Arcadia / Iain Pears

Arcadia

by Iain Pears

science fiction / fantasy? dystopia.

copyright 2015

read in April 2017

rated 9/10: really, really good or... 8/10: really quite good

Is this some pastoral fairytale, with happy peasants living by the sweat of their brow in an oh-so-perfect yet horribly boring world? That was my thought as I read the first few chapters...

But no...

04jan24: I'm a bit undecided about this book.

Since my first (and second) reading my reading speed has slowed down (vision problems). Reading more slowly... I almost gave up after a hundred or so pages. Slow and confusing, I thought. And it is. And yet... it all sorts itself out... eventually.

I almost stopped reading... but was glad that I continued.

But all that uncertainty -- makes me take one point off my rating. Down to eight.

I'm also uncertain about... Is it really fantasy? The rural utopia smacks of fantasy. But no, the time travel (or whatever it is :-) is science-based. No matter how dodgy the science. I do prefer the book's explanation to the more usual parallel universes.

Science fiction? yes. Also dystopia. In fact: double-dystopia. The author sets up a rural utopia (ie Arcadia0 with problems. The social stratification and inflexibility are, to me, somewhat dystopian.

This is compared to the intended science-based dystopia.

Which -- curiously -- have unintentionally created the various renegade-driven u-topias.

All very complicated. A good story laced with pleasant whimsy. Really quite good.

====

This is a clever tale of time travel, of a pastoral utopia which is not -- yet -- good enough. Of an efficient, scientific dystopia which rewards people according to their worth to society. With "worth" being measured by those with power.

This is a novel which rejects the multiple parallel universes view of the world... thank goodness. A novel which takes a simpler view and makes a complex and satisfying story with what is then possible.

Some of the science sounds like nonsense. I don't know, perhaps it is a current alternative set of theories? Doesn't matter. It is explained, slowly revealed, eminently satisfying. There seems to be a fallacy in the final resolution... the other 99% of the twists and turns are neatly, nicely and clearly wrapped up.

The characters are all... delightful. With an air of British whimsy that has long been unfashionable. It reminds me of a Dr Who episode, from the days when the Doctor was stuck on Earth due to BBC budget cuts:

The Doctor and friends are battling Cybermen for possession of The Ultimate Weapon. Can you be trusted with possession of The Ultimate Weapon? asks the Doctor. Of course we can be trusted, replies Lethbridge-Stuart, Because we're British.

That's the feeling throughout this book. The calm, polite, honest Britain of the 1960s. Doing what is right because it is right.

Amongst the characters there is one villain, a businessman who will do anything because he believes that he knows best. Everyone else may do unpleasant things but they are, deep down, good people. Nice people. Yet believable.

Underlying the entire story is a gentle sense of satire, some touches of humour and a love of literature. No surprise at all that the author has also written "The Growth of Interest in the Arts in England 1680-1768" :-)

And finally... The book is written as a series of intersecting stories.  Sometimes a person will appear and I think, What?! Then a chapter or two later, from a different perspective, all is revealed. (Oh, and I enjoyed it so much that I read Arcadia a second time. And enjoyed it even more because I now understood -- much sooner -- everything that was happening.)

It's not strictly sequential but then, it is a story of time travel. The complexities -- and the interactions of the various key characters -- are handled very well. I would love to read the Apple App version! Though I doubt that it would really add much to an already excellent story.

=======
Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
=======

​"If you're too busy to laugh, then you're too busy." … per Ginger Meggs