User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
if i could bind my memories into a book, i would start with the time i spend reading this. not because i would want to forget, but so that i could always remember. to have something tangible, documenting how spellbound i became by this story. i guess this review will have to suffice.
while this story radiates pure magic and enchantment to captivate bookworms everywhere, this is also a stunning love story. its humble and unassuming and so very touching. while i would have loved more world-building and development of how the book binding magic works and how binders are created, i cant find myself willing to fault this because of how enamoured i was with emmett and memories.
effectively structured, beautifully written, and heartwarmingly tender, this book is one i never want to forget.
↠ 4.5 stars
Rating: really liked it
We’ve been called witches since the beginning of time. Word-cunning, they used to call it—of a piece with invoking demons…We were burned for it too. The Crusade wasn’t new, we’ve always been scapegoats. Well, knowledge is always a kind of magic, I suppose.
Emmett Farmer is a young man with issues. He used to think that he would inherit his family’s farm. It was the life he was used to and the road he expected to follow to, and beyond, the horizon. But he has not been himself lately. His abilities have deteriorated. He loses himself, in time, suffering dizziness, nausea, and weakness. Some say he was cursed by a witch. When he is offered an apprenticeship with a bookbinder, it offers a way out, however frightening the career and his mentor might be.
Bridget Collins - image from United Agents, UK
Despite some raw similarities, bookbinding in Bridget Collins’s world is not quite the same as it is in ours. Emmett trains with the elderly Seradith, a woman seen as being a witchy sort by some of the locals. In fact, bookbinding is seen as a dodgy sort of work. What is bound in books here are memories. Instead of sharing recollections or stories, as they do in our reality, the memories bound into beautifully crafted leather books in this world are removed from clients by binders. Unlike books in our world, which are designed to be shared, these books are meant to be hidden. Being on the NY Times Top Ten list would kinda defeat the purpose.
At least that is the intent. Cheat on your taxes? Pay off your mistress to keep quiet at the height of a political campaign? Sell out your nation’s security in return for real estate consideration by a foreign enemy? Awkward. But there is a solution, well, for part of it, anyway. Go to a binder and the memories will be nicely removed, leaving your tiny mind virginally memory and guilt free, and ready for that sit-down with whoever might be heading an investigation. If memory-cleansing bookbinding existed in our world, I imagine there would be a long line of potential clients. Of course, it might be a challenge to find binders with the innate talent to make those memories move from a client’s brain to the page. One can train in how to work the leather, sew the pages, and do all the material steps entailed in constructing such a book, but only those with a special gift can smooth the passage from one medium to the other. Emmett Farmer, it turns out, has such a gift. It does not help much with tilling fields, but is crucial for this special craft.
…the hours passed slowly, full of small, solid details; at home, in the busyness of farm life, I’d never had the time to sit and stare, or pay attention to the way a tool looked, or how well it was made, before I used it. Here the clock in the hall dredged up seconds like stones and dropped them again into the pool of the day, letting each ripple widen before the next one fell.
Emmett acclimates to Seradith’s remote locale (
out in the marshes), begins to learn the manual end of the binding craft, and is eager to move beyond to learn what bookbinding is really all about (he does not actually know). He is particularly curious about what goes on beyond certain forbidden doors at Seradith’s emporium, but even glancing inside such doors causes him major episodes of what his boss calls Binder’s Disease, costing him days of consciousness and bringing forth strange visions. These strains increase when certain clients arrive. When he finds a book with his name on it, Emmett realizes that he is less than whole.
Part Two of the novel is Emmett’s bound story as reported in that book. Part Three returns us to Emmett’s now, and how he deals with what he has learned. More than that about the goings on risks spoiling a key plot twist. But it does touch on forbidden love and the dangers of loving outside one’s class, however that may be defined.
The Binding is an engaging page turner of an historical fantasy, particularly the first third, in which we are introduced to Collins’s world, an amalgam of the medieval and circa 1890 rural England. The mystery of Emmett’s affliction is enticing and his experience at Seradith’s is riveting. I found Part Two, Emmett’s bound story, interesting, but nowhere near as gripping. Part three is pretty much a continuation of Part Two, but with Emmett aware of his history, so is more of a cloth with the second than the first part. Not to say that the latter two are not good, just not so fabulous as the opening, in terms of the engagement of the story, at least. In terms of looking at the socio-economic implications of binding, they are wonderful.
