The Islanders [Paperback]

Christopher Priest (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2012

Reality is illusory and magical in the stunning new literary SF novel from the multiple award-winning author of The Prestige—for fans of Haruki Murakami and David Mitchell

 

A tale of murder, artistic rivalry, and literary trickery; a Chinese puzzle of a novel where nothing is quite what it seems; a narrator whose agenda is artful and subtle; a narrative that pulls you in and plays an elegant game with you. The Dream Archipelago is a vast network of islands. The names of the islands are different depending on who you talk to, their very locations seem to twist and shift. Some islands have been sculpted into vast musical instruments, others are home to lethal creatures, others the playground for high society. Hot winds blow across the archipelago and a war fought between two distant continents is played out across its waters. The Islanders serves both as an untrustworthy but enticing guide to the islands; an intriguing, multi-layered tale of a murder; and the suspect legacy of its appealing but definitely untrustworthy narrator. It shows Christopher Priest at the height of his powers and illustrates his undiminished power to dazzle.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Christopher Priest has long been the sort of author critics tend to whip out the serious descriptors for. . . . Judging only on the basis of this mesmeric travel guide to "an endless sprawl of lovely islands," (p.382) I would not for a second hesitate to declare Priest a giant of the genre."  —Strange Horizons

"One of the most complex, challenging and satisfying fictions from one of our finest novelists."  —Telegraph

About the Author

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. It was also made into a 2006 Academy Award-nominated film directed by Christopher Nolan. His other awards have included the Arthur C. Clarke Award and four Hugo nominations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Gollancz (January 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780575078192
• ISBN-13: 978-0575078192
• ASIN: 0575078197
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,552,960 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterfully thought-provoking and intelligent. September 28, 2011

By A. Whitehead TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

The Dream Archipelago is a vast string of thousands of islands, wrapping themselves around the world between two great continents. Some of them are deserts, some are home to great cities and others have been riddled with tunnels and turned into gigantic musical instruments. The Islanders is a gazetteer to the islands...and a murder story. It's also a musing on the nature of art and the artists who make it.

The Islanders is Christopher Priest's first novel in almost a decade, a fact which itself makes it one of the most interesting books to be released this year. His previous novel, The Separation, a stimulating and layered book about alternate versions of WWII, was one of the very finest novels of the 2000s. True to expectations, Priest has returned with a fiercely intelligent book that works on multiple different levels and which rewards close, thoughtful reading.

The Islanders initially appears to be a travel gazetteer, a Lonely Planet guide to a place that doesn't exist. Several islands are presented with geographic information, notes on places of interest and thoughts on locations to visit. Then we get entries which are short stories (sometimes only tangentially involving the island the entry is named after), or exchanges of correspondence between people on different islands. One entry is a succession of court and police documents revolving around a murder, followed by an extract from a much-later-published book that exonerates the murderer. Later entries in the book seem to clarify what really happened in this case, but in the process open up more questions than are answered. Oh, a key figure the gazetteer references frequently is revealed to be dead, despite him having produced an introduction to the book (apparently after reading it). Maybe he faked his death.... Or this is a newer edition with the old introduction left intact. Or something else has happened.

The Islanders defies easy categorisation. It's not a novel in the traditional sense but it has an over-arcing storyline. It isn't a collection of short stories either, though it does contain several distinct and self-contained narratives. It isn't a companion or guidebook, though readers of Priest's earlier novel The Affirmation or short story collection The Dream Archipelago will find rewards in using it as such. It is hugely metafictional in that themes, tropes and ideas that Priest has been working on for years recur and are explored: doppelgangers, twins, conflicted memories, magicians, performance art and shifting realities feature and are referenced. At several points Priest seems to be commenting about his own works rather than the imaginary ones written by a protagonist...until one of those books turns out to be called The Affirmation, the same title as one of Priest's earlier, best novels. A character's suggestion that a work be split into four sections and then experienced in reverse order may be a clue as to how the novel should be read...but may be a red herring. Several key moments of wry humour (The Islanders is probably Priest's funniest book) suggest that we shouldn't be taking the endeavour seriously. Moments of dark, psychological horror suggest we should.

The novel embraces its gazetteer format. References to another island in an entry may be a clue that a vital piece of information can be found in the corresponding chapter about the other island. Sometimes this is the case, sometimes it isn't. Recurring names (some of them possibly aliases) and references to tunnels and havens provide links that bind the book together. The strangest chapter appears to be divorced from the rest of the book altogether, but subtle clues suggest curious relationships with the rest of the book and indeed with other of Priest's works (though foreknowledge of these is not required). The interlinking tapestry of references, names and events forms a puzzle that the reader is invited to try to piece together, except that the pieces don't always fit together and indeed, some appear to be missing altogether.

