always incredible. Shopping in this future world is pretty intense:
If you enjoy highly descriptive, atmospheric, offbeat sci-fi and always want more details about what everyone’s wearing in the future, this could be the book for you.
A saleswarrior in a sky-blue jacket, with short black hair and pyrite eyes, stepped before me. “The tides of darkness, shopper Fleece Swansdown. I am your heart and your credit. You will surrender with me before the ornaments of happiness and liberty.” Shiny leather boots rose to her hirsute crotch. The heels were as sharp as pins. “One hour…” she said, as red numbers flashed inside the black beads of her choker. “If I have not assisted your material freedom and truth, the necklace will cut my air.”
“I’m just looking.”
She closed her eyes and when she reopened them the beads on her necklace flickered to 59:99:99, and began counting down. “Our shopping has begun. My death has a moment and time.” She eyed me and smiled. “My life remaining is all to help you.”
If you enjoy highly descriptive, atmospheric, offbeat sci-fi and always want more details about what everyone’s wearing in the future, this could be the book for you.
May 23, 2012
Armstrong spins a dystopian future that's perhaps more focused on fashion than I personally could relate to, but if one goes with his premise, the result is highly believable and more than a little scary.
It's the life story of a tailor, Tane Cedar, who grows up in the "slubs" (Armstrong's writing is overflowing with coined words or new usages, reminding this reader of A Clockwork Orange and other masterworks of wordsmithing) outside of Seattlehama. In his future, the great masses of people toil in the countryside to extract and produce the base resources (in Tane's case, corn) for the cities. The slubs are run like cults by cartoonish celebrities. He escapes to Seattlehama, a shopping and sex mecca, where he plunges into his lifelong love of fashion and political intrigues surrounding M-Bunny, the uber-celebrity who runs both Seattlehama and the slub from where Tane came. The book has two time lines, a present track where Tane tries to obtain the pharmaceutically powerful Xi yarn to make a coat for a mysterious former companion, and a past track which follows his progress from slubs and up the ladder through Seattlehama's corridors of fashion and political intrigue.
It's fascinating work, but perhaps slow to get started. The first half of the book is a masterwork of style, but it takes a long time for the characters to emerge from behind all the hubbub. And I'm not sure about the ending, which is very poetic, but tragic. It's honest, but not satisfying. A few aspects remain too unclear. Perhaps a sequel is intended, but I'm not sure that's what is needed either. I'd just like a little more elucidation.
Armstrong has some serious game, and deserves a readership. You'll certainly find some important and frightening insight on our current world in his fashionpunk future. I suspect this work will stay with me, but I think his best work could still be ahead.
It's the life story of a tailor, Tane Cedar, who grows up in the "slubs" (Armstrong's writing is overflowing with coined words or new usages, reminding this reader of A Clockwork Orange and other masterworks of wordsmithing) outside of Seattlehama. In his future, the great masses of people toil in the countryside to extract and produce the base resources (in Tane's case, corn) for the cities. The slubs are run like cults by cartoonish celebrities. He escapes to Seattlehama, a shopping and sex mecca, where he plunges into his lifelong love of fashion and political intrigues surrounding M-Bunny, the uber-celebrity who runs both Seattlehama and the slub from where Tane came. The book has two time lines, a present track where Tane tries to obtain the pharmaceutically powerful Xi yarn to make a coat for a mysterious former companion, and a past track which follows his progress from slubs and up the ladder through Seattlehama's corridors of fashion and political intrigue.
It's fascinating work, but perhaps slow to get started. The first half of the book is a masterwork of style, but it takes a long time for the characters to emerge from behind all the hubbub. And I'm not sure about the ending, which is very poetic, but tragic. It's honest, but not satisfying. A few aspects remain too unclear. Perhaps a sequel is intended, but I'm not sure that's what is needed either. I'd just like a little more elucidation.
Armstrong has some serious game, and deserves a readership. You'll certainly find some important and frightening insight on our current world in his fashionpunk future. I suspect this work will stay with me, but I think his best work could still be ahead.
October 16, 2011
(Re-posted from http://theturnedbrain.blogspot.com)
Normally when I’m about to review a book I’ll stare at the screen for a moment and reflect on the plot and characters, and what worked for me and what didn’t. Yeah, that’s pretty much impossible with Yarn. Whenever I think about this book my brain gets bombarded with neon colours and techno music. So I guess you could say that the book made a strong impression, but it’s all rather bewildering.
Bewildering is a good word to describe Yarn. Armstrong doesn’t give the reader even a second to get acclimatized to his setting, it’s BAM! GO from page one. The book is set on what I’m pretty sure is Earth, but way way way in the future. Fashion has become the driving force of everything, and huge cities have been built in the pursuit of it. Top fashion designers are rule like monarchs, and followers of differing styles happily murder each other in the streets. Written out like that it sounds a little ridiculous, but Armstrong flings it all at you with in such a frantic, adrenaline fueled way that you find your self just going with it. There’s no time to stop and think, and it results in an impressively immersive reading experience.
Armstrong labels it fashionpunk, and as much as it bugs me to see the suffix ‘punk’ tacked on to everything, it fits. Fashion is as integral to this world as steam engines are to steam punk, or computers to cyberpunk. Actually, I would say that Armstrong embraces it more fully than many authors do in their respective ‘punk’ genres. It’s most obvious in the book’s slang, which is extensive and fashion related. (Fashioning in place of fucking is one that tickled me for some reason). Armstrong offers no help in deciphering what the hell everyone is saying, and it’s not until quite a ways in that you start getting the hang of the vernacular.
The only thing that stops it from being just too much to deal with is the fact that the main character, Tane Ceder, is as much of an outside as we are. He's just as dumbstuck as the reader, so you feel as though you are least not alone in your confusion. It's an effective technique that stopped me from giving up in the book's early chapters. The book jumps between two time periods, the present in which Tane has become a major designer, and the past wherein Tane, who grew up tending corn, comes to the city for the first time.
The plot is interesting, and manages to not get overwhelmed by the frenetic setting. Actually, the plot is pretty complicated as well. I’ve sitting here for a while trying to sum it up and I just can’t. There are all these seemingly disparate threads (ha, threads, see what I did there?) that come together neatly (and awesomely) at the end. There’s the murder Tane witnesses. There’s conspiracy theories and assassination attempts. There’s the mysterious death of Tane’s father, and what the faceless corporation that owns the sinister cornfields he grew up in has to do with it. There’s the hunt for a banned type of wool which works as a powerful drug. There are gang wars between rival fashion houses. And there’s a love interest, of course, and an adventure in an air balloon made of some fantastic material.
