Gnomon (SF) - Nick Harkaway ****

This massive book (more on that in a moment) split my opinion more than any other I've ever read. When I read the opening chapter, where Inspector Mielikki Neith begins her investigation of what happened when a suspect died in the mentally invasive interrogation technique of her time I was hooked. Nick Harkaway's concept of a future Britain where practically all information is available to everyone and true democracy exists, with all decisions made by the people, is beautifully realised, and he wonderfully portrays as a utopia balanced on a knife edge of plunging into dystopia.

Then I got to the next chapter, which dismayed me, as it appeared Harkaway had fallen for the irritating clichéd structure so common in modern novels of switching from chapter to chapter between different main characters and points of view, which eventually pull together. I found it tedious and just wanted to get back to Neith's story.

Soon after, I discover that things aren't what they seem, and these interlaced chapters from different viewpoints aren't set in the real world - which pulls the whole thing back to being brilliant (though I still wanted as much as possible to stick with Neith).

Having finally got through the whole thing, the Neith sections are some of the best SF I've read in years - but, for me, the interrupting sections pull the whole thing down. And it's way too long. My paperback copy was getting on for 700 pages, with ridiculously small print. I was just about okay reading the Neith sections, which are in a serif font, but the other parts are sans serif and really hard to read. It might seem a trivial point, but it didn't make reading a pleasant experience. Although those non-real-world sections have an important part to play, they could have been cut down hugely without any loss of plot - they were, frankly, very self-indulgent. Several times I almost gave up because of them - then got back to another Neith section and once more was captivated.

Overall, I'm glad I read it. The mainline sections as the Inspector struggles to understand what's going on (with a big twist at the end) and as the crime involved gets more complex are wonderful. But it could have been wonderful throughout if only those inner world, sans serif sections had been ruthlessly pruned.

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Review by Brian Clegg - See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free here

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