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Marcher
 
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Marcher (Mass Market Paperback)

by Chris Beckett (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
RRP: £5.99
Price: £4.48 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Dorchester Publishing (1 Jan 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 084396197X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0843961973
  • Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.6 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 57,006 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful and inventive, 31 Mar 2009
By U. M. McCormack "Una McCormack" (Cambridge, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Chris Beckett's intelligent second novel is concerned with borders and transgressions. The novel's narrator, Charles Bowen, is an immigration officer, but the migrants he pursues are `shifters', able to move between infinite universes by means of the drug `slip'. Then shifters begin to murder in the name of the Norse gods, taking slip to evade the consequences of their actions.

The novel's setting is an Earth similar to our own but with certain significant differences, not least the `inclusion zones' into which the British underclass has been segregated, paid welfare money but disenfranchised - a clever idea which lets the novel explore the enduring class boundaries of contemporary Britain. Charles's hesitancy in his relationship with girlfriend Jaz poignantly illustrates the psychological boundaries that people erect in self-protection. A thoughtful and inventive novel.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing and thought provoking, 31 Jan 2009
By Dr. Sarah A. Brown "Sarah Brown" (Cambridge) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
In his second novel, 'Marcher', Chris Beckett returns to some of the themes and characters of his earlier short stories. The novel is set in a near future world in which members of the underclass are forced to live in special `inclusion zones'. Although they receive welfare benefits they are disenfranchised and in some cases prohibited from leaving their home estates. This characteristic of the Marcher universe forces us to examine the comparable (if less regimented) class dynamics of our own society. (I was reminded of the rather similar near future world of John Christopher's underrated 'The Guardians'.)

Marcher's narrator, Charles, is an immigration officer who is responsible for dealing with `shifters', people who use an illegal drug known as `slip' to move from one universe to another. Those who possess the drug are able to commit terrible crimes knowing that they can easily escape to another world and completely escape punishment. Many shifters worship the Norse gods, apparently because they have been influenced by a remote alternate universe in which Christianity never took hold in Britain.

Beckett addresses large questions and problems in this novel. Charles is forced to realize that if he found what he longed for he still would be no happier and must decide whether it is weaker to run away from his responsibilities or remain where he is, avoiding the risks which might transform his life.

Beckett's emphasis on mirrors, on doubles, on the permeable boundaries between both worlds and people, and his use of a rather cool and detached outsider figure as a narrator put me in mind of several of Christopher Priest's novels, in particular 'The Glamour' and 'The Extremes'. Thoroughly recommended.
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