Really, there’s a whole lot of everything. Reading this book was like chugging three cans of red bull and going white water rafting while looking through a kaleidoscope.
Truly insane. And also pretty damn brilliant.
Normally when I’m about to review a book I’ll stare at the screen for a moment and reflect on the plot and characters, and what worked for me and what didn’t. Yeah, that’s pretty much impossible with Yarn. Whenever I think about this book my brain gets bombarded with neon colours and techno music. So I guess you could say that the book made a strong impression, but it’s all rather bewildering.
Bewildering is a good word to describe Yarn. Armstrong doesn’t give the reader even a second to get acclimatized to his setting, it’s BAM! GO from page one. The book is set on what I’m pretty sure is Earth, but way way way in the future. Fashion has become the driving force of everything, and huge cities have been built in the pursuit of it. Top fashion designers are rule like monarchs, and followers of differing styles happily murder each other in the streets. Written out like that it sounds a little ridiculous, but Armstrong flings it all at you with in such a frantic, adrenaline fueled way that you find your self just going with it. There’s no time to stop and think, and it results in an impressively immersive reading experience.
Armstrong labels it fashionpunk, and as much as it bugs me to see the suffix ‘punk’ tacked on to everything, it fits. Fashion is as integral to this world as steam engines are to steam punk, or computers to cyberpunk. Actually, I would say that Armstrong embraces it more fully than many authors do in their respective ‘punk’ genres. It’s most obvious in the book’s slang, which is extensive and fashion related. (Fashioning in place of fucking is one that tickled me for some reason). Armstrong offers no help in deciphering what the hell everyone is saying, and it’s not until quite a ways in that you start getting the hang of the vernacular.
The only thing that stops it from being just too much to deal with is the fact that the main character, Tane Ceder, is as much of an outside as we are. He's just as dumbstuck as the reader, so you feel as though you are least not alone in your confusion. It's an effective technique that stopped me from giving up in the book's early chapters. The book jumps between two time periods, the present in which Tane has become a major designer, and the past wherein Tane, who grew up tending corn, comes to the city for the first time.
The plot is interesting, and manages to not get overwhelmed by the frenetic setting. Actually, the plot is pretty complicated as well. I’ve sitting here for a while trying to sum it up and I just can’t. There are all these seemingly disparate threads (ha, threads, see what I did there?) that come together neatly (and awesomely) at the end. There’s the murder Tane witnesses. There’s conspiracy theories and assassination attempts. There’s the mysterious death of Tane’s father, and what the faceless corporation that owns the sinister cornfields he grew up in has to do with it. There’s the hunt for a banned type of wool which works as a powerful drug. There are gang wars between rival fashion houses. And there’s a love interest, of course, and an adventure in an air balloon made of some fantastic material.
Really, there’s a whole lot of everything. Reading this book was like chugging three cans of red bull and going white water rafting while looking through a kaleidoscope.
Truly insane. And also pretty damn brilliant.
August 10, 2021
I hated this book. It took me way longer to read this book than it should have. I didn't like how they all spoke in knitting terms and how everything was about yarn. The whole thing about the Yi yarn and how it was made was very weird. I didn't like how they made it. Basically, it was just a drug to make people feel better. I didn't like how it switched time frames. One second we were in his past and the next the current time. I liked that he ended up making the coat in the end. This was a really hard book for me to read and I didn't like it at all. Overall I'd rate it about 1 star.
January 23, 2011
http://www.rantingdragon.com/yarn-by-...
Yarn is a standalone prequel to Jon Armstrong’s novel Grey, set in a dystopic future where fashion is literally do or die.
A well-woven tale
Yarn begins with a mission. A former lover—“the girl who got away”—stumbles upon the studio steps of the renowned tailor Tane Cedar. She demands a dangerous deed of him: a custom coat crafted from the illegal and addictive Xi yarn. As Tane embarks on a quest to obtain the now-elusive Xi, a parallel story emerges, disclosing how Tane rose from his job as a yarn thief to a successful, top designer. These two threads—past and present—are woven together with masterful skill and twists galore, revealing, to us and to Tane, what he is really made of.
One small qualm I had regarding the presentation is that the present—Tane’s Xi quest—is indicated by italics. As the book progressed and the past and present converged, I grew to understand the choice for such an indication, but large bodies of text presented in italics were hard on the eyes and I was tempted to skip them. Thankfully, the tale is so fast-paced and engaging that I nonetheless devoured every word.
Front row seats to Seattlehama and beyond
The young Tane, a slubber boy who knew nothing but corn and poorly-constructed t-shirts, is thrown into the mad city of Seattlehama. When we accompany Tane on his journey into Seattlehama, we experience the same eye-opening awe, confusion, arousal, and fascination as he does. This is a fully immersive experience complete with striking visuals, culture, and language.
Armstrong invents a new dialect, warTalk, as barked out by saleswarriors. A sampling: “[N]ow that you have seen majesty, you will retreat and live in the lint below your automated knitting contraptions.” “Go or I will release the blind snakes of your gut!” When dueling saleswarriors draw out their sharp knitting needles, it’s 40% amusing, 60% frightening, and 100% original. The only drawback in Armstrong’s razzle-dazzle approach is that some of the twists and turns, while clever, carried less emotional heft than I would have expected. But the punk-suffixed genre prides itself in cool, of which Yarn is the epitome.
Pure dedication
Yes, Yarn is cool, but it’s a cool imbued with passion. I loved that fashion rules this world, and that brands not only identify clothing but also people. Each brand inspires allegiance as well as declarations of war upon all other brands. As one character professes, “don’t let anyone ever tell you that fashion is superficial. It’s the only thing that distinguishes humans from the critters.”
Why should you read this book?
Don’t be intimidated if you’re no fashionista; no technical knowledge is required to enjoy Yarn. Read Yarn to witness the genesis of fashionpunk. Read Yarn to know who to thank when you begin seeing a wave of artistic and stylish costumes at conventions. Read Yarn so you won’t kick yourself later.
Yarn is a standalone prequel to Jon Armstrong’s novel Grey, set in a dystopic future where fashion is literally do or die.
A well-woven tale
Yarn begins with a mission. A former lover—“the girl who got away”—stumbles upon the studio steps of the renowned tailor Tane Cedar. She demands a dangerous deed of him: a custom coat crafted from the illegal and addictive Xi yarn. As Tane embarks on a quest to obtain the now-elusive Xi, a parallel story emerges, disclosing how Tane rose from his job as a yarn thief to a successful, top designer. These two threads—past and present—are woven together with masterful skill and twists galore, revealing, to us and to Tane, what he is really made of.
