Customer Reviews

Anvil

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a fanatical science fiction reader, I am always on the lookout for a new book to add to the collection. What a brilliant find Anvil is! Why don't more people know about it?

It is a true SF book - using the medium to illustrate life, not just technology to usurp it! I am particularly impressed the authors excellent characterisation and plot development - not to mention some outstanding vernacular!

Well done, please can we expect another Kylie mystery soon?....

This was a superb novel and earned a place among my few "keepers." The technological innovation and interplay are intricate and believable. Both the characters and the world(s) have histories which impact the story, making them much deeper and more engaging. Futuristic religion, technology, culture, and politics are all woven together superbly to transport the reader into a gripping, suspenseful, edge-of-your seat story. I can't wait for more from this author.

Many contemporary science-fiction novels revolve around fantasy worlds with larger than life characters, extreme plots, clumsy vernacular and extraordinarily dull flights of technological invention. ANVIL, however, uses science-fiction to add colour and texture to what is ultimately a traditional detective thriller. Ordinary and down-to-earth characters find themselves caught up in a dangerous intrigue where the threat feels very real and very menacing. With a lightness of touch, reminiscent of Arthur C. Clark, the author pulls the reader into an utterley believable world where the leaders of major corporations have become so detached from the common man that to carry out genocide is considered simply good business practice. I found the novel highly entertaining and gripping (I couldn't put the damn thing down until I found out WHY!); its character development is masterful (particularly Officer Hitzeki) and I think it would make an outstanding feature film. Read it!

The plot moves quickly along and the characters are well drawn, quirky and likeable. An enjoyable read.

Excellent novel. The setting is a wonderfuly complex and detailed sci-fi setting. I first read this work several years ago and had recently started to regret letting my original copy go, so I picked up a replacement on amazon. I really don't know much about the author Nicolas van Pallandt; but it would be nice to see some more genre work from him.

Started out promising but deteriorated quick into a spacy Aussie/Brit slang fest. that went nowhere.

"Maybe sometime we'll make the sweet-time nose to nose on a black wall somewhere and I'll show you some spider tricks"

"One day she's going to lose her three-point and end up with her nooglies spread all over the flatlands"

"And you sure entered center screen on the long drop in the shuttle. Btw, you ever get in the squeezies with that sweet girlie-girl."

And it just kept getting worse. SILLY best describes it.

This book is full of earbashing Drongos with lamb-brained ideas.

Earbash - verb:- to chatter or talk incessantly to the point of boring or nagging.

Drongo - noun:- a stupid, inept, awkward or embarrassing person, a dimwit or slow-witted person, a fool.

Lamb-brained - adjective:- some one who is stupid or impractical.


Humans would not build a city on a planet with such crushing gravity. It's impractical. Illogical.

Kyara is a flat lifeless planet with a surface gravity of 40G.

Gabriel Kylie's sister died on Kyara and he's come here to find out how it happened. Why I don't know. I mean he hasn't had any contact with her in 23 bloody years. And she was 3 month dead by the time he arrived.

The colony was built by one company, Byron Systems, and it remains in virtual control. They for some reason don't like Gabriel Kylie looking into his sisters death.

I chucked it after page 161.

This is an amazing book! I can't wait to hear more from Van Pallandt. The world he creates is realistic and terribly addictive. As you try along with Gabriel Kylie to solve the mystery of his sister's murder, you become enamored with Kyara and all the fabulous characters that inhabit it.

This is a book that will stay with you. I've read it over and over again and I never get tired of Van Pallandt's witty and humorous prose.

Every once in a while I meet certain people--and can't forget them. Gabriel Kylie is one of these people--he's empathic, can definitely take care of himself, lovable, affectionate, funny, ecologically minded, and only exists in the contents of a book! If you want to "meet" Gabriel Kylie, please read ANVIL by Nicolas Van Pallandt--you won't be disappointed! Get the paperback version of the book quick--any future books by this very talented author will--by experience--be in hardcover!

This was an interesting, and thoughtful science fiction work. The book is filed with intrigue, romance, suspense, a bit of gore and some really novel ideas about the future. I really found it to be a fine read.

The characters are believable and interesting, especially the rough-hewn Gabriel Kylie, a kind of aboriginal Philip Marlowe.