It took me a couple of tries to get into this one. Harkaway's ideas are always interesting, original, and fascinating. However, sometimes his writing doesn't quite click with me - either it feels drawn-out, or not as focused as it could be. That being said, at other times, he pens some great phrases and passages. His characters are interesting and engaging. 

An interesting read, and one that stands out from the pack.

Thank you for the opportunity to read Gnomon.  I have made two starts on this but have come to the realisation that this isn't a book for me.  I am afraid I struggled to engage with the story and despite returning to the book to give it a fresh start I just cannot get into this one and I doubt a third attempt would yield a different outcome.

I am sorry I was not able to provide a review as I had hoped.

Not my favourite, but not bad either. The premise is interesting and the novel starts out well, but at times it becomes confused and the plot starts to drag a little. It feels at times as though the author has deliberately gone for confusing the reader. I would probably read it again to see how I felt after a second read through, but there would be a lot of other books I would pick up first.

REALLY excellent modern scifi / fantasy. This weird novel gave me everything I wanted, reminding me of China Mieville more than the less technically proficient but more famous Gaiman. It's quite a slog in the middle, but well worth the effort; great characters and a great pay off.

In the reality of this near-future Britain is a constantly surveilled direct democracy called The System, assisted by a ubiquitous AI he Witness which is constantly on hand to provide advice and information. And nobody seems to mind except a few subversives like Diana Hunter.

Ms Hunter has been called in for interrogation, a neural procedure that searches through the unconscious mind of the subject causing no harm and even correcting any mental defects or disturbances. Except that during her interrogation Hunter dies and Inspector Neith is brought into investigate.

Neith investigates by experiencing the neural records of Hunter’s interrogation where she encounters not the consciousness of Diana hunter herself but those of several other characters created in Hunter’s mind to delay and misdirect the investigators.
The story meanders off following the flow of each character’s narrative and the reader has to go with it.
To be honest I found it quite enjoyable although I became a little perturbed when we were a couple hundred pages in and there was still no noticeable progress in the plot.

Everything was fine until we got to Gnomon itself. I don’t particularly like either AI narratives or stream of consciousness and for an awful lot of pages Gnomon was a combination of both. At first he was interesting and angry but after many paragraphs of his burbling I was reading the words but all I could hear was blah, blah blah.
This was one part of the manuscript that would have benefitted from some courageous editing. Much, much less would have been so much more.

Word and themes kept being repeated in way that led me to believe the author wanted me to understand that these things were CONNECTED in a some SIGNIFICANT way but they never coalesced into a comprehensive whole and many concepts were left dangling in an unsatisfying and partially comprehensible ending.
It is not that I couldn’t work out what it all meant but by then I didn’t care.

The author entagled the narrative in a level of complexity that never quite achieved its potential and left me feeling the story as a whole was less than the sum of its parts.

The parts I liked were a 4 even a 5 star novel but the baggy, draggy middle brought it down to barely 3 stars.

Absolutely fascinating sprawling epic of a sci-fi novel from an exciting new voice. Brimming with wit and ideas this is unique and intriguing literature.

I struggled to get into this book and had to give up despite being a fan of dystopian fiction.  A younger reader will enjoy this book though.

I've enjoyed Harkaway's previous titles. The AI surveillance described in Gnomon is terrifyingly believable however, I do feel the book could have been condensed slightly.

This was a multi-layered sci-fi mystery that melted my brain, in the best possible way! I am not even going to attempt a plot synopsis, but just know that there are many things at play in the narrative that meanders through several different character stories, all of which intersect and interact in fabulous ways. I was so impressed by the level of detail in the character depictions - Constantine Kyriakos being my personal favourite - given that in reality, each character is the imagining of one individual. Harkaway has some very interesting comments to make about the nature of security and safety and how this relates to personal freedoms. The society he depicts here is truly terrifying, primarily because it is so plausible and only seems a step or two further down the road we currently find ourselves on. The mystery is really well plotted and Harkaway never spoonfeeds the reader, assuming a level of intelligence that I appreciated. Overall, I found this a somewhat intimidating but ultimately incredibly satisfying read and I will definitely check out other works by the author.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I was introduced to Nick Haraway during my final year at university doing my dissertation. He has a unique style: his world-building is always complex and his characters are six-dimensional, let alone three! Nothing is what it seems in his books.

I wanted to read Gnomon – I wanted to see where he wouldtake a reader next. I kept putting it off – this is a hefty book and I wantedto commit to it properly. I’m glad I did as it took a while!

I have really mixed feelings on this book.

On one hand, I had no idea what was going on for most of it! There are a lot of characters – whether they are real or not is up to you – and you get snippets of their stories in different orders before eventually seeing them blend together. But just as you get used to one character, everything changes and you’re back where you were – you think.

There is an intricate plot being twisted through the different narrations. There are times when I felt like I had a handle on it, and then times when I was totally lost. The parts set in ‘reality’ were the most confusing: the society set-up echoes ‘Big Brother’ and how the use of technology can undermine our freedom. While that seems simple, there’s a lot going on that left me bemused.

The switching of the characters worked…sort of. Each had their own story and you eventually see how they connect. But as the stories blend together, it felt the characters lost their individuality. Which is the point when you know the plot, but you get invested in these characters and it doesn’t feel like they have satisfying endings.

Despite the confusion, the writing quality is so strong that when I could figure out what was going on, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters are well-defined and the dialogue was natural and amusing. There are times when the tension increased and I was gripped: I wanted to see how each story arc played out.

This is a really hard review to write. I wanted to like the book, and I can’t say I disliked it. I just got so confused at times that I can’t look back and say it’s an enjoyable read. The length didn’t help either – it meant the pacing was steady to the point of slow, so you’d spend a day with one character, then flick to the next and by the time you got to the fourth, you couldn’t remember where in their story you were.

If you’ve enjoyed Harkaway’s complex world-building before, then I’d give this book a go: I’m ultimately glad to have read it. But if you want something you can get swept up in, this possibly isn’t the best choice; you have to concentrate throughout.

Am I glad to have stuck with it? Yes. Would I read it again? Possibly not. But I’d definitely be interested in his future books and it was fun being challenged.

I must apologise for not being able to review this book after you so kindly accepted my request.   I have had an unfortunately challenging time, but am now free to resume reading and reviewing.  I hope that you will not hold my difficulties against me in future requests

Not the easiest read I've ever had. But, I did enjoy, even if I wasn't always sure I understood it!
Probably my grasp of the Classics is a little lacking to fully appreciate the references contained. But, I did feel I got enough to enjoy the 'drift'... Likewise the references to financial collapse and global commerce...
The story is complex (and fantastic) and certainly pulled you through a maze of changes and challenges.
I think I may come back to this book in the future and have another go - I took too long to get through it on this occasion (my fault, not the book's) and that probably hampered my understanding and enjoyment
If you like your fiction cerebral (maybe more like "2001, A Space Oddessey" than say, "Stainless Steel Rat"!) then you'll like this...

**I received this book free via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**

I found this an exceptionally difficult book to not only read but to review also.  I consider myself quite a prolific reader and yet Gnomon has taken me half a year to read!  I can't put my finger on it.  Maybe it's the time of life I am in and I just can't find the opportunity to read as much as I would like to?  Or maybe it's just that this book didn't engage me.

As I received the book for review I made a determined decision to read it all and see it through and today I reached the end.

What makes this difficult for me, is that at another time of my life or in the hands of another reader this book would be considered excellent.  It's clever, it's multi-layered, there are stories within stories and it's complex..  All things I usually go for in a book.  It also has some of the most beautiful, quotable sentences I have read in a long time.  Some passages I read twice I was so stunned by their effectiveness.  Harkaway has a rich and eloquent vocabulary which I delighted in, including managing to drop a few into conversation here and there during the course of my reading.

I also enjoyed the sub-stories of the seemingly disparate yet eventually inter-woven characters.  The cocky swagger of a Greek banker being chased by a shark, the alchemist who puts a bishop or two in their place, the artist coming to terms with family and identity.  There is so much to like in this book (even a cameo of a Julian Assaunge inspired character).

It has all the makings of a great book so why did it take me six months to read?  I believe it was due to a lack of caring about the story or the characters.  It was like looking at something you know is aesthetically beautiful yet fails to capture the emotion.  There wasn't a single point in the book where I thought 'one more page'.  It meanders, says a thousand words where a paragraph would suffice.  The story is convoluted and challenging.  One needs to think when reading this book, and yet I don't think it was worth the emotional payoff after all that thinking.

Perhaps most damning is upon reaching the end my thought was, 'whatever'.

Capture me in my teens with this book and I'm going to tell you it's awesome.  As a busy casual reader it fails to engage.

Near-future dystopian fiction which requires the reader to pay close attention.

Very very hard to follow, I'd like to say more but I gave up about halfway in, the transitions between plot lines made it hard to follow what was going on and I did not feel any empathy for the characters.

The book was well written, just no something I liked

I’m late with this review. In part, it’s my fault as life has been hectic but, in part, it’s the fault of the book!

I started and restarted and restarted it but couldn’t get sucked in. I can’t decide if it’s the premise, the language or the characterisation. 

It’s not for me.

Regrettably I found I just couldn't get into this book. I managed to dip in and out of the book and found it was about Diana Hunter who died in custody which never happens in the world of Gnomon.  An official is consigned to find out what transpired.

Gnomon is a multi-layered story about the nature of truth in a society that is constantly monitored and watched via the System and policed by the Witness. There is a lot to digest in this book from how much privacy are you willing to give up for security, to whether you can trust the information that the System gives you. Welcome to a future Britain where nothing is as good as it seems.

The story starts with Inspector Neith, who works for Witness being given a new case entitled Gnomon, the case involves the death of an individual in a routine (non-lethal) interrogation by the System. The System hacks into your mind to see if you are hiding a crime or information about something you are planning on doing. The System then has access to all of your thoughts and memories. Death is a rarity in these investigations, so the death of Diana Hunter is seen as suspicious and has to be investigated.

The System has allowed the citizens of Britain to reach a true democracy. Everyone gets to vote on everything and is expected to help adjudicate in state matters. This doesn’t mean that everyone accepts the System and it seems that Diana Hunter has disconnected herself as much as she can, which is quite difficult in itself. Once Neith begins the hunt for the truth, things become very interesting as she meets people who may or may not be involved in the case, but also starts reliving Diana’s memories of the interrogation, including the way she blocked the System from reaching her secrets.

Inspector Neith is confronted by a number of narrative blockades that seem both unrelated and yet are also tied together. In these narrative blockades Neith is given clues to help uncover the truth about Diana’s death, but also to find out what Diana was really hiding from the System. The narrative blockades consist of two stories that feel more contemporary to the world we live in. The first story is that of Constantine Kyriakos a banker, who has always been able to make a lot of money, but after encountering a shark, he begins to see patterns in the market that he shouldn’t be able to. Constantine collects art and one of those pieces is called Gnomon. The other contemporary narrative is based on the life of Bekele, the artist who created Gnomon. These two threads have a lot of similarities in their narrative structure and like the third narrative which takes us back to Ancient Rome are rich in detail. We find out more about these three characters and their lives than we do of Inspector Neith and Diana Hunter who for all intents and purposes are our protagonists.

We are not told how long Britain has been governed by the System or how long it has been in place or who created it, but it does seem to be something that is not in place in the rest of the world. The System does not control the populaces thoughts, so people are still able to be idiotic in their decision making. The System is supposed to be impartial, as well as infallible, but what happens if this isn’t actually true. Gnomon is very prescient with real-world events.

Gnomon is a gripping book, with stories within stories that all intersect with each other. This can leave you feeling, if not overwhelmed, driven to know what happens next to these characters and how they are all connected. I really enjoyed the crossing over between dreams and Neith’s reality. The book also had echoes of the Matrix and Inception when it lets us ask the question of what is the nature of reality? I liked that this is not only a book about Neith’s journey but also a masterful jigsaw puzzle where all of the pieces are there, but not always in plain view. There is no loss of enjoyment, whether you see the twists coming before Neith does. Throughout the book there is a lot of discussion of who is the hunter and when do they become the hunted, as we go through the different narratives, this can lead to a lot of misdirection, although this never feels heavy-handed. I really enjoyed Harkaway’s way of telling a story and the questions it poses about the way we live today.

I generally enjoy Sci-Fi books but this one was very slow moving. An interesting concept but in the end I found it boring.

It was ok i guess. It took me absolutely ages to trawl through it because i constantly lost interest and found something better to do.

I really struggled with this and could not finish the book.