This second volume of Claire North's Song of Penelope is at least as good as the first. I've been a fan since The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August,This second volume of Claire North's Song of Penelope is at least as good as the first. I've been a fan since The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, but here her writing has matured to something extraordinary; poetic, earthy, profound, funny.
While the first part, Ithaca, was narrated by Hera, this is from the POV of Aphrodite. Penelope is still defending Odysseus' kingdom in his absence, but the story moves on from the machinations of the suitors to the more direct threat of King Menelaus of Sparta, seeking too wrest the Mycenaean crown from his nephew Orestes - ailing with sickness, either cursed by the Furies for having killed his mother Clytemnestra or, perhaps, less supernatural reasons.
Having defeated the "pirates" in the earlier book, with her army of women, Penelope is growing in confidence and needs every iota of wisdom and subtlety and diplomacy, and all her allies to match the cunning, brutish king of Sparta.
It's a while since I finished a book feeling so satisfied with the whole, and I cannot wait for the conclusion to the trilogy....more
This is quite different to The Power of the Dog, and I confess for perhaps the first fifth or sixth of the book I thought it was going to be inferior.This is quite different to The Power of the Dog, and I confess for perhaps the first fifth or sixth of the book I thought it was going to be inferior.
The Power of the Dog is very much like a Greek or perhaps Shakespearian epic, the battle of wills between the drug lord Adan Barrera and the cop Art Keller, each utterly driven and hating the other, willing to risk everything is destroying their enemy.
The Cartel focusses more on the growing wars of dominance among the major Mexican drug cartels in the 1990s and 2000s, with Adan in charge of the Sinaloa Cartel and Art having lost track of his foe and becoming increasingly desperate to pick up the trail. We follow the changing power dynamics between and within each group as the conflict escalates, and the bodycount skyrockets.
A warning: I think this may be the most brutal novel I have ever read. Somehow, Winslow manages to prevent the repetition of torture, of the deaths of faceless dozens and individuals we have grown to know well, from becoming numbing. At one point Pablo, a Juarense journalist, thinks to himself that he has seen thousands of corpses and is brought up short by the realisation that this is in no way an exaggeration.
Don Winslow has written another book that is at the same time a superb thriller along with an examination on the horrors of the illegal drugs trade and the effects it has on both the societies and those involved, by choice and otherwise.
I'll definitely need a palate cleanser or three before the third volume....more
To say that Adrian Tchaikovsky never disappoints is to do him a terrible disservice. I could not possibl(Contains some spoilers for the earlier books)
To say that Adrian Tchaikovsky never disappoints is to do him a terrible disservice. I could not possibly hold any writer to the standard of expecting them to completely blow me away every time, but Tchaikovsky somehow manages it.
In this third instalment of his “Children of…” series, we see a planet where human settlers are just about holding on, partly due to an earlier terraforming attempt, but are regressing to a pre-information age state – even pre-industrial - due to a lack of resources and the inability to maintain their technology.
Our focus character is Liff, a teenage-equivalent girl (years on Ymir are half the length of Earth years) seems more observant and curious than her hard-bitten frontier townsfolk, and is encouraged in her curiosity by teacher Miranda, an incomer from an outlying farm – actually, of course, the character we met in Children of Ruin, or the iteration of her represented by the Nodan parasite entity, here to investigate this settlement along with her companions Portia, Fabian, and Paul (all, of course, masquerading in human form. This will make sense if you’ve read the previous books, which I highly recommend.)
Liff is certain there is a witch in the woods, who may be responsible for the disappearance of her grandfather, but none of this is quite what it seems.
Tchaikovsky ticks all the boxes. This is a superbly constructed tale that continues his exploration of what it is to be “human” and what it is to the sentient, delving even deeper into those prickly philosophical questions – the discussion of this between the Nodan instantiation of Miranda, the Avrana Kern present in a ship’s computer and a separate splinter of the Kern consciousness, ended by Miranda stating “We three especially shouldn’t cast stones about authenticity” is particularly priceless – taking in themes of the power and importance of story with a brief examination of the weaponisation of fear and distrust in a beleaguered community along the way.
Most importantly, Tchaikovsky is a genuinely brilliant writer, capable of vividly painting scenes and worlds and characters while conveying multiple levels of information and meaning, as well as throwing in jokes and references and clever word games that never detract from the story. For example, two of the characters here are uplifted ravens, who have evolved to only work as a split mind – one capable of data gathering and information storage, the other of analysis and cognition – so they are, of course, Odin’s Muninn and Huginn; memory and thought.