One small qualm I had regarding the presentation is that the present—Tane’s Xi quest—is indicated by italics. As the book progressed and the past and present converged, I grew to understand the choice for such an indication, but large bodies of text presented in italics were hard on the eyes and I was tempted to skip them. Thankfully, the tale is so fast-paced and engaging that I nonetheless devoured every word.
Front row seats to Seattlehama and beyond
The young Tane, a slubber boy who knew nothing but corn and poorly-constructed t-shirts, is thrown into the mad city of Seattlehama. When we accompany Tane on his journey into Seattlehama, we experience the same eye-opening awe, confusion, arousal, and fascination as he does. This is a fully immersive experience complete with striking visuals, culture, and language.
Armstrong invents a new dialect, warTalk, as barked out by saleswarriors. A sampling: “[N]ow that you have seen majesty, you will retreat and live in the lint below your automated knitting contraptions.” “Go or I will release the blind snakes of your gut!” When dueling saleswarriors draw out their sharp knitting needles, it’s 40% amusing, 60% frightening, and 100% original. The only drawback in Armstrong’s razzle-dazzle approach is that some of the twists and turns, while clever, carried less emotional heft than I would have expected. But the punk-suffixed genre prides itself in cool, of which Yarn is the epitome.
Pure dedication
Yes, Yarn is cool, but it’s a cool imbued with passion. I loved that fashion rules this world, and that brands not only identify clothing but also people. Each brand inspires allegiance as well as declarations of war upon all other brands. As one character professes, “don’t let anyone ever tell you that fashion is superficial. It’s the only thing that distinguishes humans from the critters.”
Why should you read this book?
Don’t be intimidated if you’re no fashionista; no technical knowledge is required to enjoy Yarn. Read Yarn to witness the genesis of fashionpunk. Read Yarn to know who to thank when you begin seeing a wave of artistic and stylish costumes at conventions. Read Yarn so you won’t kick yourself later.
March 10, 2011
This was not, ultimately, a book for me.
I say that right off the bat because I want to be clear that even though this will be a largely negative review, I am not saying it is a bad book. There are some flaws, but I am sure that if I were the book's target audience I would have loved it.
I must say next, though, that I am very good at keeping an open mind while reading, so I think my criticisms are fair criticisms of the book, things that objectively could have been done better to make a more well-rounded reading experience.
First off, this is very much a cyberpunk novel, which means it has all the strengths and failings of that subgenre. Both and strength and a failing is the way in which the plot is so typically cyberpunk: lone honorable man trying to survive in a corrupt society, surrounded by women who work with him and women who work against him but all of whom want to sleep with him. I expected that going in, and while it doesn't do much for me as a plot I can appreciate it when it's well-done. It isn't, really, here; the characters are just too flat, and not even sexy-enigmatic-flat, just boring-flat.
It isn't straight cyberpunk though; it's a brand-new, author-created derivative of cyberpunk called "fashionpunk," and those fashionpunk elements are by far the strongest parts of the book. The world is fascinating -- the way all of the technology is predicated on knitting and weaving probably makes no sense, but I didn't give a damn because it was just so, fucking, cool. While all of the compound words (creditwarrior, loveeffort, salescut, etc.) threatened to cross the line into preciousness, Armstrong kept them just the right side of that. And the warTalk that runs through the first section of the novel is absolutely brilliant, the sort of language that you have to let skim over the surface of your brain so you can see the shape of it, because looked at head-on it dissolves into meaninglessness.
Unfortunately, as soon as Armstrong started putting all the pieces of his world together and getting the plot moving, it was a little. . . banal. There were several twists failed to surprise, and the big twist was one that I saw coming too but really, really wanted to think I was wrong because it's rather offensive -- not in itself, but because that particular twist has been done over and over again exactly the same way, and the pattern is offensive.
So again, not the book for me.
I say that right off the bat because I want to be clear that even though this will be a largely negative review, I am not saying it is a bad book. There are some flaws, but I am sure that if I were the book's target audience I would have loved it.
I must say next, though, that I am very good at keeping an open mind while reading, so I think my criticisms are fair criticisms of the book, things that objectively could have been done better to make a more well-rounded reading experience.
First off, this is very much a cyberpunk novel, which means it has all the strengths and failings of that subgenre. Both and strength and a failing is the way in which the plot is so typically cyberpunk: lone honorable man trying to survive in a corrupt society, surrounded by women who work with him and women who work against him but all of whom want to sleep with him. I expected that going in, and while it doesn't do much for me as a plot I can appreciate it when it's well-done. It isn't, really, here; the characters are just too flat, and not even sexy-enigmatic-flat, just boring-flat.
It isn't straight cyberpunk though; it's a brand-new, author-created derivative of cyberpunk called "fashionpunk," and those fashionpunk elements are by far the strongest parts of the book. The world is fascinating -- the way all of the technology is predicated on knitting and weaving probably makes no sense, but I didn't give a damn because it was just so, fucking, cool. While all of the compound words (creditwarrior, loveeffort, salescut, etc.) threatened to cross the line into preciousness, Armstrong kept them just the right side of that. And the warTalk that runs through the first section of the novel is absolutely brilliant, the sort of language that you have to let skim over the surface of your brain so you can see the shape of it, because looked at head-on it dissolves into meaninglessness.
Unfortunately, as soon as Armstrong started putting all the pieces of his world together and getting the plot moving, it was a little. . . banal. There were several twists failed to surprise, and the big twist was one that I saw coming too but really, really wanted to think I was wrong because it's rather offensive -- not in itself, but because that particular twist has been done over and over again exactly the same way, and the pattern is offensive.
So again, not the book for me.
January 27, 2011
An often blackly humorous journey through one man's life where fashion rules. I shall never look at knitting needles the same way again - or sales assistants for that matter! Ironic and satirical with just enough reality to send icy water running down my spine as I contemplate whether Jon's future may one day be non fiction. After all, Aldous Huxley was not so far from the truth as he speculated about what the future might be like...
January 7, 2018
I'm so glad I picked up this weird, fun book about fabric and why it's great.
In a polluted, cyberpunk-esque future, Tane Ceder has escaped the agricultural "slubs" to reach Seattlehama - a towering city perched on the rim of a volcano where cosplay is de rigueur, entertainment is the overriding goal and fashion is life-or-death. The book follows Tane's journey through the city's fashion industry, from errand boy to knitter to costumer. But when he falls for a performer set on toppling the city's mysterious celebrity leader, he discovers that the world has more danger and inhumanity than he could have imagined as a child in the corn - and he's forced to choose whether to help tear it all down.
