Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
British novelist Priest (The Prestige) creates a mind-bending, head-scratching book (already much lauded in the U.K.) that pretends to be a gazetteer of the Dream Archipelago, uncountable islands spread around a world whose temporal and spatial anomalies make such a project futile. The dispassionate descriptions of separate islands include odd references out of which it's possible to begin assembling a cast of characters: maniac artists, social reformers, murderers, scientific researchers, and passionate lovers. Some of these categories overlap, and all the actors are maddeningly fragmented, apt to fade away or flash intensely to life. Interpolated bits of directly personal narratives sometimes clarify and sometimes muddy the story (or stories), while uncanny events struggle to escape the gazetteers' avowedly objective control and Priest's elegant, cool prose. The result is wonderfully fascinating, if occasionally frustrating, and entirely unforgettable. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
What presents itself as a gazetteer for the Dream Archipelago, a vast array of islands situated between two warring continents to the north and south, becomes, instead, a study of some of the islands' most interesting inhabitants. As the stories of a reclusive novelist, a simple young man accused of murder, a social theorist and author, a celebrated mime, and other significant individuals unfold, another tale-of a very public murder and the arrest and trial of a potential innocent-evolves from the hints doled out to the reader. VERDICT Priest demonstrates once more his ability to surprise and dazzle with this twisty novel in which nothing is ever as straightforward as it appears. The islands themselves serve as a Greek chorus to a tale of ambitions gone wrong, love circumvented, and lives fragmented into a living archipelago, constantly shifting with the winds and tides. Reminiscent of the works of Gilbert Sorrentino, Italo Calvino, and other writers of metafiction, this work of literary prestidigitation by the author of the award-winning The Prestige may appeal to readers of literary fiction as well as fans of speculative fiction. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