The Islanders (*****) is a weird book. It's also funny, warm and smart. It's also cold, alienating and dark. It's certainly self-contradictory. The only thing I can say with certainty about it is that it is about islands and the people who live on them, and if there is a better, more thought-provoking and rewarding novel published this year I will be surprised. The book is available now in the UK and on import in the USA. Read more ›

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A subtle and inventive SF novel April 29, 2012

By Simone Oltolina

Format:Paperback

Christopher Priest is one of those authors that give a good name to genre fiction. So much so in fact that I've repeatedly seen his novels described as `literary Science Fiction', as opposed to, I guess, something like `commodity Science Fiction' or `throwaway SF'.

Priest has won a number of prizes, most recently the BSFA's (it was the fourth time, if memory serves). Still, he's so good that I wouldn't be surprised if his name popped up in something like the Man Booker's shortlist, alongside Murakami or David Mitchell.

`The Islanders' was a very surprising novel for me. It started out slowly and then it picked up steam, in a very subtle and inventive way.

It presents itself as a guidebook to an imaginary `Dream Archipelago', with a foreword written by the first among a long list of unreliable narrators. Each chapter is then devoted to just one island but don't expect your average travel writing. Some chapters are quasi-technical descriptions of the terrain, weather conditions and so forth while others are in fact about famous people who lived there. Others still will present court documents or take yet another form.

After a while you will start picking up clues and understand that, beneath it all, there is a plot or, in actual fact, several main ones (including a murder mystery) and a few minor: there are recurring characters, tales of ghosts, scientific experiments gone wrong, etc.

Some chapters act as self-contained short stores while others, as mentioned, evolve throughout the narration (sometimes there is not actual solution, with the mystery left hanging in the air...)....

I used the word `inventive' and I think this is the most apt, but if you manage to get past the first chapters and start picking up signals, then you might want to add another one: `excellent'. Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Here we go Islanders July 19, 2012

By Richard LeComte VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Priest is the kind of genre writer who defies genres; his best-known work, "The Prestige," straddled steampunk and horror (and was made into a very good film by Christopher Nolan). He returns in 2011-2012 with The Islanders, a novel structured as a gazetteer about a series of islands in the Dream Archipelago on a completely fictitious and somewhat unsound planet. Each chapter describes life on a particular island, either through frequently humorous and satiric exposition (some of the islands seem a lot like some areas of our own world) or short-story-length narratives about natives or visitors. Priest has created an intricately designed world in which many of his themes -- the malleability of history, theatrical magic, the environment, science gone awry, ghosts, war -- play out in interconnected stories. A few main characters weave their way through the novel, including a reclusive writer with a dark secret in his past; a crusading anthropologist; a horn dog of a painter, and an artist who creates installations by digging long tunnels. If you have some patience, and a desire to read works that fold in on themselves like a Borges story, I highly recommend this novel.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Echoing Le Guin and Calvino Is This Novel Cloaked as a Travel Guide June 11, 2013

By John Kwok HALL OF FAMEVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

"The Islanders" is a remarkable realistic speculative fiction tale about a murder, artistic rivalry and literary deception written by one of the finest writers writing now in any genre in the English language; eminent Briton Christopher Priest. This is a Rubik's Cube of a novel, recounting the main plot points in a literary style reminiscent, in places, of Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon", and one that evokes early Ursula Le Guin (e. g. "Earthsea" and early "Ekumen" novels such as "The Left Hand of Darkness") and Italo Calvino ("Invisible Cities") in its expressive, descriptive, usage of language. Priest's prose may also remind readers of Thomas Bernhard's, especially with regards to its emphasis on visual art and art history. Pretending to be a "travel guide" to the Dream Archipelago, what Priest has wrought instead is a short story collection, with each tale merely a chapter in his intricately detailed novel, with a rather deceptive introduction to this "travel guide" from one of the protagonists, who may have a secret history pertaining to the murder itself. Readers will encounter scenes replete with unspeakable horror and memorable romance during their "visits" to each of the Dream Archipelago islands, in literary styles ranging from first person to almost impersonal third person narrative. Without a doubt, "The Islanders" demonstrates why Priest is one of the most elegant literary stylists writing today in the English language, and reaffirms his status as among the most noteworthy contributors to contemporary Anglo-American fiction irrespective of genre.