Finding an Audience: Robert Charles Wilson's Julian Comstock

Oddly, the letter/press release accompanying Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson seems more like a plea than a pitch:

The decline of general reviewing has sadly left little space for a book like Julian Comstock--that is, a book so original and vibrant with personality, it's hard to know where it fits and what to do with it. Parts throwback adventure, post-apocalyptic sci-fi, dashing western, prophetic religious text and gloriously subversive political manifesto, [the novel] is that unique creature--an exuberant and imaginative literary creation that forces the reader to reevaluate the best books on their shelf.

The cover letter goes on to note that the novel's only gotten one full review thus far--on Boing Boing--and the press release notes "This July [June?] Wilson returns with the type of novel nobody expected him to write."Amazon isn't carrying the customary advance Publishers Weekly review, but that doesn't necessarily mean one isn't forthcoming. Still, the tone of Tor's approach strikes me as seeming worried about finding an audience for this book--and being somewhat plain-spoken about that concern.On Wilson's home page, he's got links to a three-part interview he did with Brian Francis Slattery about the book. This is somewhat coincidental in the sense that the cover of Wilson's book is somewhat lazily reminiscent of the cover of Liberation by Slattery.This is also the second time I've received a copy of the novel. The first time I told the publicist it just didn't look like my kind of thing. And it still doesn't, which is no knock on the book. It's just that it appears to be North America in the 2200s by way of the 1800s--and 1800s North American settings tend to bore me to tears. And I just have a hard time shaking that impression in reading parts of the book. We all have our quirks.Does this book have an audience? Yes. The problem is, it's probably not the audience Tor is used to finding for its authors. They may even have thought since Wilson has won the Hugo that it'd be an easy sell. But sometimes when you switch tone, direction, and genre this quickly, it's hard for people to adjust.Wilson is and always has been an interesting humanist writer whose best books manage to avoid the sentimental streak that crops up in his worst. This one might well be one of his best, but I'm snowblind to it. If you don't have a copy and you think this sounds like the kind of thing you'd love and you want one, you can have mine so it doesn't go to waste. Email me at vanderworld at hotmail.com. I'll send it to you and when you post your review--if you don't post one, the hell-dogs of a thousand underworlds will forever pursue you--I'll link to it. (This isn't first come first serve--it's best pitch, basically. Why you should get it.)