Going, Going, Gone
| Going, Going, Gone | |
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| Author | Jack Womack |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Dryco series |
| Genre(s) | Speculative fiction, dystopian novel, alternate history novel |
| Publisher | Grove Press |
| Publication date | 2000 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 192 pp (hardcover) |
| ISBN | ISBN 080211685X |
| Preceded by | Elvissey |
Going, Going, Gone is a 2000 alternate history novel by Jack Womack.[1] As the sixth and final installment of his acclaimed Dryco series, the novel was the subject of much anticipation and speculation prior to its release,[2][3] and critically well-received.
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Set in 1968 New York in an alternate universe to the Dryco universe of the previous five iterations of the series,[4] Going, Going, Gone nevertheless disposes of several of the series' characters in its closing chapters.[3] Its protagonist is Walter Bullitt, an egocentric expert in psychoactive substances who freelances for various branches of the United States government spy apparatus.[3] Though he passes for white, Bullitt is in fact of African-American descent in a world where almost all full-blooded members of that race died sometime in the early twentieth century in an apparently engineered plague and all black music is banned.[3][4] Walter becomes subject to increasingly strange experiences,[1] hearing voices and seeing ghosts from a parallel New York which is blending into his one.[4] Walter is taken to this alternative New York which has been flooded and moved north, populated by black people and an analogue of television absent from his world.[4] The novel ends with the two epistemic worlds converging into a New York which is, in the words of critic Paul Dukes a "morally better place than either of the two which composed it".[4]
Going, Going, Gone was well-received critically. Publishers Weekly called it an "intriguing, clever novel", with the potential for crossover appeal as well as for satisfying fans of the series.[5] Biopunk author and reviewer Paul Di Filippo hailed the work as a groundbreaking achievement:
What Womack has done here is something special. He has fashioned an homage, a pastiche, a parody that far transcends its original model. Starting with the sub-James-Bond genre of swinging superstud spies a la Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm and Michael Avallone's Ed Noon, Womack builds a credible, touching and alluring alternate history limned not by expository lumps but by scattered remarks and observations from the first-person narrator.
—Di Filippo, Paul , Sci Fi Weekly, March 19, 2001.[3]
Publishers Weekly compared the novel's prose with that of Anthony Burgess, but conjectured that the vernacular "may annoy some readers".[5] The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction also singled out Womack's prose for attention, commenting:
Womack slides his compact, playful, sardonic prose past the reading eye, sequinning his narrative with wry observations and a peculiar vocabulary, and rendering with exquisite economy a world so nearly our own (though not) that it's more meaningful than the one we inhabit. Going, Going, Gone mutes its sf armature, preferring the subtle to the spectacular, but it delivers the double-take brain thrill that true lovers of the form crave.
- The Man in the High Castle, a similar alternate history novel by Philip K. Dick[5][3]
- Slipstream, a genre which crosses speculative and literary fiction
- ^ a b Jack Womack: Going, Going, Gone, interview with Cory Doctorow, The WELL, 2001-08-01
- ^ Sawyer, Andy (2000). Speaking Science Fiction. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, p.198. ISBN 0853238340.
- ^ a b c d e f Di Filippo, Paul (March 19, 2001). "Going, Going, Gone". SCI FI Weekly. Retrieved on 2008-10-02.
- ^ a b c d e Dukes, Paul (2000). The Superpowers. New York: Routledge, p.102–3. ISBN 041523042X.
- ^ a b c "Going, Going, Gone.(Review)". Publishers Weekly. February 19, 2001. "Futurist wunderkind Womack (Random Acts of Senseless Violence) concludes his heralded Ambient series with this intriguing, clever novel set in an alternate, semihistorical 1968. … Although his hero's vernacular may annoy some readers, Womack has crafted a fast-moving, hipper-than-hip science fiction novel meshing the exuberant wordplay of Anthony Burgess with the high-concept what-if history Philip Dick made famous with The Man in the High Castle. (Mar.) Forecast: This final, top-notch Ambient installment has the potential to generate considerable crossover appeal while satisfying old fans. Those in the know will correct anyone who tries to call this cyberpunk lit no "cyber" is involved but readers of William Gibson should gravitate toward Womack.".
- ^ Going, Going, Gone.(Review). May 1, 2001.
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