From mad post-apocalyptic sci-fi with ninjas to gangsters and spies with clockwork death-bees to post-colonial environmental disaster zone with super-hero, Harkaway's books are actually gradually becoming more and more grounded. I mean, they've not quite landed yet and may rocket for the moon with the next one for all I know, but Tigerman's got more plausability going for it than the others while still having wild and mad corners. It takes about half the book for the cogs to all mesh and the elements to combine and the set-up to pay off into an unputdownable narrative. Part of the is the subtle complexity of his prose, which looks like the sort of smooth-as-polished-glass stuff that flies by under the eyes, but actually arrests the brain with slightly demanding constructions and ideas, conveying the trickiness of tricky relationships, whether personal or political or social or global. A literary writer of pulp entertainments. I think he's still developing, and perhaps has a way to go, but it'll be very interesting to follow his journey.