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News from the Squares
In this eagerly-awaited sequel to News From Gardenia, Gavin Meckler is trying to get back to the present, but something is amiss. He soon realises he has travelled sideways through time to another possible future, as unlike Gardenia as our own era.
Arriving in a teeming megacity, Gavin discovers a highly technologically developed society in a vast urban landscape constructed around a seemingly endless series of squares dense with lush vegetation and trees.
Much of what Gavin sees is recognisable. But there is one important difference. Here, women make up the majority of the global population and run the majority of institutions, including the vast and mysterious Institute of Mental Health where Gavin is required to live...
Arriving in a teeming megacity, Gavin discovers a highly technologically developed society in a vast urban landscape constructed around a seemingly endless series of squares dense with lush vegetation and trees.
Much of what Gavin sees is recognisable. But there is one important difference. Here, women make up the majority of the global population and run the majority of institutions, including the vast and mysterious Institute of Mental Health where Gavin is required to live...
- GenresScience FictionFiction
368 pages, Paperback
First published September 11, 2013
10 people are currently reading
88 people want to read
About the author
Robert Llewellyn
57 books75 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
Robert Llewellyn is an English actor, presenter, and writer. He is best known for his roles as presenter of Scrapheap Challenge, and as the android Kryten in the hit sitcom Red Dwarf.
Robert Llewellyn is an English actor, presenter, and writer. He is best known for his roles as presenter of Scrapheap Challenge, and as the android Kryten in the hit sitcom Red Dwarf.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
March 16, 2014
In News from Gardenia Robert Llewellyn explored the idea of a society more advanced than our own. We saw through the eyes of Gavin Meckler, an engineer, who finds himself inexplicably catapulted into the distant future by a freak meteorological anomaly.
News from the Squares sees Gavin, stranded once more in a futuristic and bewildering age, in which he has no place. What I like about Llewellyn's fiction is that it is intelligently written and well considered. Meckler spends much of his time wandering around baffled, in much the same way that Douglas Adams had Arthur Dent wandering the galaxy. You can't help but like Gavin Meckler. He seems like one of those chaps without a nasty bone in his body. Much of the humour comes from Meckler's surprise at each new revelation this new earth has to offer. Yet the book comes across as an exploration of gender roles and even the hapless Gavin realises that he has deep seated prejudices that he never knew were there. This alternative earth is run by women, it is a patriarchal society. There are no wars, no poverty and all disease has been eradicated. Perhaps this is somewhere Gavin can settle? Yet he soon discovers that all is not well in this potential utopia. There is still room for hatred and anger but why is so much of it directed at him?
I devoured this novel voraciously, so it's fair to say the author's narrative gripped me. There's a refreshing gentleness to the Llewellyn’s work that you don't often see. This equates to not a great deal of action and no sex or violence, if you're looking for that go elsewhere. If you want a novel that'll guide you teasingly through a future filled with hope then try this excellent novel.
News from the Squares sees Gavin, stranded once more in a futuristic and bewildering age, in which he has no place. What I like about Llewellyn's fiction is that it is intelligently written and well considered. Meckler spends much of his time wandering around baffled, in much the same way that Douglas Adams had Arthur Dent wandering the galaxy. You can't help but like Gavin Meckler. He seems like one of those chaps without a nasty bone in his body. Much of the humour comes from Meckler's surprise at each new revelation this new earth has to offer. Yet the book comes across as an exploration of gender roles and even the hapless Gavin realises that he has deep seated prejudices that he never knew were there. This alternative earth is run by women, it is a patriarchal society. There are no wars, no poverty and all disease has been eradicated. Perhaps this is somewhere Gavin can settle? Yet he soon discovers that all is not well in this potential utopia. There is still room for hatred and anger but why is so much of it directed at him?
I devoured this novel voraciously, so it's fair to say the author's narrative gripped me. There's a refreshing gentleness to the Llewellyn’s work that you don't often see. This equates to not a great deal of action and no sex or violence, if you're looking for that go elsewhere. If you want a novel that'll guide you teasingly through a future filled with hope then try this excellent novel.
June 14, 2014
I'll start with the positives:
+ More actual things happened than in the previous book! Events occurred!
