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Bold As Love (Gollancz S.F.) (Paperback)

by Gwyneth Jones (Author) "The sun was setting in a flood of scarlet and gold as a small white van cruised to a halt on the Caversham Road ..." (more)
4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Gollancz; New edition edition (9 May 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 057507292X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0575072923
  • Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 215,823 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #4 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > J > Jones, Gwyneth

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Bold As Love is technically a science fiction novel, set as it is in a near future of political collapse and technological development, and yet it sprawls over the border between SF and fantasy. Ax is a rock musician conscripted by the government of post-Union England to consider the future and co-opt the counter-culture. He stays on to run things when the disgusting character, Pigsty, massacres his way to power, and Ax gradually becomes the much-loved centre of power and policy. Part of what keeps him ahead of events is a brain implant with all the information a benevolent despot might need; part is his fey lover Fiorinda and his best friend Sage, who is in love with Fiorinda and not sure of his exact feelings for Ax. These three are almost a latter-day Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot... a fact that does not bode well for the second volume.

Jones' picture of a world falling apart at the seams--with its worryingly coherent portrayal of a competent dictator--is one of the more impressive things she has done; and Fiorinda with her conscience and angst-ridden past is a passionately lovable heroine. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Three extraordinary people in some most extraordinary times: It's Dissolution Summer and as the United Kingdom prepares to break up into separate nations, the Counterculturals have gathered for a festival where everything's allowed. Among them is a talented little brat called Fiorinda, rock and roll princess by birth, searching for her father, the legendary Rufus O'Niall. Instead, she finds Ax Preston, the softly spoken guitarman with bizarre delusions about saving the country from the dark ages. Together with Sage Pender, techno-wizard king of the lads, they join the pop-icon team that's supposed to make the government look cool. Rock Legends. True Romance. A stunning fantasy about England.

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The sun was setting in a flood of scarlet and gold as a small white van cruised to a halt on the Caversham Road. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars worthy winner of the Clarke award, 21 Aug 2002
By A Customer
This is a superb book. (I actually read its sequel, Castles Made of Sand, first, as it was in our local library; read that in one sitting and went out and bought this the next day.) It's set in a recognisably near-future England, where devolution for Scotalnd and Wales is just about to become independence, anti-capitalists and the lunatic fringe of the environmental movement have grown from a minor nuisance to a serious threat to society, and a government even more devoted to focus groups than Tony Blair has decided that the best way to tackle the problem is to instigate a Counter-Cultural Think Tank to give it street cred. Add to this a double-cross which leaves most of the said Think Tank dead, and an armed uprising by Islamic militants in Yorkshire, and you have all the ingredients of a total social collapse - which Ax Preston, brilliant guitarist and committed, driven social idealist ("I don't want to be a politician, I want to be a leader") is determined to avoid. His allies are rock stars, his methods range from a small shooting war through rock festivals to religious conversion, and the whole thing is played out over some of the most historically resonant bits of the English landscape.

The real strengths of the book are the writing, which is magnificent, and the characterisation of the three principal actors, Ax, Fiorinda and Sage Pender, which is deep, subtle and brilliantly drawn. (Though I do think the portait of Ax the strategist - super-competent, driven, frighteningly prepared to sacrifice anything for the greater good - needs the balance that we get with Ax the lover (decidedly more human, actually *making mistakes*) in Castles.) The evocation of England - people, history, landscape and myth - is also beautifully done. Having been raised in Scotland, I was suitably flattered that my adopted country copes much better with Jones' set of future disasters than England does - but in all honesty I think that's a literary device to keep the focus tight.

Okay, so I do have a few quibbles, mainly with the basic scene-set, which seems curiously old-fashioned: I'm not convinced that rock music has the sort of high profile these days that it has to have for Bold As Love to work, and would a techno-wizard whose performance consists of computer imagery, a seriously acrobatic stage act, and "vile noises" really idolise - and take his stage name from - the Grateful Dead? And comment, not criticism: for a Clarke award winner, this has a rather tangential relationship with science fiction (if Iain Banks had written it, I think it would have been a black-and-white-cover and no middle initial job).

