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Fairyland
The 21st Century. Europe is divided between the First World, made rich by nanotechnology and genetically engineered Dolls, and the Fourth World - refugees displaced by war and economic upheaval. In London, Alex Sharkey, a designer of psychoactive viruses, is trying to stay one step ahead of the police and the Triads. But his troubles really start when he helps a scary, super-smart little girl called Milena quicken intelligence in a Doll, turning it into the first of the Fairies...
376 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
53 people are currently reading
1756 people want to read
About the author
Paul McAuley
229 books417 followersSince about 2000, book jackets have given his name as just Paul McAuley.
A biologist by training, UK science fiction author McAuley writes mostly hard science fiction, dealing with themes such as biotechnology, alternate history/alternate reality, and space travel.
McAuley has also used biotechnology and nanotechnology themes in near-future settings.
Since 2001, he has produced several SF-based techno-thrillers such as The Secret of Life, Whole Wide World, and White Devils.
Four Hundred Billion Stars, his first novel, won the Philip K. Dick Award in 1988. Fairyland won the 1996 Arthur C. Clarke Award and the 1997 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best SF Novel.
A biologist by training, UK science fiction author McAuley writes mostly hard science fiction, dealing with themes such as biotechnology, alternate history/alternate reality, and space travel.
McAuley has also used biotechnology and nanotechnology themes in near-future settings.
Since 2001, he has produced several SF-based techno-thrillers such as The Secret of Life, Whole Wide World, and White Devils.
Four Hundred Billion Stars, his first novel, won the Philip K. Dick Award in 1988. Fairyland won the 1996 Arthur C. Clarke Award and the 1997 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best SF Novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 95 reviews
April 25, 2017
A dark, immersive biopunk epic which is very close to being a top-tier achievement – and yet somehow, in the final third, it just kept slipping away from me faster and faster, until by the end I no longer had any firm grip on who half the characters were, or what exactly had happened to them, or why. Whether that's the book's fault or mine I'm not quite sure.
The setting is a nearish-future Europe of scientific advance and social decay, in which nanotechnology is as prominent a feature as conflict refugees. At the bleeding edge of hi-tech development are the genetically engineered ‘dolls’ who are used as slave labour, as sex toys, or simply as modish pets for the super-rich. But a creepily brainy little girl genius has worked out a way to awaken the dolls' intelligence, accidentally – or perhaps not – turning them into a runaway, fast-evolving new species of ‘fairies’ that start to overrun the continent.
What this book does well, it does brilliantly. The tone is fantastically well evoked – genuinely oppressive and dark and atmospheric, so that picking the book up or putting it down can change your mood in dramatic ways. The structure, too, is excellent – split into three parts, each works almost as a standalone novella with its own new protagonist and setting. The first, in a twisted but recognisable London, is a sort of East-End rozzers-and-gangsters tale set in a world of psychoactive viruses and virtual reality. Act two, for my money the strongest section, jumps to the run-down Paris suburbs, where destitute children are being targeted by some evil that has set up camp in the ruins of Disneyland Paris. And Part Three is a frontiersy, war-is-hell story about a video reporter on the front lines of a conflict in Albania.
It's such a rich form of world-building – if perhaps very slightly too ambitious for its own good, but that is already a great problem for any book to have. In the end, the challenges of keeping these disparate storylines on target for any kind of coherent conclusion proved a bit too much to cope with, I thought, resulting in a growing sense from the reader that you're getting irredeemably lost. This is not helped by the otherwise admirably uncompromising and hard sci-fi prose style from our author, a biologist, who thinks nothing of chucking around explanations like this:
Even so, the hits are much more prominent than the misses here. The world of Fairyland, if often hard to understand, does feel real, and the threats feel genuinely menacing – one character, Mister Mike, filled me with dread every time he made an appearance. McAuley also has a lot of fun concocting cyberpunk updates of fairy mythology, with a ghastly Spenserian ‘fairy queen’ and a very dark reinterpretation of the old stories about fairy-folk stealing people's babies. Though ultimately a little unfulfilling, this is a book determined to hack into your cortex and show you things you've never seen anywhere else – and they are definitely worth the watch.
The setting is a nearish-future Europe of scientific advance and social decay, in which nanotechnology is as prominent a feature as conflict refugees. At the bleeding edge of hi-tech development are the genetically engineered ‘dolls’ who are used as slave labour, as sex toys, or simply as modish pets for the super-rich. But a creepily brainy little girl genius has worked out a way to awaken the dolls' intelligence, accidentally – or perhaps not – turning them into a runaway, fast-evolving new species of ‘fairies’ that start to overrun the continent.
