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Half the Day is Night
War veteran David Dai has come to ocean-bottom Caribe to work as bodyguard to Mayla Ling, banker and scion to the undersea city's old-money set. But as Mayla negotiates the biggest deal of her life, she draws the attention of terrorists who threaten to plunge her, and David, back into the nightmare of his violent past.
375 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
About the author
Maureen F. McHugh
114 books264 followersMaureen F. McHugh (born 1959) is a science fiction and fantasy writer.
Her first published story appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in 1989. Since then, she has written four novels and over twenty short stories. Her first novel, China Mountain Zhang (1992), was nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula Award, and won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. In 1996 she won a Hugo Award for her short story "The Lincoln Train" (1995). McHugh's short story collection Mothers and Other Monsters was shortlisted as a finalist for the Story Prize in December, 2005.
Maureen is currently a partner at No Mimes Media, an Alternate Reality Game company which she co-founded with Steve Peters and Behnam Karbassi in March 2009. Prior to founding No Mimes, Maureen worked for 42 Entertainment, where she was a Writer and/or Managing Editor for numerous Alternate Reality Game projects, including Year Zero and I Love Bees.
Her first published story appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in 1989. Since then, she has written four novels and over twenty short stories. Her first novel, China Mountain Zhang (1992), was nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula Award, and won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. In 1996 she won a Hugo Award for her short story "The Lincoln Train" (1995). McHugh's short story collection Mothers and Other Monsters was shortlisted as a finalist for the Story Prize in December, 2005.
Maureen is currently a partner at No Mimes Media, an Alternate Reality Game company which she co-founded with Steve Peters and Behnam Karbassi in March 2009. Prior to founding No Mimes, Maureen worked for 42 Entertainment, where she was a Writer and/or Managing Editor for numerous Alternate Reality Game projects, including Year Zero and I Love Bees.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
April 26, 2015
This book didn't grab me until page 126, but I'm so enamored with China Mountain Zhang and McHugh's short fiction that I kept plodding along anyway.
McHugh does a great job creating an interesting near-future science fiction world and immersing readers in her characters' lives. David and Mayla spend the novel disoriented and traumatized. There's a definite pleasure reading about non-heroic characters dealing with tense situations in fumbling, human ways.
But the plot / pacing were muddled, and on top of it I suffered from false expectations - the back copy promised a "21st-century thriller" and "tropical adventure." (I don't know why I believe book jackets. Possibly a librarian bad habit.) I'm pretty sure adventure thrillers are supposed to be high concept; this novel wasn't high-concept at all, and often I felt a bit mired, watching the characters struggle moment by moment, not certain where the book was going or what the payoff was going to be.
If the novel had been more atmospheric or had a stronger narrative voice, it might have worked, but McHugh's understated, on-the-ground narration meant that it felt more like an intense but unwieldy fever dream. (China Mountain Zhang didn't even try to attempt novel-length pacing; instead it had a few related narratives, so this was her first published attempt.)
Sum up: Definitely a somewhat weak second novel, but was a fast, interesting read (after page 126!) and will certainly read more.
McHugh does a great job creating an interesting near-future science fiction world and immersing readers in her characters' lives. David and Mayla spend the novel disoriented and traumatized. There's a definite pleasure reading about non-heroic characters dealing with tense situations in fumbling, human ways.
But the plot / pacing were muddled, and on top of it I suffered from false expectations - the back copy promised a "21st-century thriller" and "tropical adventure." (I don't know why I believe book jackets. Possibly a librarian bad habit.) I'm pretty sure adventure thrillers are supposed to be high concept; this novel wasn't high-concept at all, and often I felt a bit mired, watching the characters struggle moment by moment, not certain where the book was going or what the payoff was going to be.
If the novel had been more atmospheric or had a stronger narrative voice, it might have worked, but McHugh's understated, on-the-ground narration meant that it felt more like an intense but unwieldy fever dream. (China Mountain Zhang didn't even try to attempt novel-length pacing; instead it had a few related narratives, so this was her first published attempt.)
Sum up: Definitely a somewhat weak second novel, but was a fast, interesting read (after page 126!) and will certainly read more.