+ Robert Llewellyn ♥
On the other hand, I can't decide which of these negatives was more annoying:
- Bobby's poor grasp of punctuation and sentence structure
- Bobby's terrible opinions about feminism
- Bobby's terrible opinions about mental health
- Bobby's extremely bizarre opinions about team sports???
- The part in the introduction where he's like "I think all dystopian fiction was written by white men. I know you all told me a load of counterexamples when I said that on Google Plus, but... I still think it's true. Also all men are Nazis."
Also I cannot decide which of these lists should contain the point "Red Dwarf reference on the first page". YMMV.
Sorry, Mr Llewellyn. I love you but please, please get the third book proofread by someone who understands how commas work.
+ More actual things happened than in the previous book! Events occurred!
+ Robert Llewellyn ♥
On the other hand, I can't decide which of these negatives was more annoying:
- Bobby's poor grasp of punctuation and sentence structure
- Bobby's terrible opinions about feminism
- Bobby's terrible opinions about mental health
- Bobby's extremely bizarre opinions about team sports???
- The part in the introduction where he's like "I think all dystopian fiction was written by white men. I know you all told me a load of counterexamples when I said that on Google Plus, but... I still think it's true. Also all men are Nazis."
Also I cannot decide which of these lists should contain the point "Red Dwarf reference on the first page". YMMV.
Sorry, Mr Llewellyn. I love you but please, please get the third book proofread by someone who understands how commas work.
March 21, 2016
Another thought provoking world for Gavin Meckler to encounter where women are in charge and men are dying out and technology and knowledge are constantly with you and privacy is a think of the past....as is war, flying machines and social unrest. Plus everybody is tall in 2211. Thoroughly enjoyed it
May 7, 2017
This was a book that was fun to read and inspired me to think about some of the ideas it postulated. In writing this novel, Robert Llewellyn created a world that was different, with its own flaws, but that had a believable internal logic and rationalization for the switch between the majority of power positions being in the hands of males to being in the hands of females. Dropping our protagonist, Gavin, into this potential future of 200 years hence made for a page turner that I enjoyed very much.
This sequel to News From Gardenia may be taking place in a alternate universe, but perhaps it was the first book in the series that was a different reality. This is left for the reader to decide. I do not wish to give anything away, but again, the ending leaves me wanting more. If you want a fun, non-violent look at a possible future and one man's place in it, I recommend this book. I am looking forward to the third part, News From the Clouds that I just ordered.
This sequel to News From Gardenia may be taking place in a alternate universe, but perhaps it was the first book in the series that was a different reality. This is left for the reader to decide. I do not wish to give anything away, but again, the ending leaves me wanting more. If you want a fun, non-violent look at a possible future and one man's place in it, I recommend this book. I am looking forward to the third part, News From the Clouds that I just ordered.
August 15, 2018
I found this rather self indulgent and not a little silly, to be frank. There was no cleverness; and indeed I didn't really feel that there was anything offered in this story we haven't seen done better in film and TV in terms of a matriarchal society.
August 22, 2020
Continuation of the adventure of Gavin Meckler who has jumped into 2211 London. Women rule, there is no war or famine but global warming has left its mark. The technology is to die for.
July 14, 2024
Really fun Sci Fi lite. Some nice ideas and an interesting central character but the narrative peters out a bit where the finale should hit and some characters feel a bit flat.
October 18, 2013
The follow on book to "News from Gardenia", which I loved, this book follows Gavin's journey through an equally strange (to him) England. I didn't find this as engaging and richly transportive as "News from Gardenia" but I still enjoyed it. The character of Gavin is very well put together and his responses to the various events that happens to him seem to be appropriate and well described.
I did find the level of copy editing errors annoying tho - things like 'damn' instead of 'dam', "move" instead of "moved", "thatday" instead of "that day", "peace" instead of "piece". I ended up noting them on my kindle which is a really good indication that there were too many of them. A shame as it distracted from an entertaining piece of writing.
I did find the level of copy editing errors annoying tho - things like 'damn' instead of 'dam', "move" instead of "moved", "thatday" instead of "that day", "peace" instead of "piece". I ended up noting them on my kindle which is a really good indication that there were too many of them. A shame as it distracted from an entertaining piece of writing.
