Gwyneth Jones
| British Pbk Original - Gollancz (2006) |
 |
Rainbow Bridge
Winner of the World Fantasy Award
What do you think would happen if China invaded England? No, not China, mighty economic miracle, the new superpower, nemesis of `Western’ Hegemony; this is China: an idea, a romance, a passion - the founder of the future World State.
lphigenia
The codeword came to England in June. Only one man understood it, Ax Preston, rockstar warlord, leader of the English people, icon of the embattled techno-Utopians of Europe. And he decided to do nothing. Ax took a gamble. He knew the price would be high, but he believed he saw a chance of winning the game. His partners - Sage Pender and Fiorinda Slater - believed it too; and they were formidable allies. The Chinese had invincible military superiority, but they didn’t have the secret of the superweapon. Maybe they’d come to England to find it. Or maybe they’d come to obliterate the existence of the Neurobomb, write it out of history, at whatever cost
In September the Chinese arrived, and slaughtered the innocents. In January a winter journey to the drowned world and a propaganda rock show in a labour camp called Rainbow Bridge led Ax to the secret identity of the Fifth General.
And the game of risk began .. .
Rainbow Bridge: gripping entertainment, passionate intelligence, and a vision of the future that defies all categorisation.
‘Never has the nature of Englishness been as sweet, or more bitter’ Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Guardian
'Iain Banks on acid' Guardian
|
First British Edition Gollancz (2005) |
|
| Paperback - Gollancz (2006) |
 |
Band of Gypsys
Winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award
Hard times and sweet music: scandal and betrayal for Ax as England embraces the fearsome new world order; the Rock and Roll Reich goes Country.
Ax Preston, former dictator, returns to England to take up the Green President job. At close quarters he finds some outrageous details in the contract, so the Triumvirate decamps for Paris to sit out the first hard winter after the A-team destroyed crude oil in ostentatious poverty. Ax is quite certain he can negotiate a better deal. But while Ax and Sage and Fiorinda are embarrassing the English government over conditions in the new-slavery labour camps, bad things are happening for the President of the USA. Fred Eiffrich’s enemies in Washington are about to drop a bombshell that will shatter any hope of a return to former realities, former certainties. What happened at Lavoisier is not over. It’s coming back, it’s never going to end ...
... not while Fiorinda lives - or her child.
'Never has the nature of Englishness been as sweet, or more bitter' Jon Courtenay Grimwood in the Guardian
‘This is fantasy of the order of Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker’ Enigma
‘lain Banks on acid … mesmerising’ Guardian
‘A writer of visionary skills, with a striking and poetic narrative style’ Independent
‘Fiorinda is a passionately loveable heroine’ Amazon.co.uk
‘Jones melds modern and ancient: computer technology meets dark age religion. Sitting somewhere on the borders of dark fantasy, literary fiction and SF’ Guardian
| British Pbk Original - Gollancz (2003) |
 |
Midnight Lamp
Winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award
Rufus O’Niall is dead and the green nazi occupation defeated - but at huge cost to the three extraordinary people who saved England from the dark. Shattered and deeply changed by the sacrifices they each had to make, Fiorinda, Ax and Sage are in hiding from their friends and fans in Mexico. When they’re tracked down by an emissary of US President Fred Eiffrich, he makes an offer they can’t refuse. It’s about a movie, allegedly ... Scientific magic, werebears, environmental meltdown: the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Bold As Love adventure continues, spinning a web of dread and daring, in a world that could almost be ours.
Praise for Bold as Love and Castles Made of Sand
`She is one of Britain’s most brilliant SF writers’ Frances Spufford
`Never has the nature of Englishness been sweeter, or more bitter’ Jon Courtney Grimwood, Guardian
`Jones’s picture of a world falling apart at the seams, and her worryingly coherent portrayal of a competent dictator, is one of the more impressive things she has done; and Fiorinda, with her conscience and angst-ridden past, is a passionately lovable heroine’
Amazon. co. uk
|
First British Edition Gollancz (2002) |
|
Castles Made of Sand
The lights are going out all over Europe . . .
Ax Preston, Sage Pender and Fiorinda, charismatic leaders of the Rock and Roll Reich, have beaten the cascade of disasters that followed the collapse of the United Kingdom. Now they have to find some resolution to the impossible dynamics of their own relationship, while the world keeps getting stranger, and the future of Crisis Europe looks more and more ominous.
There are fearsome things going on in England’s rural hinterland, the green nazis are planning a final solution to desperate environmental damage, and Sage is getting more and more involved in the ZenSelf quest for ultimate consciousness, the fusion between mind and the world. It’s tricky when the temptations of power and the complexities of love are so closely woven, but there’s nothing the Triumvirate can’t handle . . . until Fiorinda’s father, secret master of magic both old and totally new, reaches out to reclaim his magical child, the flower-bride.
And that’s when darkness falls over Ax’s England.
Bold As Love, the first part of Ax, Sage and Fiorinda’s story was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke and BSFA Awards.
‘Gwyneth Jones is one of the finest and most important sf writers of the past decade, a writer who has altered the shape of science fiction’ Foundation
'One of Britain's most brilliant sf writers' Guardian
| Paperback - Gollancz (2005) |
 |
|
First British Edition Allen & Unwin (1984) |
|
|
Divine Endurance
`Innocent, perfect and incorruptible, Cho is looking for someone to serve ..
On the Peninsula, the veiled women rule. Men are ksyatria: a wall around the garden of life – except that most male babies remain ‘boys’, household slaves. Revolution is brewing in this land of graceful and implacable tradition. When the survival of the rebels hangs in the balance, the wayan-legong called Clio arrives with her cat, Divine Endurance. Few people recognise them for what they are, it’s a long, long time since the Tumbling Dice Toy Factory went out of business. Those who do know that a fragile situation has just become appallingly dangerous: the angel dolls were built with the power to grant every wish of the human heart ...
Divine Endurance is an original: a complex adventure and a poignant love story, the stunning first novel of one of the finest SF and fantasy writers of her generation.
'An almost flawless artistic accomplishment…Her successes are glorious' Washington Post Book World
‘No synopsis can possibly convey the strength of the intelligence and the clarity of the emotion’ British Book News
About The Author
Gwyneth Jones was born in Manchester. She now lives in Brighton with her husband and son, but lived and worked for some time in Singapore. She spent the summer of 1992 in Southern India on the trail of the Hindu dynasts who colonized Malaysia, Java and Sumatra one thousand years ago and created the distinctive cultural blend borrowed by Divine Endurance.
Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.
Rainbow Bridge
(Gollancz Pbk,
2006)
Band of Gypsys
(Gollancz,
2005)
Gollancz Pbk Jun 06
Midnight Lamp
(Gollancz Pbk,
2003)
Castles Made of Sand
(Gollancz,
2002)
Divine Endurance
(Allen & Unwin,
1984)
Gollancz Pbk Mar 05
Bold As Love
Rainbow Bridge
by Gwyneth Jones