One fascinating thing is how Collins came up with her concept. She was working as a volunteer at Samaritans, a non-profit that offers people who will listen for people who need to talk.
What would it be like if I could reach out and winch that memory from you? She was also taking a book-binding class at the time, and a happy combination was conceived. In setting her story in late 19th century rural England she uses some history of the era to correspond with events in the created reality. For example, the Binding Law of 1850 in Emmett’s world corresponds to the 1850 legalization of gin (I’ll drink to that!) in English law. The Crusades here, for example, were not about perceived Middle Eastern outrages, addressed with European outrages, but were focused on scapegoating
binding for the social and economic disruptions brought about by the rise of capitalism. Binders are viewed as women accused of witchcraft have been in our world, dealers in mysterious practices, necessary for providing needed services, but not to be trusted, and maybe evil.
There are many novels that use memory loss as a core mechanism. Some elements of these are fairly common. How is memory lost? Literature is rich with examples, usually of the traumatic sort, usually involving violence, typically a blow to the head. These tend to populate books in which memory loss features as a Maguffin for propelling a thriller or mystery. Next down the list is memory lost through illness, typically Alzheimers’ disease. Still Alice fits in there nicely. There are stories in which memory loss is via external misadventure of a broader, science-fictiony sort, things like plagues. The Book of M is a wonderful example. Less populous is the sort in which memory is willingly surrendered, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind pops to mind. (and we elect to keep it there, for now)
The Binding relies on the last of these, substituting a bit of magic for the sci-fi explanation offered in
Eternal Sunshine.
What lifts
The Binding above the crowd of memory-loss novels is its consideration of the societal implications of
voluntary forgetting. There are complications, of course, and they are wonderfully explored. Some with power want
others to forget what they have done. Think of it as an employment contract, or a user agreement for partaking in pretty much any software. You agree to this and that, and such and such, which will entail the surrender of some inalienable rights. Just click agree at the bottom of the mouse-print form. But damn, you need the job, or want to use the software. However, what if what you are surrendering to the seller, or employer, is the right to your own memories? And what if the person in power has done something they would rather you not remember? You might find yourself (or what is left of you) wearing out a path to the binder’s shop for a bit of a memory trim (Boss just sent me over. Says you should just take a bit off the top, please, and close on the sides, ok?) I will leave to your imagination (and the book of course) how such a system might be abused. So, we have an author who looks at political power in a very personal way. Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your…wait, what was that again? Continuing the image, what if you are starving and selling your memories as a way to put food on the table, the way many in poverty engage in sex work to make ends meet? Puts me in mind of the Beggarwoman from Sweeney Todd (
Hey, don’t I know you, Mister?”) Which of course presumes that there are binders out there with somewhat lower ethical standards than the very righteous Seradith. Shocking, I know.
To lift the novel even higher is a parallel consideration, the significance, the power of books themselves, what it means to write a book, to read a book, and to share the experiences of another through the written page. I was reminded of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Book Thief.
What if we look at books as a manifestation of self? Not exactly a stretch. Do authors lose a part of themselves when they commit their thoughts to the page? Is reading a book written by someone else a form of voyeurism? Just as in our world, books can be used for benign or malign purposes, books are treated as treasured valuables by some and as a form of personal or mass-produced filth by others. Seradith, essentially, amputates memories, as a physician would take an unhealable limb, a benign act, and saves the bound memory in a beautifully crafted book, kept safe in a vault. Others may make use of such books for corrupt purposes. You, yes you, reading this, you know the power of books, how they can act like a drug, slaking, temporarily, an unquenchable thirst. Very drug-like, no? How about the power of books to heal? Ever read anything that made you feel better? Certainly any well-written memoir can offer one a view of someone’s inner life, but at least in our world, that does not require that the author forget what she has written. Books change lives, whether we read or write them. For writers, a part of themselves definitely finds its way onto the page. And a world in which all books are locked away sounds rather medieval.
Collins offers a bit of wry perspective on writing.
