Bold as Love (Gollancz S.F.) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rock and roll rules in British author Jones's Arthur C. Clarke Award–winning novel, the first of a four-book series. In the near future, the U.K. is dissolving and the government, to placate the masses, sets up a "Countercultural Think Tank," including some of the biggest names in pop music and headed by the Ozzie Osborne–like Pigsty Liver. After much publicity and a series of government-sponsored music festivals, however, the egomaniacal Pigsty murders the home secretary and takes over the government. Soon various members of his rock-star cabinet find themselves struggling to make order out of chaos and prevent an ethnic bloodbath. Though the story starts out like dark cyberpunk, it gradually modulates into something much stranger as characters find their hidden powers and take on the attributes of Arthurian fantasy. References to Jimi Hendrix and other '60s and '70s rockers abound. Jones's vision is unremittingly dark and her basic premise may strike some as a bit silly, but this novel packs considerable power.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

It is Dissolution Summer, the UK is about to revoke the Act of Union, and there is unrest all over Europe. Countercultural youth flock to music festivals, the largest of which is at Reading. Fiorinda, a young and rising star, goes to perform with DARK and ends up being recruited by the home secretary for a think tank of countercultural heroes--rock stars to make the government look cool. When this turns from a stunt into a violent coup d'etat, thanks to the Pig, who isn't much of a rock star but is a household name, Fio's worries become mostly about staying alive. She and Ax Preston, front man for the Chosen, battle along with Aoxomoxoa and the Heads to maintain some order in the face of societal collapse. Bold as Love is part sixties rock-and-roll idealism--Aoxomoxoa gets his name from a Grateful Dead album (the novel get its from a Hendrix LP)--and part near--future Arthurian legend: an altogether satisfying blend. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Gollancz (May 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 057507292X
• ISBN-13: 978-0575072923
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,755,813 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Super Reader, August 26, 2007

By	Blue Tyson "- http://freesf.blogspot.com" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bold as Love (Paperback)

This is another of those 'how the h*ll did she think of this books'?

On the face of it, you might think it would be either a) ludicrous, or b) inordinately soppy.

It ain't either. I don't know how Jones did it, but she did. Even escapes nicking Hendrix' titles.

In a little bit in the future England, things are falling apart. So much so that the musical counterculture again has political clout, and so much so that a rockstar of the violent bent stages a coup.

That does not end well, and this brings to the fore the classic Arthurian trio of Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot.

Or, in this case, Ax Preston (got to have a guitar player, right?), Fiorinda Slater, and Sage Pender.

With a severe energy crisis looming, and a fractured country and war with the muslims coming, and the standard government completely useless these three must try and use their musical and other talents to get everyone through.

With the decline of most technology, the rise of just that bit of mystical power is coming.