September 20, 2019
McHugh has a great knack for taking ordinary people in ordinary places, putting them in not extraordinarily stressful situations, and producing out of all that a really well-told, well-paced story with characters you care about. She did this very,very well in her first novel, China Mountain Zhang, and she does it almost as well in this one, her second. She also doesn’t make the mistake of stopping to explain when and where the story is set, explaining how history has created this particular future: She just does her narrative job and lets the reader figure it out, bit by bit. In this case, we’re a couple of generations into the future, when an undersea colony built by the United States in the Caribbean has won its independence. But that was sixty years ago, and now Caribe is just another Third World Latin American dictatorship run by a president-for-life, with an upper class who are very rich and an underclass who are very poor. Jean-David Dai, a young French ex-soldier wounded in the South African wars, has come to try out for a security job looking after a bank officer named Mayla Ling, a naive member of the “haves” who has been targeted by a political underground. David’s trying to escape his past and his nightmares, and he’s not sure this job is the way to do it, but he agrees to give it a shot for six months. Then things get out of hand, naturally. Mayla’s house is bombed, David disappears, the bank is sucked up by a neighboring conglomerate, and things become very uncomfortable. The setting is fascinating; think Colombia or Guatemala, but 250 meters under the seabed, with a police force that does things its own way and citizens who know better than to argue, where business is routinely done with bribes and kickbacks, where internal combustion buses operate in defiance of good sense -- this being a closed system where air has to be recycled and the lower levels of society never get enough oxygen. Mayla has never known anything different, and comparing her comfortable view of this world to David’s reaction to the cold and the dark makes you really pay attention. A quiet, thoughtful, convincing novel.
March 6, 2019
I don’t want to repeat what everyone else has already said about this book, but: it’s not China Mountain Zhang. It feels unfair to compare any book to that absolute master piece but I can't help it.
I liked Half the Day is Night alright but I wasn’t blown away by it. The world building was quite interesting, I wasn’t crazy about the characters but they were solid, and the story was fine but perhaps not really my thing.
The writing style wasn’t that far removed from China Mountain Zhang and I actually enjoyed it, but damn where was the editor in all of this?! It could’ve used some polishing and no book should have this many mistakes.
And reminder for myself: helium voices. All of it.
I liked Half the Day is Night alright but I wasn’t blown away by it. The world building was quite interesting, I wasn’t crazy about the characters but they were solid, and the story was fine but perhaps not really my thing.
The writing style wasn’t that far removed from China Mountain Zhang and I actually enjoyed it, but damn where was the editor in all of this?! It could’ve used some polishing and no book should have this many mistakes.
And reminder for myself: helium voices. All of it.
April 7, 2014
Most people regard HALF THE DAY IS NIGHT as McHugh's weakest novel, but I always believed is was one of the best. True, the characters are over-shadowed by the setting and plot, but in this case I see that as the strength of the latter rather than any weakness in the former. It's a fine book, well worth the time of giving it a chance.
July 25, 2016
Beautifully described underwater society. I could feel the terror of the main characters as they were faced with issues of fear and claustrophobia. Particularly poignant was David's flashbacks to his days as a soldier.
October 14, 2013
While the characters fall flat, the backdrop steals the stage.
With the exception of Mothers & Other Monsters, I’ve read all of Maureen McHugh’s novels and anthologies. (“Devoured” is more like it, having consumed them all in the space of just a few months.) While somewhat enjoyable, Half the Day is Night is not McHugh’s best work.
Perhaps the lackluster reviews I saw previous to reading the book colored my perception of it, but I had trouble empathizing with – or even caring a whit about – the characters who inhabit the story. With the (marginal) exception of David Dai, the denizens of McHugh’s undersea cities are at best bland and boring; at worst, downright unlikable. For example, I found female protagonist Mayla Ling sheltered, spoiled, self-absorbed, and completely lacking in common sense. (When David calls her a tyrant for taking advantage of her employee/ex-boyfriend Tim, Mayla simply shrugs indifferently. “Too bad.”) I cared less about whether she survived the story’s end than whether her selfishness would prove David’s downfall. Described mainly through Mayla’s eyes, poor Tim hardly gets a chance at becoming a well-rounded character.
The real star of Half the Day is Night proves to be its setting - the intricate undersea cities created by McHugh. Dark and dank, and marked by poverty and sharp class inequities, one can almost feel the oppressive weight of the ocean pressing down from above. As always, McHugh’s imagination is a thing of beauty; her detailed depiction of Caribe will stay with you long after the story is done.
If you’re already a fan of McHugh, Half the Day is Night is well worth a read. Otherwise, begin your journey with another of her works. Mission Child is my personal favorite, and Nekropolis, China Mountain Zhang, and After the Apocalypse are all outstanding as well.
http://www.easyvegan.info/2012/05/11/...