June 17, 2014
Hmm. I loved News From Gardenia, and I really wanted to like this but I just couldn't. The last book explored a possible future in which we as a species had a much better grasp of. environmental issues, and as Robert Llewellyn is something of an expert in this area it worked really well. This book is set in a female dominated future and tries to explore gender issues, but he really isn't an expert here and it shows. The book started with a rather insightful introduction and then oddly completely failed to live up to it with the story itself eventually basically descending into "not all men!" in novel form. And unlike Gardenia the world itself didn't have enough new ideas to be interesting, the characters were flat and the writing seemed rather stilted and awkward. Disappointing.
December 30, 2013
I had been looking forward to the followup to news from gardenia for some time and can wholeheartedly say the latest instalment more than matches and indeed improves on the last book. The first book felt a little rushed in places where this does not. The new book follows Gavin in a new world after emerging from the cloud he entered at the end of NFG where women are in control.
Some quite thought provoking topics are raised in the book and the authors interest in technology and being green shows through without being too in your face and "hippie" if that makes sense.
If you already read NFG then you owe it to yourself to pick this up, if you haven't go and get NFG as well.
Red Dwarf fans will also notice a few references dotted about :)
Some quite thought provoking topics are raised in the book and the authors interest in technology and being green shows through without being too in your face and "hippie" if that makes sense.
If you already read NFG then you owe it to yourself to pick this up, if you haven't go and get NFG as well.
Red Dwarf fans will also notice a few references dotted about :)
July 16, 2016
It took me a little longer to warm to this book than it did to the first volume of the trilogy, News From Gardenia, but once I got into it it was rather interesting. There is no real jeopardy for the main character, so it is a very easy read but as a version of the future it was rather intersting, and certainly the discussion on the male gender and what they have inflicted on the female gender over the years was very interesting and also thought provoking.
Intentionally (I believe) the reader, just like the main character, does not become as attached to this possible future as to Gardenia, so when Gavin does leave the time feels right, rather than a little rushed like it did in the previous story. I am looking forward to reading the final volume and hope that it has a definite ending.
Intentionally (I believe) the reader, just like the main character, does not become as attached to this possible future as to Gardenia, so when Gavin does leave the time feels right, rather than a little rushed like it did in the previous story. I am looking forward to reading the final volume and hope that it has a definite ending.
March 19, 2016
well, I really liked News from Gardenia and was hoping this one would be as good, but I found that it wasn't. I agree with a number of the other reviews who had mixed views about it. it was still an interesting concept and had some good parts. I though that Gavin's exit from The Squares towards the end was all a bit quick, and he had no prewarning that the people who helped him were going to do that, and after that process started it all seemed to hurry along and bring the book to a very quick end But.. I still want to know if Gavin finally makes it back to 2011 or if he has to face that he cant ever go back, so I await another sequel...
January 17, 2016
Entertaining quick read, not as deep as it set out to be, but my major bug in this book was how the hell did Gavin spend so much money in such a short space of time, 10M kwo in a couple of weeks, which we are told is a small fortune.
Other than that, the concept is interesting, the technology world is well thought out, the gender issues less so. Also the mental health issues, to bring this society back to Freud didn't work for me. Neither did the supporting characters refusal to pre warn Gavin of the situations they were taking him into.
Other than that, the concept is interesting, the technology world is well thought out, the gender issues less so. Also the mental health issues, to bring this society back to Freud didn't work for me. Neither did the supporting characters refusal to pre warn Gavin of the situations they were taking him into.
January 4, 2016
An okay book. Needs a bit of an edit in places, either that or the general rules of punctuation have changed recently. Has some interesting ideas but no real story underlying the text.
Worth a read though.
Worth a read though.
November 10, 2014
Went straight from News from Gardenia into this, as I enjoyed the first one so much. Very different books, but interesting views of the world in both, which is why I tend to read books - different perspectives. Looking forward to the third in the trilogy.
February 3, 2014
Nice story, nothing too heavy but a good look at the future in a positive light for once!
May 24, 2014
Excellent follow up to News from Gardinia. Religon is a form of metal illness in this alternative reality run by women. Fascinating.
July 1, 2014
Enjoyed this one as much as the first, if not more. Looking forward to the third one.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews