The Gone-Away World

By: Nick Harkaway

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne

Length: 24 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

A wildly entertaining debut novel, introducing a bold new voice that combines antic humor (think Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut) with a stunning futuristic vision (á la A Clockwork Orange and 1984, with a little Mad Max thrown in) to give us an electrifyingly original tale of love, friendship, and the apocalypse.

There couldn't be a fire along the Jorgmund Pipe. It was the last thing the world needed. But there it was, burning bright on national television. The Pipe was what kept the Livable Zone safe from the bandits, monsters, and nightmares the Go-Away War had left in its wake. The fire was a very big problem.

Enter Gonzo Lubitsch and his friends, the Haulage & HazMat Emergency Civil Freebooting Company, a team of master troubleshooters who roll into action when things get particularly hot. They helped build the Pipe. Now they have to preserve it - and save humanity yet again. But this job is not all it seems. It will touch more closely on Gonzo's life - and that of his best friend - than either of them can imagine. And it will decide the fate of the Gone-Away World.

Equal parts raucous adventure, comic odyssey, geek nirvana, and ultra-cool epic, The Gone-Away World is a story of - among other things - love, pirates, mimes, greed, and ninjas. But it is also the story of a world, not unlike our own, in desperate need of heroes - however unlikely they may seem.

©2008 Nick Harkaway (P)2008 Random House, Inc.

So good

Soo good y I love it so? Makes me so happy I cry to it but never because of sorry

Storytelling at its finest

This is a beautifully written book. The language is lush and expertly narrated. I didn't want this story to end.

Too long, distracting performance

Stuck with this despite some very confusing sections. Could probably have been cut by a third and told same story. Narrator's "effected" "eccent" was "vary" "ennoying".

My favorite sci-fi book of all time

And I’ve read a loooooooooooooot of sci-fi. This book is just a gem. From the plot to the world to the characters, it’s a masterpiece

Often funny and brilliant, but also exhausting

This is a science fiction/post-apocalyptic/kung fu/romance/war novel/comedy/drama/horror/adventure story written by John le Carré's son. If the description is a bit exhausting, so is the book. It feels like Harkaway threw in the kitchen sink into the book, and then the remaining sinks in the house, and other plumbing, for good measure.

The book is often entertaining and exciting, with wry comments and some laugh-out lines. But it is also very discursive: wandering through flashbacks and asides, switching tone between satirical and emotional. It isn't hard to follow, exactly, but rather tiring. The plot is interrupted so frequently that you sometimes want to shout "Get on with it!" at your audio player.

For example, the story is framed in a fascinating post-apocalyptic setting. Within that story, there are flashbacks to the vaguely absurdist Gone Away War that led to the apocalypse. Part of the story of that war involves an epic escape. In the middle of the escape, a secondary character dies, and the author decides to tell you what is going through the mind of the character during its death, which includes a flashback of the character's entire life, for a full 10+ minutes. It was a funny flashback, but I really wanted to just keep the main plot going.

This problem is exacerbated by the fact that it is an audio book, so, suddenly realizing that you are now going to spend 10-30 minutes listening to a discursive discussion can be really annoying.

On the other hand, the book is really interesting, very imaginative, and well-read. If you are okay with the meandering plot and willful switches of tone, this is a good choice.

Does a mime-combine sound stupid? Stay away.

I just spent more pages learning about a future combine where everyone is a mime named Kay than I spent on meeting, courting, marrying his wife. Everything is very punchy and quirky and boring. Hair color? Punchy-anecdote. Was the coffee hot? Wacky 2 page anecdote. His wife? So pretty and nice.

The best part of this incoherent rant was that the speaker was so clear I could listen to this on x2 speed.

This one stays with you...

Where does The Gone-Away World rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Near the top of the list of the audiobooks I remember (and I've listened to hundreds). Lovely but haunting, or...haunting but lovely.

What other book might you compare The Gone-Away World to and why?

In some ways it may compare to Neil Gaiman, Guy Gavriel Kay or Haruki Murakami (the author may or may not appreciate those comparisons but I consider them a compliment), but in a number of ways truly unique.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The entire last third of the book.

Any additional comments?

Not a happy story, really quite grim in places but still beautiful in total.

a writer that can turn a phrase, but slow paced.

Excellent narration. But the story didn't go anywhere quick enough for my taste. I gave up after a couple chapters, and I don't like to quit but I had no curiosity about the story or the characters.

a well told story within a story.

I thoroughly enjoyed, the concept and the story it allowed to be told. I have not read a science fiction based book in a while. But like any truly good book, the genre is just the mechanism used share something deeper. So I would suggest be careful not Pigeon hole this book. And strongly reccomend.
Narration is excellent.

Tempted to start it all over again, incredibly fun

Phenomenal performance of some of the smartest, funniest prose you’ll find in a post-apocalyptic story