Reviews

• Clap if you want to believe in Tinkerbell

  I've worked in Biotech for 3/4's of my working life, which has been a reasonably long one. This book impressed me so much when I read it that I recommended it to the head scientist at my company. Biotech, nano tech, neurological manipulation, stagnant economies, class warfare, it's got everything. Paul MacAuley is one of the best science fiction writers around, and this is one of his best.

• Fairydust

  A sprawling wonderful scary read. McAuley spins a deep web with really great characters and drags you into a weirdly recognizable future. There is a theme running through McAuleys books. Gaia, environment, AI, biology, Genentech, evolution. He us one smart, complicated author.It's a pleasure to read his book even if it is a frightening futurethat he looks into.

• Entre dystopie et singularité, une quête épique qui n'est pas sans évoquer allan quatermain

  Déjà un "vieux" bouquin de 1995, Fairyland n'a pas pris une ride. C'est un ouvrage complexe, au style et au vocabulaire recherché. Ajouter à cela que l'auteur est britannique et on obtient un roman très riche. Il y a un côté"hard science" qui peut ralentir la lecture. C'est le genre de bouquin à lire sur une liseuse connectée à Internet pour accéder instantanément aux références, aux allusions, à l'explication de certains concepts ou encore à la typographie de certains lieux. Une partie de l'action se déroulant à Disney Paris, j'en avais par exemple le plan en tâche de fond. Mais, n'est-ce pas le type de plaisir recherché par l'amateur du genre?

• Excellent stuff!

  Written in the late Nineties, this novel predicts the narcissism fostered by the internet and the onset of climate change with unsettling accuracy. The focus is on the horrors genetic engineering could produce throughout the 21st Century. Thankfully, the nightmare possibilities of disposable people, or “fairies”, have not (yet) come about. Or have they? If taken metaphorically, Paul McAuley’s noir vision is remarkably prescient, if a little outdated in its delivery. That’s not to say it isn’t stylistically interesting. Quite the opposite. The prose is dense, the Kafkaesque melee into which we are cast, drawn with a deft hand and an eye for detail, and the humour is black as an empty mirror. Sound familiar? Yeah, there was loads of this sort of stuff about at the turn of the century. Fairyland is definitely one of the most accomplished examples.

• Excellent book, lousy narration.

  The book is excellent, but the narrator is awful. Listening to his monotonous voice makes you fall asleep. It's better to READ the novel! Or, are you listening, publisher, have the audio version rerecorded with another narrator!

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