Arcadia: A Novel

I may be Iain Pears biggest fan. I haven't finished Arcadia yet but as I perused the reviews I felt compelled to write my review now after reading some of the comments from other reviewers. This story, much like An Instance of the Fingerpost is told in a unique, creative way. This book, much like Fingerpost, must be read in as few sittings as possible. If you read some then put it down for a week then pick it up again you will most likely lose track of the characters and get confused and bored. That happened to me with Fingerpost so I started it over and read it in a few days. Arcadia has many of the same type of subtleties so you must have reading discipline to get full enjoyment and understanding of the story. Stones Fall was another great book but not as complex. Great descriptive writing. Arcadia is witty, entertaining, and funny at times and.it is also interesting and refreshing given that many of the authors I used to enjoy just keep writing books with the same story over and over again. I understand some of the other comments and concerns about the alternate world reading more like a young adult novel. It sort of is but it seems to fit the whole story. There is no sex or profanity at all. I would hand this book over to my kids and let them have at it. It is written so cleverly, so witty at times I laughed out loud. The main character, Angela, was interesting, intellectual with an attitude and I enjoyed reading her parts which are the only written in first person. It was a little difficult to keep the timelines straight but that did not take away from my enjoyment. I simply loved this book and wish there would be a sequel. Anything Iain Pears writes I will read.

This was a really good book combining the twin genres of time-travel stories (like Twelve Monkeys or Back to the Future) and "entrance into another world" stories (like Narnia, Alice in Wonderland, or The Magicians). It can get a little confusing with all of the time- and place-hopping, but it was smart, and funny, and even a little philosophical. I give it a good recommendation for fans of those twin genres, and would generally recommend just about anything Pears writes.This quirky book by Pears generally follows stories in three times/locales: (1) a vague time some 250 years in the future when society is ruled by warring factions of capitalist scientific elites thinking only about technological progress, with an underbelly of rebels who eschew technology in favor of studying and preserving the knowledge of the past; (2) pre- and post-World War II England and France, when the threats of Fascism and Communism invade all aspects of society, including what should have been the safe haven of literary academia; and (3) a completely separate world of swords and horses created from the mind of a professor in the literary academic life of timeline (2), who has good ideas that aren't fully fleshed out and who tends towards laziness in correcting some of those shortcomings, which results in the world of his creation acting on its own to fill in the gaps. When people from the first timeline become able to cross into the second and third, a truly mind-bending series of events ensues.Pears is known for books that occur in multiple points of history, but most of his other works deal with investigations in the modern world that have historical links shown through flashbacks; in Arcadia, however, what happens in one timeline has material changes for the present(s) in the other timelines, and some of the characters physically jump from one to the other, with often hilarious results. Angela Meerson, a brilliant scientist from timeline (1) with a penchant for stimulants and mind-altering substances, both creates the machine allowing the transfers and seems to befriend or befuddle just about every other character in the book. Henry Lytten, a professor of literature in timeline (2) and an aspiring writer with a history of working for and with England's intelligence services, is the absent-minded professor whose scribblings somehow form an actual world in timeline (3). Rosie, a precocious teenager who has befriended Henry in timeline (2) somehow finds her way into timeline (3), causing all sorts of upheaval with her strange ways, especially to Jay, a young boy from timeline (3) who is prophesied to play some major role in his world's history. Meanwhile, both the scientific establishment and their security apparatus in timeline (1) send their own investigators into timelines (2) and (3), with the expected confusion of both the time-travelers and the people they encounter.The plot is smart, funny, and confusing in the best ways. It makes some satirical, yet profound, statements about each society, with obvious comparisons to our own modern world. I can't say that I was totally pleased with the ending, as not all of the subplots were wrapped up neatly, but it was a fun time- and dimension-hopping ride while the read lasted.Despite an infuriating British tendency to have completely diametrically opposed views from me with respect to comma usage, and the habit to overuse "try and" (instead of "try to"), Pears's writing is solid in most aspects. He's equally adept at literary prose, satirical banter, and 1940s teenager slang, so once I suspended my comma-induced ire, I truly enjoyed the mechanics of this read.I give this a solid recommendation for fans of satirical time-travel and fish-out-of-water stories, as well as books involving dystopian futures and alternate realms.

