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Kairos
London in the first decade of the new century is the setting for this tale where RENEW reps in their preposterous angel fancy-dress stalk the dissidents, making many converts with their own brand of extremism. Kairos is the ruler of change, breaking down the barrier between mind and the world. An act of surreal terrorism is about to be set in motion and its about to go badly wrong.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
6 people are currently reading
224 people want to read
About the author
Gwyneth Jones
149 books108 followersGwyneth Jones is a writer and critic of genre fiction. She's won the Tiptree award, two World Fantasy awards, the Arthur C. Clarke award, the British Science Fiction Association short story award, the Dracula Society's Children of the Night award, the P.K.Dick award, and the SFRA Pilgrim award for lifetime achievement in sf criticism. She also writes for teenagers, usually as Ann Halam. She lives in Brighton, UK, with her husband and two cats called Ginger and Milo; curating assorted pondlife in season. She's a member of the Soil Association, the Sussex Wildlife Trust, Frack Free Sussex and the Green Party; and an Amnesty International volunteer.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 5, 2025
Why the **** is this in SF Masterworks collection? It's a deranged woke garbage. The book is older than me and has 61(!) ratings as of writing. Yet we're to believe this belongs among the best in the genre?
Edit: Upon further check Gwyneth Jones has 5 (F-I-V-E-!) books in SF Masterworks collection and none has more than 290 ratings. This is either collection's editor sneaking in her own poor work or someone related to her/fan. Larry Correia is 100% right about this rotten industry.
Edit: Upon further check Gwyneth Jones has 5 (F-I-V-E-!) books in SF Masterworks collection and none has more than 290 ratings. This is either collection's editor sneaking in her own poor work or someone related to her/fan. Larry Correia is 100% right about this rotten industry.
February 9, 2025
Kairos was first published in 1988 and is set around twenty years ago. Despite being a Gwyneth Jones fan, I hadn't heard of it until it was recently reprinted in the SF Masterworks series. Jones made a decently solid prediction about the direction of British politics. Kairos reads somewhat as a precursor to her later Bold as Love series, which I consider her masterpiece. Both examine the dynamics between countercultures and mainstream politics, via a group of characters caught between the two. As well as the same characters' negotiation of complicated queer relationships. However the plot of Kairos is totally different and reads much more like psychedelic 70s scifi, Phillip K. Dick to be precise. Jones depicts the apparent disintegration of reality due to a mysterious substance called Kairos, which is wisely never explained. I was impressed with the genuinely disorientating and uncanny way that she wrote this unraveling. The latter half of Kairos is thus much more compelling than the former, as shit gets very weird. Yet it retains both emotional weight (saving Vera!) and political acuity.
February 2025 seems an apposite time to read Kairos. There's something unpleasantly relevant about a shady pharma/tech company collaborating with an authoritarian right-wing government to destabilise reality. Jones doesn't exactly offer hope for organised resistance, but her characters do survive some extraordinary mental pressures. While I find her sci-fi plots can be hit and miss, she always includes interesting ideas and vividly written characters. Kairos is the most apocalyptic of her fiction that I've yet read and I found it a powerful collapse narrative told by two queer women, two queer men, a child named Candide, and a dog.
February 2025 seems an apposite time to read Kairos. There's something unpleasantly relevant about a shady pharma/tech company collaborating with an authoritarian right-wing government to destabilise reality. Jones doesn't exactly offer hope for organised resistance, but her characters do survive some extraordinary mental pressures. While I find her sci-fi plots can be hit and miss, she always includes interesting ideas and vividly written characters. Kairos is the most apocalyptic of her fiction that I've yet read and I found it a powerful collapse narrative told by two queer women, two queer men, a child named Candide, and a dog.
March 2, 2022
Wild surrealist political science fiction. A vision of the early 21st century from 1988. Would recommend for those looking for something a little different, if this is like your usual read, are you ok?