With the exception of Mothers & Other Monsters, I’ve read all of Maureen McHugh’s novels and anthologies. (“Devoured” is more like it, having consumed them all in the space of just a few months.) While somewhat enjoyable, Half the Day is Night is not McHugh’s best work.
Perhaps the lackluster reviews I saw previous to reading the book colored my perception of it, but I had trouble empathizing with – or even caring a whit about – the characters who inhabit the story. With the (marginal) exception of David Dai, the denizens of McHugh’s undersea cities are at best bland and boring; at worst, downright unlikable. For example, I found female protagonist Mayla Ling sheltered, spoiled, self-absorbed, and completely lacking in common sense. (When David calls her a tyrant for taking advantage of her employee/ex-boyfriend Tim, Mayla simply shrugs indifferently. “Too bad.”) I cared less about whether she survived the story’s end than whether her selfishness would prove David’s downfall. Described mainly through Mayla’s eyes, poor Tim hardly gets a chance at becoming a well-rounded character.
The real star of Half the Day is Night proves to be its setting - the intricate undersea cities created by McHugh. Dark and dank, and marked by poverty and sharp class inequities, one can almost feel the oppressive weight of the ocean pressing down from above. As always, McHugh’s imagination is a thing of beauty; her detailed depiction of Caribe will stay with you long after the story is done.
If you’re already a fan of McHugh, Half the Day is Night is well worth a read. Otherwise, begin your journey with another of her works. Mission Child is my personal favorite, and Nekropolis, China Mountain Zhang, and After the Apocalypse are all outstanding as well.
http://www.easyvegan.info/2012/05/11/...
September 19, 2013
In the underground city of Caribe in the near-future, Mayla is in the midst of tense financial negotiations. Her insurance agency requires her to have a bodyguard, so she hires David Dai, a former French soldier with an injured knee and a veiled case of PTSD. After terrorists approach David for help and then make an attempt on Mayla's life, David vanishes into Caribe's underworld. Mayla soon follows.
Starts wonderfully, but peters out into mind-numbing quotidian detail and plots that the main characters are affected by but don't understand. I wished the characters' emotions were a little less tamped down; even though it felt believable, it also made it hard to care about what happened to them. Still, an excellent and almost too-realistic rendering of alienation and the tension of living in a corrupt society with unspoken, unclear rules.
Starts wonderfully, but peters out into mind-numbing quotidian detail and plots that the main characters are affected by but don't understand. I wished the characters' emotions were a little less tamped down; even though it felt believable, it also made it hard to care about what happened to them. Still, an excellent and almost too-realistic rendering of alienation and the tension of living in a corrupt society with unspoken, unclear rules.
March 3, 2016
No es malo, pero tenía altas expectativas después de China Mountain Zhang
July 25, 2022
Build Your Library 2022: a story set under the sea
This was just harder work than I wanted to do. The idea of Caribe, a country set entirely under the ocean, was interesting and I could see that the author had thought through an intricate, detailed world. But the book is about trauma and terrorism and economic inequality. One of the main characters is a traumatized veteran. He's come from the African theater only to find that the same issues he thought he'd left behind plague Caribe as well. The setting is dark, literally- no light penetrates to the depths of Caribe. And everyone speaks in a high squeaky helium voice because of the air mixture! This was a little too much for me to be able to hold in my imagination.
The final straw was when one of the main characters finds a kitten. He doesn't want to keep it, necessarily, but no one else is there to help it. He can't take it with him when he leaves Caribe (not sure why) so he spends time wondering if he needs to kill the kitten himself or if there is a veterinarian who can help him. I can't deal with kitten killing on top of terrorism and trauma. This character might not kill the kitten but I've got a bad feeling about it and don't want to read any more.
This was just harder work than I wanted to do. The idea of Caribe, a country set entirely under the ocean, was interesting and I could see that the author had thought through an intricate, detailed world. But the book is about trauma and terrorism and economic inequality. One of the main characters is a traumatized veteran. He's come from the African theater only to find that the same issues he thought he'd left behind plague Caribe as well. The setting is dark, literally- no light penetrates to the depths of Caribe. And everyone speaks in a high squeaky helium voice because of the air mixture! This was a little too much for me to be able to hold in my imagination.
The final straw was when one of the main characters finds a kitten. He doesn't want to keep it, necessarily, but no one else is there to help it. He can't take it with him when he leaves Caribe (not sure why) so he spends time wondering if he needs to kill the kitten himself or if there is a veterinarian who can help him. I can't deal with kitten killing on top of terrorism and trauma. This character might not kill the kitten but I've got a bad feeling about it and don't want to read any more.
June 17, 2020
This isn't as good as China Mountain Zhang, but not many books are. I still enjoyed this book a great deal- much of it because it reminds me of the Station Eleven comic idea in the book of the same name, as well as the BioShock undersea city of Rapture. It has moments of intriguing ideas, like the cost of air being too high for some and the effect on their voices of the air mix.
It didn't entirely gel as a whole for me, although I had fun with the read. The world she has built here is by far the most compelling part of this book. The rest of it is full of almosts: it almost makes sense what is happening, how the characters react, but not quite, especially Mayla's decisions. Some strange typos and errors as well as the description of people as being oriental, which is better suited for carpets. A rewrite of this would be grand, as it has so much potential and a fascinating world. Keep Mephistopheles in the book.
It didn't entirely gel as a whole for me, although I had fun with the read. The world she has built here is by far the most compelling part of this book. The rest of it is full of almosts: it almost makes sense what is happening, how the characters react, but not quite, especially Mayla's decisions. Some strange typos and errors as well as the description of people as being oriental, which is better suited for carpets. A rewrite of this would be grand, as it has so much potential and a fascinating world. Keep Mephistopheles in the book.
January 8, 2022
All of the pieces that I was hoping for in this novel were there: a futuristic sci-fi setting, a narrative full of culture-rich details, and characters whose personas are subtly but unmistakably shaped by their setting. But for some reason, the pieces did not come together for me as well as they did in _China Mountain Zhang_. The novel got off to a very slow start and there was not enough of the main characters to stoke as deep an interest as I was wanting. Maybe if the author had focused on either Mayla OR David and made the novel about them, instead of about terrorism and corporate banking, I would have enjoyed it more. But it is not like the author traded character development for plot -- I think that readers who come looking for a conventional, well-developed plot will be disappointed as well. The book is not fully about the characters, the plot, or the world in which they live and it seems like it should have chosen one of those, at least.
March 31, 2020
This is a really great premise, and the pacing throughout is decent. McHugh does a wonderful job of showing off her world, rather than just telling you what it looks like. That world is anxiously post-apocalyptic. The characters within, however, are intimate in their humanity. The most joyful scenes, to me, were the ones which have the main characters simply living their lives, experiencing the world around them, and creating joy for themselves.
I think that much of this tender beauty, however, is erased as McHugh seems to rush to end the book. Intrigue that had built up throughout the story just sort of washes away.
I think that much of this tender beauty, however, is erased as McHugh seems to rush to end the book. Intrigue that had built up throughout the story just sort of washes away.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 30, 2021
3.5 stars, but GoodReads still doesn't allow that. I don't understand all the bad reviews this got. I'm a bit biased in that I adore the other McHugh books I've read, but I thought the characters and world building were compelling. Perhaps I wasn't mislead by the description, as I went in completely blind. This definitely isn't a thriller, but there was a building palpable dread that permeated all of Caribe. Loved the world building, and I liked how unexceptional everyone was. Not my favorite McHugh, but still worth the read.
July 8, 2022
I'm a little torn on this one because I'm such a huge fan of Maureen's writing style. I REALLY felt like I was in the character's minds and I REALLY felt like I was in an inhabited world. But I felt the plot to this book just sort of meandered around until it ended. I really liked the places that the characters went but I wasn't really sure what to make of it on the whole. I always have time for Maureen F McHugh and I'll for sure read more by her. But this wasn't my favorite.
November 19, 2018
My second Maureen McHugh novel
March 24, 2020
It's interesting. For those of you curious, title phrase appears on pg. 286.
September 15, 2011
I really wanted to finish this. Truly, I did. I had a big long car trip with which to do so, and everything. And after reading a recent post by Charlie Stross on reading more work by female writers, I decided to give this one a go. It was very engaging in its first half, but then the characters begin making decisions that make very little sense -- one protagonist decides to simply disappear from accusations that have yet to be made, while another succumbs to corporate pressure and loses her life's work. Not very much is made of either of these changes, and I got the sense that I was simply observing these two lives unfolding without a satisfactory arc or change. Neither had come to any definitive conclusions about life, aside from the fact that half of it was dark and scary. This is something that both of them already knew, and certainly something that the reader had been apprised of over and over throughout the story. It wasn't a theme or a revelation, but rather a state of being. This was why I couldn't really finish it -- it didn't seem to be leading anywhere.
