9tail Fox was the first Jon Courtenay Grimwood book I read, yet I find myself dwelling more on Stamping Butterflies when I think of the book which introduced me to him. I can’t help thinking that 9tail Fox was more a friendly greeting than an introduction to what is obviously a very brilliant writer’s work.

Stamping Butterflies was a surreal and possibly insane novel which in many ways should never have worked half as well as it did. There were so many ways it could have gone wrong and probably in less skilled hands (such as mine) would really have fallen over about halfway through and been put aside in the “too difficult” basket, yet Mister Grimwood has such fine control over his plot that two such drastically different stories mingle so perfectly together and leave you feeling very satisfied by the end – an end you really don’t expect but which I won’t, of course, ruin for you by talking overly much about it save to say it was absosmurfly good and left me feeling moderately warm all over.

As a bit of a raving fan of chaos and discordianism, I was quietly pleased with Mister Grimwood’s novel in how it touched with eloquence upon the whole butterfly effect and random chaos patterns without over-using the theme and bludgeoning you to death with it. In fact, much of the story is hardly concerned with that and it is perhaps more true to say it is the title itself which tied it all together. Time is a reflection and a part of the pattern as much as space.

The characters in Stamping Butterflies are where it’s at. Prisoner Zero had such an intriguing and captivating history that I was overwhelmed by him – and I’m not normally overly fond of the kind of character which doesn’t seem to actively do much throughout – quietly building up toward something more explosive. I find those kinds of characters a little wasteful, but Mister Grimwood used the backstory to great effect, leaving you sometimes wondering just who he was. When you think you know, you doubt yourself.

And then the young emperor in the far-flung future, Zaq, awaits his assassin while toying with butterflies. His character is one which interested me in a different way entirely. He, too, spends a long time waiting. Yet, he seems to be rebelling against stasis by being static – a novel approach, really. Tris, as a rather well-modified assassin, was always going to appeal to me, and though she wasn’t in it nearly enough, was well worth the prive of the book. I’m a simple mind, really, and easily amused.

The novel seems, to me, to explore the frailties and insecurities not necessarily of a person, but of a people. When things seem perfect, we would doubt the reality in which we live. Zaq’s behaviour stemmed much from his disbelief in his reality – something a Mister T. Covenant could relate to – and it was like he was consumed with a desperate need to rock the boat simply because he didn’t want to believe the water was actually deep. It is hard to explain unless you read it, but Stamping Butterflies sometimes seems a fantastic little joke against utopia as much as anything else. Perhaps, though, I read too much into it. Or not deep enough. As we all know, I’m a bit of a hack when it comes to this kind of thing, but I have to say Mister Grimwood with this novel certainly had me thinking a little more than I normally do and for that I’m just not sure if I’m grateful. My brain cells aren’t used to it, you see.

I think the one thing I came out of from this novel with more than anything is the wonderful idea of emotions and our perceptions of others. Zaq’s belief has turned his fear into reality for him – and now he sees “Big Brother” everywhere. He feels he is being deceived and that the entire world surrounding him is simply made to distract him or manipulate him. He doubts everyone around him, and identifies them as constructs inside his prison. The emotions and feelings of others are simply programmed and therefore not real. Soon, he loses his capacity it seems for empathy. It is easy to dismiss this as just being the result of paranoia. I see it also as the result of the giddying heights of unchallenged power, and it is easy to see how the monstrous acts of dictators, kings and people in power throughout history is nothing less than the simple truth of being human.

Oh, my. Mister Grimwood is determined to turn me into a philosopher.

I honestly enjoyed this book a great deal. It obviously made me think, but it also entertained and kept me in a state of grippedness (obligatory red dwarfism). I recommend Stamping Butterflies if you like a bit of alternative reality, time-bending plots, assassins, mad emperors and some stupefyingly good scenes set in Marrakech.

Loved it. Really did. ‘Nuff said.