FALLER is an engaging, stand-alone novel from McIntosh.
I've had mixed experiences with McIntosh's novels - they're always interesting and very imaginative, not to mention quite original. However, I've not always come away knowing if I liked the book(s).
The same can also be said for FALLER - it's well-written, imaginative, and an intriguing mystery. But I'm not sure if I *loved* it...
Definitely worth a look if you're looking for an intriguing stand-alone novel with a difference.

After more than 5 times of trying to read this book and failing, I guess it’s time to quit. I feel like I’ve read this concept before although it varies here and there. But still it intrigues me. However, the first chapter of a book always helps me decide on which book I am in the mood for and this book never captures my interest. I would read a chapter then stop until I forgot that I’m reading this. I’ve tried more than once but I guess it’s not really for me.

Not gonna rate it because it would seem unfair to rate a book that I haven’t completed. (Although this required a star rating but nevermind that) Maybe others would like it, but maybe some are on the same boat as me. Just give it a try and let me know what you think. It might give me one last push to continue with this book no matter how much I struggle.

Esta es mi primera novela de Will McIntosh y aunque ya iba sobre aviso, no puede dejar de sentirme decepcionada por un libro que tiene un comienzo prometedor, pero que luego fracasa tanto narrativa como estructuralmente.

El comienzo, aunque no excesivamente original, está bien planteado. El protagonista es una persona sin recuerdos rodeada de gente también sin recuerdos. Los primeros capítulos se desarrollan en un entorno relativamente reducido y son una curiosa mezcla entre lucha por la supervivencia y gestos de humanidad. Lo mismo hay muertes por una lata de conserva que sacrificios para salvar a un desconocido. Pero en un momento determinado, el protagonista "cae" de este mundo a otro, ayudado por un paracaídas casero.

Ahi ya empieza a entrar en juego la suspensión de incredulidad, por ese apego que tenemos a las leyes de la física, pero leyendo hay que intentar ser flexible así que dejé pasar este importante detalle, esperando una explicación que llegaría más tarde. La "explicación" llegó pero mucho más tarde, quizá demasiado.

Por otra parte, se desarrolla una trama que sospechamos está relacionada pero no podremos situar correctamente en la narración hasta que avance el libro. En este ocasión se habla de la relación de dos brillantes investigadores, con el trasfondo de un progresivo empeoramiento de las relaciones internacionales. El desarrollo de la relación entre ambos es previsible e incluso ingenuo, pero fundamental para la trama.

El momento en que se unen las dos tramas, que debería ser un importante hito en la novela es sin embargo un parche algo torpe. Se sitúa sobre el último tercio del libro, pero por las pistas dejadas por el autor ya intuíamos lo que había sucedido y destroza la posible sorpresa que quedara en el futuro de la línea temporal. Como digo, una ejecución bastante simplona.

Al final acabé el libro casi por inercia, por curiosidad de saber si mis intuiciones coincidían con la idea del autor. No puedo recomendar esta obra, aunque tengo algo de curiosidad por otras del autor que estén más pulidas (no olvidemos que esta fue su primera obra).

Faller is not a bad book it was just not a book for me. It is original and contains some great writing but in the end it was just a little slow for me. I can't really put my finger on what it was that I didn't get on with but Faller left me a little cold.

If you like extremely weird books where a good suspension of disbelief is fondamental to your enjoyment of the book, this one is for you.

Faller opens up in a floating city where no one can remember who they are and where they come from. Our main character wakes up in an isolated world where he can’t even remember how to read, the only thing he knows, he knows thanks to the content of his pocket: he founds a photo of himself and a woman, a toy soldier with a tiny parachute and a paper with weird things written on it in what seems to be blood but that he can’t understand.

A few days after the “event” now called Day One, people start killing each other for ressources and throwing unwanted people (including children) through the edge of the world. Inspired by the toy soldier and its parachute, our main character decides to jump from a building to see if he can observe things across the edge of his world. Of course things don’t end up exactly how he wants and he falls from his world… into another one.

The book also follows another storyline set in the past and treating with a bunch of scientist playing with quantum physics allowing us to understand the causes of Day One. The novel constantly jumps between each plot lines and I wasn’t a fan of that because it makes for a pretty uneven pacing (and pretty obvious twists).

