Book 90: Arcadia by Iain Pears
Book 90: Arcadia .
Author: Iain Pears, 2015.
Genre: Period Fiction. Espiongae. Fantasy. Science Fiction.
Other Details: ebook. 608 pages.
In the basement of a professor’s house in Oxford, fifteen-year-old Rosie goes in search of a missing cat - and instead finds herself in a different world. Anterwold is a sun-drenched land of storytellers, prophecies and rituals. But is this world real - and what happens if she decides to stay?
Meanwhile, in a sterile laboratory, a rebellious scientist is trying to prove that time does not even exist - with potentially devastating consequences. - synopsis from UK publisher's website.
This simple synopsis above hardly touches the surface of this novel, which takes place in three worlds. There is Oxford in the 1960s where Professor Henry Lytten, retired Oxford don and one time intelligence officer, scribbles away on an epic fantasy with no wizards or dragons. Then there is the world that Rosie walks into and finally in a dystopian future a group of scientists experiment with opening portals to alternative universes or have they discovered time travel?
My thanks to the publishers who responded positively to my request to review Arcadia via NetGallery in exchange for an honest review. I have admired Iain Pears' work for years and was intrigued to see how he would approach a novel that spans a number of genres.
I loved this novel and found it intelligent and thought-provoking. There was also instances of wry humour alongside more serious themes. It is a novel that I finished and immediately wished to go back and start again.
Arcadia is innovative by providing an extra feature available to users of iPhones and iPads in the form of an app that assists the reader to navigate the narrative by following individual characters. I have neither gadget but did not feel deprived as the novel was so brilliant and quite capable of bring read in a conventional fashion.
The complexity of the interwoven plot did mean that it took me longer to read than I expected though this was not a bad thing as I had time to really savour the experience. A novel that I would highly recommend with or without the app.
Cross-posted to 50bookchallenge.