There’s a growing trade in fakes, you know. Does that concern you?” He paused, but he didn’t seem surprised not to get an answer. “I’ve never seen one—well, as far as I know-but I’m curious. Could one really tell the difference? Novels, they call them. They must be much cheaper to produce. You can copy them, you see. Use the same story over and over, and as long as you’re careful how you sell them, you can get away with it. it makes one wonder who would write them. People who enjoy imagining misery, I suppose. People who have no scruples about dishonesty. People who can spend days writing a long sad lie without going insane…My father, of course, is a connoisseur. He claims that he would know instantly if he saw a novel. He says that a real, authentic book breathes an unmistakable scent of…well. He calls it truth, or life. I think maybe he means despair.
I doubt that
despair is what you will experience on reading
The Binder. This is a marvelous read, a thoughtful, engaging novel, featuring a large dollop of Dickensian social commentary, while following an appealing everyman through the perils of coming of age, and offering in addition insightful observations on memory-as-self and the power of books. I was sure I had something more to say, but I seem to have forgotten what that was.
Review Posted – January 4, 2019
Publication
-----UK – January 10, 2019
-----USA – April 16, 2019
----------April 21, 2020 - trade paper
==========In the summer of 2019 GR reduced the allowable review size by 25%, from 20,000 to 15,000 characters. In order to accommodate the text beyond that I have moved it to the comments section below in what is currently comment #5.
Rating: really liked it
I'm starting to become a little disillusioned with upcoming releases by unknown or new-to-me authors. THE BINDING has an excellent marketing campaign, a gorgeous cover, and was a book I wanted to get into my hands, desperately, due to a (inaccurate) comparison to a book I love. However, for this reader, the insides don't match the outsides.
This book has three parts to it. The first act is slow, plodding, and mired in the familiar 'other characters know things but cannot tell the protagonist for reasons' trope. Act two is a major reveal, a flashback, and the only part of the story I enjoyed. Act three is a new perspective, misery, and extra unpleasantness.. when there was already a lot of that to go around.
The concept of binding memories, locking away emotions, is fascinating. There was something of a cultural clash of the rural, old-world, respect for such an exchange, versus the more urbane and materialistic -- and not to mention vile and/or wicked -- reasons for doing so. But ultimately all it did was introduce more terrible characters into a book that wasn't filled with many good ones to begin with. Infact.. I struggle to think of more than one.
There is darkness to this story, unpleasantness, and any of the magic I was hoping for was really just limited to the strange practice of the binding and the few binders who could do it. This was a lot less fantastical than I thought it would be and the only surprise was that there is a queer romance within these pages.
If I rated this book by the parts of it, it would be a slow terribly paced two star for part one, a sweet blush of a three for the middle, and an awful one star for the final section. There is a HEA of sorts but.. yeah, I don't know. This was just a lot more depressing or maybe just.. stark? bleak?.. than I thought it would be.
Great premise. Some potential. And when I was reading it, it was a smooth read; though once put down it was hard to build up the desire to pick it back up. Overall, though, I wish I could bind my memories of THE BINDING and go back to when I still had stars in my eyes at the thought of reading something new and wonderful.
** I received an ARC from the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **
Rating: really liked it
Bridget Collins has written a beautifully imagined piece of fantasy historical fiction, a sumptuous love story, of poor farmer's son, Emmet Farmer, and the wealthy, privileged Lucian Darnay, doomed to be star crossed lovers. In this world, books are not what we would recognise them to be, books are for all those things that people feel destroyed by and cannot live with in their lives. They are extraordinary hand crafted, leather bound repositories of actual peoples memories, their secrets, grief, and pain, erased for good after being stored in a book. Books are feared and forbidden, as Emmet finds to his cost when he is drawn to buy one. An unwelcome letter arrives for Emmet, an apprenticeship he cannot refuse, he will train to be a bookbinder under Seredith's tutelage, a sacred calling. For a while, Emmet has been ill, unable to contribute to the farm as he once did, but he, like others is afraid of bookbinders, a profession surrounded with ignorance, prejudice and superstition. He travels to Seredith's remote home, and surprisingly finds solace in his daily tasks, surrounded by a silence that turns out to be what he needs to bear his illness.
