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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
Not for me. He likes big words when little would do. I feel the book is trying to convince me that Nick harkaway is a genius. I prefer to come to that conclusion myself. DNF.
An intense read (I had to renew it), but absolutely worth the mind-bending.
It took me a loooooong time to read this book. I kept having to put it down and come back to it because it is just so dense. It is very cerebrally demanding. But I love Harkaway's other books, so I wanted to get through it. I may have been too eager to finish by the end of it all, because I had to read some reviews on the internet to really get what happened at the end. But there was some great stuff in this, things that made me really stop and think. Harkaway is a genius with words and is just a pleasure to read even if you don't get half of what he says. I wouldn't start a journey into his books with this one, though. Definitely read [b:The Gone-Away World|3007704|The Gone-Away World|Nick Harkaway|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328322676l/3007704._SX50_.jpg|3038235] first. I will read anything he writes in the future!
This book is so bizarre and unlike anything else I have ever read. It consumed my life for nearly 3 weeks and I’m sure will continue to for the next few. Think this will need a reread in a year or so for me to fully grasp the plethora of ideas going on and unlock the puzzles and clues scattered throughout.
Requires patience and persistence, but enthralling all the same.
Requires patience and persistence, but enthralling all the same.
I simply bounced off this book. I tried, believe me, but it’s not for me.
So good. So hard to describe. This is a near future utopia that turns into a murder mystery enfolded in a video game. This is science fiction at its best. The near future is a genius expansion of our current wisdom of social media, high surveillance life into a world where everything is under constant monitoring, but it's for the good of the world. Decisions are made by direct voting in a poll-the-audience sort of way.
It's a phenomenal audio performance by a reader who I now remember also did an amazing performance of An Ordinary Man. This doesn't seem like the sort of book that should translate well to audio format, but this narrator makes it work, and work beautifully, for nearly 30 hours.
I loved this book. But it won't appeal to everyone. And it's long. So if complicated fantasy/science fiction isn't your thing, don't start here. In fact, go listen to An Ordinary Man instead because that's an amazing autobiography.
It's a phenomenal audio performance by a reader who I now remember also did an amazing performance of An Ordinary Man. This doesn't seem like the sort of book that should translate well to audio format, but this narrator makes it work, and work beautifully, for nearly 30 hours.
I loved this book. But it won't appeal to everyone. And it's long. So if complicated fantasy/science fiction isn't your thing, don't start here. In fact, go listen to An Ordinary Man instead because that's an amazing autobiography.
I'm still processing this book. It definitely felt sort of overblown and wordy at different points, but then I felt like maybe that was deliberate and part of the whole story the author was weaving. This is definitely a fascinating, albeit not a quick or light, read. Others have done better plot summaries than I would be able to do, so I will leave that out except to say that this reminded me so much of The Matrix. My initial reaction was to give three stars, but with the way I'm still thinking about the book several days after finishing it, I'll bump it up to four.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Perfect and will completely fuck your head up by the final chapter.
**I received this book free via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**
I found this an exceptionally difficult book to not only read but to review also. I consider myself quite a prolific reader and yet Gnomon has taken me half a year to read! I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it's the time of life I am in and I just can't find the opportunity to read as much as I would like to? Or maybe it's just that this book didn't engage me.
As I received the book for review I made a determined decision to read it all and see it through and today I reached the end.
What makes this difficult for me, is that at another time of my life or in the hands of another reader this book would be considered excellent. It's clever, it's multi-layered, there are stories within stories and it's complex.. All things I usually go for in a book. It also has some of the most beautiful, quotable sentences I have read in a long time. Some passages I read twice I was so stunned by their effectiveness. Harkaway has a rich and eloquent vocabulary which I delighted in, including managing to drop a few into conversation here and there during the course of my reading.
I also enjoyed the sub-stories of the seemingly disparate yet eventually inter-woven characters. The cocky swagger of a Greek banker being chased by a shark, the alchemist who puts a bishop or two in their place, the artist coming to terms with family and identity. There is so much to like in this book (even a cameo of a Julian Assaunge inspired character).
It has all the makings of a great book so why did it take me six months to read? I believe it was due to a lack of caring about the story or the characters. It was like looking at something you know is aesthetically beautiful yet fails to capture the emotion. There wasn't a single point in the book where I thought 'one more page'. It meanders, says a thousand words where a paragraph would suffice. The story is convoluted and challenging. One needs to think when reading this book, and yet I don't think it was worth the emotional payoff after all that thinking.
Perhaps most damning is upon reaching the end my thought was, 'whatever'.
Capture me in my teens with this book and I'm going to tell you it's awesome. As a busy casual reader it fails to engage.
Near-future dystopian fiction which requires the reader to pay close attention.
I found this an exceptionally difficult book to not only read but to review also. I consider myself quite a prolific reader and yet Gnomon has taken me half a year to read! I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it's the time of life I am in and I just can't find the opportunity to read as much as I would like to? Or maybe it's just that this book didn't engage me.
As I received the book for review I made a determined decision to read it all and see it through and today I reached the end.
What makes this difficult for me, is that at another time of my life or in the hands of another reader this book would be considered excellent. It's clever, it's multi-layered, there are stories within stories and it's complex.. All things I usually go for in a book. It also has some of the most beautiful, quotable sentences I have read in a long time. Some passages I read twice I was so stunned by their effectiveness. Harkaway has a rich and eloquent vocabulary which I delighted in, including managing to drop a few into conversation here and there during the course of my reading.
I also enjoyed the sub-stories of the seemingly disparate yet eventually inter-woven characters. The cocky swagger of a Greek banker being chased by a shark, the alchemist who puts a bishop or two in their place, the artist coming to terms with family and identity. There is so much to like in this book (even a cameo of a Julian Assaunge inspired character).
It has all the makings of a great book so why did it take me six months to read? I believe it was due to a lack of caring about the story or the characters. It was like looking at something you know is aesthetically beautiful yet fails to capture the emotion. There wasn't a single point in the book where I thought 'one more page'. It meanders, says a thousand words where a paragraph would suffice. The story is convoluted and challenging. One needs to think when reading this book, and yet I don't think it was worth the emotional payoff after all that thinking.
Perhaps most damning is upon reaching the end my thought was, 'whatever'.
Capture me in my teens with this book and I'm going to tell you it's awesome. As a busy casual reader it fails to engage.
Near-future dystopian fiction which requires the reader to pay close attention.