The third of the castle novels will take the reader ever deeper into a world of beauty and terror. A world led by an immortal emperor and the circle; his 50 immortal helpers. It is a world with an absentee god, a world that has been fighting a war against giant insects. A world like no other. There will be more insights into Jant, the emperors vain winged messenger, and the shift, the surreal other life Jant enters when he overdoses on his drug of choice and where he meets the dead in a land that defies logic. This is a fantasy series like no other - a literary fantasy with the verve and originality to stand alongside the best of Mervyn Peake, M. John Harrison and China Mieville.
The Modern World (Gollancz S.F.)
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"Visceral and intense action scenes....The Modern World is vivid and fun, full of colourful and flawed characters." (DEATHRAY )
The Modern World is another glimpse into a fantasy world so agrresive it could knock seven shades of Hell out of most entries in the genre. We can't recommend it highly enough." (Jayne Nelson SFX )
"Swainston is allowing us to find out a lot more about the other Immortals and their history, which is probably the most interesting part of the story." (STARBURST )
"Entertaining and ingenious." (Roz Kaveney TIME OUT )
The Modern World is another glimpse into a fantasy world so agrresive it could knock seven shades of Hell out of most entries in the genre. We can't recommend it highly enough." (Jayne Nelson SFX )
"Swainston is allowing us to find out a lot more about the other Immortals and their history, which is probably the most interesting part of the story." (STARBURST )
"Entertaining and ingenious." (Roz Kaveney TIME OUT )
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This book is published in the USA as DANGEROUS OFFSPRING.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By S. Bentley
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Modern World is the third of the Castle stories and as such would be a bad place for a new reader to start. There is much reliance on readers being familiar with the Shift, the Vermiform and the Circle, and though I would never discourage anyone from starting where ever they liked in the sequence, I think the book is more satisfying when taken as the culmination of the story begun in The Year of Our War.
For newcomers, Steph Swainston's work will appeal to fans of Mervyn Peake, M. John Harrison, Michael Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time and China Mievelle, with its fantasy world given immediacy by all too human characters and a shot of the new weird, through alternate realities entered through drug use, and an implacable insect enemy seemingly borrowed from Robert Heinlein.
In this story we begin with Jant being sent to retrieve Saker's daughter Cyan, who has run away from home to get up to unsavoury acts as teenagers whose fathers are centuries old immortal archers are wont to do. We are immediately reacquainted with Jant's bad past, his self-deception and his weakness but also his sense of humour and the humanity that his faults give him. He thinks he sees far from his lofty vantage point, up in the air on those wings of his, but in many ways he's as deluded as anyone else. But once Cyan is brought back to the fold, the story really stops being about Jant and becomes more about the threat of the insects and the fate of Lightning.
In this book, the threat of the insects becomes the greatest it has ever been. Their behaviour shifts, and a mistake by one of the Circle of Immortals, an act of pride, threatens to allow the Fourlands to finally be overrun.... Read more ›
For newcomers, Steph Swainston's work will appeal to fans of Mervyn Peake, M. John Harrison, Michael Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time and China Mievelle, with its fantasy world given immediacy by all too human characters and a shot of the new weird, through alternate realities entered through drug use, and an implacable insect enemy seemingly borrowed from Robert Heinlein.
In this story we begin with Jant being sent to retrieve Saker's daughter Cyan, who has run away from home to get up to unsavoury acts as teenagers whose fathers are centuries old immortal archers are wont to do. We are immediately reacquainted with Jant's bad past, his self-deception and his weakness but also his sense of humour and the humanity that his faults give him. He thinks he sees far from his lofty vantage point, up in the air on those wings of his, but in many ways he's as deluded as anyone else. But once Cyan is brought back to the fold, the story really stops being about Jant and becomes more about the threat of the insects and the fate of Lightning.
In this book, the threat of the insects becomes the greatest it has ever been. Their behaviour shifts, and a mistake by one of the Circle of Immortals, an act of pride, threatens to allow the Fourlands to finally be overrun.... Read more ›
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Great stuff! Swainston manages to keep her imaginitive world feeling very fresh and interesting. We learn so much more about the secondary characters and really get to feel some of what they're going through. The story starts quickly and with wondrous skill, making this a fantastic read.
Definitely read the others first, as they're important to the characters and the plot, but don't wait before reading this third instalment!
9 / 10
Definitely read the others first, as they're important to the characters and the plot, but don't wait before reading this third instalment!
9 / 10
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Fae Zorz
Format:Hardcover
Apart from a little too much of the "Insect battles" (and in fact the words Insect and mandibles) this is again another story about yes- more Insects. A little more variation would have been nice, although there was nice twist on the insect plot.
The narration of Jant was again quirky and blunt, punctured with foul language mainly tastefully used. A little less sexually exciting though with no real love plot of any kind, and very lacking in Tern. A couple of chapters when the narration flicked to Lightning were interesting but didn't really work in a one person narrative.
Once the story gets going (takes a while) it's good, and it has some good twists and develops a few characters. A brief trip into the shift, and a tiny bit on drugs, but this is mainly focussing on the word which they live in, and where the immortality comes from. So if you're looking for another sexy/drugs and alcohol fantasy it's not really in that style, but I think we're still looking at a couple more books to come!