Faller is a crazy and fast-paced story and it definitely was a journey. However, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to, mainly because I found that all the characters made extremely dumb decisions all the time. All the characters were naive and made ridiculous mistakes. That wouldn’t be such an issue for me if they were not the cause of Earth destruction but, in the case of this novel, those mistakes felt forced, they obviously were there to push the story forward but, if they had been a bit more believable, they would’nt have annoyed me near as much. I couldn’t relate to the main character because most of the time, I just wanted to punch him in the face. I can deal with unlikable characters but I have zero patience with stupid ones especially when the author try to sell them as “brilliant scientist that everyone adores”, just no.

So, I think I would have enjoyed this book if the characters were a bit more developped or just a tad less stupid. The lack of characterization constantly pulled me out of the story and sometimes made it hard for me to read the book. I still finished Faller because I was intrigued to see how it would end and I’m still glad I finished it, even if the ending felt felt a bit random. I can forgive that, the whole book being utterly crazy., at this point I just like “okay whatever, why not”. So if you are reading this just for the story, you might end up enjoying yourself a lot, however, if you are expecting interesting characters and good writing, I wouldn’t especially recommend.

It is so unbelievably refreshing to read a standalone genre novel! Thank you Mr. McIntosh! It's not without its issues; his tone isn't as confident as the beginning all the way through, a common problem as a result of the first few chapters being polished to perfection for submission to prospective agents and publishers, whereas the rest is put together much more quickly - although considering McIntosh is already a fairly established author I can't imagine that was the cause here? And gender isn't a strong point, although it's not a massive problem either here. But I thought it was a really fun, twisty read throughout. Take note, Blake Crouch, this is how it's done (i.e. don't take yourself so seriously when writing genre fiction, you'll be all the better for it).

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Books We Loved in November
(A group round up)

Ceridwen: I’m a sucker for the ontological mystery plot—a small group of people wake up not knowing who or what they are, and then must work out the mystery of their own existence. In Faller, Will McIntosh takes this mystery one step further: not only does no one in this few city blocks know who they are, but this few blocks makes up the entirety of the world. It’s like a chunk of a city was broken off, and is now adrift in space. We follow a small group of people as they try to make their way through the unknown. Additionally, we’re given glimpses into what must be the past, taking us up to whatever cataclysm split the world and wiped everyone’s memories. McIntosh really makes the most of this unnerving setup, and Faller is a fascinating study in culpability and redemption.

Faller by Will McIntosh is a very strange sci-fi novel. It begins fabulously, with our hero waking up not knowing where he is, his name, how to read, what the name for common things is, and what has happened. He’s completely disoriented, but so is everyone else around him. They’re all waking up in what appears to be the aftermath of a fire or a war, with crumbled streets and burning buildings surrounding them, but what’s really weird is that right in the middle of the street, the world ends. The street is cut off and all that’s left is bright blue sky. Looking down it looks like a cliff, with pipes and wires sticking out where the rest of the street used to be.

Our hero decides his name is Clue, since he hasn’t a clue who he is, but there are a few things in his pocket to try to help him: a toy soldier with a parachute attached to it, a picture of him with a woman, and a piece of paper with circles and a flag on it, drawn in blood. Clue tries to figure out what these things mean, along with the help of a few people he befriends, and one thing he assumes is that the toy soldier with the parachute is him. He makes a parachute, changes his name to Faller, and attempts to fly off a skyscraper, but he doesn’t attach the parachute correctly and ends up flying off the end of the world. This is where things get strange.

The novel then jumps to a guy named Peter, his relationship with his wife and his in-laws, and his scientific experiments. Chapters then go back and forth between Faller and Peter, with Peter’s chapters slowing things down considerably. I couldn’t help but be bored with relationship troubles when Faller is literally falling through the sky for days at a time. It all makes sense in the end, and Peter’s chapters get better, but I was underwhelmed with them for half the book.

But it’s not just the entrance of Peter that makes this strange. Faller falls through the skies for days until he sees land. Thus begins the journey of Faller jumping from island to island, finding more people who don’t remember the past, and trying to figure out what that flag on his paper is pointing to and why. It’s really outlandish to think that someone can just fall through the sky for days on end and land perfectly on a piece of land, but I decided to go with and accept that in this world things like this are possible.

This novel is odd, and I still haven’t decided if I like it or love it, but I did enjoy it. Will McIntosh is really good building tension and coming up with something completely unusual and refreshing, so I have to give him some props for that. I haven’t read anything like this before.

Altough I usually enjoy Will McIntosh (recently published in Spanish), Faller was a good idea with a not so good development. A shame, because I was very excited about it.