That said, it's quite well-written and very imaginative. It also shines a light on cultures that don't get a lot of play in some SF, most prominently those of the Caribbean islands. McHugh has also obviously thought out what poverty would be like underwater, and has taken an "as above, so below" approach to her underwater society. Parts of that society struck me as deeply implausible, and it's also never made entirely clear what has made the surface so much less hospitable, but there's enough interesting detail here that the underwater poleis make sense on their own. If you're into urban planning or how cities work, read this book.
That said, it's quite well-written and very imaginative. It also shines a light on cultures that don't get a lot of play in some SF, most prominently those of the Caribbean islands. McHugh has also obviously thought out what poverty would be like underwater, and has taken an "as above, so below" approach to her underwater society. Parts of that society struck me as deeply implausible, and it's also never made entirely clear what has made the surface so much less hospitable, but there's enough interesting detail here that the underwater poleis make sense on their own. If you're into urban planning or how cities work, read this book.
September 27, 2013
When French/Asian war veteran David Dai accepts a job as a security guard to a female banker in the Caribbean, he's expecting to be able to get away from the violence and trauma of fighting in Africa. However, the underwater domes of the cities of Caribe and Marincite are hardly the tropical paradise he was unconsciously expecting. Rather, they are torn by poverty and social unrest, and plagued by corrupt and incompetent authorities. The resentful former holder of his job is still at his employer's home, and to top it all off, his employer, Mayla Ling, seems to have mysteriously become a target of a terrorist group. David wants nothing more than to quit the job and go home - but underwater cities aren't always so easy to get out of, and every incident seems to get him more deeply embroiled in the local situation - and Mayla's life.
While containing a good deal of social criticism/commentary and 'humanist' insight, the story is primarily a tense, action-filled thriller. With the elements of shady business deals and takeovers, illegal drugs and colorful, dangerous underworlds, rich CEOs and shady crooks, virtual reality gaming and illicit neural stimulators, it had a very 'cyberpunk' feel - I'd highly recommend it for fans of William Gibson.
Read it in one day.... not that it's short, I just couldn't put it down!
While containing a good deal of social criticism/commentary and 'humanist' insight, the story is primarily a tense, action-filled thriller. With the elements of shady business deals and takeovers, illegal drugs and colorful, dangerous underworlds, rich CEOs and shady crooks, virtual reality gaming and illicit neural stimulators, it had a very 'cyberpunk' feel - I'd highly recommend it for fans of William Gibson.
Read it in one day.... not that it's short, I just couldn't put it down!
September 26, 2012
This is my least favorite by this author, though that's not saying much... I just loved the other books I've read by her (China Mountain Zhang, Mission Child, Nekropolis) a lot more. The first half has still really good: McHugh is wonderful at creating a believable setting and inhabiting it with interesting characters. But this setting seemed even less fantastic and the plot even more aimless than usual, and by the end, I was just finishing it to finish it.
April 29, 2008
I didn't like the book. The setting itself is not bad but the plot is very boring. I also didn't understand the motivation of the characters and stopped caring after a while. A waste of time. Better read Nekropolis or China Mountain Zhang.
It's are real pitty because someone who starts with this book will never pick up a book from the author again.
It's are real pitty because someone who starts with this book will never pick up a book from the author again.
July 6, 2007
I love her, but this isn't her best...read Mothers and Other Monsters instead. I love it so much, I gave a copy to my grandmother. How she felt about it, I don't know, but it's the principle. Anyway, I did appreciate the world she created here, but the story felt choppy.
July 1, 2007
Set in a city on the floor of the Caribbean ocean in the fairly-near future. I liked the believable and not U.S.A.-based worldbuilding, but was a bit disappointed by the plot and what the characters ended up doing--there was potential that seemed to me to be squandered.
September 5, 2008
The author's style take a bit of getting used. It is lacking in emotion, kind of dry. Story is okay, characters are good. The ending is a bit contrived though.
November 7, 2008
This was pretty good. Some funny grammatical errors in the finished book. Where are the editors these days?
September 29, 2014
It all started out good and about half way through it turned very strange indeed! I couldn't even finish the last 1/4 of the book!
May 4, 2013
While the writing was good I had a difficult time relating to the characters. I so wanted to like this book especially since my cousin gave it to me.
July 1, 2013
A little too much intrigue and not enough relationship for me. But a well thought out "dome under the ocean" setting and a good escape from our own suburban lives.
Shelved as 'sony-or-android'
July 5, 2018Not Found
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