The worldbuilding in this book is fantastic: Absurd in a way that gives it an almost fairy tale vibe and outlandishly creative. The tropes will familiar to anyone who's familiar with cyberpunk - all-encompassing corporations, sprawling megacities, seedy underworlds - but the fashion at the heart of it is deeply original. The author clearly knows his stuff when it comes to textiles, and he captures the sublimity and absurdity of fashion in a way that just delighted me.
I'm still puzzling over the ending, to be honest. There are parts of the book that feel light and silly, but in the end it's definitely one that I'll be thinking about for a while.
In a polluted, cyberpunk-esque future, Tane Ceder has escaped the agricultural "slubs" to reach Seattlehama - a towering city perched on the rim of a volcano where cosplay is de rigueur, entertainment is the overriding goal and fashion is life-or-death. The book follows Tane's journey through the city's fashion industry, from errand boy to knitter to costumer. But when he falls for a performer set on toppling the city's mysterious celebrity leader, he discovers that the world has more danger and inhumanity than he could have imagined as a child in the corn - and he's forced to choose whether to help tear it all down.
The worldbuilding in this book is fantastic: Absurd in a way that gives it an almost fairy tale vibe and outlandishly creative. The tropes will familiar to anyone who's familiar with cyberpunk - all-encompassing corporations, sprawling megacities, seedy underworlds - but the fashion at the heart of it is deeply original. The author clearly knows his stuff when it comes to textiles, and he captures the sublimity and absurdity of fashion in a way that just delighted me.
I'm still puzzling over the ending, to be honest. There are parts of the book that feel light and silly, but in the end it's definitely one that I'll be thinking about for a while.
September 1, 2018
Silly. Interesting world building, though.
December 22, 2025
Underrated and pretty funny if not a little confusing
May 27, 2011
Somewhere after Akira and before Steamboy, the world of fiction fell in love with the –punk suffix. Cyberpunk, steampunk, magepunk; if it had angsty youth and was in a world of high adventure it was punk. Somewhere along the line, I think authors forgot that “punk” wasn’t just a descriptor of young counterculture enthusiasts, but also a summary of a general plotline, where the protagonist was fighting against the status quo. It might be a dystopian regime, a power superconglomerate or a shadowy secret society, but these kids needed something to rebel against. Jon Armstrong did not make that mistake when he crafted his dazzling, self-described Fashionpunk adventure, Yarn.
Dazzling is a completely apt descriptor of the book. Anyone who is remotely familiar with Japanese superflat style will recognize that familiar cadence in Armstrong’s novel. The descriptions come fast and hard and are built to both draw in the reader, while repulsing them. In a futuristic society where fashion is the only game in town, everything is saturated in color, style and sex. Beneath cities that are little more than enormous live-in malls, ‘slubs’ toil in BrandClans dedicated to a single agricultural crop, supporting the grandiose super consumer society.
Yarn is split into two stories, appropriately, woven together. The story of Tane Cedar’s past is the fashionpunk story of a young man who escapes the slubs only to get caught up in the whirlpool of fashion and intrigue that is the city of Seattlehama. The second story is the present day Tane Cedar, a man who has risen to the apex of fashion as a master tailor, but one who has rejected the garish commercial supercites in favor of a more private and personal clientele.
In some ways, the stories are completely incompatible. We know that the rebellion that drives Tane’s past self ultimately fails because of the existence of the present story. Tane’s present self is very much a memorial to his past, and while he has achieved great success, it is within the bounds of the system he once attacked. Still, both stories are compelling adventures, and even though the present Tailor has retired from rabblerousing, he easily springs into action for an old friend. There’s plenty of action here if you want that, but there is also this deep criticism, not only of our own society, but of the concepts of rebellion and responsibility.
In some ways, Yarn is a light and entertaining read. The bad guys are obviously bad, the good guys are appropriately counterculture and the whole thing clips along at a “can’t put it down” pace. However, the whole thing is bogged down by the incredibly detailed cloth-speak that the book uses. Science fiction readers may well be familiar with technobabble, but unless you have a background with textiles or fashion, be prepared to spend some serious time on Wikipedia looking up terms. Of course, when the fashion gets high tech, the techno-cloth-speak is almost indecipherable. At several points in the story, these high concept ideas come screaming in too fast to really process. A notable example comes early in the book when Tane gets his hands on some sort of knitting machine that is best described as a cross between a NordicTrack and a loom. Even after rereading the chapter, I still didn’t have a clear idea of what the machine was doing, other than figuring out that somehow the ‘yarn’ it was using was probably a liquid.
Armstrong has created a really interesting little world here. Speculative Fiction is a great medium to work in and Armstrong has certainly earned himself a place with Yarn and its standalone sequel Grey. Stylistically, the book could use some work, but the problems with the prose stem mostly from a lack of focus. Yes, the nature of the world of Yarn lends itself to the unfocused style of the book, but if Armstrong is serious about really addressing the ‘Big Picture’ topics he’s selected, he needs to remember to let the reader digest some of his bombastic text.
Dazzling is a completely apt descriptor of the book. Anyone who is remotely familiar with Japanese superflat style will recognize that familiar cadence in Armstrong’s novel. The descriptions come fast and hard and are built to both draw in the reader, while repulsing them. In a futuristic society where fashion is the only game in town, everything is saturated in color, style and sex. Beneath cities that are little more than enormous live-in malls, ‘slubs’ toil in BrandClans dedicated to a single agricultural crop, supporting the grandiose super consumer society.
Yarn is split into two stories, appropriately, woven together. The story of Tane Cedar’s past is the fashionpunk story of a young man who escapes the slubs only to get caught up in the whirlpool of fashion and intrigue that is the city of Seattlehama. The second story is the present day Tane Cedar, a man who has risen to the apex of fashion as a master tailor, but one who has rejected the garish commercial supercites in favor of a more private and personal clientele.
In some ways, the stories are completely incompatible. We know that the rebellion that drives Tane’s past self ultimately fails because of the existence of the present story. Tane’s present self is very much a memorial to his past, and while he has achieved great success, it is within the bounds of the system he once attacked. Still, both stories are compelling adventures, and even though the present Tailor has retired from rabblerousing, he easily springs into action for an old friend. There’s plenty of action here if you want that, but there is also this deep criticism, not only of our own society, but of the concepts of rebellion and responsibility.
