official site of the acclaimed novelist​​ ​
and cult SF author Jody Scott
  • Home
  • About
    • About Jody
    • Links
    • Subscribe
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Books in print
    • Bibliography
    • Reviews
  • Contact
  • Subscribers
    • Cure It With Honey
    • ​​Outtakes & Short Stories
    • Photo Album
    • More Goodies

The Gone-Away World

7/11/2018

0 Comments

 

The Gone–Away World by Nick Harkaway  (twitter.com/Harkaway)

Picture
There are many fine, hardworking craftsmen of the written word, and the sum of the parts of their novels are very enjoyable to read, but then there are writers who also possess the skill of an artist. In their novels every word is perfectly chosen and placed in combination with every other word in an inevitability that makes structure disappear, and the whole is much greater than just the sum of its parts. The Gone–Away World by Nick Harkaway is such a work.   

In it we follow an unnamed protagonist through childhood and college into a proxy “Un-War” in the Elective Theatre, formerly known as the prosperous and peaceful country of Addeh Katir. There he is reunited with his childhood best friend Gonzo. When the enemy launches a chemical attack, our side answers with “the most advanced weapon in the history of warfare,” The Go Away Bomb that disappears the enemy: “We are… feeling a bit superior and waiting for the order to do some more demonstrative world-editing, when our very own Green Sector vanishes from the map… like a sandcastle being washed away by the tide… The same thing is happening everywhere. Not just in the Elective Theatre.”

Predictably, the effects are unpredictable and uncontrollable; the tide that ebbs also flows, carrying back a recombinant and deadly genesis of the thoughts, forms, feelings, memories, dreams and nightmares of everything it supposedly erased. Most of humanity has been made “Gone-Away” and the survivors battle desperately: “this is not an attack. It’s an atmosphere.”

Protagonist, Gonzo and a ragtag group are rescued by Piper 90 (“love child of a bulldozer and a shopping mall”) which is laying “The Pipe” that contains the anti-stuff, called FOX, which makes the Gone-Away stuff go away, “making a strip of land which is safe to live in.” This is where the remnants of humanity begin to rebuild.
​
Fast forward a few years and this outfit of roughnecks is hired for a dangerous job of putting out a fire on The Pipe that looks like sabotage. Here the story takes a shocking turn that throws into question the protagonist’s entire history and future, and a horrible secret is found to underlie the system that keeps this strip of the old world, this “Livable Zone,”  intact.

A rousing dystopian story with a terrific story arc that can be enjoyed on just those terms, The Gone-Away World  is also a cautionary tale that confronts the endemic, species-defining stupidity and hidden moral equivocations of human life on Earth. Notwithstanding, Nick Harkaway is fundamentally an optimist, and quite funny; I will definitely be reading more of him. Highly recommended!
Mary Whealen
read more reviews

0 Comments
    Picture
    Tweets by @jodyscottinfo

    For latest news, exclusive content, free books, subscribe (4-5 times per year)

    * indicates required

    Get blog via email or reader:

    RSS Feed

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner


    Categories

    All
    Alan Turing & Bias
    Anecdotes About Jody
    Anecdotes From Jody About Her Life
    Beginning Of The Beat Generation
    Book Promotion
    Burroughs
    California
    Censorship & Political Correctness
    Circle Magazine
    Coover
    Dog Park Incident
    Essays By Jody
    Fiction
    Gay Pride
    George Leite
    Guest Posts
    Mary 's Posts
    O.J.
    Posing As Jody Scott
    Quotes & Excerpts
    Reviews
    Robert
    Science Fiction
    Trump
    Why I Married Don Scott
    Why This Site?
    Women's March


    Archives

    June 2022
    June 2020
    December 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016


    Picture
    Picture
    Now in print & E-edition
    Picture
    Intro by Ted Sturgeon
    Picture
    Exciting conclusion to The Benaroya Chronicles
Copyright © 2016-2021 Mary Whealen/ jodyscottinfo, All rights reserved.
  • Home
  • About
    • About Jody
    • Links
    • Subscribe
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Books in print
    • Bibliography
    • Reviews
  • Contact
  • Subscribers
    • Cure It With Honey
    • ​​Outtakes & Short Stories
    • Photo Album
    • More Goodies