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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Somehow got through 667 pages without ever understanding what was going on!
Recent Reads: Gnomon. Nick Harkaway's near-future surveillance state police procedural becomes a many-layered meditation on freedom, on privacy, on identity, on so many foundational topics. How do we choose to be governed, how do we choose a future? Dense and essential reading.
One of the best books i have ever read! took me longer than usual to finish this book, mainly because i read a chapter then spent the day reflecting on what i had read.
It is a well written, multi-layered and puzzeling story.Every character is well defined and complex, and every new revelation brings more questions.
It is a well written, multi-layered and puzzeling story.Every character is well defined and complex, and every new revelation brings more questions.
This book will not be for everyone. I was very close to DNF and then I got to page 200 and that's what kept me going
Imagine if Cloud Atlas, The Starless Sea, Inception, the Cell, and the Matrix all got together to write a novel and you'd get Gnomon.
Imagine if Cloud Atlas, The Starless Sea, Inception, the Cell, and the Matrix all got together to write a novel and you'd get Gnomon.
Describing Gnomon is a challenge, because it’s simultaneously many different things: A cautionary tale about our modern moment’s convergence of technology, surveillance, and human hubris. A matryoshkian novel, as narratively complex as it is straightforward and readable, that is itself ultimately all about storytelling, narrative, and books. A satisfyingly self-aware postmodern book that wants access to your mind as a tool to self-propagate. A beautifully designed physical book (Chip Kidd doesn’t mess around). A book that teaches you how to read it as you read it.
Gnomon is also staggeringly vast in its scope and ambition: It’s about math, immigration, surveillance, sharks, encryption, ancient Rome, video games, economics, hive minds, the near future, the far future, liberty and security, mirrors and parallels, disconnection, right angles, mythology, time travel, social manipulation, the human connectome, steganography, racism, intertextuality, detective novels, religion, castouts, manipulation, our ever changing definition of reality, interrogation, torture, and so many, many other things.
If you like books by Borges, Neal Stephenson, Cherise Wolas, David Mitchell, David Foster Wallace or Ted Chiang, this is one I think you will immensely enjoy.
Gnomon is also staggeringly vast in its scope and ambition: It’s about math, immigration, surveillance, sharks, encryption, ancient Rome, video games, economics, hive minds, the near future, the far future, liberty and security, mirrors and parallels, disconnection, right angles, mythology, time travel, social manipulation, the human connectome, steganography, racism, intertextuality, detective novels, religion, castouts, manipulation, our ever changing definition of reality, interrogation, torture, and so many, many other things.
If you like books by Borges, Neal Stephenson, Cherise Wolas, David Mitchell, David Foster Wallace or Ted Chiang, this is one I think you will immensely enjoy.
In many regards I thought this book was brilliant, conceptually unlike anything I’ve read before, moments where I couldn’t believe what I was reading but still could picture it, and sections of writing that could stay stuck in my mind all day. On the other hand, I found the majority of this novel to be over written and filled with obtuse sections that tended to fly way over my head. I don’t believe I was the best reader for this book, but I did enjoy myself and am glad to have read it. I still cannot quite comprehend what happed in the Gnomon sections of the book or who/what Lonnrot was, but quite liked being inside the minds of sex-fueled mathematical genius Kyriakos and old man painter visionary/video game designer Bekele.
adventurous
challenging
dark
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was delightful. Opaque, but delightful.
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes