Pavane

By: Keith Roberts

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Earphones Award Winner (AudioFile Magazine)

Award-winning author, narrator, and screenwriter Neil Gaiman personally selected this book, and, using the tools of the Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX), cast the narrator and produced this work for his audiobook label, Neil Gaiman Presents.

A few words from Neil on Pavane: "When Old Earth Books told me they are reissuing Pavane, which was originally published in 1968, I told them: 'I read one story from Pavane when I was nine, and it scarred me…. I read the whole book as a teenager and learned where that story had come from, and the shape of the whole story and I felt the scars heal….' Pavane was Keith Roberts' masterpiece: profound and still remarkable."

Considered Keith Roberts' masterwork, this novel consists of linked short stories (six measures and a coda) of a 20th century in which the Roman Catholic Church controls the Western world, and has done so since Queen Elizabeth of England was assassinated in 1588. The Protestant Reformation never happened, and the world is kept in a Dark Age of steam-power transportation, with no allowance for electrical power, by a tyrannical Rome. Pavane shows the harshness of life in this society and details the generational struggle for independence by the citizens of Dorset, England. It's through this series of moving tales that Roberts interweaves a discussion of Destiny and History that take the book out of the ordinary. And the author's great love of his native country makes this the most English of novels, and one of the finest in fantastic literature.

To hear more from Neil Gaiman on Pavane, click here, or listen to the introduction at the beginning of the book itself.

Learn more about Neil Gaiman Presents and Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX).

©1968 Keith Roberts (P)2011 Wildside Press LLC

Critic reviews

"Roberts's vivid depiction of the day-to-day lives of the common folk gives these stories a tangible reality. Steven Crossley's gentle voice, embedded with a regional accent, enhances the characters and places them solidly in their milieu." ( AudioFile)

Troubling and Enigmatic

A story in 6 parts. Strange, facinating and troubling. Where Neil Gaiman often has the fantastical within the "normal" i.e. Neverwhere and Coraline, this is an alternate history of what could have been. England and the rest of the world under the sway of the Roman Catholic Church; Spain controls the New World. The 20th Century with steam power only and an ongoing feudal system. A somewhat disconcerting premise. It is a book that I will continue to think about and will listen to again.

LeCarre not Baldacci

This is a story that unfolds slowly, with no dramatic event(s) at the end of every chapter as is so common in modern pulp fiction. I enjoyed it very much; but then, I enjoy John LeCarre novels - work that some find ploding. It is not Baldacci. (Whose writings I enjoy but would not need or want to reread). The meaning of the word 'pavane' well sums the development of the story.

Pavane is much better characterized as alternative history than science fiction. There are no gizmos that don't exist in today's world. But ... there is a bit of fantasy.

PS I use the term "pulp fiction" in the best sense. Hawthorne and Dafoe were pulp fiction writers of their time.

If England never had a Reformation

What made the experience of listening to Pavane the most enjoyable?

The story of those charged with running the signal towers stands out for its backstory and intricate imagining of the craft and skill involved in this guild.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Certainly the premise of a hidebound Catholicism resonates. The inquisition chapter is suitably harrowing with its relentless logic applied. But the later parts devolved into warfare and while told well, after a while, this palled by so much action in so little a space. It felt repetitious and diffused.

Which scene was your favorite?

I liked the eerie fate of the girl on the beach. I still am puzzled over it.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

As it was nine hours, I could not. It is better a chapter at a time, as told from different points of view and different narrative perspectives.

Any additional comments?

As with many alternate histories, stronger in the set-up than the delivery. Still, one of the better of its ilk. A clever idea and a reminder of the power of ideologies to control or not keep control of a land.

Truly a classic

I read this very shortly after it came out and rediscovered the paperback a few years ago. Was delighted to see it in an audio version and wasn't disappointed. I'm generally not a fan of "alternative" universes, but this one works. Loved it

Do Stuff and Then You Die

Alternate history. A description power overriding explicit teaching. Our pernicious human nature will always express.

It's the Characters that Outline the World

Neil Gaiman Presents, and George R.R. Martin praises it right on the cover. Two powerhouse names like that can't be wrong when they stand in agreement, and it's that very reason I selected this book. These are names I trust.