July 8, 2025
Didn't finish the book. But it did finish me. Just too many descriptions of skin-color. Like yes we get it, she's edgy and writing about non-white characters. Thanks Gwyneth. And fuck you, SF Masterworks.
July 19, 2024
Wanted to love but didn't enjoy at all, and couldn't finish it in the end because reading it felt like such hard work. Maybe I'll try again some day when I'm smarter and more patient. (2 stars not 1 because it's not necessarily bad I'm just not smart enough to follow/enjoy, similar to Joanna Russ)
May 23, 2018
Unless very well done (thinking here of Phillip K. Dick), the whole "confusing reality and hallucination because of some drug" theme can get very tedious, very quickly. This book was not nearly well-written enough to sustain my interest in that sense. Its central conceit is a drug that operates on some sort of quantum-level to start altering reality based on the consciousness of the drug user. This stuff, called Kairos, is unwittingly unleashed on the world via a child looking for his lost pet, accompanied by a woman with identity issues in an unhappy relationship. There is much use of scientific concepts and science-y sounding but ultimately nonsense babble from almost every main character to 'explain' the Kairos effect - using the term very loosely. This brought to my mind this wise statement in From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time:
As far as I could tell, the simplest way that the operation of Kairos could have been formulated would be that it made the processes of quantum mechanics applicable at a scale perceptible by humans, and somehow controllable by humans. Which as far as I can tell has no basis in how quantum physics is actually supposed to work, which always assumes that it operates at a sub-atomic level and has no influence at the human level of existence. In any case, none of this was ever formulated in a logical way, and this compounded by the completely anything-goes character of the surreal events across 85% of the book made it read like a fantasy rather than any rational science-fictional thought experiment. Even within fantasy texts, some rules and character agency is needed to make the plot understandable and make you want to follow along with it, but this book didn't have much of that. Also, when you have to say that an image is surreal (i.e. loc. 4845) it kind of indicates that you're not doing surrealism right, I think.
If I had to rescue something, it would be the nuanced portrayal of two queer relationships and their evolution over time - especially until the 'Fourth Angel' section, before things fall apart and nothing makes sense any more. Later there does seem to be something important happening in relation to romantic, maternal, and sibling relationships but it gets lost in all the incoherence. Second positive, the clever satire of some aspects of society like these weird new entrepreneurial churches and radical feminist movements in both discourse and actions (e.g. the separatist "womyn", loc 4332, but also the main character Otter to some extent) - although not sure how much of the portrayal was satirical and how much was mean to be read as sympathetic at the time of publication.
Read for a science fiction criticism class I'll be participating in soon - otherwise I don't think I'd have made it past the first few chapters.
"According to quantum mechanics, what we can observe about the world is only a tiny subset of what actually exists. [...] None of which should be taken to mean that all hell has broken loose, or that the mysteries of quantum mechanics offer an excuse to believe whatever you want. In particular, quantum mechanics doesn’t mean you can change reality just by thinking about it, or that modern physics has rediscovered ancient Buddhist wisdom. There are still rules, and we know how the rules operate in the regimes of interest to our everyday lives." (p. 229-230)
As far as I could tell, the simplest way that the operation of Kairos could have been formulated would be that it made the processes of quantum mechanics applicable at a scale perceptible by humans, and somehow controllable by humans. Which as far as I can tell has no basis in how quantum physics is actually supposed to work, which always assumes that it operates at a sub-atomic level and has no influence at the human level of existence. In any case, none of this was ever formulated in a logical way, and this compounded by the completely anything-goes character of the surreal events across 85% of the book made it read like a fantasy rather than any rational science-fictional thought experiment. Even within fantasy texts, some rules and character agency is needed to make the plot understandable and make you want to follow along with it, but this book didn't have much of that. Also, when you have to say that an image is surreal (i.e. loc. 4845) it kind of indicates that you're not doing surrealism right, I think.
If I had to rescue something, it would be the nuanced portrayal of two queer relationships and their evolution over time - especially until the 'Fourth Angel' section, before things fall apart and nothing makes sense any more. Later there does seem to be something important happening in relation to romantic, maternal, and sibling relationships but it gets lost in all the incoherence. Second positive, the clever satire of some aspects of society like these weird new entrepreneurial churches and radical feminist movements in both discourse and actions (e.g. the separatist "womyn", loc 4332, but also the main character Otter to some extent) - although not sure how much of the portrayal was satirical and how much was mean to be read as sympathetic at the time of publication.
Read for a science fiction criticism class I'll be participating in soon - otherwise I don't think I'd have made it past the first few chapters.
February 12, 2023
"Just births and deaths and seasons, the way it always was and always will be amen. I can't accept that. I want everything, Sandy, that's my trouble. I'm not prepared to give up any clever or frivolous or exciting thing human beings have devised. Not even for the Revolution. I refuse to take one step backwards."
"The taste of bitter beer contained so much. A quiet life, a small life, les petit bonheurs de tous les jours. The life she'd chosen: to cultivate her garden. Candide had been her shortcut across the world's stage."
As a dystopian extrapolation of the Thatcherite government in power when Jones wrote the novel, Kairos engages with the topic of social revolution amidst seemingly hopeless prospects. It deal substantially with the personal lives and attitudes of those aspiring to such revolution in the wake of its apparent failure to materialize. Despite being over thirty years old, the synopsis on the back cover, concerning a conservative government in the UK of the twenty-first century presiding over an ever increasing wealth disparity and growing police state, reads as if it were a contemporary news report rather than a setting for a science fiction novel. The central sci-fi element is the drug Kairos with its reality changing effects. The nature of Kairos, utilizing quantum mechanics to seemingly project one's consciousness onto the whole of reality, hints at the interconnected nature of all things Thus, the type of juvenile hyper-individualism favored by libertarian conservatism is belied by the fundamental nature of reality. It takes profound skill as a writer to create a novel that depicts characters moving through unstable and shifting realities. Jones does a remarkable of this while portraying the thin divide between the internal mentalities of the four central characters and cataclysmic external shifts in their world.
Among a constellation of literary and philosophical references, the name of Otto's son, Candide, is the most prominent one. This is, of course, an allusion to Voltaire's most famous work, which, in turn, hints the subtle theme that seems the run throughout the novel. It is what Voltaire's Candide learned at the close his journey: the importance of cultivating one's garden. Against the backdrop of desired revolution and social change, it stresses the important of, nevertheless, carving out area for one's personal life and priorities, gardens in which to exist in relative sanctity amid bleak societal prospects. Here, it is the prime lesson for Otto - the once revolutionary at all costs. The nature of the Kairos event and near loss of both Sandy and Candide, leads her to see more value in their previous existence, imperfect as it was, which is precisely what Sandy restores. There is also the sense that the worldwide effects of the Kairos event had a similar effect for all of humanity, perhaps hinting at an eventual revolution through such a (literal) shift in consciousness. Thus, the means of revolution are, here, inherently situated within the minds of ordinary people, albeit being realized in the novel only by the extraordinary means of the Kairos.
"The taste of bitter beer contained so much. A quiet life, a small life, les petit bonheurs de tous les jours. The life she'd chosen: to cultivate her garden. Candide had been her shortcut across the world's stage."
As a dystopian extrapolation of the Thatcherite government in power when Jones wrote the novel, Kairos engages with the topic of social revolution amidst seemingly hopeless prospects. It deal substantially with the personal lives and attitudes of those aspiring to such revolution in the wake of its apparent failure to materialize. Despite being over thirty years old, the synopsis on the back cover, concerning a conservative government in the UK of the twenty-first century presiding over an ever increasing wealth disparity and growing police state, reads as if it were a contemporary news report rather than a setting for a science fiction novel. The central sci-fi element is the drug Kairos with its reality changing effects. The nature of Kairos, utilizing quantum mechanics to seemingly project one's consciousness onto the whole of reality, hints at the interconnected nature of all things Thus, the type of juvenile hyper-individualism favored by libertarian conservatism is belied by the fundamental nature of reality. It takes profound skill as a writer to create a novel that depicts characters moving through unstable and shifting realities. Jones does a remarkable of this while portraying the thin divide between the internal mentalities of the four central characters and cataclysmic external shifts in their world.
