The Evidence

A return to The Dream Archipelago in a book that is very hard to put down; The Evidence contains many nuggets (social and political structure of the Archipelago, many interesting musings on the nature of the writer's craft, subtle sf with the notion of "mutability" and its implications), has quite a......more

Set in the Archipelago, this book had elements of science fiction with the mutability and gravitational aspects although these featured very little after introduction; however and despite the murder mystery added in, the action was nil, the pacing was slow, and the book was just too boring.......more

So what is The Evidence? Sci-fi novel? Detective thriller? Pastiche of a murder mystery? Treatise on the craft of thriller writing? Exploration of the fate of refugees and their contribution to society? Meta-level novel in which the world changes as the novelist writes? Allegory of our powerlessnes......more

Such a disappointment. The plot is rapidly tied up in the last few pages. Up until about 2/3rds of the way through I thought this might have a similar intriguing payoff as The Prestige, it was not to be. The only science fictional element was underused and mostly peripheral to the plot. Priest has th......more

Ever since being disappointed by A Dream of Wessex, I’m not a big fan of Christopher Priest. Some aspects of the reviews of this book (vaguely Nordic names, the Arctic climate and mountainous topography of the initial setting, the speculative crime mystery format), however, sounded interesting enoug......more