This is an intensely philosophical, thoughtful and rather melancholy novel, although there is a hopeful lift at the end which – I hope – is setting things up for more exploration of space and consciousness....more
Of all the great finds in recent years, Ada Palmer takes the cake. The four books forming her Terra Ignota series are utterly magnificent, scienceWow.
Of all the great finds in recent years, Ada Palmer takes the cake. The four books forming her Terra Ignota series are utterly magnificent, science fiction taken to the very highest level.
I love everything about these books, so where to start? The writing is sublime. While it is incredibly dense in stylistically and referentially, it draws the reader both completely into the world of her mid-25th century and forward through the plot.
The two main premises on which this world is built are the invention of cheap, autonomous flying cars that can get anyone anywhere in the world in a couple of hours and, consequent to this and other changes, people have complete freedom to choose their political allegiances. Why should a patch of soil hold sway over someone when they can live and work anywhere on the globe? Further, when people do this, political allegiance becomes a "buyer's market" where political entities need to appeal to people to join them?
So we have a world where there are seven major groupings (known as Hives) that have grown from either formerly existing polities (Europe), organisations (Mitsubishi), or philosophical ideas (Utopians who seek to advance humanity through scientific progress, the Humanists who seek individual excellence and idealise the Olympic spirit). To belong to a Hive is to agree to be governed by its laws and customs, but one of the primary laws is that anyone can leave.
Additional to this, people can have association with smaller groups known as Strats, and nations to which they may feel they have a cultural heritage - so someone could belong to the Masonic Hive (supposedly descended from Masonic secret societies), the Nation-strat of France and personal-interest strats, as long as their philosophies and rules don't contradict.
The setting is superbly realised, the system drawn as the closest to an ideal humanity has yet achieved - indeed, there has been absolute peace since the Church Wars 200 years earlier, the reason for another universal law: religious belief must be kept absolutely private and personal and religious gatherings are not allowed.
However, while the above forms the setting it is only a small part of what these books are about. Palmer foregrounds big ideas of philosophy that run through the whole series. It is written (mostly) in a faux-European Enlightenment style, directly referencing Rousseau and Diderot and Thomas Hobbes (who, indeed, makes an appearance in this volume). Some people have focused on the importance of ideas of redemption of the narrator, Mycroft Canner, although I think this is relatively minor, a mirror for the bigger - possibly the biggest - idea; whether humanity is worthy of a loving God.
Wait, what? I thought this was science fiction?
It surprised me to no small degree that the introduction of this element didn't unsettle me. I certainly don't believe in loving creator God - nor any other sort - and neither (I think) does the author. As well as being a huge scifi epic, this is a highly literary novel. I took this as a metaphor for whether humanity is worthy of its own higher instincts, those better angels.
And, throughout, it wrestles with more. Whether the ends can ever justify the means - be they Mycroft's criminal atrocities, targeted assassination or even a smaller war to prevent a worse one. The nature of power, the ideas of belonging and family and "nation". The tyranny of distance and time. The friction between outward expansion and internal improvement. All carried along in a plot the intricacies of which are mind-numbing to simply contemplate with a huge cast of characters who often go by many different names, few of whom can be safely labelled "good guys" or bad guys".
And that none of that should put you off reading this because it all not only works, but is what makes these books so magnificent. To top it all, as well as buzzing with ideas and characters and references, Palmer is frequently very funny - both witty and laugh-out-loud funny. And there is a little bit in the final (long) chapter that really made me smile; not so much a twist as a little kicker about the reader that Mycroft had been addressing, and occasionally conversing with.
I suspect that this series is one that will go on rotation, along with The Book of the New Sun, to be revisited on page or on audio every few years and, like Wolfe's magnum opus, I will find more layers, mor details, every time I do....more
I confess that I vacillated on scoring this. Gideon the Ninth was my favourite book of 2020, narrowly beating out A Memory Called Empire, so Harrow haI confess that I vacillated on scoring this. Gideon the Ninth was my favourite book of 2020, narrowly beating out A Memory Called Empire, so Harrow had a lot to live up to.
And it was, to put it mildly, confusing.
Chapters more-or-less alternate between third-person and second-person narrative. That latter is unfamiliar to many people as it is little used, for a very good reason: writing the you viewpoint - "The sword hated you to touch it", "You still prided yourself in three things..." - is very tricky to pull off well. It's usually a method to put the reader in the centre of the action, as Iain Banks does in Complicity(view spoiler)[It isn't until very late in the book that you realise - or, at any rate, I realised - that this isn't at all the reason you is being used (hide spoiler)]. The confusion is further intensified by it being difficult to keep track of who is being referred to and the characters in general, as all characters have multiple names and titles, and the generally wordy, Gothic style in which Muir writes. Early on I was tempted to put it aside and re-read Gideon, but then just began to let it wash over me and engulf me and pull me along.
When the reveal comes about who you are (is?), that does make much of what has gone before come into focus but it is still quite tangled and I suspect I will need to re-read both books, likely ahead of the next volume or as a full series read once it is all published, to really understand what is going on. However, like much Gothic literature, I feel the point is to be experienced and enjoyed more than to be understood - which isn't to say there isn't a deeper understanding to be had, this is very complex and multi-layered, and I'm certain will reward further study.
One thing to add is that Harrow is much more science-fiction-y than the previous book. While there was (minor) space travel Gideon the Ninth read more like fantasy, mostly due to the necromantic "magic", but there was the underlying sense of scientific structure and here in the second book this is more to the forefront. This, a science fiction in which there is a vast power that could possibly be described as magic operating over vast timescales with familial conflict, slightly gave the feel of Dune.
One thing I have heard from other reviews that I somewhat agreed with was that the first volume worked so well partly due to the bitter, angry, sarcastic humour of Gideon, and that is sorely missed in this volume (view spoiler)[at least until about three quarters of the way through! (hide spoiler)], however I still found this book a mad, enjoyable, captivating and sometimes infuriating ride.
The end also hints at what is to come. I can't wait to see where this story goes.
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Update: This makes much more sense on the second reading. I am tempted to mark it down to 4* - I think that the technical aspect of the first 80% of the book could probably have been done better, but as the score is mostly about enjoyment, 5* stands....more
If someone were to tell you that this novel is about black-clad necromancers from a subterranean Gormenghastian city involved in imperial politics, thIf someone were to tell you that this novel is about black-clad necromancers from a subterranean Gormenghastian city involved in imperial politics, that really wouldn’t convey just how much damned fun this book is.
This is largely down to the narration of the titular Gideon, a young woman who is the very embodiment of teenage sass. She has been raised in the last - and seemingly least important - of the Nine Houses of the empire, each on a different planet of their solar system, and each controlling a different aspect of necromantic magic. She herself is no necromancer, raised as a warrior and treated as serf and outsider. She is interrupted in the act of running away (by means of tricking her way onto a shuttle) by Harrowhark, princess of the Ninth House who seems to have the relationship of a bullying elder sister, although she is a few years the junior. A pair of representatives from each of the Houses has been summoned to the First as a matter of urgency, a Necromancer and her Cavalier - and the official cavalier is political appointment who is clearly unsuited for the task, so Gideon is bullied and bribed into taking the role.
The aim of the gathering is a competition to choose a Lyctor, someone who can hold the power to aid their God-King in some distant war, a trial full of intrigue and secrets. And Gideon’s continued sass.
This book clearly deserved its award nominations, and I can’t wait for the second installment of the trilogy, but it isn’t without flaw. There is little indication of the society beyond the pairs of contestants - which isn’t a problem in the book, being something of a fantastical country house mystery, but does impinge once you stop to think about it. While Muir writes very well indeed - especially her characters, descriptive powers and humour, subtle and otherwise - and writes excellent action, there are times in the final third of the novel, after things really kick off, that the whole does become a little loose and even unnecessarily confusing.
Regardless, a definite 5+ out of 5 in my scoring system. As I’ve long known, don’t mess with teenage goths....more
Every page of Kendi's book - literally every single page - has multiple sentences or paragraphs that are worth sharing, absorbing, dwelling upon. Wow.
Every page of Kendi's book - literally every single page - has multiple sentences or paragraphs that are worth sharing, absorbing, dwelling upon. He starts his exploration of racism with some background, then definitions, moving though power, biology, ethnicity. body, culture, behaviour and more, beginning each chapter with a brief definition of terms.
"Biological Racist: One who is expressing the idea that races are meaningfully different in their biology and that these differences create a hierarchy of value.
Biological Antiracist: One who is addressing the idea that the races are meaningfully the same in their biology and there are no genetic racial differences."
