I like dystopian future novels and when I saw the write up of Gnomon I really wanted to read it.

Gnomon isn't a simple book that you can just flick through - the reader needs to concentrate and at times, I wasn't sure where I was at all! However, I stuck with it and the journey was worth it.

Don't get this book if you're just after a quick and simple read. If you enjoy being challenged by ideas, characters and plot, then this one's for you

I did not finish reading the book, the premise sounded interesting but i was to confused to early on with the plot and characters

Of all the novels I’ve read this year, Gnomon is by far the most ambitious, conceptually and stylistically. Nick Harkaway is surely the intellectual love-child of M.C.Escher and Umberto Eco.
I find it nearly impossible to describe Gnomon. It’s a thriller, a mystery, dystopian (or utopian?), literary, verging in moments on academic.
The story unfolds through various interweaving narratives (think David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas). Narration shifts through various third person and first person voices, and yet each voice is so distinct that you never have to wonder whose story you’re reading now. Tension ebbs and flows, and the pace is relatively sedate, with long explorations of mythology, politics, catabasis, and steganography. Gnomon makes you work hard but the payoff is beyond worth it. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Tried really hard to get into this book. However, at 29% read on my Kindle I gave up and sorry to say went onto something a little less challenging.

Set sometime in the future, in a radically democratised UK under the constant and supposedly benign surveillance of a computer programme, a woman dies in custody. Diana Hunter was a known antagonist of the system and was having her head examined – her memories literally reviewed – by the Witness when she died.

Inspector Mielikki Neith will be investigating the circumstances of her death and, as the novel itself explains in the opening, she will soon lose ‘faith in everything she has believed in her life’, especially the system.

I loved this novel. I loved its complexity, the way one story bled into another, the way the past, present and future seemed to meld, constantly questioning your sense of story.

As Mielikki Neith goes through Diana Hunter’s Witness sessions (this is done through a kind of mental feed so that she relives the memories as if they were her own), she finds herself exploring dreams and memories of more characters than she bargained for. The weavings of myth (unsurprising given many of the names Harkaway uses), religion, mathematics, and many other systems of belief, lead to a pleasing array of thoughts on self-governance, systems and the constraints that a desire for rest and safety put on our own understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

The book is gripping and at times delightfully bemusing. However, by the time I reached the end and the narrator, Gnomon itself – a colonising mind from the future – leaves us with the thought that stories write their way into readers, redefining readers whilst immortalising themselves and even colonising the minds of others, I felt unsure of my own response. There was an arrogance here that deadened the beauty of the novel into something less exciting, less anarchic, but perhaps I just enjoyed the story too much and simply wanted it to go on.

As well as challenging the human instinct to trust and be faithful to the systems we are born and raised within, Gnomon is simply a fun and riotous read. It’s not surprising that terms like labyrinth have been used to publicise it, but who the monster is at the centre and how we should feel in response to them, whether we should pity, kill or escape from them, remains uncertain for me. It may all become clear as greater distance builds between me and my reading. One thing is certain, I’m still thinking about the book. It still lives inside me and this is both an exciting and chilling prospect. There is no denying Nick Harkaway’s story spinning skills.

This has been a hard book to review. I find this is surprisingly often of true the very best books, say the ones you'd give six out of five stars to if you could.

In the case of Gnomon I think there are three reasons for this. First, it's simply got glorious writing, plotting and superb characters. Nothing there to niggle about. Secondly, it's a very dense book - I don't mean it's heavy reading, I mean that the form and content of the book is perfect, the very least it needs to be to do its job, to reshape the reader's mind and make something new. It's therefore hard to distil it any further and a review just risks giving a very weak impression of the real thing. Any selection will do Gnomon a disservice. Finally it is a long book. At 684 pages (in the ARC I had) this is not a book to be taken casually. You need to set aside the time to read it carefully and you should be ready for variations in pace, tone and philosophical complexity that will slow you down or even make you stop, crosscheck and even reread before you've finished. So it's hard to be sure that a review has covered everything it needs to.

Nevertheless, I will do my best because want to persuade you to go and get this book and to read it next, before the heap of other books you doubtless have waiting. It's a timely book, as well as being very entertaining. It is a great experience. While serious in intent and crammed with ideas, it's a wonderful read.

So where to begin? Perhaps by recalling that when I was an undergraduate, decades ago, Douglas Hofstadter's book Godel, Escher, Bach was very popular, almost required, reading. It explores the recursive nature of Godel's mathematics, Bach's music and Escher's pictures as an aid to a discussion of artificial intelligence. There are puzzles, stories that fold backwards on themselves, recursive dialogues and sub dialogues and plenty of real maths.

