2019/26: Europe at Dawn -- Dave Hutchinson

Obviously, the world and everything in it had been stupid since the dawn of time. It was just that, every now and again, there seemed to be a surge in stupid and there was nothing anyone could do about it except hang on and hope things would get better soon. [loc. 7179]

I really should have reread the first three volumes (Europe in Autumn, Europe at Midnight and Europe in Winter): but I found that somehow the first two had vanished from my Kindle and my content, and I foolishly decided to forge ahead.

There are two major new characters in this, the fourth volume (or is it) of Hutchinson's near-future European intrigue. Alice is a junior cultural attache at the Scottish Embassy in Tallin, Estonia. Her husband is horrifically controlling, and she lives in a state of permanent confusion vis-a-vis the activities of her colleagues. Benno, by contrast, is a refugee from a country he can't remember (perhaps somewhere in North Africa?) who lives in a shipping-container town on a small Greek island. Alice is offered a stolen, bejewelled skull: Benno finds a corpse with a gun and a cellphone. These are the points at which their lives are irrevocably changed.

Alice and Benno's respective turning-points seem to happen early in the overall chronology of the series: the Community has not yet revealed itself, and Rudi is still young and relatively unscarred. But Europe at Dawn skips around in time: that jewelled skull shows up again (or is it before?), the Community becomes international news, and characters come and go, sometimes not subject to the same chronology as their peers.

There are a number of splendidly effective female characters: I'd have liked to see more of Meg, the officer in command at Heathrow Airport -- which, with a section of Bath Road, was transposed into the Community in the previous volume. (Oh how wonderful it would have been if Bath Road had been transposed whilst replete with SF fans at an Eastercon, or geeks at Nine Worlds!) And Victoria surely deserves a book to herself. But Alice is great, and I am with Rudi in feeling that what happens to her is tragic.

Benno's story, which doesn't have the same sense of beginning-middle-end to it, allows Hutchinson to rage at the plight of refugees. All he wants to do is go north ... but in this fragmented Europe, where every town or village (or island) can and may declare independence, 'north' is a moveable feast.

One day I will reread the whole series, and perhaps be less confused by Europe at Dawn -- which does seem to interlock with the previous books, rather than following on from them. But there's room for more story, given the surprising revelations at the climax of this volume. And my lack of context did not prevent my being highly amused, intrigued and moved by the book.

I hope Mr Hutchinson will not be upset if I get a t-shirt with 'Spirit of Schengen' on it.