The narration of Jant was again quirky and blunt, punctured with foul language mainly tastefully used. A little less sexually exciting though with no real love plot of any kind, and very lacking in Tern. A couple of chapters when the narration flicked to Lightning were interesting but didn't really work in a one person narrative.
Once the story gets going (takes a while) it's good, and it has some good twists and develops a few characters. A brief trip into the shift, and a tiny bit on drugs, but this is mainly focussing on the word which they live in, and where the immortality comes from. So if you're looking for another sexy/drugs and alcohol fantasy it's not really in that style, but I think we're still looking at a couple more books to come!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Mr. S. Crook
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
'The Modern World' and 'Dangerous Offspring' are the same book, different (better) cover on 'The modern world'. As I found to my cost as I have both of them
That said, this will appeal to those who liked the earlier books and those that didn't are unlikely to find anything in this instalment to change their minds. The writing is as elliptical as ever, with some passages seeming to have no immediate relevance (Lightning relating family trees for two pages springs to mind), but they do make a point and are best not skipped.
The only major change in this book is that Steph. makes a concession to new readers with almost a whole page (shock) of back story, so start with 'The year of our war', or you really won't have much of a clue about what's going on.
That said, this will appeal to those who liked the earlier books and those that didn't are unlikely to find anything in this instalment to change their minds. The writing is as elliptical as ever, with some passages seeming to have no immediate relevance (Lightning relating family trees for two pages springs to mind), but they do make a point and are best not skipped.
The only major change in this book is that Steph. makes a concession to new readers with almost a whole page (shock) of back story, so start with 'The year of our war', or you really won't have much of a clue about what's going on.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The third and possibly not last part of Steph's epic Castle series (Well its called a trilogy but I've heard that one before and theres so much left to get wrapped up.) As we have come to expect from her work we get a tale that really does throw the reader to the lions from page one and lets face it, those who've read her work before really don't; object to this type of treatment. Fights to the death, sieges, multiple plots, what more does a reader want, this really is the new generation of Fantasy although if you haven't read the first two novels you really are missing out and that is where I would suggest starting if you haven't read them already.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Paul K
Format:Hardcover
'The Modern World' shares the same distinctive, sometimes baroque, always nuanced, style of Steph Swainston's two previous novels, placing it firmly in the Castle sequence. As the third book in a fantasy sequence, the reader might approach it with an expectation of conclusion, expecting the pat finishing touches of a conventional trilogy. Instead, Swainston reminds the reader firmly that whatever it might be, this is not a conventional trilogy. She deftly combines a satisfying sense of closure to some plot strands, whilst deliberately declining other opportunities to 'conventionalise' the narrative into a finale. 'The Modern World' shows an ever maturing sense of balance between purity of authorial intent and accessibility that certainly worked well for this reader.
All three of Steph's books so far have woven a complex narrative dialogue between the first person narration of Jant, characterised by his immediate engagement with the worldly events of the Fourlands, and the deeper, and more fundamental story of Lightning, played out in the context of those events. At once the oldest and perhaps powerful of the immortal Circle, but at the same time the most emotionally circumscribed, the deep passions that lie within Lightning's persona have steadily emerged through the stories as much through what Lightning doesn't do or say, the options to engage with the world he declines and postpones, as much as what he actually does truly participate in and do.
The three books are very much about the progress of Lightning back to humanity, but Jant - the all-seeing messenger - does not retell the story around that theme. Typically, Jant tells an utterly self-centred version of events.... Read more ›
All three of Steph's books so far have woven a complex narrative dialogue between the first person narration of Jant, characterised by his immediate engagement with the worldly events of the Fourlands, and the deeper, and more fundamental story of Lightning, played out in the context of those events. At once the oldest and perhaps powerful of the immortal Circle, but at the same time the most emotionally circumscribed, the deep passions that lie within Lightning's persona have steadily emerged through the stories as much through what Lightning doesn't do or say, the options to engage with the world he declines and postpones, as much as what he actually does truly participate in and do.
The three books are very much about the progress of Lightning back to humanity, but Jant - the all-seeing messenger - does not retell the story around that theme. Typically, Jant tells an utterly self-centred version of events.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ignore the sad cover and unfriendly font, and you won't be sorry
I picked up this book (known in America as Dangerous Offspring) because I'd heard some interesting things about Swainston as an author - people either seemed to love or loathe her... Read more
Published 20 months ago by sjhigbee
5.0 out of 5 stars
More Castle for your pleasure.
Wow. Tour de Force.
'The Modern World', the third book in Steph Swainston's Castle series (and if you haven't read the first two - why not? Read more
'The Modern World', the third book in Steph Swainston's Castle series (and if you haven't read the first two - why not? Read more
Published on 16 Aug 2007 by Black Van Man
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intricate descriptions, and a fast paced plot that moves the story,...
As I have said in reviews of the first two books, Steph Swainston creates a unique fantasy vision. The world called the Fourlands itself is not unique; but there are immortals in... Read more
Published on 8 Jun 2007 by Larry Ketchersid
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