In some ways, Yarn is a light and entertaining read. The bad guys are obviously bad, the good guys are appropriately counterculture and the whole thing clips along at a “can’t put it down” pace. However, the whole thing is bogged down by the incredibly detailed cloth-speak that the book uses. Science fiction readers may well be familiar with technobabble, but unless you have a background with textiles or fashion, be prepared to spend some serious time on Wikipedia looking up terms. Of course, when the fashion gets high tech, the techno-cloth-speak is almost indecipherable. At several points in the story, these high concept ideas come screaming in too fast to really process. A notable example comes early in the book when Tane gets his hands on some sort of knitting machine that is best described as a cross between a NordicTrack and a loom. Even after rereading the chapter, I still didn’t have a clear idea of what the machine was doing, other than figuring out that somehow the ‘yarn’ it was using was probably a liquid.
Armstrong has created a really interesting little world here. Speculative Fiction is a great medium to work in and Armstrong has certainly earned himself a place with Yarn and its standalone sequel Grey. Stylistically, the book could use some work, but the problems with the prose stem mostly from a lack of focus. Yes, the nature of the world of Yarn lends itself to the unfocused style of the book, but if Armstrong is serious about really addressing the ‘Big Picture’ topics he’s selected, he needs to remember to let the reader digest some of his bombastic text.
December 24, 2010
http://www.rantingdragon.com/yarn-by-...
Yarn is a standalone prequel to Jon Armstrong’s novel Grey, set in a dystopic future where fashion is literally do or die.
A well-woven tale
Yarn begins with a mission. A former lover—“the girl who got away”—stumbles upon the studio steps of the renowned tailor Tane Cedar. She demands a dangerous deed of him: a custom coat crafted from the illegal and addictive Xi yarn. As Tane embarks on a quest to obtain the now-elusive Xi, a parallel story emerges, disclosing how Tane rose from his job as a yarn thief to a successful, top designer. These two threads—past and present—are woven together with masterful skill and twists galore, revealing, to us and to Tane, what he is really made of.
One small qualm I had regarding the presentation is that the present—Tane’s Xi quest—is indicated by italics. As the book progressed and the past and present converged, I grew to understand the choice for such an indication, but large bodies of text presented in italics were hard on the eyes and I was tempted to skip them. Thankfully, the tale is so fast-paced and engaging that I nonetheless devoured every word.
Front row seats to Seattlehama and beyond
The young Tane, a slubber boy who knew nothing but corn and poorly-constructed t-shirts, is thrown into the mad city of Seattlehama. When we accompany Tane on his journey into Seattlehama, we experience the same eye-opening awe, confusion, arousal, and fascination as he does. This is a fully immersive experience complete with striking visuals, culture, and language.
Armstrong invents a new dialect, warTalk, as barked out by saleswarriors. A sampling: “[N]ow that you have seen majesty, you will retreat and live in the lint below your automated knitting contraptions.” “Go or I will release the blind snakes of your gut!” When dueling saleswarriors draw out their sharp knitting needles, it’s 40% amusing, 60% frightening, and 100% original. The only drawback in Armstrong’s razzle-dazzle approach is that some of the twists and turns, while clever, carried less emotional heft than I would have expected. But the punk-suffixed genre prides itself in cool, of which Yarn is the epitome.
Pure dedication
Yes, Yarn is cool, but it’s a cool imbued with passion. I loved that fashion rules this world, and that brands not only identify clothing but also people. Each brand inspires allegiance as well as declarations of war upon all other brands. As one character professes, “don’t let anyone ever tell you that fashion is superficial. It’s the only thing that distinguishes humans from the critters.”
Why should you read this book?
Don’t be intimidated if you’re no fashionista; no technical knowledge is required to enjoy Yarn. Read Yarn to witness the genesis of fashionpunk. Read Yarn to know who to thank when you begin seeing a wave of artistic and stylish costumes at conventions. Read Yarn so you won’t kick yourself later.
Yarn is a standalone prequel to Jon Armstrong’s novel Grey, set in a dystopic future where fashion is literally do or die.
A well-woven tale
Yarn begins with a mission. A former lover—“the girl who got away”—stumbles upon the studio steps of the renowned tailor Tane Cedar. She demands a dangerous deed of him: a custom coat crafted from the illegal and addictive Xi yarn. As Tane embarks on a quest to obtain the now-elusive Xi, a parallel story emerges, disclosing how Tane rose from his job as a yarn thief to a successful, top designer. These two threads—past and present—are woven together with masterful skill and twists galore, revealing, to us and to Tane, what he is really made of.
One small qualm I had regarding the presentation is that the present—Tane’s Xi quest—is indicated by italics. As the book progressed and the past and present converged, I grew to understand the choice for such an indication, but large bodies of text presented in italics were hard on the eyes and I was tempted to skip them. Thankfully, the tale is so fast-paced and engaging that I nonetheless devoured every word.
Front row seats to Seattlehama and beyond
The young Tane, a slubber boy who knew nothing but corn and poorly-constructed t-shirts, is thrown into the mad city of Seattlehama. When we accompany Tane on his journey into Seattlehama, we experience the same eye-opening awe, confusion, arousal, and fascination as he does. This is a fully immersive experience complete with striking visuals, culture, and language.
Armstrong invents a new dialect, warTalk, as barked out by saleswarriors. A sampling: “[N]ow that you have seen majesty, you will retreat and live in the lint below your automated knitting contraptions.” “Go or I will release the blind snakes of your gut!” When dueling saleswarriors draw out their sharp knitting needles, it’s 40% amusing, 60% frightening, and 100% original. The only drawback in Armstrong’s razzle-dazzle approach is that some of the twists and turns, while clever, carried less emotional heft than I would have expected. But the punk-suffixed genre prides itself in cool, of which Yarn is the epitome.
Pure dedication
Yes, Yarn is cool, but it’s a cool imbued with passion. I loved that fashion rules this world, and that brands not only identify clothing but also people. Each brand inspires allegiance as well as declarations of war upon all other brands. As one character professes, “don’t let anyone ever tell you that fashion is superficial. It’s the only thing that distinguishes humans from the critters.”
Why should you read this book?
Don’t be intimidated if you’re no fashionista; no technical knowledge is required to enjoy Yarn. Read Yarn to witness the genesis of fashionpunk. Read Yarn to know who to thank when you begin seeing a wave of artistic and stylish costumes at conventions. Read Yarn so you won’t kick yourself later.
