My Servant the Wind
Author: Michael Butterworth
Genre: Science Fiction
Year: 2019
Rating: 9 of 10
This book was an enjoyable read but will be difficult to write about. The tale is told as a series of diary entries layered in both the past and the future while at times stepping out of the narrative completely. Post-apocalyptic scenarios are taken for granted as if being alone in a desert world were a normal state of being, while the mundane is exaggerated and horrifying, drifting like a dream from abstract childhood to real life parties. The author acknowledges difficulties along the way and even criticizes the writing process through describing earlier perceived failures. Much of the book reads like a fever and as a reader I always find this to be a favorable circumstance for suspending disbelief. Lately I have been really enjoying the work of the new wave writers and had been unaware of Butterworth until a friend brought this book to my attention. This jagged epistolary is a perfect example of how not only were typical themes in science fiction attacked but also the nature of writing itself. I often ask myself the question of how we eliminate or destroy time in a medium that is linear by nature.