I took interest in this book after hearing how it was uniquely arranged and dealt with multiple genres that appealed to me. Considering the book isn't out in the US, (aside from the app), until February 2016, I decided on importing the hardcover version.Anyhow, to sum up the book quickly; it's basically a time travel story meets The Chronicles of Narnia with bits and pieces of other stories thrown in; and told in a way similar to how David Mitchell tends to do, jumping between many characters and times. I don't know whether to lean more toward it being more like Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas", (at least in form like the film adaptation, where it jumped around), or more like Heinlein's "All You Zombies", with the way things kind of skewed in form, but could be untangled by the end.I'm not the world's best reviewer, and I really prefer to not spoil the book for anyone who still has yet to read it. Basically, I'd say to give the book a chance. I enjoyed it, and I'm very picky about what I read.The author in the book points out that his Anterworld development, (a story in progress for him), borrows from other stories, and tells them in a "better way". In a way, the very book you're reading, Arcadia, does this. The way the whole thing wraps up is pretty ingenious as well, and is one of the rare cases I didn't feel cheated at the end, or thought "It should have been X instead".Not the best thing I've ever read. Not even the best thing I've read this year. But, good enough. I was going to give the book 4 stars, but the way the book ended being thoroughly satisfying got that extra star from me.

A tour de force into the complexities of the time paradoxFull of real life characters and some extraordinary onesIain Pears never fails you, a master writter indeed

Ich habe das Buch auf Englisch gelesen. Zur deutschen Version kann ich nichts sagen, aber im Original ist das Buch sprachlich hervorragend, wie bei Iain Pears nicht anders zu erwarten.Wie in "An Instance of the Fingerpost" schafft Pears es mühelos, zwischen den 3 verschiedenen Erzählebenen zu wechseln, ohne den Blick für das Ganze zu verlieren. Immer wieder hat man als Leser Aha-Momente, wenn Zusammenhänge plötzlich klar werden.Ja, eine der drei Geschichten ist märchenhaft - Ich persönlich mag Märchen und mochte auch dieses. Arcadia ist für mich eines der besten und unterhaltsamsten Bücher, das ich in den letzten Jahren gelesen habe. Ich freue mich darauf, das Buch mit etwas Abstand irgendwann erneut zu lesen und bin sicher, dann noch viel Neues zu entdecken. Eine absolute Empfehlung!

I am fairly disappointed by this book, the more because Pears’ An Instance at the Fingerpost is a superb book, one of my favourites!, with a complexity of threads and levels, while maintaining a coherence of the plot that makes the final revelation a masterpiece. The Dream of Scipio also covers several historical periods of France Provence with a satisfactory plot and deep enough background (fed by a deep knowledge of the area and the eras…). The background, the broader perspective, the deep humanity of the characters, all these qualities of Pears’ books are lost in Arcadia, which sums up as an accumulation of clichés on dystopias, time-travel, and late 1950’s Oxford academics. [Warning, spoilers ahoy!] The parallel (and broadly medieval) universe to which the 20th century characters time-travel has some justifications for being a new type of Flatland: it is the creation of a single Oxonian academic, a mix of J.R. Tolkien and Eric Ambler. But these 20th century characters are equally charicaturesque. And so are the oppressors and the rebels in the distant future. (Set on the Isle of Mull, of all places!) And the mathematics of the time-travel apparatus are carefully kept hidden (with the vague psychomathematics alluded there reminding me in negative of the carefully constructed Asimov’s psychohistory.)There is a point after which pastiches get stale and unattractive. And boring. (That the book came to be shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke award this year is a mystery.)

端的に言うと、過度に込み入ったファンタジーという印象でした。複雑で詳細、その割に内容が薄く稚拙。表現も並かそれに少し及ばない感じがしました。

Very very good multi track story involving time travel and thriller aspects, bit of David Mitchell, overall an excellent read