Debut Novel Friday: Nick Sagan's IDLEWILD
Perhaps it was the cover. Or it was the pedigree. Or the description on the back. Or just how the name looked.
Nick Sagan. Nick Sagan was a sci-fi author. And it turned out he was the son of Carl Sagan, world famed astronomer. I also was shocked to discover he was the voice who recorded ‘Hello from the children of Planet Earth’ for the spaceship Voyager…a phrase I remember hearing as a little kid myself on old school televisions. More reason for me to read his debut novel IDLEWILD. I originally read the series in real time, devouring the books as they were published. I remember loving the first book, its memory lingering over the years since I read it in 2003. So 23 years later…here I was again.
Given how the world had changed in 23 years…does IDLEWILD still hold up?
Well…YES.
IDLEWILD was a sci-fi novel that began in disorientating mystery. A boy awakes. He has no memory. He has no idea where he is. And most importantly…someone or something is trying to kill him.
A lot of questions. And they were questions that grabbed you immediately. But there were some answers as the boy pieced what little memory he had together. The boy’s name was Halloween. He appeared to be in some form of virtual reality with several other students. He had his own virtual assistant named Nanny. He was at a school called Idlewild (thus, the title) headed by a virtual instructor named Maestro. And one of his classmates named Lazarus has vanished under mysterious circumstances. And lest we forget…someone is trying to kill Halloween. But who? Why?
So many suspects. Friends. Rivals. The system itself. How will Halloween figure it out? Meanwhile, how did the parallel story subplot of a plague happening in an earlier part of the timeline connect to the mystery of Halloween and the other students at Idlewild? In a world where nothing is at all what it seems, how will Halloween navigate the reveals?
I loved IDLEWILD the first time I read it. I love it even more now. I love novels that bend genres and IDLEWILD does with its mix of mystery, sci-fi, and dystopia. Mystery with its slow burn approach and narrative as ‘Detective’ Halloween is on the case of the attempted murder and Lazarus’s disappearance. Sci-fi in the limitlessness of what the virtual environment that Halloween and his classmates live in can do, from being able to transport anywhere in the world instantly to encountering famous figures to downloading any kind of information they would like (cyberpunk huh?) even changing their appearance however they would like. Dystopia in the parallel story subplot that ran concurrent to Halloween and the mystery. That is until both storylines converge into…but THAT would be telling.
Sagan definitely has the flavor of other authors…something I noticed other people pointing out. For me, his writing reminded me of Dean Knootz with the pop culture references. But no matter who his writing reminded someone of, Sagan’s style eventually turned into its own voice. His world building was intriguing. His characters started off as tropes. Like the novel itself, they revealed their depth like a person peeking back layers on an onion. There were quite a lot of philosophical ramblings that I found stayed with me throughout reading and beyond. The result was a real page turner with a climax that was giving action sci-fi movie.
Now will the next book live up to the promise? It’s been so long that, like Halloween, I do not remember. But I do look forward to reading it. Again.
IDLEWILD was full of win then. It stood the test of time to be full of win again. Highly recommended for anyone looking for something that is familiar, but at the same time, is something new.
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