The narrative goes back and forth in time, from the time Emmet and his sister, Alta, meet Lucian Darnay, to the development of their relationship, and to Emmet's experiences with other bookbinders and their clients. The reader comes to understand how Emmet came to develop his mystery illness, and the effects and repercussions of bookbinding on his and Lucian's lives. Seredith turns out to be a remarkably ethical and moral bookbinder, storing and safely locking away the books in her vault. This is in sharp contrast to others, some bookbinders are happy to practice a corrupt, horrifyingly venal form of bookbinding for the rich and powerful that uses and abuses people. These bookbinders illegally sell and trade the books for profit, often to those with a prurient interest in the secret lives of others, and for the purposes of blackmail. In a story of murder, magic, separation and ruthless powerful forces, do Emmet and Lucian's love stand any chance in a hostile world?
Collins engages in complex world building in this utterly beguiling novel, making this world come vibrantly alive with her detailed descriptions of time and place, whilst relating a moving and original love story that charms and captivates. This is Romeo and Romeo for the modern age, the characterisation is compelling, with Emmet and Lucian’s love crossing the social class divide, moreover a love story that crosses boundaries in so many other senses too. This is brilliant storytelling, that immerses the reader in a past where books are a dangerous and secret commodity, and a forbidden love that threatens to destroy Emmet and Lucian. Highly recommended. Many thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC.
Rating: really liked it
2.5 stars. I had high hopes for this book, really loved the premise, but I think it’s one of those cases that it delivered something else than promised. The idea sounded very original; people’s bad memories binded in a book, so that they don’t remember them anymore. It sounded like it has fantasy elements, some magic with interesting characters. The book is divided in 3 parts. I loved the first part, but things went into a completely different direction starting from the second part. The rest of the book is just a romance story. It’s remotely related to the overarching idea, but in my opinion it was too much, too predictable, too slow. Also, there are lots of trigger warnings in this book, rape, sexual abuse, murder. This darkness and the amount of pages spent on it took me by surprise. So, I think that original idea is lost in between attempts of a bit of LGBTQ content and too much darkness. In addition, there are characters we spent a lot of time on in the first part, that were not touched upon in the other parts. It was lacking character development. Then, there was no explanation on where this magic is coming from, why some people have it, what’s the set up? Although Collins’ writing was flowing nicely, in my opinion, the plot was far from perfect and complete. In the end, it was not for me.
Thanks so much to Harper Collins for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: really liked it
Magical realism is never my first choice and it is the genre I hardly ever decide to read but I never refuse a novel that manages to incorporate it into a good story. And this is a splendid example of such combination that forced me to continue reading till late hours. The idea of binding your memories into books and leaving none left is both brilliant and terrifying.
The Binding cast a spell on me that I will take some time to reverse provided I want it …
Rating: really liked it
[A farm boy has a romp with an upper-class lordling his sister hopes to marry and then is sad when the world proves to be a nasty place. Ah no, sorry, my mistake. Happy ending ensues (not for the sister, though). (hide spoiler)]
Rating: really liked it
Finishes book.
*Blinks.**Blinks again.* SLAMS book fucking shut. S E E T H I N G:
AGAHSKAKPZKWOAOVJWOAPWLFYCIAOWKZ— (unintelligible garble insert here). WHAT!!!!!?!?!?!,??? WAS !!!!!?!?!?!,??? THAT !!!!!?!?!?!,???I AM SO ANNOYED NOW WTF. NO ONE TALK TO ME RIGHT NOW.
I want to give this book
ONE STAR AFTER THAT ENDING. So pointless....
Stupid, stupid,
s t u p i d.
RTC.
1.5 STARS
Rating: really liked it
I had such high hopes for this book, and I'm left feeling dreadfully disappointed. This book was overhyped, and that I'm positive of. I really couldn't wait to get my hands on this. The plot sounded intriguing and I adored the cover. Lets be honest, it is quite something, and I was kind of lured in by it.
This book consists of three parts. The first part was slow, and it really, really dragged. The second was better, as I think it is the only part of the entire book that I liked and was tolerable, and the third part was another tedious drag, and I was itching to get to the end.
The concept of binding memories really excited me. I thought Collins was on to something good here, but unfortunately, it turned out very differently than I had expected. There are no likeable characters in this. Everyone is dark, unpleasant and unlikeable to the core. Every three pages or so someone is either feeling nauseous, or is vomiting. It got kind of samey, and caused plenty of eye rolling with me, I'll admit. I was surprised to come across a queer romance in this book, which actually really made this read more bearable.
