Iain Pears, best known for An Instance of the Fingerpost and a series of art mysteries like The Immaculate Deception, comes up with an entertaining cautionary tale with Arcadia. In the future, a genius mathematician named Angela Meerson invents a machine which is supposed to access parallel universes. In this dystopian future, the Earth is overcrowded with 35 billion people struggling to live. Parallel universes could solve that problem: the Government could send excess population to new worlds. But Angela thinks her machine doesn’t access parallel works; she thinks it’s a time machine. Angela destroys all of her notes and data and goes through the machine. She ends up in Europe in 1936.
Angel invents another machine, one that creates a “pocket universe.” When a young girl named Rosie accidentally enters this new world, her presence triggers unanticipated forces. The story bounces around from the future to the pocket universe–called Anterwold–to post World War II Britain. I enjoyed the characters and the importance of Story in this novel. And, as a bonus, Iain Pears throws in a murder mystery. If you’re in the mood for a clever adventure novel, Arcadia will provide hours of enjoyment. GRADE: A-
It does sound interesting, but…as I remember it, his previous books were excessively long. I see this one is 500 pages.
Jeff, the Iain Pears mysteries aren’t too long. But you’re right about ARCADIA being over 500 pages. But, it was a fairly quick read.
When you mentioned “hours of enjoyment,” I knew I probably wouldn’t be picking this one up. Jeff confirmed my suspicions.
Bill, ARCADIA is a long book. But, the pages fly by!
Give me the old Gold Medal length, please!
Jeff, I’m with you and Bill on the length of books. Gold Medal was perfect!
You almost never give a novel an A grade so you’ve convinced me right there. I’ll pick it up this weekend.
Rick, you’ll enjoy ARCADIA. It’s a clever novel with some fun characters.
I’ll give this a try on your recommendation, George.
I’ve never read his stuff but there’s always a first time. Worst case scenario – it languishes until I retire.
Beth, once ARCADIA gets a hold on you, you won’t be able to put it down!
I need something to make me not want to put it down, but am so backlogged. I think I read and enjoyed his first book.
Maggie, I’ve enjoyed all the Iain Pears books I’ve read. His art mysteries are fun, too.
I have so much backlog in reading that I probably won’t buy this, though it sounds kind of interesting to me – remember, I’m a mathematician too …
Anyway ordering US books from Europe has become terribly expensive and we won’t be able to fly to the USA in the next future …
A bit OT:
That was one thing about the good old age of SF mags that you found new authors in them with short stories and then could decide whether you liked them and whether to buy one of their novels.
Wolf, I abandoned reading digest magazines in the 1980s. Today, there are only a couple SF magazines in wide circulation: AZIMOV and ANALOG. I’ve found the best stories get collected in the half dozen YEAR’S BEST SF anthologies.
Notice how they never travel in time to some anonymous period. It would be fun to see a writer make good use of a time we don’t associate with great world events. Or maybe there are none.
Patti, good point. I think time travel writers lean toward working with past periods they think audiences would enjoy.