The gradual
The gradual
The gradual
Ratings2
Average rating3
15
The gradual
The gradual
Ratings2
Average rating3
Alesandro Sussken is a composer living in Glaund, a fascist state constantly at war with another equally faceless opponent. His brother is sent off to fight; his family is destroyed by grief. Occasionally Alesandro catches glimpses of islands in the far distance from the shore, and they feed into the music he composes. But all knowledge of the other islands is forbidden by the military junta, until he is unexpectedly sent on a cultural tour. And what he discovers on his journey will change his perceptions of his home, his music and the ways of the islands themselves. Bringing him answers where he could not have foreseen them. A rich and involving tale playing with the lot of the creative mind, the rigours of living under war and the nature of time itself, this is multi award-winning, master storyteller Christopher Priest at his absolute best.
Reviews with the most likes.
I'm not entirely sure how to review this book. It's unlike anything else I have read. Christopher Priest, like M John Harrison, has a style all his own. It is dreamlike, disconcerting, familiar and unfamiliar at the same time and leaves you thinking about what you have just read.
The Gradual is set in a world much like our own, the same level of technology, similar politics, but these lands are different. The largest land mass sees two countries at war, fighting that has reached a stalemate and where, by mutual consent, the conflict has shifted to the arctic continent. The rest of the world is made up of the huge, so-called Dream Archipelago, a network of millions of islands of all shapes and sizes. Travel there is forbidden to Glaundians.
Our protagonist, Sandro Sussken, lives under the rule of a military junta in Glaund. He's a composer and musician and Priest details his rise to fame, his life as a composer, under the shadow of military conscription. His brother, Jack, is called up and goes off to fight. Eventually Sussken is persuaded to join a musical tour of the Archipelago, a nine week trip that seems routine. But when he and his fellow musicians return almost two years have passed in Glaund. His wife has left him, his parents have died, his world is turned upside down. And that's just the first third of the book!
Later Sussken must escape Glaund and travels amongst the islands, experiencing their strange time dilations, being helped to correct this by the “adepts” who appear at every island port. It's an odyssey that takes him back to the island of Temmil where the musical tour had ended. It's a journey of discovery for Sussken, both geographic and spiritual.
The world Priest has created has its own strange logic to it. The mysterious abilities of the adepts to reconfigure time for travellers is never explained, it's simply a fact of the archipelago. Throughout the novel musical terms abound, the very title itself; the fact that travellers must carry a short wooden rod called a Stave; the importance of Sussken's music and its connection to the islands themselves.
The writing is superb, you really are immersed in this strange, off kilter world. I need to read more Priest. Recommended.
