- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Voyager; paperback / softback edition (15 Feb 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006477259
- ISBN-13: 978-0006477259
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,407,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
When they take away your electronic add-ons, new senses and new ways of thinking, you get sick and apathetic and want to die. Yale and his wife Joanne built cities on the Moon, but now nobody wants to know; Artificial Intelligences have sent mere humans home, and the authorities are frightened of what people might be allowed to become if the wires are not stripped out of their heads. And now Joanne is mysteriously dead, and nobody wants to know about that either; Yale has had enough, and starts wandering around asking awkward questions, and soon people are trying to kill him, and he is discovering that he has a nasty temper... The gloomiest of Simon Ings' triptych of novels about the transhuman condition, this is less fancy than Hot Head and Hotwire; more like a thriller and less like a space opera. There is pain in all three books, but only here is there a sense that there are some pains which will never go away. Set in a decaying London and derelict Yorkshire of the near future, this is perhaps Ings' most adult and intelligent novel; sf that refuses the stock consolations of sf. --Roz Kaveney
Review
‘Hot Head is entertaining and intelligent’
Time Out
‘Hot Head is the rosy glow announcing the dawn of a new era of excitement in science fiction’
New York Review of Science Fiction
‘Simon Ings goes into orbit as a science fiction master’
Daily Mail
‘SF’s hippest star’
Dazed and Confused
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
'Headlong' is a mostly successul meld of science fiction and detective thriller, as a one-time surgically enhanced 'post-human' struggles to uncover the reasons behind the death of his wife. The science fiction aspects are certainly intruiging enough, as Ings paints a portrait of a man coming to terms with a loss of extra senses, though it has to be said that the whodunnit aspects can become a little more tiresome, with the mechanical aspects of plotting often outweighing any real character development for anyone beside the hero. By no means a classic of the genre, 'Headlong' is still an interesting and enjoyable near-future SF ride.
Format:Paperback
Reading the reviews you could have been forgiven for thinking that this was one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written.
It isn't.
However, it is moderately well written, suitably downbeat, dirty and very, very English, with pessimistic politics and an enjoyably anti-climactic ending. If the book had been better it could have been described as Maureen F. McHugh remixed by Jeff Noon, dosed with a bit of Christopher Priest. In common with the McHugh and Priest, Ings does well at describing the confusion and boredom engendered by technology. Like Noon, he has a reasonable handle on 'the street'.
However he is not as hip as he likes to make out, a quality which he also shares with Noon. And, linked to this is an irritating superficiality. Take the continuous name-checks: we know from the author description he used to write for 'Vogue', does he have to mention the magazine at every opportunity? Unfortunately this and the blatant attempt to tie into the current trend for bland 'his and hers' London relationship novels diminshes the impact of the book, and renders it ultimately average.
Format:Paperback
An intelligent and gripping trip into the mind of post-fantasy humans - transhumans. To survive the moon one needs plugs (devices that fit into your head) this gives telepathy, out of body experiences - conversations without thought. However - when forced to leave the moon, these 'plugs' are ripped out, giving rise to massive withdrawl symptons - EAI. When the ex-wife of the 'hero' - Christopher - is found murdered - a tale unfolds as Christopher is banded around various locations whilst trying to keep his back clean.
A lot if intrigue and double faced-ness make sure you never quite know what's round the corner.
Whilst trying to find out how his wife died, he is repeatedly attacked by various people all for different reasons. and then there's Jewel. What does it do? Who is it? Where does it come from?
A very gripping story, with a twist at the end, then a twist to a twist - sort of an inversal of spin on the first twist.
Great read.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
impressive
Don't underestimate this book. Its relatively slow pace belies its complexity. This is a type of sf we don't see enough of: about choices and pain. Reminiscent of Cordwainer Smith.
Published on 16 May 2000 by Farah
A good, pacy SF novel set in the UK. Read in the bath.
The general atmosphere of this SF thriller is reminiscent of other UK-set books, such as Pollen, by Jeff Noon and Slow River, by Nicola Griffiths. Read more
Published on 3 Mar 1999
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