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Gnomon

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Gnomon

By: Nick Harkaway
Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
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Random House presents the audiobook edition of Gnomon, written by Nick Harkaway, read by Ben Onwukwe.

Near-future Britain is a state in which citizens are constantly observed and democracy has reached a pinnacle of 'transparency.' Every action is seen, every word is recorded and the System has access to thoughts and memories.

When suspected dissident Diana Hunter dies in custody, it marks the first time a citizen has been killed during an interrogation. Mielikki Neith, a trusted state inspector, is assigned to find out what went wrong. Immersing herself in neural recordings of the interrogation, what she finds isn't Hunter but rather a panorama of characters within Hunter's psyche.

Embedded in the memories of these impossible lives lies a code which Neith must decipher to find out what Hunter is hiding. The staggering consequences of what she finds will reverberate throughout the world.

A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR

'Gnomon is an extraordinary novel, and one I can’t stop thinking about some weeks after I read it. It is deeply troubling, magnificently strange, and an exhilarating read.' Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven

'Nick Harkaway’s most ambitious novel yet. [A] story of near-future mass surveillance, artificial intelligence and human identity ... An amazing and quite unforgettable piece of fiction.' Guardian

'Harkaway dazzles.' Daily Mail

'Wonderfully good.' Sunday Times

 Dystopian Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction
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Critic reviews

Gnomon is an extraordinary novel, and one I can’t stop thinking about some weeks after I read it. It is deeply troubling, magnificently strange, and an exhilarating read. (Emily St. John Mandel, author of 'Station Eleven')
Nick Harkaway’s most ambitious novel yet. This story of near-future mass surveillance, artificial intelligence and human identity reads as if 11 novels have been crowded into a matter-transporter pod, emerging on the other side weirdly melded. An enormous, shaggy, infuriating, amazing and quite unforgettable piece of fiction, it’s the kind of thing only science fiction can do.
One of the most remarkable things about the remarkable Nick Harkaway is the irrelevance of his literary heritage. The son of John le Carré, he is very much his own author ... There’s a lot of explanation in this book, but then there’s a lot of everything going on in it. Densely texted pages of ideas, references and similes fizz and sparkle and burst into life in a fireworks display that keeps going ... The writing, too, is rarely anything other than impressive ... Gnomon does reward perseverance. Ludicrously complicated it may be, but it’s also wonderfully good.
[A] prowling deep-sea monster of a novel … A sci-fi detective procedural, violent thriller and multi-layered mystery combine brilliantly to pull us through a profound exploration of power and paranoia, technology and myth … Harkaway dazzles, baffles and teases before guiding us through bloody darkness into understanding.
This huge sci-fi detective novel of ideas is so eccentric, so audaciously plotted and so completely labyrinthine and bizarre that I had to put it aside more than once to emit Keanu-like “Whoahs” of appreciation ... It’s a technological shaggy-dog tale that threatens to out-Gibson William Gibson ... It is huge fun. And it will melt your brain … 700 odd pages power relentlessly by, only to touch down with the delicacy of a SpaceX rocket on – ah yes – the only possible ending. Whoah indeed. I wanted to give it a round of applause.
Gnomon is only as large as its pages, but its pages seem like the door to a sinister Narnia … Reading Gnomon is like being an architecture critic when you suspect your reality is virtual. Its momentum is exhilarating, but frightening too. It resembles, very stylishly, a mind spinning itself insane.
A brainy, labyrinthine plot born of Dr Who and David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, with a dash of EU finance, Brexit and some Snowden-esque paranoia about the pervasive surveillance of ‘the System’. A mind-bending, genre-blending fun house with a message or two.
All stars
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Cloud Atlas on a bad mushroom trip. Somewhat long winded. There is a great book buried in there, waiting to be liberated by a valiant editor.

Cloud Atlas on a bad mushroom trip

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This one is still unfolding in my mind days after finishing it. A commentary on today, future tech and philosophy.

This one is still unfolding in my mind days after

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Amazing story by Harkaway, as always really. But, the choice of narrator and narrative style were not good. Was very difficult to stay engaged, and considering the complicated story line, was very difficult to follow.

Great story but read the book

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I can't fathom why this hasn't received greater acclaim. Three and half stars? Seriously? This is a five-star narrator reading a six-star book, and whoever marked it down can only have been expecting something very different going in. Yes, it is long and surreal and complicated. That doesn't mean it isn't an absolute joy to listen to. A great white shark may be a terrible tree climber, but that doesn't make it a failure as an animal. In its particular niche of undersea predation, it is unrivaled and magnificent. Gnomon is a very particular sort of creature, but what it does, nothing else I've seen does better.

I get through a lot of books but I rarely bother leaving reviews, although I usually at least give ratings. Most of the time it seems like the meat of what I'd say about my favourite stories has already been said when I get there. But this is seriously one of the best novels I've ever read; possibly even the absolute best (not that I've physically read it yet, but I'm definitely getting a hard copy). It deserves to be recognised as a classic, yet from the number of ratings and reviews I see here it is largely being overlooked. This will not do. It is so good that having discovered it, I now feel somehow obligated to help it reach a wider audience. For the foreseeable future, anyone I know who shows the slightest interest in it will immediately be forced to read my hard copy in one twenty-nine hour sitting, with me standing over them, so that it may then be discussed without fear of spoilers (or sleep). As for Audible, if even one person who was on the fence goes ahead and listens to it on the basis of this review, then actually taking the time to leave one for once will have been more than worth it.

How to describe Gnomon? Not easy. Psychedelic noir? From the synopsis you might think it was primarily a dystopian science fiction story, but large sections of it are set in different times and places from the future Britain in which the story begins, and the focus is more on the internal worlds of the various characters than on the politics of their surroundings. Don't expect a single narrative thread; expect various narratives initially connected only by symbolism to gradually converge on a shared ending and jostle for position as they approach it. Expect a multi-layered reality that starts out masquerading as dystopian science fiction and becomes ever more surreal the further into it you go. At its core this is a story about stories, composed of several smaller stories, each with their own identity and yet all completely symbiotic. It is so full of ideas that weeks after finishing it, I still find parts of it coming to mind on a daily basis. It has enriched my life just by being there in my head to think about.

If you have even the slightest inclination to listen to this audiobook then I urge you to give it a go. For my part, I could not be more grateful to Nick Harkaway for creating this story or to Ben Onwukwe for bringing it to life. A truly transcendent experience.

Mind Blowing

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Worth 1 of anyone's credits. It isn't short but every word is worth your time.

A fascinating story with a captivating performance

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