I would agree that certain sections could have used a gentle pruning, but overall I've been left with the desire for more.īelow starts serious spoilers for the book's ending. The book is a daunting read and some other reviews I've read have said they found it over-long. That these narratives weave together into a puzzle on multiple levels, that they feed into the main story of a Britain in the grip of a benevolent machine-intelligence overseeing a direct democracy and the agent of this System investigating a murder (a rarity when observation is universal) is an incredible achievement. The characterisation is diverse, from a Greek math genius to an Ethiopian ex-pat painter rediscovering his love of his art via modern technology. The threads of the story Harkaway has created are complex and compelling. No one is a single thing everyone is a network, or a mosaic.' “a human being is the sum of many parts, not excluding a great flora and fauna of microbiological co-corporealists necessary to the balance of guts and blood. Gnomon represents to me his move into ‘proper literature’ territory. I read The Gone-Away World after and it cemented him as a favourite author.

Angelmaker was a beautiful piece of writing and I fell in love with his turn of phrase from the off.

I will admit to being a bit of a fan of Harkaway. I say finally because it felt both like the sort of book that challenges you from the start with concepts and puzzles and a world in media res that endlessly spools out in ever more detail and also a book that you feel you just want to end so that you can know its secrets. Last night I finally finished Gnomon by Nick Harkaway. This review will have spoilers in the second part and likely in the comments.

Gnomon nick harkaway review