This is an older novel and reads like one, but that's certainly no turn-off. What's a bit jarring is the format and presentation. A Pavane is a style of music, and the format was presented in here in literary form as 6 movements and a coda. The basic idea is that this is an alternate history where Queen Elizabeth I was assassinated, and in the mid-20th century, the Roman Catholic Church is still in supreme dominance as a result of having killed the Reformation. It's a steampunk styled world ruled by superstition and fear, but far more authentic feeling than most steampunk. It feels less like fantasy and more like a legitimate alternate reality. Sounds epic, right? Yes and no. You don't get an epic here. What you get is a personal account. Each of the stories contained here link one to the next through the eyes of the characters. Instead of a big worldview epoch, you get a human quality to the world as these people see it - what it's like to live in this world from within a few different walks of life, with the same emotions, strengths, and frailties that people are prone to have in our world as well. It's a master class in characterization. As a result, it burns slow, but it burns evenly, as surely as a higher quality candle. It doesn't illuminate the entire world, but it does illuminate the corners of it we visit through these characters, and it casts larger shadows of suggestion into that world. It definitely leaves you wanting more. More's the pity that there is no more save for what we take from the suggestive nature of asking the two most powerful words in the English language: "What if...?"

A Fascinating, Painful, and Beautiful Dance

Keith Roberts vividly imagines the world of his alternate history novel Pavane. Because Queen Elizabeth was assassinated, for four hundred years the Catholic Church has dominated the world, including the American colonies and England (Angle Land). Because the Roman Church has been repressing science, technology, and freedom, in the 20th century hauliers pilot giant steam-powered locomotives pulling wagons of freight over roads, signallers send messages through a complex series of semaphore towers, soldiers wield crossbows and swords as well as muskets and pistols, and priests perform exorcisms to banish Satan from sick people. Mother Church rules from Rome with a heavy hand, imposing heavy taxes and torturing the bodies of sinners to free their souls. Some people are chafing under the Church's rule, and the Church is quick to stamp out any spark of rebellion.

Pavane is a narrative dance of six Measures (short stories) and a Coda (epilogue). Beginning in 1968, each Measure depicts a crisis and change in the life of its protagonist (three male and three female) and combines with the other stories to make a novel which depicts a crisis and change in their world. Roberts writes stark and beautiful Dorset hills, heaths, and coasts, fascinating crafts and professions, and piercingly human characters. He also weaves through his pavane a mysterious thread of the fantastic: the Old Ones ("fairies"), who inhabited England before the Normans and Catholics, are still in the land, though they have mostly retreated into the darkness.

Pavane reminds me of A Canticle for Leibowitz as much as The Man in the High Castle but is very different than both. This audiobook, which Steven Crossley does a marvelous job reading, moved me and made me think, but the Coda (despite ending with the sublime beauty of glowworms held like stars in hands) felt like a dance step too much for the pavane, because it unconvincingly re-choreographs the six measures.

haunting. It will stick with me.

What did you love best about Pavane?

The mysterious nature of the interwoven stories. The characters.

What did you like best about this story?

That it didn't solve everything. I so enjoyed it, I bought it for my father on his Kindle. We can discuss it together.

Which scene was your favorite?

The semaphore communication system is intriguing. We communicate around the world from our smart phone on twitter.... the semaphores reminded me of what life used to be like. slower, methodical, somewhat limited, somewhat less frenetic.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes. I ended up saving it at times... telling myself, "you can listen to the book again, after you've done this dreaded thing that you're avoiding." Then I'd hurriedly do the dreaded thing so I could return to the story.
Yet, I wanted to rest between chapters/stories as well. To let their philosophy sink in. To mourn some of the characters, or what I'd learned about the time perios.

Any additional comments?

So very glad that it's been reissued. I would not have discovered it unless I saw Neil Gaiman Presents' list of his favorite books to re-issue.

One of the best alternative history novels

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend to all sci-fi fans - really great way to keep your brain working on different levels.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Pavane?

Coda put a great spin o things...

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I both laughed and cried - at different points of the story

Smooth, steady narration fits story.

I would recommend this book as well as this presentation of it. Widening in scope as tributary narratives gather in passing years, the narrator gave flavor and his steady tone worked well with weaving plot. I knew the characters hours in, and the wake of old actions.