This was the kind of book that I had near enough no desire to pick back up again, once I'd put it down, which is a shame, as forcing your way through a book for the sake of being able to toss it aside is never a good sign. This had potential, but was a disappointment!
Rating: really liked it
I don’t care. Not for me. Won it in a goodreads giveaway. Skim read because it bored me. Yay for everyone that loved it 😘
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
Rating: really liked it
This was a magical and incredibly well written novel.
Emmett is sent away by his parents to work as a Binder’s apprentice. If people want certain bad memories to be taken away they can visit a Binder and be ‘bound’. The resulting book is then kept safe so that the person will never have to relive the memories again.
But there are certain Binders who sell books, who treat the trade or its patients with zero respect. When Emmett sees a book with his name on, he wonders what secrets it holds. But the only way to unbind a person is to burn their book if you begin to tell someone their secret it can cause awful pain.
I loved the characters, the writing is gorgeous and it is a wonderful premise. The only reason it missed 5 stars for me is because the premise didn’t feel brand new to me. I’ve read (view spoiler)
[ more happy than not and there are so many similar themes. Don’t get me wrong I really enjoyed both but for 5 stars a book really has to move and or shock me and this one just missed that.
I also wish there was a bit more background on some things. Like (view spoiler)[ why wasn’t Emmett’s sister bound? And what is the binders fever that Emmett suffered from? (hide spoiler)]
I really enjoyed this and would recommend to fans of magical realism. (hide spoiler)]
Rating: really liked it
4****
This book was spellbinding and included an original concept (about books!) that I had never read before; it completely ensnared me into its pages.
The tale starts of with Emmett, a farmer from a small house in the country, plagued by nightmares which in turn effect his work. Suddenly one afternoon, he receives a letter, telling him that he must go to be a binder, a job that promotes fear, prejudice and superstition among communities.
Emmett goes to be an apprentice as a binder so that one day he can do it himself. In this remote house of his mentor, he will learn to craft beautiful books and will learn to create something, each time, that is unique; a memory. A book binder's responsibility is to help those who want to forget and erase memories. His role is to assist and take these memories and place them in beautiful bindings where the person never has to remember the memory again. However, not all memories are good memories and not everyone wants to forget. This novel really explored the dark side to bookbinding and the manipulation and exploitation used by those who rely on the craft.
One day, to Emmett's complete surprise, he finds a book with his name on, curious as to what the pages hold...
This book was completely intriguing and compelling. I loved how it used books as a way of holding sacred memories, not imagination, whether these be good or bad memories from a persons past. This book also had a sweet romance and historical fiction thrown in as well. 💙 Also the cover is gorgeous!
Rating: really liked it
If this was a recipe it would be 1 cup romance with a teaspoon of fantasy and a sprinkling of fun . It’s a male to male romance in 1800s I’m guessing though it never specifically says, in a world where all bad memories or anything you want to forget can be binded in a book and stored safely away, or so it is supposed to be. Dun dun dunnn. I liked it I got it as an arc on a giveaways here on goodreads . I started it as soon as it came in the mail.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rating: really liked it
I was excited to begin this book with its interesting premise and the promise of a blend of fantasy and reality. And I was not disappointed at first. I was intrigued by the Victorian style world the author created, one in which books aren’t filled with fictional stories that are for purchase, but rather, ones that are filled with memories of people who chose to have them removed from their minds by book binders. Those memories would then be kept safe in beautiful books the binders fashioned for their clients, which meant they’d be locked away, never to be seen or read. This also kept the books safe from physical harm, since if a book were ever to be destroyed, the memories in it would return to the person. Bindings could only be done for those giving their permission. However, this rule did not take into account those being coerced into giving their permission. And it didn’t account for unscrupulous binders who might discreetly sell such books to collectors. And then, there were those people desperate enough to sell their memories, even the good ones, to those same unscrupulous binders. Such books were often indistinguishable from those labeled novels. Novels, unlike books, were clearly filled with fictitious contents and were permissible to be sold.
All these elements of binding were a rich field in which to grow an abundant story. But this is where my disappointment came in. The author never did explore many of these elements in any depth beyond how they connected to her main characters. She hardly explored that world at large or the act of binding itself and the morality involved. Instead, the book focused on the relationship between the two main male characters, to the exclusion of all else, in the second and third parts, comprising the bulk of this story.
