Add my name to those who cannot fathom the reasons why so many people wax lyrical about, 'The Gone Away World.'

I have learnt a few things about myself having read this however:

1. I am not a fantasy fan (My distaste of 'The 13 and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear' first aroused my suspicion, this has affirmed it resolutely) especially when it feels particularly made up.

2. I do not like this writing style (which I feel is sadly how I myself write haha) full of digressions, tangents, asides and somewhat esoteric concepts which detract from the experience rather than add to it.

At points it was enjoyable, I liked the central idea and I thought the plot twist was skilfully executed and an engaging concept to boot (hence the second star) but I felt all this was hampered by Harkaway's writing which was all just too complicated: there was a huge cast of characters who were quite flat, relatively unexplored and empty vessels for the plot; the 'fantasy' had to be explained so much so that the suspension of belief was broken and it all felt painfully made-up and deliberate.

I'm confused and slightly indignant that people compare Harkaway to Douglas Adams or Kurt Vonnegut, especially. I've nothing against the guy obviously but there is a hugely apparent gulf in quality no? - surely people can see that, right?

Sigh. I'm glad I read it and I have 'Angelmaker' which maybe I'll like more? (Let me know please!) but unfortunately, this was a read I'd quite like to 'Go Away' ha! Ahem, sorry folks. ( )

Very fun. The pace and snappy dialog and discourse was fun. The story was good, complex but logical. Very enjoyable novel to read. Fun.

Nick Harkaway is a master of painting zany inside a deep meaningful novel. A truly unique experience and one of the few books that might actually read completely different upon a reread (which I will do someday). I loved the humor. I loved the characters and I loved the story. Read this story and let it take you in completely unexpected directions. Just when you think you have a grasp on where it is heading he hits you with a mallet. ( )

Once I accepted this book for what it was—a weird soup of science fiction and satire—I found it very enjoyable. It didn't all work for me. The Pynchonesque mime troop was a bridge too far. But it is an impressive feat of imagination and solid storytelling. ( )

Although I came to this novel on the basis of my appreciation of a later work by the same author, it made an eerily good match for the most recent feature film I enjoyed. If you liked the martial arts action, twisted humor, melodramatic pathos, and reality-warping mindfuckery of Everything Everywhere All at Once, you might find that Nick Harkaway's doorstop 2008 first novel actually delivers a kindred experience.

The Gone-Away World contains about half a dozen major anagnorises or revelatory plot pivots, each with perfectly adequate narrative preparation and often outright foreshadowing. After getting caught with my pants down by a couple of these, I got really vigilant, paying special attention to what the story hadn't told me at that point, and my effort was rewarded with being able to anticipate the next big surprise by maybe two or three pages. Then as I kept on reading, feeling pleased with myself, I got surprised again! (Well, I sort of saw that coming.) And again! (OMG, how could I fail to have seen that coming!) It was like losing a sparring bout.

The semi-fantastic post-apocalyptic setting is definitely sui generis (although comparisons others have made to Vonnegut have some merit), and it took me a few of the book's longish chapters to get comfortable with the narrative framing. But even before that point I found the prose fast-moving and congenial.

There's possibly an allegory here, certainly a parable. I had to wonder if Harkaway named "FOX"--"the gunk ... inFOrmationally eXtra-saturated" (259) that stabilizes reality after the Go Away War has totally disrupted it--as a conscious poke at US propaganda media. The book takes aim at even bigger troubles, though, if you want to read it that way. The repeated tacit references to the legend of Andromeda in the final arc were poignant.

On the whole, I liked this novel a lot and found it to be a lively ride. It fell a little short of the tremendously high esteem I have for Harkaway's Gnomon, but that's hardly grounds to dismiss it. It is perhaps, as I've seen some suggest, more accessible than the later book, while still delivering a considerable taste of what the writer has to offer.