He builds from the idea that the opposite of racist isn't not-racist it is antiracist, contrasting the differences in each chapter using his own experiences as well as research. In this way, he shows his own growth and realisation that he himself is shaped by racist ideas. He quickly builds the idea that the problem is not racist attitudes - indeed, the idea that the problem of racism can be solved by educating and persuading people who hold racist attitudes is counterproductive and harmful. The problem is far more deeply rooted in racist policies - but we even have to be careful in recognising this; sometimes when we use terms such as "institutional racism" that lets us off the hook of trying to change anything.
In each chapter Kendi masterfully builds on these ideas, introducing how different groups are discriminated against and the intersectionality of how racism and its poison affects each, such as the recognition of his own racist attitudes in believing that all white people were responsible for and benefited from racist policies equally, and no black people did.
He writes with a commanding prose that uses strong oratorical techniques to keep reinforcing his arguments in different spheres; I switched between the audiobook and kindle versions, but in reading clearing heard the author's voice in his words.
This is a brilliant, insightful and important book that should be on everyone's syllabus and will stand many re-reads....more
In this remarkable debut novel, Martine shows us a powerful civilisation from both inside and out. Mahit is summoned from her small space station on tIn this remarkable debut novel, Martine shows us a powerful civilisation from both inside and out. Mahit is summoned from her small space station on the fringes of the empire to be ambassador in the central city of Teixcalaan - it is pointed out that in the Imperial language, the words for “city”, “world” and “empire” are the same - at far shorter notice than would usually be the case, as the previous representative had died suddenly.
Mahit is enamoured of Teixcalaanli culture and, while she is careful to preserve her professionalism and perform the role to which she has been posted, is thrown into intrigue that threatens to overwhelm her.
The author not only displays some remarkable world-building but a lightness of touch in both characterisation and plot that would be exceptional in a far more experienced writer. Development of both is gradual and non-linear, never feeling rushed or unnatural. Where a lesser author would have crammed the mystery of the former ambassador’s death, palace intrigue both in Teixcalaan and Mahit’s home of Lsel, and external threat into a three-act structure, here the progression seems perfectly organic, even when events are shocking.
The writing, too, is excellent, with only a very few clumsy trips betraying Martine’s inexperience. In combination of the skills involved in the prose, world-building, characterisation and plot, I am very much reminded of Iain M. Banks. For me, this is the highest of praise.
A Memory Called Empire is the first of a series and I cannot wait to continue the adventure. ...more
A beautiful, riveting, thoughtful time-travel war love story. Red and Blue are elite operatives on either side of a war to control time - causing a miA beautiful, riveting, thoughtful time-travel war love story. Red and Blue are elite operatives on either side of a war to control time - causing a missed connection here, a fire there, a murder somewhere else - who form a connection and begin to leave each other letters, encoded in geology and vegetation, weather and DNA, always aware that the fraternisation would be treason if discovered....more
Zelazny's last novel is simply wonderful; inventive, playful and engrossing, by turns funny, tense and downright scary. Somewhere in rural England, ouZelazny's last novel is simply wonderful; inventive, playful and engrossing, by turns funny, tense and downright scary. Somewhere in rural England, outside London, in the late 19th Century, a group of strange people have gathered. Jack and his vicious knife. The mysterious Good Doctor with his laboratory of electricity and body parts. Larry Talbot, the friendly, slightly stand-offish American. The Great Detective. The Count. Other, odder, folk. Which of them have gathered for the Game that occurs when a full moon coincides with All Hallows Eve, and which find themselves here by coincidence?
The tale is narrated by Jack's dog, but this is not some cute animal story. Snuff is old and wise and has played the game many times, and is the expert calculator of the Pattern and where lies the focus on which the Game will conclude. Each of the players has a companion animal - cat, snake, owl, white raven, rat, bat - each of whom has their special abilities and scouts the terrain, bartering information and testing out on which side each of the players stands. For the outcome of the game is to either open a gateway through which the Elder Gods will emerge to reshape the world, or to stop this catastrophe.
Only a master - indeed, a Grand Master - such as Zelazny could pull off such a blending of characters and genres with so much style and panache. The book isn't perfect - a couple of minor deus ex machina moments cause a very slight unevenness in the plot - but it is so well written and so much damned fun, that hardly registers.
In The Wild Places, Robert MacFarlane sets out to find if there are any such environments left within the British Isles. The book begins contemplativeIn The Wild Places, Robert MacFarlane sets out to find if there are any such environments left within the British Isles. The book begins contemplatively, with the author journeying to one of his favourite local places, a beech wood outside the city of Cambridge where he lives, climbing a tree as is his wont, so he can sit and observe, and be part of, this sylvan idyll.