By far, section one was my favorite when focusing on its Dickens-like character, Emmett Farmer, a young man suffering from some emotional strain and physical ailment that left him unable to work on his family’s farm and kept his parents and sister at an emotional distance from him. He doesn’t even know why any of this is so.
I couldn’t remember getting sick; if I tried, all I saw was a mess of nightmare-scorched fragments. Even my memories of my life before that—last spring, last winter—were tinged with the same gangrenous shadow, as if nothing was healthy anymore.How he came to be in this state and why his family acted toward him as they did and why a wealthy young man named Lucian Darnay, visiting his uncle on a neighboring farm, disquiets him so much—all these elements were teeming with gothic mystery which added to the tension and suspense and made me feel for Emmett Farmer. Eventually, Emmett is sent away to train as a book binder, something he feels is a punishment. This is where the story really took off for me as Emmett trains with an old woman named Seredith who lives out in the marshes and whom people think of as a witch.
So what happened after this point that had me feeling disappointed in this book? In parts two and three, the relationship between Emmett and Lucian dominated the story. I felt this was detrimental to the story at large and to the premise it was built on. I enjoyed their relationship, but the details of it became repetitive and drawn out, and very little about bookbinding was explored outside of their lives. The morality and philosophy of bookbinding would have made for an interesting discussion among the characters who might question their world a little more and get the reader thinking along with them. Instead, I was a bystander in the story, able to sympathize with the characters, but not able to fully immerse myself in all that was happening after part one. I wanted to see more of that world and have the peripheral characters better developed such as Emmett’s sister who only had one thing on her mind. Villainous characters, likewise, were one dimensional. It was as if the author had used all her energy on Emmett and Lucian and had little left over for much else besides describing the environment around them. In this, the writing is highly descriptive and often poetic, which is both a compliment and a complaint. On the positive side, the author is an expressive and extremely observant person who details her story in beautiful and surprising ways.
Here the clock in the hall dredged up seconds like stones and dropped them again into the pool of the day, letting each ripple widen before the next one fell.
I settled myself again, and after a while I felt my body loosen, as if the silence was undoing knots I hadn’t known were there. The fire had nearly gone out; ash had grown over the embers like moss. I ought to tend to it, but I couldn’t bring myself to get up. I moved my fingers through the focused ellipse of lamplight, letting it sit above my knuckle like a ring. When I sat back, it shone on the patchwork quilt, picking out the curl of a printed fern.But on the negative side, those same details sometimes got out of hand and overpowered the scenes in which more dialogue or action would have been welcome, rather than the moment by moment observations she stuffed into the characters’ heads and onto the page. It teetered on the edge of ridiculousness at one point when one character spat a huge wad of phlegm and another character watched it land on the ground in the shape of a leaf. Uh...no. This is not an observation that anyone would probably have in this instance or one a reader would care to have thrown their way.
So this book has many good things to recommend it—a fascinating premise, sympathetic main characters, plus one very good supporting character, many instances of beautiful and atmospheric writing, a gothic style setting, and plenty of mystery. But the relationship between the two main characters took center stage after part one, which I feel took something away from the general story and left no room for the author to explore the act of binding or its effect on that society, especially with a change in viewpoint. The ending was also a bit too tidy for me and didn’t answer some lingering questions.
I do think this would make a nice first book in a series if, in later books, the art of bookbinding was actually the focus and practiced in numerous circumstances beyond the few times portrayed in this book. I’d read another book by the author if she decided to go that route and to broaden her scope to include some examination of the conflicts inherent to binding. As it stands, I’m glad I read this book, but I can’t help feeling it could have been better.
Rating: really liked it
Book binding is an art. A very real one. Collins infused her fictional binders with the additional ability to weave secrets and memories into their end papers, which freed individuals from the burdens of their guilt and fears. But with these life-altering abilities comes the fear of the other and the lurking allure of abusing this bestowed gift.
The Binding was a very different story to the one I had anticipated. The synopsis conjured a whimsical and fantastical alternate history. The book, however, held its roots firmly in reality for much of the novel. All it did deliver made my longing for the former vanish entirely, though. What an incredible concept and a compulsively readable story-line!