Gnomon echoes GEB is a number of ways - its structure encapsulates the subject, being recursive and ramified; it explicitly invokes Bach; it is preoccupied, I think, by what is real - which is explored by setting up alternate viewpoints that the reader can only accept if some of them aren't, at some level, real. And as I have said, it it long.

Starting with the death of a suspect in custody in a near future UK (after 2040, but it's not clear exactly when) the story follows the investigation of Diana Hunter's life and final interrogation (her name is significant. In Gnomon, everything is significant). Inspector Mielikki Neith is the best investigator that The Witness has, a celebrated officer with an enviable clearup record, and putting her on the case is as good as a promise to the public that the matter will be taken seriously.

The Witness. This is the policing of the future - an AI supported system with access to deep and varied datasets (what your washing machine reports back, what the ubiquitous face and gait recognition has to say, you name it, they have it). The Inspectors provide the human touch necessary in dealing with people, but make no mistake, this is all about massive deep profiling of the population who, within The System, have adopted a creepy, surveilled way of life - all for their own good, you understand. Not Nineteen Eighty Four, nothing so naked and honest, rather the State has creepingly (and creepily) assumed terrifying powers, each with justification and with the consent of the governed

Hunter was, it seems, a dissident, living off-grid, her home Faraday-caged, her past mysteriously firewalled. (If you've read Harkaway's Angelmaker you may wonder about a connection with the wonderful Edie...) As Neith is drawn deeper into trying to understand her, one question dominates: what did Hunter think she could achieve, resisting interrogation, retreating further and further into her own mind? What was she running from? What was she running towards?

The book makes use of several loosely related sub-narratives, revealed as characters in Hunter's interrogation. Living, experiencing the records of that interrogation, Neith discovers layers of stories: an alchemist in the late Roman empire who is the former lover of Saint Augustine ('Give me chastity, Lord, but not yet'), a banker guided though life and finance by a numerical shark, an artist from Ethiopia who painted Haillie Selassie and whose daughter seems, in the past, to be building The System, and Gnomon itself, an all-powerful being from the future. Are these stories true, within the structure of the book? Do they encode deeper information? Are the subjects real (and at what level?)

The stories begin as fairly self-contained with their own themes and concerns. There are thoughts on Brexit and on racism in 21st century London (Bekele, the artist, remembers that 'The wealthy immigrant population in Addis Ababa was still very white and very proud' while the white nationalists he encounters in London might reflect that Addis was 'a power in the world when London was a herd of pigs defecating in a muddy stream. There is churning Greek nationalism in the wake of a financial crisis which makes our banker, Kyriakos, very rich, but also makes him enemies. There is the story of Athenaïs, that late Roman alchemist, who seems enmeshed in an occult conspiracy that rivals something out of Foucault's Pendulum - complete with faked magical scrolls and a whole confabulated Chamber of Isis, a crucible where everything comes together and deep magic may be wrought.

Then resonances and connections appear. The separate tales begin to outgrow their framing. While there is an explanation within the context of the continuing narrative, rooted in Hunter's mysterious aims, the stories evolve and their protagonists become something more, acquiring deeper purposes and doing things that echo in the (that is, Neith's) 'real' world. But they don't, didn't, exist in that world, as her enquiries show. Just how powerful was Hunter's ability to fox The System? is she foxing us, too? (Almost certainly).

In the gaps between the separate tales Harkaway's novel takes wing, as he hints at and trails ideas, encodes secrets and dwells on classical mythology, art, music, history and such diverse topics as alchemy, late Roman syncretism and the Hermetic society of the super-rich. The separate strands are all absorbing in themselves (Harkaway could probably have got four novels out of them) although as he makes plain the story is only complete when they are taken together. The idea of a 5-fold structure is endlessly repeated, played with, disassembled, rebuilt and reworked (most obviously in the work of Bekele ('I have seen life as fantasy, and painted it in my fivefold way') but also in the way that Hunter is 'stenographically hidden in my own thoughts... If they want to know what I know, they'll have to put me back together first'). Then there is the five-fold security, something you have, something you know, something you are and the last two proved twice. There are the five rivers of Hades that must be crossed. There are the "Five concentric branes or skeins" that are said to make up true reality. And so on.

If four of the viewpoints are alchemist, artist, banker and demon, whose is the fifth? Hunter being elusive, empty, chimerical, I think the fifth element is Neith itself. She's more than just the investigator, she has, as hinted at the start by the enigmatic Regno Lönnrot, her own part. She is the Winston Smith, the Grail Knight who will - or won't - quest for the occulted truth and save the land.