This sets the tone wonderfully. From the very first sentence, you realise that you are in for a special experience; the quality of MacFarlane’s prose is quietly spectacular, largely understated but with the rhythms of good poetry and this, combined with his eye for detail and a mind that connects the landscape and the animals and our inhabitation along with more personal experiences, make the book extraordinary.
Over fifteen chapters MacFarlane travels across Britain, and to Ireland, to experience the places he considers most “wild” and natural, initially using as a guide the travels of the legendary Irish King Sweeney, who was made to wander the wild places as a beast following an act of betrayal.
From the island of Ynys Enlii, off the Lleyn Peninsula, where Wales reaches it most Western point toward Ireland, on to Scotland - to Coriusk on Skye, Rannoch Moor, Coille Dubh ( The Black Wood ), Strathnaver and Ben Klibreck, Cape Wrath and Ben Hope before crossing the Irish Sea to the desolation of the Burren. MacFarlane finds even more poetry in these places than their evocative names suggest - along with the rest of his journey, to the high ridges of the Lakeland fells, the Kentish Holloways, the storm-lashed beaches of Norfolk, Essex saltmarshes and, finally, my own back yard, the moors above Hope Valley in the High Peak. His writing conjures the landscape like nobody I’ve read, the individual feel and sense and rhythm of each place, drawing the reader to it - even when, as in attempting to spend the night on the frozen Ben Hope in Northern Scotland, for the first time he feels how truly hostile a place can be and is genuinely afraid.
Each section of travelogue is also woven through with skeins of history - both of the regions, and more personal history. This becomes more pointed when MacFarlane’s friend Roger, with whom he has discussed many of his trips, have shared ideas and thoughts like the oldest of friends, who has accompanied him on several excursions, falls suddenly ill.
The final trip to the Peak District brings the book full circle, as he is shown where to find snow hares by John, who had piloted the boat out to Ynys Enlii, and then a final coda where MacFarlane returns once more to the beech wood. He may have found that there is, perhaps, no true wilderness in the British Isles, in that there is no land that has not been shaped by humanity and our works, but that the wild is still there to be appreciated and respected, should we wish to look for it, that we need to protect it for our own health and benefit, but it the wild places will be there long after we have gone.
5/5, and an instant addition to the Favourites shelf ...more
The third instalment of Palmer's Terra Ignota series continues to be just as wonderful - dense, clever, humane and gripping. I can't wait for book fouThe third instalment of Palmer's Terra Ignota series continues to be just as wonderful - dense, clever, humane and gripping. I can't wait for book four.
Edit: this time around, I've listened to the audio, with Perhaps the Stars ready to go!...more
The second instalment of Palmer's Terra Ignota series continues the tale told by Mycroft Canner, the reformed criminal at the nexus of the power eliteThe second instalment of Palmer's Terra Ignota series continues the tale told by Mycroft Canner, the reformed criminal at the nexus of the power elites of this 25th century world. The theological - and downright magical - aspects that had appeared in Too Like The Lightning become markedly stronger, an I'm not sure that I should any more class this as science fiction, although I find the distinction unimportant, as this is very much a philosophical novel, and still utterly wonderful.
The author delves further into some of the philosophical ideas of the previous volume, while introducing some more and deeper, and all handled wonderfully within the storylines, never feeling forced or crowbarred in. I think it is the fact that these novels are so unashamedly philosophical, along with the density of ideas and the fact that there is so much dialogue, that has lead to some reviews considering them somewhat pretentious. I don't see this at all; the lofty aims are both laudable and superbly executed.
I had thought this story was simply a duology, but see there is a third book, and a fourth on the way. I am certain Ada Palmer will continue to deliver to the high standard she has set....more
This is a stunningly good novel, a social science fiction set in 25th century where people belong to 'bashes' - from the Japanese basho - clans where This is a stunningly good novel, a social science fiction set in 25th century where people belong to 'bashes' - from the Japanese basho - clans where the similarity is in philosophy rather than national background, and religion is all but outlawed after horrific religious wars. There is a particular reverence for the European, particularly the French, enlightenment and the book, narrated by a servicer - a former criminal whose sentence is to serve the public - is written somewhat in the style of an 18th century novel, complete with regular direct addresses to the reader.
