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Christopher Priest

The Islanders Paperback – April 8, 2014

by Christopher Priest (Author)

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A stunning literary SF novel from the multiple award winning Christopher Priest. 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.

Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Titan Books
Publication date

April 8, 2014
Dimensions

5.09 x 0.92 x 7.97 inches
ISBN-10

1781169462
ISBN-13

978-1781169469
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Christopher Priest is a contemporary novelist and a leading figure in modern SF and fantasy. His novel The Islanders won both the BSFA Award and the John W. Campbell Award. The Separation won both the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the BSFA Award.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Titan Books (April 8, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1781169462
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1781169469
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.09 x 0.92 x 7.97 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #369,119 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,140 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books)
- #8,248 in Science Fiction Adventures

Customer Reviews:
39 ratings

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5 star		48%
4 star		19%
3 star		7%
2 star		12%
1 star		14%

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Top reviews from the United States

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John Judge

I really wanted to like it, but it failed me.

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2021

Verified Purchase

I bought this because it was had won British Sci Fi awards. I knew it would be a twisty path, and I looked forward to that. I was ok half way through when there was no plot. It felt like a fictional travel guide had crashed into a murder mystery. There were lots of strands, and I was patient. I expected a grand finale. What I got was a disgusting finale that did little to tie the strands together. This book could have been fantastic. Instead it makes my bottom 20 of all time. It fails as sci-fi. It fails as a mystery. It fails as a sci fi travel guide. What it is is a pointless fictional travel guide with some bland The New Yorker style fiction that has vague connection between the short stories.

Helpful

Walter who fled the country

Purgatory

Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2018

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It is a rare thing when I quit reading a book half way through, but that was as far as I could get in this one. I don't know what the author was going for here (some kind of Camus-like exposition on the meaninglessness and banality of life?), but this book is a joyless slog. Like wading through tapioca toward an endless horizon. By the time, half way through, when it slowly emerged that there might be some actual plot threads that could conceivably tie the whole thing together by the end, the reader is left with no interest in those threads or any possible resolution of them. I ended up giving this book to a charity to sell, but then felt guilty about not throwing it away because I might, in some small measure, be responsible for some poor schmuck later picking it up and trying to read the damn thing. Uggh. I felt like I'd given blood three times in a row every night after putting this book down.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Richard LeComte

Here we go Islanders

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2012

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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.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Douglas Larry Booze

Some parts read like a somewhat boring travel guide and others involve characters ...

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2015

Verified Purchase

I won't pretend to completely understand this book but it was unique and interesting. Each chapter is about a different island in a massive archipelago that no one can seem to make a reliable map of. Some parts read like a somewhat boring travel guide and others involve characters and murder mysteries and other such stories. I feel like there's a symbolism to do with transparency or interconnectedness or alternate realities or something but idk. It's cool though.

One person found this helpful

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paul

I gave you 30 pages book, and that was too many.

Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2018

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Book (what I read of it) was an alphabetical listing of islands and a short blurb about each one. just like reading a travel guide book, and as dry as one.

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Joshua S. Barnett

Read it 3 times so far

Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2015

Verified Purchase

Great book. There are short and ambivalent bits mixed throughout a constant weave of somewhat related characters and places, all well written and interesting. It's not your typical genre though - hard to define and classify - which is a big part of why the book is so interesting. Imagine a Roget's for a recognizably alien world and you've kind of/sort of got a feel for what The Islanders is.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

D. Walkowski

Tiresome. It literally put me to sleep.

Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2015

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I expected more. I have enjoyed some os his other novels, but this one was slow and boring.
It's short vignettes that I can only assume must eventually resolve into a story. (I couldn't finish it)

Helpful

Mad Professah

A difficult read--expected more fro the author of The Prestige

Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2013

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I did not enjoy this book. It is an interesting collection of short stories that appear to be related because the stories take place on a series of mysterious islands. The book includes basic fragments of an overarching set of stories and plots that appear to emerge as one reads. Because of that, one thinks (expects) that by the conclusion, one will get enough information to get the big picture and some resolution but in the end one is just left with a blurry, unresolved picture, like an out of focus snapshot or low-resolution jpeg.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Triple

A sprawling guidebook of stories

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 19, 2019

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A collection of intertwined stories about the Dream Archipelago with threads between different peoples and tales this book poses as a guidebook of sorts. Always quirky and full of ideas and imagination Christopher Priest delivers a very entertaining novel around the impenetrable mysteries of the Dream Archipelago. Classic stuff.

bibliovore

stunned

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 24, 2012

Verified Purchase

This is not a novel , or a collection of short stories, but a meander through the dream archipeligo. In the course of the journey we come across various stories, and different aspects of them in different paces. There are tragedies and affirmations, revenge and sweetness, and more explanation of what is actually happening in the archipeligo and how it got there .
It almost answers questions asked in the original collection of stories , and that really should be read first , to get the most out of this book.
Even on its own though , this is a complex and rewarding book that is best read over several days rather than in one sitting , as its episodic structure lends itself best to that and the vagueness of memory.
I read hundreds of books in a year and few stand out - this one did and still does ; it is a genuine masterwork.

5 people found this helpful

Meletanmuse

A book to relish

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

I really enjoyed this book. The conceit of a travel manual overlying a multi stranded narrative reminded me of Italian Calvino. The islands are characters in themselves, and make a clever contrast with the heaviness of the continental Powers. I liked the way you are left to guess the outcome.

C. Hammond

A feast, served in small portions.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 17, 2021

Verified Purchase

It's a long time since I read a Priest book.
I was unsure whether his work could still touch me, as it used to.
It does. This was an immensely satisfying read.
Dazzling, shocking, sweet and overwhelming.

els76uk

I wanted to like it

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 18, 2018

Verified Purchase

After reading so many positive reviews, I really wanted to like this book. But I couldn't relax and enjoy it as I would a novel, and consequently gave up just 30% in.

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The Islanders Paperback – April 8, 2014

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About the author

Christopher Priest

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