Summary: good plot, fine writing, engaging characters. I've put a few hatchet-job reviews on this site: it's nice to be able to redress the balance with a wholehearted recommendation!

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars a festival novel, 31 Aug 2002
By MR STEPHEN PALMER (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
Though this novel is a fantasy, the fact that its author is Gwyneth Jones means that we have a book here with a conscience. Bold As Love works because its author, already known for her strengths of characterisation and originality of setting, has decided to take the festi culture that she knows as her backdrop. The whole thing has enough twists and turns to keep it moving, enough heart to make it feel real, and enough SF interest to keep the reader thinking.

Quite rightly, it has won the 2002 Arthur C. Clarke Award. Recommended to all readers who love a novel with: ingenuity, originality, readability, great one-liners, oddness, social comment, horrible bits (thankfully not too many, but the author is a bit of a social realist, if I could borrow that term from Blackadder), strange bits, moving bits... I could go on, but there really are alots of bits to this multi-faceted novel.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Blazed (like a bonfire), 15 Dec 2004
By A Customer
I love this book. "Bold As Love" is not fantasy, it's not sci-fi, it's the world around us with a rock and roll twist, treated in a way that manages to be incredibly harsh and yet optimistic at the same time. The only other sf writer who can write about music convincingly (IMO) is Jeff Noon, but to be frank, Bold As Love is an easier ride... The plot is nailbiting, because the characters are so well drawn. You feel you know these people and you are terrified that they aren't going to make it. To say more is superfluous because you have to experience this, no summary will do it justice. Castles Made of Sand is also brilliant, Midnight Lamp probably the best actual *novel* of the three, but Bold As Love is still the boss book. Intense!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth the recommendation
I was looking for a new fantasy series to get my teeth into and Gwyneth Jones name was given to me by a colleague at work. I bought this book and read it in one sitting. Read more
Published on 15 Jul 2007 by Ink Monkey

1.0 out of 5 stars What's all the fuss about?
I fail to see why this book (and the series) has met with such acclaim. The writing is pedestrian and tediously juvenile. Read more
Published on 31 May 2007 by Pilgrim

1.0 out of 5 stars Brassed Off
This is very odd. I'd read the extract of the novel published in InterZone before this book's publication, and it seemed pretty good. Read more
Published on 26 Jul 2004 by M. Buckley

5.0 out of 5 stars Bold as Love
As a big fantasy fan, I don't normally like "near future" or alternative present stuff, but this book and the next two in the series really blew me away. Read more
Published on 31 May 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brief (and quite gushy - sorry bout that!) review
This is one of the best series of books i have ever read. The tone and images Jones created are just so recognisably British that I felt a, previously unheard of, patriotic twinge... Read more
Published on 29 May 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Bold and brilliant
Bold As Love was recommended by a friend, and I was doubtful. In my experience fantasy and sf writers tend to fall down badly when they tackle contemporary culture, and an award... Read more
Published on 17 Oct 2002 by David Calder

2.0 out of 5 stars Better than the sequel
Just to give the benefit of the doubt, I read both halves of the Sage'n'Ax'n'Fiorinda saga. The first half, Bold As Love, is better, but that's not to say it's actually... Read more
Published on 24 Sep 2002 by stevengough

5.0 out of 5 stars A spell binding story that captivates you from the word go.
Gwynneth Jones has written a fantastic book set in an alternative reality where the Rock and Roll Revolution included machine guns. Read more
Published on 18 Oct 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars A joyful and intelligent celebration of diversity
Imagine an England where pop stars slaughter excess cattle for the TV cameras, and refugees are greeted with music festivals! Read more
Published on 7 Sep 2001 by mark.bould@bcuc.ac.uk

5.0 out of 5 stars This is one of the best books I have ever read
I started reading this book and I just couldn't stop.

It begins at a rock festival at Reading that is happening in the year that England, Scotland and Wales are reverting to... Read more

Published on 31 Aug 2001

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