Reality is illusory and magical in the stunning new literary SF novel from the multiple awarding winning Christopher Priest
Christopher Priest's novels have built him an inimitable dual reputation as a contemporary novelist and a leading figure in modern SF and fantasy. His novel THE PRESTIGE is unique in winning both a major literary prize (the James Tait Black Award) and a major genre prize (The World Fantasy Award). He was selected for the original Best of Young British Novelists in1983.
...piecing together the rather unpleasant lives of the main characters is entertaining; and there are episodes complete in themselves, short stories really, which are satisfying. The ghosts are excellent. And I consider the thryme an absolutely first-class invention. THE GUARDIAN He understands the magic of imaginary worlds, where hot winds race across parched landscapes and everyone is a dreamer. It is his first book for nearly ten years, and well worth the wait... dotty but engrossing. -- Max Davidson The Mail on Sunday 20111127 A glowing mosaic of a novel, puzzling, transporting and nigh-on impossible not to start again immediately once finished. -- Alison Flood The Sunday Times 20111213 Filled with allusions to earlier stories, but never self-indulgently so, the book's ostensible exploration of the people and places of the Archipelago only serves to emphasise their unknowability. And our guide is someone with a very definite agenda. Gradually, a story of rivalry, trickery and murder begins to emerge. GRIMMFESTBLOG I think that the Dream Archipelago experience the author presents in The Islanders and in the related story collection, is indeed a masterpiece of modern sff and I expect to be enchanted by it again and again across the years. FANTASY BOOK CRITIC "The Islanders is a magnificent novel, one of my books of the year, and you must read it." PUNKADIDDLE It's clever, it has its own witticism about it and when you add the final touch of a story that was hard to put down its one that left me exhausted when I turned the final page. A real joy and one I'll look forward to reading again. FALCATTA TIMES You'll relish the mistiness and the lack of straight lines, the way the narrative fades in and out of clarity and the fact that, whereas other novelists tend always to provide something to hold on to, a handrail that will take you comfortably through the narrative, Priest never does. He certainly keeps hold of you with that unmistakable style that's beautifully restrained but also disturbingly vivid, but what he never does is say: 'This is the story.' THE HERALD
What presents itself as a gazetteer for the Dream Archipelago, a vast array of islands situated between two warring continents to the north and south, becomes, instead, a study of some of the islands' most interesting inhabitants. As the stories of a reclusive novelist, a simple young man accused of murder, a social theorist and author, a celebrated mime, and other significant individuals unfold, another tale-of a very public murder and the arrest and trial of a potential innocent-evolves from the hints doled out to the reader. VERDICT Priest demonstrates once more his ability to surprise and dazzle with this twisty novel in which nothing is ever as straightforward as it appears. The islands themselves serve as a Greek chorus to a tale of ambitions gone wrong, love circumvented, and lives fragmented into a living archipelago, constantly shifting with the winds and tides. Reminiscent of the works of Gilbert Sorrentino, Italo Calvino, and other writers of metafiction, this work of literary prestidigitation by the author of the award-winning The Prestige may appeal to readers of literary fiction as well as fans of speculative fiction. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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