Castles Made of Sand (Gollancz S.F.) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Gwyneth won the Arthur C Clarke award this year for Bold As Love, this novelis the next in this excellent series. These are not ordinary fantasy novels,there appeal reaches way beyond. Festival/Conventions:Gwyneth has made appearances at the Writing on the Wall event for radical writers in Liverpool. Is guest of honour at Readercon and will be appearing at Fantasycon. Interviews:Major interview in the Manchester Evening News - the day before the Glastonbury Festival. Profile and short interview in DREAMWATCH Short piece in STARBURST relating to Arthur C. Clarke award and mentioning Castles Made of Sand. Signings/Events: Signings at Forbidden Planet with Bryan Talbot.Signing at Waterstone's Manchester with Alastair Reynolds.Signing and talk at Hammicks Redill. Sales lunch with seven other major authors. Reviews: 'Her first novel was excellent - this is even better.'THE GUARDIAN 'Further proof that it's possible to do something triumphantly new with the fantasy genre.'DREAMWATCH 'Castles Made of Sand quickly establishes itself among her best work.'STARLOG 'Gripp --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

The BOLD AS LOVE series is a world of daring, dread and enchantment, a world that could almost be ours: a brilliant combination of myth, magic and pop culture. Ax Preston, Sage Pender and Fiorinda, charismatic leaders of the Rock-n-Roll Reich, have beaten the cascade of disasters that followed the collapse of the former United Kingdom. Now they have to find some resolution to the impossible dynamics of their own relationship, while the world keeps falling apart. There are fearsome things going on in England's rural hinterland, and in Continental Europe the green nazis are planning a final solution to desperate environmental damage. But there's nothing the Triumvirate can't handle - until Fiorinda's father, a monster of the kind the world has never before known, reaches out to reclaim his magical child, the flower-bride. And that's when darkness falls over Ax's England ...Harrowing ...enchanting - a dark fairy tale with an epic sweep, set in a world very like our own.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Gollancz (November 13, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0575073950
• ISBN-13: 978-0575073951
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,005,625 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A worthy follow up to Bold As Love, November 17, 2003

By	George (Geneva, Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Castles Made of Sand (GollanczF.) (Paperback)

I thought that Bold As Love was brilliant. The best fantasy book I had read in years until I read Castles Made Of Sand which is even better.

All of the same characters except this time we know them better. Still brilliantly portrayed as we have come to expect from Jones. The menage a trois between the principles is portrayed as the fraught and dynamic thing that I suspect such arrangements will always be.

The action moves along at a cracking pace and I challenge anyone not to cheer when Sage does his stuff (I won't say more so as not to spoil it).

So, a more than worthy successor.

Roll on Midnight Lamp.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And so castles made of sand fall in the sea, eventually, February 13, 2007

By	C. Gilbert "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The Rock and Roll Reich of Ax, Sage and Fiorinda returns to face new challenges and increasingly strange politics. The three of them need to figure out their relationship with each other while keeping the hard-core Celtic underground from undermining every good that the present brought the world.

Jones is one of the smartest writers around, and Castles Made of Sand is a worthy heir to the level set by Bold As Love. She deserves much more of a reputation in the US than she has. This book (set in the "near future" of England) continues to break genre conventions and turn reader assumptions on their head. I love her take on the Arthur legends-- twisted and very loyal at the same time. Also, living in Amsterdam, I had more than a few laugh out loud moments over the Green Nazis who populate her worst case scenarios.

Not to be read without first reading Bold As Love, I would recommend the series for any fans of smart speculative or slipstream novels.

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

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

This review is from: Castles Made of Sand (GollanczF.) (Hardcover)

The Arthurian three have brought some sort of hope and stability to the UK, at least, but the world outside still has severe problems. Europe impacts them most closely, but the USA are most definitely not big fans of theirs.

The green revolution could spill over into a rather large amount of violence.

The other thing is, in any Arthurian legend, there is an evil [...] or [...] lurking in the older generation, in general.

It is no different here. In this case, Fiorinda's father is a truly vile man. He is also, basically, now an evil wizard and partly behind what has been going on. The triumvirate has managed to spoil a lot of his fun.

When that happens, what do any heroes of the era do? Yep, attack the evil wizard in his tower stronghold, and hope they survive.