Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Keith Roberts finest: a haunting vision of a feudal Britain, 17 Jun 2004
The late lamented novelist and illustrator Keith Roberts had several claims on the attention of posterity but none better than this book. 'Pavane' has to be one of the most painstaking and convincing alternative history stories ever written. (It also won plaudits from Brian Aldiss and was selected by Anthony Burgess as one of his '99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939'.) The prologue to the book neatly introduces Roberts' other world, describing the bloody aftermath of Elizabeth I falling to an assassin's bullet in 1588. In the ensuing chaos, the Armada successfully invade and suppress the forces of the English Reformation. Thereafter, England remains within the Catholic fold. Most of 'Pavane' is a series of (often beautifully-written) episodes in the history of this alter-England from 1968 until sometime early in the 21st century. Roberts' chronicle deftly shows the Church hierarchy and the forces of revolt struggling through decades of uneasy truce. As the years pass, the power of the Church comes under attack and an older wisdom begins to re-assert itself. Just when you think you can see where Roberts' alternative world is going, the ending of the book throws a very different and thought-provoking slant on this subtly changed history. Rather unusually for an SF author, Keith Roberts combined a clear and unpretentious style with a firm grasp of writerly virtues like characterisation and plot, and, believe me, this unusual combination pays off. (I hate to disagree with any of the previous reviews, but anybody with an aversion to fantasy who reads this review might like to note that there aren't actually any fairies or pixies in 'Pavane' at all - without giving anything away, the 'People of the Heath' referred to near the end of the book are entirely human.) Finally, anyone who enjoys 'Pavane' might also like to look out for Roberts' other major alternative history, 'Weinachtsabend'. This short but powerfully unsettling novella appears in Roberts' collection 'The Grain Kings' and describes what replaces the celebration of Christmas in a Nazi-occupied Britain.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the great SF books (is it a novel?) of all time!, 20 Feb 2001
By A Customer
I first read this book in 1972 or thereabouts and was immediately entranced by the author's beautiful style and the story which is, at once, gripping and romantic. It is a novel made up of shorter stories held together by a common thread. The technology of the stories is of course "retro" and is created for an England which has a very different history from the one we know. The Church has controlled the development of the sciences in the world of Pavane and technology has progressed at an uneven and majestic pace. But the reader can immediately relate because Roberts paints such a realistic picture of a world ensnared in time, caught in the web of the Church's authority. The characters in Pavane are exquisitely drawn and their roles played out to perfection. Their world is created so perfectly that you will immediately be caught up in it and greatly regret when you must leave it, having finished reading the book. If you have a shred of romance in your soul, you must read Pavane. Unlike most other books I have read, I have had to experience Pavane several times since 1972 and it never fails to please me, no matter how many times I read it. I am about to read it again, for the umpteenth time. Join me?
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Haunting alternate history, 16 Sep 2003
I can really only echo the sentiments of the other five-star reviews here. This is simply a beautiful work; another gem from Gollancz' Masterworks series, although one which reads more like fantasy or historical fiction than SF.The novel is told through a series of six 'Measures', vignettes of story and mood focusing on a different character each time. While each works separately, taken together they form a tapestry linking thematic and narrative concerns - producing, ultimately, a beautifully-conceived and wonderfully effective tale of twentieth century England stifled by an all-powerful, anti-progress Catholic Church. The alternate England is a triumph of understated, economical world-building (something that many of today's fantasy novels could learn from, perhaps). It is filled with enduring images - the Signallers' towers, the steam engines, the land held in winter's icy grasp - made all the more striking and memorable because we are shown them through the eyes of convincing and distinctive characters. My only criticism would be of the 'Coda', which feels superfluous, and far too neat. Otherwise, this is a moving story of a transforming world, all the more effective for being incompletely explained.
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