February 12, 2011
Armed with just his yarn pulls, scissors, Mini-Air-Juki handheld sewing machine , and his wits …
Yarn is and isn’t your ordinary cyberpunk story. Yarn is about Tane Cedar a master tailor and the story takes place in the world of fashion. My first thoughts were that this is outside my comfort reading zone but the stunning cover art and the blurb’s talk about fashionpunk, saleswarriors and a love story reeled me in and I am very happy it did.
Like in most good stories it involves a woman. In this case an ex-lover who is on the run from the authorities when she comes to Tane late one night. “Where have you been? What happened? What are you wearing?” are his first questions because that is the kind of man he is. She tells him she is dying and asks him of a favor. She wants him to make her a garment of the illegal psychedelic Xi yarn to ease her last hours. He accepts before she disappears again and the rest of the book tells the story of how he goes about tracking down and acquiring the yarn to fulfill her last wish. The author portions out key pieces of Tane’s past from his youth in the slums to yarn-thief to lover to fashion genius that ties in to and explains what is happening in the main story line. That worked very well for me here.
The story contains delightful black humor and Tane Cedar is an interesting character with an inner dignity to him throughout all his ordeals that makes him easy to love. The other characters are more superficial but there are some really interesting ones like Brunne the fashion dictator of Seattlehama, Vada his ex-lover revolutionary and a few more.
The world building is on par with the story and the characters. “Seattlehama: the volcano-powered sex and shopping capital of the world” is the name of a chapter and a good description of the setting. The slums or slubs where Tane grew up are hash places where lives are cheap and workers are recycled to nourish the plants. The fashion scene is as much a place of fighting and warriors as in any cyberpunk story but it also helps setting Tane apart in his focus on the yarn. Greater truths about the world are uncovered as the story progresses.
Yarn is a delightful dark comedy about a dignified master tailor with some serious skills whose world is torn apart one day by an old lover. It lives up to its name; it is indeed a yarn of the best kind, one that captivates you from the first page to the last. This is the first I read by Jon Armstrong and I am mightily impressed. I am really interested to read Grey his debut now. This is a standalone prequel to Grey. Highly recommended.
Yarn is and isn’t your ordinary cyberpunk story. Yarn is about Tane Cedar a master tailor and the story takes place in the world of fashion. My first thoughts were that this is outside my comfort reading zone but the stunning cover art and the blurb’s talk about fashionpunk, saleswarriors and a love story reeled me in and I am very happy it did.
Like in most good stories it involves a woman. In this case an ex-lover who is on the run from the authorities when she comes to Tane late one night. “Where have you been? What happened? What are you wearing?” are his first questions because that is the kind of man he is. She tells him she is dying and asks him of a favor. She wants him to make her a garment of the illegal psychedelic Xi yarn to ease her last hours. He accepts before she disappears again and the rest of the book tells the story of how he goes about tracking down and acquiring the yarn to fulfill her last wish. The author portions out key pieces of Tane’s past from his youth in the slums to yarn-thief to lover to fashion genius that ties in to and explains what is happening in the main story line. That worked very well for me here.
The story contains delightful black humor and Tane Cedar is an interesting character with an inner dignity to him throughout all his ordeals that makes him easy to love. The other characters are more superficial but there are some really interesting ones like Brunne the fashion dictator of Seattlehama, Vada his ex-lover revolutionary and a few more.
The world building is on par with the story and the characters. “Seattlehama: the volcano-powered sex and shopping capital of the world” is the name of a chapter and a good description of the setting. The slums or slubs where Tane grew up are hash places where lives are cheap and workers are recycled to nourish the plants. The fashion scene is as much a place of fighting and warriors as in any cyberpunk story but it also helps setting Tane apart in his focus on the yarn. Greater truths about the world are uncovered as the story progresses.
Yarn is a delightful dark comedy about a dignified master tailor with some serious skills whose world is torn apart one day by an old lover. It lives up to its name; it is indeed a yarn of the best kind, one that captivates you from the first page to the last. This is the first I read by Jon Armstrong and I am mightily impressed. I am really interested to read Grey his debut now. This is a standalone prequel to Grey. Highly recommended.
March 3, 2011
I was expecting to give this book a much higher star rating earlier on. Even now I'd say it's more like a 2.5 than a 2, but Goodreads has no respect for my indecisiveness. ;)
Imagine if Neal Stephenson was the kind of author who would use high fashion and its consumption as a metaphor for ... everything. And that he lost the capacity for or interest in idea-heavy exposition. And that he was willing to take a slightly different approach to interpersonal relationships of all kinds. Then you might get a book like this.
This is another book that uses the present-framing-story technique to tell a story about the past. In the Beyond Reality group, we've been talking about how The Name of the Wind uses this — some of us like it, some of us don't. Here, it peters out and loses steam by the end, or so it seemed to me. It also didn't help that the framing story was all in italics. Pages and pages of that is kind of unpleasant to read, at least for me.
There were a lot of pretty sentences that were awesome on the first read, but when I flipped back to see what they were, they felt kind of ... hollow. As did some aspects of the ending (mainly the romantic subplot).
There were some places where it seemed like the author changed his mind about how he wanted to say something, but didn't completely alter the sentence. At first I wasn't sure if this reflected the character reverting back to a local dialect of the area where he was raised, but I feel fairly confident that at least some of these were author/proofreader/editor error. There was also a use of "dower" instead of "dour" which made me wince. On the plus side, I know enough about fabric to recognize and be amused by some of the fabric-derived slang terms the author made up. In general the future slang is done well here.
Imagine if Neal Stephenson was the kind of author who would use high fashion and its consumption as a metaphor for ... everything. And that he lost the capacity for or interest in idea-heavy exposition. And that he was willing to take a slightly different approach to interpersonal relationships of all kinds. Then you might get a book like this.
This is another book that uses the present-framing-story technique to tell a story about the past. In the Beyond Reality group, we've been talking about how The Name of the Wind uses this — some of us like it, some of us don't. Here, it peters out and loses steam by the end, or so it seemed to me. It also didn't help that the framing story was all in italics. Pages and pages of that is kind of unpleasant to read, at least for me.
There were a lot of pretty sentences that were awesome on the first read, but when I flipped back to see what they were, they felt kind of ... hollow. As did some aspects of the ending (mainly the romantic subplot).
There were some places where it seemed like the author changed his mind about how he wanted to say something, but didn't completely alter the sentence. At first I wasn't sure if this reflected the character reverting back to a local dialect of the area where he was raised, but I feel fairly confident that at least some of these were author/proofreader/editor error. There was also a use of "dower" instead of "dour" which made me wince. On the plus side, I know enough about fabric to recognize and be amused by some of the fabric-derived slang terms the author made up. In general the future slang is done well here.