It is a very dense book - not so much in the language, although there are huge stretches of dialogue that are rather heavy - but in ideas and plot. While there are many overt references to great thinkers, from Rousseau and Diderot to de Sade - there are many more subtle, and I am sure many more that I will have missed due to a shameful lack of knowledge of the subject. Much of the plot revolves around the machinations of the more powerful bashes, with a large cast of characters, and brought to mind the politics of Frank Herbert's Dune books. Adding to the possible confusion of characters is a trend of several of the more politically important to be known by different names in different cultures, although the quality of the writing mitigates against this and it forms part of the cultural colour of the novel.
Also amongst the threads of philosophy and plot we grapple with crime and redemption, on learning the offences that lead Mycroft, our narrator, to lose his liberty. Another trope that reflects on an issue of our present is a fluidity of gender - indeed, a cultural belief that someone's gender is almost beyond the pale to mention.
This is a stunning achievement, a novel of depth and texture and simply wonderful writing. I almost can't wait for the second half of the story, although I think I may cleanse my palate with some lighter fare first....more
I'll admit up front that Harkaway's debut, The Gone-Away World, is one of my favourite books and his subsequent novels aren't too shabby either, but hI'll admit up front that Harkaway's debut, The Gone-Away World, is one of my favourite books and his subsequent novels aren't too shabby either, but his fourth is quite remarkable. It is set partially in a near-future Britain run by the System, a data network that both organises the citizenry into an active direct democracy and keeps their lives efficient and safe. Data privacy is a thing of the past; you can query someone's identity and life by direct access to the System and Harkaway skillfully shows how this affects social mores.
This set up, of course, immediately makes the hairs of discomfort prickle on the napes of our necks; whether liberal or conservative or whatever mix, such phrases as "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear", "Those who give up liberty for safety, deserve neither" and "Panopticon" cannot help but spring to mind, thought the author does an excellent job of being even-handed in his presentation of the view.
The book starts with a death of a subject in interrogation by the Witness, the security arm of the System. This is presented as a unique occurrence, and immediately taken seriously and handed to the talented and driven Inspector Mielikki Neith. The manner of the interrogation is disturbing and reinforces fears about the ubiquitously invasive arm of the state, but this is leavened over time by the seriousness with which this event is treated and, well, by the fact that the System seems to work, and seems to be benevolent and effective.
I had said the book is set partially here. We soon are introduced to narratives which seem entirely unrelated - centred around a brilliant Greek mathematician who, following personal tragedy, has turned his skills to the stock market; the former lover of the 4th/5th century Bishop Augustine of Hippo, herself a philosopher and alchemist; and a talented Ethiopian artist who (barely) escaped his country for England in the political chaos following the fall of Haile Selassie.
Each thread is superbly written, capturing the differing voices and setting and moods. The writing contains a density of allusion and meaning and texture - yet with a lightness of touch - that immediately brought to mind Umberto Eco or Neal Stephenson at his more focused, and Paul Auster. It seems clear that these stories cannot be divergent and Harkaway indeed begins to weaves threads between them, though some of the clues turn out to be fish that, at the least, seem to be scarlet in certain light.
In weaving the threads together we are treated to an exploration of liberty versus safety and convenience, public transparency and the dangers of the malicious hacking of the democratic process (I cannot possibly imagine where that last idea came from...) but, as well as the clues to the central mystery, the nested narratives also show real human stories of tragedy and love and loss and betrayal and reconciliation and hope. There are also some beautiful metaphors about books, and the power of good ideas and arguments to succeed by literally changing the person who hears them.
This novel is a tour-de-force, brilliant and important and a bloody fantastic read. It could be argued that, toward the end, Harkaway explains things a little too clearly and leaves less ambiguity than Eco or Auster would, but this is, I think, due to the wider audience for whom he is writing; frankly, this book already asks a great deal of the reader and such ambiguities on top of that are not to the taste of a lot of people. However, this book deserves plaudits and huge sales and awards scifi and literary alike. It will stay with me for a long time and I am sure that, when i re-read it, I will find layers I missed this time around.
A word on format. I read this on my Kindle, partly as the 700 page paperback appears to be printed in 8-point font (yes, the info page says 11.5-point, but I suspect that to be the System gaslighting me) and found this all the more useful as I could immediately check unfamiliar words and references. If you are reading a hard copy and don't have a thorough knowledge of Greek mythology, I suggest keeping close to wikipedia....more
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