From what will she save it? At the centre of the book is a concern with all that data. The System is benign, we are told. It is there for us. Democratic checks and balances are included so that the technology serves us, not the other way round. Yet the result is sinister, Harkaway brilliantly hinting at the doubts that even a loyal and successful member of society like Neith might hold, at the shadows behind the reality. If there is a centre to Gnomon it's a desperate warning that we may be, step by well intentioned step, walking into a captivity to pervasive and relentless that we can't even see it for what it is. 'All this technology flowed in its earliest days from America. With it came the political and social assumptions of a small number of engineers and entrepreneurs, predominantly male and white...'

That may be the centre, but there is so much more here. There's beautiful writing ('a lonely detective pursuing or fleeing a killer along a film noir alleyway whose shadows were cast not by dressed net-gothic stone but by the steel and glass of tomorrow's Skid Row'). There's humour ('Here I am, a Greek in a sack, in the back of a truck... It does slightly seem as if it might be a very violent Dr Suess book...')

And there are secrets. What does the repeated text "FA LA JI RO" mean? Perhaps the key is a throwaway comment that something is 'like reading a book where all the stories are jumbled up and there's just a line of numbers at the beginning to tell you where to start'.

The stories in this book are jumbled up.

There is a line of numbers at the start.

I'm going to finish the review now and go and break some codes.

Perhaps I, too, can be Gnomon.

Diane Hunter dies. Under interrogation. In the UK of the future governed through the system this should not happen. So Inspector Neith is sent to investigate. From therein you are on your own. You may be reading this book but you can really only experience it - or not, if you so choose. Many will love the crazy, helterskelter ride it will give them, many will wonder at the time it has spent them to get as far as they do whether or not to the end. I hope that if you choose to read this book you are the former and enjoy your visit to the fair/circus/Anglo-Greek playground of God, gods, man, woman and machine. If not then perhaps this is a book to leave on a public bench somewhere for another to try.

With thanks to Willian Heinemann via NetGalley for an e-ARC in return for an honest review.

Rating: 3*

Ok, I will make this a very short review. I don’t believe in giving bad reviews unless the book is awful. This is not a bad book, but it is a long book.

The story seemed interesting - I love dystopian fiction, but I found the story bewildering. It is the first novel that I have read by Nick Harkaway. For me this was a very slow read and it felt like the author was using twenty-five words when five would have done. Be prepared to concentrate!

I did however struggle on and complete the book after bookmarking it and going back to it half a dozen times. It just wasn't for me

Lastly many thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for providing me with a copy this book in return for a fair and honest review.

If I had to select a description involving X meets Y, then Gnomon is a little like War and Peace meets Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Inception.  I read War and Peace on a beach holiday.  Once I realised the trick was to skip the boring treatises on the nature of war, I found the story excellent.  If you take Gnomon to a place where you will not be disturbed, skim the bits that are too dense for your particular interests in life, you'll find a really good story in there.  But the more interesting bits (as opposed to the story) depend on what your frames of reference are, and how much you enjoy literary discourse in your novels.

Gnomon is set in a contemporary futuristic world where deliberative governance has developed so far that everybody is a democrat and the System watches to ensure that everyone does their civic duty.  Everyone is civil to one another, the system will give you hints on the behaviour, interests, compatibility and most other things you want to know about someone before you meet them, and everyone lives in harmony, more or less.

Of course, there are always people who disagree with the System, yet decide not to leave and find a system of governance that suits their beliefs better.  Like Diana Hunter. The trouble is, Diana Hunter died during a supposedly routine investigation. The Investigator, who has a somewhat Finnish name, is called in to ensure the case is fully reviewed and any wrong-doing sorted out.  The means she has at her disposal is to have a sort of mind-meld with the now deceased Diana Hunter's brain.

The first episode seems to be consistent with Diana Hunter.  The second is not, and confused the hell out of me. During the third I started to read in depth the bits I found interesting—like the methodology for bringing down the global stock exchange—and skimming the ones I didn't.  The author uses very long-winded ways to get through these scenes.  It's partly phraseology, rhetoric, and looping. It may also be trying to mimic absurdities in the dream state. I suppose I should have noticed the bit in the blurb saying the author took three years to complete it. That's probably not three years of editing and submissions and rewriting. I think it's three years of 'clever' writing.  It may also be why some sections seem different in voice from others. There is a disjointedness about it which might be deliberate. Then again, they may have been written at different times and the author has moved on. The range of subjects covered is huge, though.

