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Idlewild by Nick Sagan
01/02/2004 . Source: Paul Skevington 
pub: Bantam. 275 page hardback. Price: £10.00 (UK). ISBN: 0-593-05190-4. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.booksattransworld.co.uk and www.nicksagan.com
Contrary to the blurb on the cover of the book this is not The Matrix. Neither is it Minority Report.
What is contained within these pages is a story that I found much more satisfying than either of those films. When you take into account that I love those films (well except for the last couple of minutes of Minority Report - I mean blehhhrgh!) then you can begin to get an idea of my reaction to this great novel by fledgling author Nick Sagan.
Here comes the customary plot summary, although it pains me to do it. So much of this novel revolves around the slow discovery of the circumstances that surround the main character - even his name is a mystery at the very beginning of the tale. Trying to stay one step ahead of the author is part of the fun. My advice is to skip the rest of the review, go out and buy the book and don't read the inlay. Just give it a go It's great, honest.
Still there? Oh well, here goes. The novel centres on a character named Hal who wakes up from an unknown yet devastating experience with his memory almost completely destroyed.
The world he wakes to is a strange one and does not seem to conform to the norms we would expect from our own universe. As the novel progresses, we discover that Hal is a student in a very strange school, a school with very few students.
Each student has their own little realm and the school is plagued with rivalries and intrigue. The narrative focuses on Hal's attempts to make sense of this world and to solve the mystery behind his amnesia, which appears to be crucial to his continuing survival.
This is an absolutely stunning novel and a great entry for Sagan onto the scene. The text is packed full of dark humour and wonderfully evoked settings. The book is built in the classic Russian Doll fashion and this theme is expanded upon until every item and personage hints at multiple identities. The facets of these identities are always obscured and appear to be just out of view of the reader.
The skill comes in making each of these facets uniquely different and yet somehow the same.
The mysterious duel narrative, indicated by some passages appearing in italic, helps to increase the disorientating nature of these literary twists. The origin and the meaning of these short sections of text does not become clear until the very end of the book.
Once all has been revealed, these sections lend the piece an extra air of quiet melancholy and regret. The exploration of loss is crucial in Idlewild and the book creates an atmosphere of strangely acceptable nihilism. It's as if Sagan is saying, 'Yeah, it might all go wrong...but in the end is that what really matters?'
Sagan's characters are well defined, each has a unique personality that is striking and memorable, resonating in my mind long after the book was finished and relegated to the shelf. From the morbidly self-absorbed musings of Hal to Fantasia's disturbed view of life, we are presented with a very realistic and credible depiction of a group of teenagers who are teetering on the edge of a grim precipice that they will be lucky to escape from.
It is rare for an SF novel to pack so much into so little space. It's what you'd get if you took all the best bits of Buffy and stirred in a healthy dose of philosophy and seasoned it with some Grade-A post-apocalyptic pepper. If Sagan keeps this up in his next novel we will certainly be hearing a lot more about him in the next few years.
Paul Skevington
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