February 8, 2011
I picked up this book on impulse off a display shelf at the local library, figuring it might be nice to step outside my comfort zone now and then. Well this is not the typical sort of book that I would read, and truthfully it took me a while to get into the book. For the entire first half, I was a hair's breath away from putting the book aside. But somehow, slowly, the book managed to win me over. In fact, I'll probably go ahead and pick up the previous book by the same author, "Grey."
I really don't even have the vocabulary to describe this book. The back cover describes it as a "fashionpunk" novel, and I don't even know what that is. The entire story takes place in a world that eerily mirrors our own, only taken to ridiculous extremes. In this world, fashion rules all. In real life, I'm about the least fashionable person out there. So at first the book just seemed stupid and silly. But "Yarn" is about more than just fashion. When you read deeper into the plot, you see satire, dark comedy, and one of the weirdest dystopias committed to paper. This is not a "fluff" novel to skim over. It requires thought and a quick mind to follow all the twists and turns. The author's sharp intelligence clearly comes through in the writing.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to try something different than the usual.
I really don't even have the vocabulary to describe this book. The back cover describes it as a "fashionpunk" novel, and I don't even know what that is. The entire story takes place in a world that eerily mirrors our own, only taken to ridiculous extremes. In this world, fashion rules all. In real life, I'm about the least fashionable person out there. So at first the book just seemed stupid and silly. But "Yarn" is about more than just fashion. When you read deeper into the plot, you see satire, dark comedy, and one of the weirdest dystopias committed to paper. This is not a "fluff" novel to skim over. It requires thought and a quick mind to follow all the twists and turns. The author's sharp intelligence clearly comes through in the writing.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to try something different than the usual.
March 15, 2011
Haute couture is already something of a world apart, alien and perhaps not a little dystopic, so it's not a huge stretch to go ahead and create a whole futuristic dystopia for your designers to work and scheme in. (The converse is not necessarily true, and indeed I never got any particular idea exactly how this bizarro future was supposed to have come about.)
The portions of the narrative in the present are all set in italics, which is incredibly annoying to read for stretches of even a couple of pages (this book has short, choppy chapters, some of which seem to be barely twice as long as their rambling, gimmicky titles) at a time, especially since these sections don't advance the action much throughout the entire middle of the book, saving everything for the double climax at the end.
The part of the book I enjoyed most was actually buried in the middle, as Tane in the flashbacks gradually comes to a revised understanding of his even earlier childhood, brainwashed into devoting all his energies into growing the corn that feeds the decadent cities. Somehow, the detail that the mass-produced shirts impregnated with hormones and drugs to make the workers sexless and pliant were also ill-fitting and uncomfortable is telling.
The portions of the narrative in the present are all set in italics, which is incredibly annoying to read for stretches of even a couple of pages (this book has short, choppy chapters, some of which seem to be barely twice as long as their rambling, gimmicky titles) at a time, especially since these sections don't advance the action much throughout the entire middle of the book, saving everything for the double climax at the end.
The part of the book I enjoyed most was actually buried in the middle, as Tane in the flashbacks gradually comes to a revised understanding of his even earlier childhood, brainwashed into devoting all his energies into growing the corn that feeds the decadent cities. Somehow, the detail that the mass-produced shirts impregnated with hormones and drugs to make the workers sexless and pliant were also ill-fitting and uncomfortable is telling.
July 1, 2012
Queue up the techno music and put on your rave clothes because we are headed to Seattlehama. In Jon Armstrong's Yarn, Seattlehama is the fashion/sex capital of a ultra modern distopia where branding and advertising are king. The story revolves around Tane Cedar, an in demand tailor and his adventures to obtain Xi yarn, a psychedalic opiate to make a garment for a mysterious woman.
From the beginning the action moves quickly and draws you in as the scenes switch between current events and flashback chapters that tell the story of Tane's complicated past. While the story never drags, sometimes leaves you a bit confused at the sudden transitions. Especially at the end of the book, I was left re-reading a few sections to ensure that I was keeping up with what was going on.
However, Armstrong sometimes distracts from his own story with the endless stream of made up words as names for devices, places and occupations. While I'm sure some of this is intentional to show the the excess of this society, it gets a bit annoying after awhile. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this story for its 'fashionpunk' concept and its complicated but exciting plot.
e.
From the beginning the action moves quickly and draws you in as the scenes switch between current events and flashback chapters that tell the story of Tane's complicated past. While the story never drags, sometimes leaves you a bit confused at the sudden transitions. Especially at the end of the book, I was left re-reading a few sections to ensure that I was keeping up with what was going on.
However, Armstrong sometimes distracts from his own story with the endless stream of made up words as names for devices, places and occupations. While I'm sure some of this is intentional to show the the excess of this society, it gets a bit annoying after awhile. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this story for its 'fashionpunk' concept and its complicated but exciting plot.
e.
February 17, 2012
The world in this book reminds me a bit of Blade Runner or Minority Report and maybe a smidge of Clockwork Orange. The world is so potent, so bizarre, that it shapes everything said or done. It is a chaotic, overblown place so foreign that sometimes I felt as if I was reading the 7th or 12th in a series and should understand the references more. It was definitely outside my comfort zone, but still not too difficult to read.
That said, I didn't like the world (just my taste) and I wasn't sure what Tane's goals were. There was a hint of revolution, but not enough description of the world as a whole. I felt that all of the characters were unreliable narrators, and that left me wondering what I might be missing. This felt like the first of a series, but I'm not sure if it is. Also not sure that I would wade into that world for a second round.
That said, I didn't like the world (just my taste) and I wasn't sure what Tane's goals were. There was a hint of revolution, but not enough description of the world as a whole. I felt that all of the characters were unreliable narrators, and that left me wondering what I might be missing. This felt like the first of a series, but I'm not sure if it is. Also not sure that I would wade into that world for a second round.
February 28, 2011
Future Earth which is obsessed with fashion (or is it only the narrator who obsesses over fabric? He sees everything in terms of textiles). Cities made of clots a thousand stories high, exit ramps off of highways which are like lethal amusement park rides, hallucinogenic fabric, foods from gross parts of exotic animals. The story is a flashback to a man's journey from rags to terrorist tailor (the journey to riches is implied) in the fashionable world of Seattlehama. The framing story is about his quest to find forbidden fabrics to clothe his lost love, and his willingness to risk all he has for her comfort. The sex parts made me laugh out loud, the fighting scenes made me cringe and throw down the book.