Among a constellation of literary and philosophical references, the name of Otto's son, Candide, is the most prominent one. This is, of course, an allusion to Voltaire's most famous work, which, in turn, hints the subtle theme that seems the run throughout the novel. It is what Voltaire's Candide learned at the close his journey: the importance of cultivating one's garden. Against the backdrop of desired revolution and social change, it stresses the important of, nevertheless, carving out area for one's personal life and priorities, gardens in which to exist in relative sanctity amid bleak societal prospects. Here, it is the prime lesson for Otto - the once revolutionary at all costs. The nature of the Kairos event and near loss of both Sandy and Candide, leads her to see more value in their previous existence, imperfect as it was, which is precisely what Sandy restores. There is also the sense that the worldwide effects of the Kairos event had a similar effect for all of humanity, perhaps hinting at an eventual revolution through such a (literal) shift in consciousness. Thus, the means of revolution are, here, inherently situated within the minds of ordinary people, albeit being realized in the novel only by the extraordinary means of the Kairos.
April 25, 2024
I've never read anything quite like this. Released in 1988, KAIROS is a combination of classic dystopia (in this case an extreme take on Thatcher politics of the UK at the time), feminist sci-fi, LGBTQ sci-fi, as well as druggy, psychedelic sci-fi in the vein of Philip K. Dick. At times it was as incomprehensible and bizarre as a William Gibson novel.
The book took about 100 pages to really sink its teeth in me, not that the first 100 pages were bad, but it's really only at the 100-page mark that we begin to understand what Kairos is—it's an experimental drug that shapes the world around you based on your thoughts and feelings—and how its effects were potentially shaping the early parts of the book. The writing would weave in and out of characters' heads, bouncing between third- and first-person like the writing of J.P. Donleavy.
Interestingly, considering it's been selected for the SF Masterworks reissue imprint, very few have rated or reviewed this book on Goodreads, and the ones who have, have rated it rather poorly. All I can say is, I've learned a little more about the art of storytelling having read this.
Not pulpy in the slightest, more for the literary crowd. Definitely want to read more from Gwyneth Jones, though.
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
The book took about 100 pages to really sink its teeth in me, not that the first 100 pages were bad, but it's really only at the 100-page mark that we begin to understand what Kairos is—it's an experimental drug that shapes the world around you based on your thoughts and feelings—and how its effects were potentially shaping the early parts of the book. The writing would weave in and out of characters' heads, bouncing between third- and first-person like the writing of J.P. Donleavy.
Interestingly, considering it's been selected for the SF Masterworks reissue imprint, very few have rated or reviewed this book on Goodreads, and the ones who have, have rated it rather poorly. All I can say is, I've learned a little more about the art of storytelling having read this.
Not pulpy in the slightest, more for the literary crowd. Definitely want to read more from Gwyneth Jones, though.
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
December 16, 2022
Not your typical book. Great characters who take something like a psychodelic journey. The further you read the deeper into a world of confusion you descend, yet Jones writing manages to keep your head above water... Just.
January 22, 2024
The best since Philip k dick to do how reality can be altered through drugs or in this case Kairos. I felt this could have been better plotted since Mario’s isn’t introduced until a 1/3 of the way through the book.
March 1, 2023
DNF. I didn't hate it but I got 70 pages in and nothing interesting was happening.
May 8, 2016
a challenging but ultimately rewarding novel, in which a drug in a dystopic near future acts as a virus to cause a reality plague. reality shatters into disconnected fragments, time shifts and stops, and the world seemingly ends, yet may be restored in some by acts of individual will that act directly within a matrix of at least five dimensions. the recovered world then differs in each person's consciousness, yet they can choose to interact across these boundaries of unique perception.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews