|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reviews
2002
BOLD
AS LOVE
"The also site
offers a line of merchandise featuring the fictional ppo-culture
heroes (proceeds go to Jones's favourite causes), making a
nice and highly significant link between the myth of stardom
and the 'reality' of fiction. Take your dreams for reality,
but remember the nightmares might not be far behind."
Debbie Shaw, Mute, May 2002
"One of
the few books to tell the truth about rock and roll in all
its dirty glory..."
Manchester
Evening News, July 2002
CASTLES
MADE OF SAND
"A
wildly imaginative take on what might happen if New Age Travellers
and the like
wielded
real power...further proof that it's possible to do something
triumphantly new with
the fantasy genre..."
Interview
on Dreamwatch, Sept 2002
"Her
first novel was excellent. This one's better!"
Guardian,
August 10th 2002
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| "
Gwyneth Jones has written a novel in which a festival swallows
up the whole country. She is one of Britain's most brilliant
sci-fi writers, and one of the few authors worldwide to understand
the scale of opportunity the genre offers..." Francis Spufford,
The Guardian |
|
|
|
"seriously unputdownable…"
Bryan Talbot
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| "Jones's
worryingly coherent portrayal of a competent dictator is one
of the more impressive things she has done, and Fiorinda, with
her conscience and her angst-ridden past is a passionately loveable
heroine…" Ros Kaveney, for Amazon.co.uk |
|
|
"Lester
Bangs would no doubt have called Bold As Love bullshit, but
if it's bullshit it's a wonderful, optimistic, romantic kind
of bullshit written by someone who's not afraid to hope…"
Jonathan Strahan, Locus
|
|
"…pervaded
by a sense of creeping evil that is carried by the strength
of the characterisations. We continue reading, both to know
what will happen and in dread of it happening, for we fear for
the characters…"
Allessandro Rico, Enigma (Waterstones sf and fantasy review) |
|
|
|
|
|
"(Gwyneth Jones's)
... characters are wonderfully real and her ideas are intriguing,"
Barbara Davies, Starburst |
|
|
|
Imagine
an England where the PM has pushed Tony Blair's cool-Britannia
riff well beyond absurdity, mix in riots in the Midlands, child
abuse, freely available drugs and a high level of authorial
intelligence, and you're halfway to what this novel offers.
Never has the nature of Englishness been as sweet, or more bitter.
Sat 11th August, Guardian, Jon Courtenay Grimwood |
|
|
|
"poetic heroes
with a tragic streak..." Mark Wright (Starburst) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"This is an
amusing science-fiction novel, with likeable characters and
some really interesting ideas" Borders 'What's Happening',
|
|
|
But just who, or what, is as Bold As Love?
I'm sure I know but I'm not telling. Figure it out for yourself.
Or you could just ask the Ax, he knows everything. Chris Butler,
infinity plus.co.uk
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bold As Love has collected
a curious mixture of reviews. Is this
a horror story? Is it a light-hearted romantic fantasy? Is
it satire? Is it serious? Is it a dystopia? Is is wonderful,
romantic, optimistic fun...? Or all of the above? Take your
choice. Strangest of all (to me) is the response that Bold
As Love is implausible because rockstars take over the government.
Useless for me to protest that this isn't what happens. People
perceive this to be a story about rockstars taking over the
government, and for some reason this is beyond the bounds
of fantastic-fiction possibility. There seems to be a subtext
that I am missing, here... Oh well, I remember saying to Bryan
Talbot, when the book was finished -this is public domain
territory I'm moving into. Everyone will have their own ideas,
I wonder how they'll react to mine.
When I read the lengthy (and in the end extremely
favourable) review on the SF Site, I was finally moved to
take a hand. "The premise that...rockstars would actually
possess the political acumen to pull this off is... laughable..."
You what? Say that again? What is the secret agenda behind
this bizarre resistance, to a tale that puts contemporary
(organic, original, not yet hereditary) princes and princesses
in the genre fantasy roles??? I realised, after I'd fired
off my broadside, that the SF site reviewer may actually be
too young to er, actively remember that a few years ago (by
my ancient elvish reckoning) his great nation was ruled by
an outworn Hollywood B-movie actor, who saw no harm in consulting
his wife's astrologer on matters of state.
Anyway, what is Bold As Love about, and do
I have a right to write an adult fairytale about rock and
roll music? We're arguing the point on the SF Site: Noble
and wise politicians vs laughable rockstars, match compered
by the inestimable Rodger Turner. (The correspondence won't
be up for an issue or two, but you can find the review now,
in the recent-features archive.) The
SF site
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|