Most of the other reviewers I've seen agree on a love-hate relationship with this book. There was a critical moment, at 20% in, when I thought of abandoning it.  Fortunately the author finished that episode just in time, and after that, I did want to read to the end—selectively.  Do you fancy War and Peace in a weird contemporary fantasy suspense? I recommend it when you have plenty of time to devote to it.  If not, well, a gnomon is something sticking out of the plane it's set in, so be warned.

As always Nick Harkaway's books are exceedingly well written. As gripping as a thriller but with substantially more and deeper layers of rich texture. Very enjoyable, the only downside is the wait for the next one.

I found the begining very confusing, I found that the writing didn't flow easily, and the narrative just seemed very disjointed.

I perservered with this for 5 days, and it really wasn't gripping me so I had to DNF it (which is very rare that I do, as I hate DNF'ing a book), but there seemed to be no story behind any of the narratives that I got up to and I only got 14% in through it and I was just lost and not captivated by this book.

I really wanted to like this book as the premise just sounded so intriguing but I just couldn't follow it.

Would I attempt this book again in the future, probably not, it just ended up giving me a headache trying to figure out what was going on with this book.

This is an exciting story, and made me think.
A complex future dystopic world is described where mind and memory are read by specialists and then altered. There are echoes of Soviet Union psychiatric abuses, anyone critical of the system, anyone who doesn't conform is considered mad and their brains 'treated' until they do conform (echoes of Orwell's 1984). In this world everyones every internet search, every interaction, every thought is open to scrutiny by the computer system. Keeping people safe by denying them any true freedom or responsibility.
Rebellious Diana Hunter's mind is read, revealing not just her memories but four other peoples stories, each interweaving with the other (reminding me of Cloud Atlas), complex and confusing at first, all becomes clear and coherent by the end of the novel.
The author casually uses terms such as Fernweh, Alkahest, Quipu, Meraki and Atsumi which had me happily reaching for the dictionary.
This book touches on Important themes about freedom and capitalism, demonstrating that privacy and freedom of the individual are significant values and arguing against ‘Those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear”; we all have things we don’t want the entire world to know, not necessarily shameful or sinful things, but ,experiences and vulnerabilities which change the way other people look at you

Memorable quote-
“‘Free’ came to mean not ‘unchained’ but ‘unpaid’ – a conflation that no doubt delighted authoritarians across the globe”.
This book will repay re-reading and may well be studied for PhD's in ten years time.

I will not be reviewing this title for the reasons I have given in the "Reviewer opinions". I will not be posting a review on my blog or anywhere else.

Just as I get engaged with the narrative ,boom, the author changes the narrator, the setting and more or less everything else. I stopped reading midway as I was becoming baffled and frustrated. What a shame as the writing is fabulous and several of the narratives so intriguing.

I'll return and reread!

Sadly I was unable to finish this novel. I loved the synopsis, a dystopian novel set in the not too distant future where The System ensures the populations safety, health and general well-being. However what I found was an incredibly slow-moving, wordy novel. I pride myself on having a relatively good vocabulary but found myself reaching for the dictionary as long, complicated words were thrown at me. That removed some of the enjoyment for me.

I don't want to assume that others won't love this novel, however it just wasn't for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for the ARC of this novel.

This was an epic of a book that just proved too big in scope for me. I will admit that I tend to skim through books quite quickly and this one won't allow you to do that, The prose is very well written but you do need to have patience. If you love to delve into a book and be immersed in it for weeks, this is for you. If, like me, you prefer to have read a couple of books or more in that time, this one's not for you.

As. clever as I. can see this is .. a cool intervention by the Witness into mind of a rebellious, intrepid humanist in this controlled-minded future dystopian works (although they don't think so!) , I could not warm up or engage with it. It means to speak to our fears of a future world managed for well being by artificial influenced, almost 'real'. Just didn't work for me ..I like warmth and real life human figures. Not much of a story! Human needs of story are questioned. by the society, and they are obliterated . But the protester Nicolette jobs before she realizes she has .. been taken over.

Good science fiction is about ideas. The best takes us to worlds and introduces us to ideas which ordinary literature cannot. Nick Harkaway has the imagination to create the visions that science fiction readers love best.

I found this very hard going. I read it till the end as it was a review copy but felt I could have been reading something else that was much better......Not for me.

There's an awful lot to chew on here, so much so that it feels almost wrong to write a review after one reading. It demands a reread, but I think I could read this a hundred times and still not find every allusion, every sly reference, or unpick every layer. It's a big, brave book, wrapped in a future dystopia but echoing back through time, with plenty to say about our current society and the directions it could be headed in. It won't be for everyone, but if it clicks with you, it'll <i>really</i> click. Good work, Mr Harkaway!