March 21, 2011
It was going so great and then it came to an abrupt end, with so many interesting possibilities unexplored.
This is what the author calls "Fiberpunk" which is apt, if unusual. All the fabric and knitting related terms are fun if you know them. A future where everything is wrapped up in fashion and the society is only about shopping and fashion, and the majority toil in oblivion to feed the fashion objectives. A typical dystopian setup. A typical dystopian setup, where our protagonist does not truly succeed.
I guess it is a classic love triangle, but he story of the estranged father could have been explored better in order to give the protagonist some perspective.
I am not into sci-fi in general, but since I love knitting and sewing, etc, this one appealed to me.
This is what the author calls "Fiberpunk" which is apt, if unusual. All the fabric and knitting related terms are fun if you know them. A future where everything is wrapped up in fashion and the society is only about shopping and fashion, and the majority toil in oblivion to feed the fashion objectives. A typical dystopian setup. A typical dystopian setup, where our protagonist does not truly succeed.
I guess it is a classic love triangle, but he story of the estranged father could have been explored better in order to give the protagonist some perspective.
I am not into sci-fi in general, but since I love knitting and sewing, etc, this one appealed to me.
February 24, 2015
This book is all about world-building. In a dystopic future, fashion is sex is commercialism is power. Wow. The world took some getting used to, but I did not tire of it, as more layers were revealed. I wouldn't put it on a par with classics like 1984 or Brave New World, but the exposition followed a similar path as the seamy underside of society was gradually exposed to the young protagonist who grows from corn field slave to master tailor in this strangely warped future. I have to admit that even for me it occasionally crossed over from fascinating to bizarre, but I do recommend the book.
I have not read Armstrong's Grey, but I hear it is set in the same universe. I do hope that he does not just continue with a series set in this same universe, but goes on to create new ones.
I have not read Armstrong's Grey, but I hear it is set in the same universe. I do hope that he does not just continue with a series set in this same universe, but goes on to create new ones.
February 1, 2011
This was certainly unlike any book I've read in a long time. Kind of reminiscent of William Gibson, Philip K. Dick, and Kurt Vonnegut in it's utterly different, thoroughly dystopic take on what the future could hold. Bitter commentary on society. Loved the concept of the saleswarriors and their warTalk. Couple of interesting and intricate plot twists. This book is set in the same universe as Armstrong's first novel, Grey, which I haven't read. It'll be hard to get my hands on, but I'm going to try - this is an unforgettable world of high fashion and corporate domination. How can you resist the concept of fashion fornication?
June 9, 2011
Well, it was quite a unique book. I usually don't go in for books where the characters have a special language (like elvish or whatever in Tolkien) but I guess since all the made up vocabulary was yarn and fabric based, I had a fighting chance of understanding it and it didn't bug me as much. :) Although I have to say I would have rated it higher if I didn't feel like the ending sort of derailed the story he was telling throughout the book. But definitely worth a read especially if you're looking for something different.
November 16, 2014
I love it when I find something that's unlike anything I've read before. There are elements of cyberpunk here, and elements of dystopia, but the fashion-dominated world at the centre of it all is stunningly crafted and utterly unique. The frank sexuality of it was startling at first, but it came to feel like an inextricable part of the world, and any exploitation was recognized as exploitation. It wasn't a flawless read, with some questionable pacing and narrative/plot/character decisions here and there, but as a whole it sure worked for me.
January 27, 2016
A strangely mesmerizing book in a dystopian environment.
Master Tailor Tane Cedar a child of the slubs goes to Seattlehama to seek his future in the world of fabric. The people he meets in his life and the secrets he uncovers about his family and the structure of the fashion environment are novel indeed.
Just as he cuts cloth, he also cuts through the weave of deceit and mysteries underpinning the city and its fashions.
A reader looking for something different will find this story fulfills that desire.
Master Tailor Tane Cedar a child of the slubs goes to Seattlehama to seek his future in the world of fabric. The people he meets in his life and the secrets he uncovers about his family and the structure of the fashion environment are novel indeed.
Just as he cuts cloth, he also cuts through the weave of deceit and mysteries underpinning the city and its fashions.
A reader looking for something different will find this story fulfills that desire.
January 9, 2011
really, really interesting vision of the future-- original and weird without being gimmicky or losing coherence. i also generally like the characters and the writing.
my one complaint is that the flashback format made things seem a little disjointed at times. not in a confusing way, but i think this prevented me from being as engaged in the story as i could have been. and i wanted a more grandiose climax, i think.
four stars for worldbuilding though. awesome.
my one complaint is that the flashback format made things seem a little disjointed at times. not in a confusing way, but i think this prevented me from being as engaged in the story as i could have been. and i wanted a more grandiose climax, i think.
four stars for worldbuilding though. awesome.
February 21, 2011
Extremely clever. Armstrong is inventing a new subgenre "fashionpunk". It's cyberpunk far in the future where the world is run by fashion and your threadcount really does matter. Instead of just being about someone in the fashion industry, this version of Earth has every single thing on the planet tied up (couldn't resist) in yarn in one way or another: entervators that run up huge yarn cables, sex is dubbed "fashioning" etc. Kind of like reading Vurt or Neuromancer for the first time.
April 19, 2011
An absolutely unique and fun read, Armstrong has created the new genre of "fashionpunk." In the high tech future, fashion and sex are everything. In Seattlehama, a massive metropolis perched on the top of Mt. Rainier where buildings are knit instead of built and fashion is a deadly serious business that colors every single aspect of life. He's got another stand-alone book in the same universe, I will be seeking it out.
September 5, 2011
Author spent time in Japan immersed in popular culture I would imagine and has a degrree in fasshion, thus a futuristic story moving from present, past, future of a boy raised in the slubs who becomes a taylor to the stars in Seattlehama. He has 24 hours to make an outfit of illegal Xi cloth for a former lover.
How often do you get a story about yarn, culture, and sex?
I'm off to look for other books by this author.
How often do you get a story about yarn, culture, and sex?
I'm off to look for other books by this author.
March 16, 2012
I was born to love this book: I knit, read cyberpunk and relish descriptive immersive novels. BUT the authors writing felt so ... Young, and not that I don't love YA - I devoured Hunger Games for goodness sakes - but there was a level of shallowness (yes, I know it's a story about fashion sex and consumerism) that kept insulting me every time I tried to make it to the next chapter. Glad some enjoy this book, but so not for me.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews