Gnomon: A novel Hardcover – Deckle Edge, January 9, 2018

Harkaway Delivers a Wondrous and Cautionary Future. Read It!

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Kindle Customer

March 13, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I adore this novel. It's like 1984 on steroids for the current generation. Don't get me wrong, Haraway didn't rewrite that story - you could say that about any number of Big Brother type novels; instead he extrapolated on a reality that currently exists - surveillance in London, and ran screaming for the hills from there.

The result is an exuberant, thriller that draws outside the lines with a glee that is clearly obvious, and I must add, contagious. I couldn't help myself smiling while reading, or crying a few times too. The novel is so alive. You start off being Detective Inspector Mielikki Neith with a stellar reputation, and someone has died in custody of the System, an A.I. that has replaced the government of England by watching everyone everywhere to make sure everyone behaves themselves. If something unseemly does happen, the System can be hooked up to offenders' brain to play back exactly what happened, and fix the offending behaviour using brain microsurgery, so you comply with the herd.

Except someone is dead instead of fixed, the DI must find out what happened - and now things just start to get interesting. If you like books that are thrilling, that require you to pay attention, that take you on a wild rollercoaster ride through history, technology, foreign countries, intrigue, conspiracies, then this is your book. The cast is large and varied. It even included my favourite Saint - St. Augustine. By the time I finished reading, all the TBR on my Kindle looked paltry and flat. I took a break from reading just to process everything from this tale, before I could start again. That rarely happens.

Don't listen to those who say it should be even a single page shorter. I loved every dam n page. I have added Harkaway to my favorite authors list, because anyone who could write this mad, intricate, thoughtful tale, has to write more of the same.

I have one question - why aren't people shouting from the rooftops about this novel, when so many lesser works are being touted as glorious heights of literature? The PR budget, of course. If you read it and love it, review it. (Getting off my soapbox - tidepods, of course)

Good Thumping Read!
Recommended for people who like detective thrillers AND technology, philosophy, alchemy, conspiracies, etc, Just read it.

10 people found this helpful

I found the digressiveness to be like the digressions in Moby Dick--yeah

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Jacob Weber

February 24, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Some critics have picked on the novel for its digressiveness, its "Wikipedia-style exposition dumps," as The Guardian had it. I found the digressiveness to be like the digressions in Moby Dick--yeah, maybe a good writer would have edited that stuff. But a great writer doesn't care what a good writer would do. This is the novel where the writer decided to take on the white whale (or shark, in this case). There was no sense holding back on any of those digressions. In addition to Moby Dick, I'd say it mixed it a little of A Hundred Years of Solitude, some Phillip K. Dick, and a splash of The Matrix at the end. It's one of the best takes on surveillance out there, because it realizes to take on one thing, you have to take on everything, because "everything is more than one thing."

7 people found this helpful

Not as good good as his previous novels

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B. Hanes

April 12, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I really enjoyed Harkaway's previous novels Tigerman, The Gone Away World, and Angelmaker. I was looking forward to this one.

I had a hard time figuring out the setting at the beginning, and when things started happening (involving many other characters in different timelines), I could not follow the plot or appreciate Harkaway's usual wit and humor. There also seems to be a lot of philosophy and thought experiments, but because I couldn't keep up with what was happening, and how these different characters and different philosophies linked together, I became frustrated.

After reading, I feel like I invested a lot of time and effort with not nearly as satisfying a return as his other books. Reflecting, I think he tried too hard. He had a lot he wanted to say, but it came out in a confusing way.

5 people found this helpful

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January 17, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Just finished and still processing. This is a novel unlike any I’ve read.

I guess if I had to quickly summarize my amazement it would be something like: this book invites the reader to experience and contemplate subjective identity across time and space.

But like, in a really fun and compelling way?

Anyway. Read it.

8 people found this helpful

A clever book about surveillance, democracy and sharks

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Mark

January 7, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Some of the most interesting science fiction books these days are those that deal directly with the messed up interaction of our information age, late stage capitalism and democracy. And this book fits nicely in that niche; not only is it about the surveillance state, as the blurb suggests, but it deals a lot with democracy and its problems too. (As such it makes a very interesting companion book to Malka Older's Centenal Cycle and there are certainly parallels between The System and Information)

One of the book's motifs is the combination of steganography and obfuscation to bury useful information in a flood of data. The book somewhat does the same thing. At least two of the story layers don't really add a lot to the core plot. Not to say that they aren't interesting in their own right, but they do lead to a massive 700 page brick of a novel.

But it's a clever book and when everything clicks together at the end, it's very satisfying.

5 people found this helpful

Timothy HaughTop Contributor: Baby

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Soo.... Nick Harkaway. He's a funny guy, yeah?

A funny guy with an enormous vocabulary.

Who likes to mess with his readers.

It's cool Nick.Read more

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Jim Sanderson

Weird & wonderful

I can't believe I read this book. Gnomon should be nominated for worst book of the decade. I love sci fi but this was simply literative trash.

Mike Kogan

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For a story to take you into a tornado of twists and turns. Follow closely, try to accept the events as they unfold without trying to guess the outcome.

R. Lipinski

Be prepared

A little to long but definitely worthwhile reading. If possible I would have given half a star more.

Ethicus

worthwhile

how did this get published

Kat S

It's like the author had a few unpublished mediocre short stories sitting around and decided to write a slapdash narrative around them.Read more