What this book does well, it does brilliantly. The tone is fantastically well evoked – genuinely oppressive and dark and atmospheric, so that picking the book up or putting it down can change your mood in dramatic ways. The structure, too, is excellent – split into three parts, each works almost as a standalone novella with its own new protagonist and setting. The first, in a twisted but recognisable London, is a sort of East-End rozzers-and-gangsters tale set in a world of psychoactive viruses and virtual reality. Act two, for my money the strongest section, jumps to the run-down Paris suburbs, where destitute children are being targeted by some evil that has set up camp in the ruins of Disneyland Paris. And Part Three is a frontiersy, war-is-hell story about a video reporter on the front lines of a conflict in Albania.
It's such a rich form of world-building – if perhaps very slightly too ambitious for its own good, but that is already a great problem for any book to have. In the end, the challenges of keeping these disparate storylines on target for any kind of coherent conclusion proved a bit too much to cope with, I thought, resulting in a growing sense from the reader that you're getting irredeemably lost. This is not helped by the otherwise admirably uncompromising and hard sci-fi prose style from our author, a biologist, who thinks nothing of chucking around explanations like this:
Slowly, copies of the library of fairy fembot code are written into tangled buckyball strings, which are delivered to Alex's T-lymphocytes within protein coats derived from modified HIV virus.
Even so, the hits are much more prominent than the misses here. The world of Fairyland, if often hard to understand, does feel real, and the threats feel genuinely menacing – one character, Mister Mike, filled me with dread every time he made an appearance. McAuley also has a lot of fun concocting cyberpunk updates of fairy mythology, with a ghastly Spenserian ‘fairy queen’ and a very dark reinterpretation of the old stories about fairy-folk stealing people's babies. Though ultimately a little unfulfilling, this is a book determined to hack into your cortex and show you things you've never seen anywhere else – and they are definitely worth the watch.
August 11, 2009
Mcauley offers up a slice of what could be called biopunk treading similar ground to Difilippo’s Ribofunk, but definitely punk as opposed to funky from characters quoting Talking Heads (the appropriate “Life during Wartime”) and listening to Bad Brains, to the despairing and nihilistic tone. A near future revolution of manufactured dolls like Calder’s Dead Trilogy or Rucker’s ‘ware trilogy but with the intense characters, muscular realism, and realpolitik of Lucius Shepard. A great stylistic range with the first section being very noir, the second section a paranoid political thriller mixed with Strugatsky brother’s Roadside Picnic (horrible things happen to Eurodisney), and the third a very convincing war zone, kind of Apocalypse Now/Heart of Darkness and Lucius Shepard’s Life During Wartime (that phrase again), and that also plays with myths of the fairies. The respective settings of London, Paris, and Albania feel real as do the characters (Morag, Alex Sharkey, Katrina, and Mrs. Powell). Mcauley throws out terrifying extrapolations of technology with childish glee like Greg Egan and parodies cyberpunk tropes(web cowboys and razor girls get thrown on their heads). In fact this book manages to touch on nearly every element that could be in a near future science fiction with a potentially exhausting everything but the kitchen sink approach (computers, biology, nanotech, memes, and weapons) but Mcauley smoothly handles the narrative and it never really breaks its stride.
August 4, 2012
A Memorable Post-Cyberpunk Novel Set in a Wasted, Near Future Europe
“Fairyland” remains one of the most impressive works in post-cyberpunk fiction, conjuring a nightmarish vision of a near future Europe in which biotechnology has run amok, creating new species of humans designed for pleasure and violent sport. Paul J. McAuley’s novel is a fast-paced thriller reminiscent of William Gibson and John Shirley’s early cyberpunk novels in its pacing. Succumbing to the charm and vision of a megalomaniac brilliant young child, Milena, genetic engineer Alex Sharkey helps unleash a dire threat to humanity’s existence, allowing “dolls” – bioengineered beings based on human DNA, designed for pleasure, slavery and wanton destruction in gladiator-like amusement games – the opportunity to think for themselves and understand the notion of free will. He will pursue these beings and other, similar, creatures across decades across a European landscape wasted by the ravages of war and poverty, searching for Milena and a means to ensure humanity’s survival. Without question, “Fairyland” is still one of Paul J. McAuley’s greatest works in fantasy and science fiction, demonstrating his great gifts in storytelling and writing.
“Fairyland” remains one of the most impressive works in post-cyberpunk fiction, conjuring a nightmarish vision of a near future Europe in which biotechnology has run amok, creating new species of humans designed for pleasure and violent sport. Paul J. McAuley’s novel is a fast-paced thriller reminiscent of William Gibson and John Shirley’s early cyberpunk novels in its pacing. Succumbing to the charm and vision of a megalomaniac brilliant young child, Milena, genetic engineer Alex Sharkey helps unleash a dire threat to humanity’s existence, allowing “dolls” – bioengineered beings based on human DNA, designed for pleasure, slavery and wanton destruction in gladiator-like amusement games – the opportunity to think for themselves and understand the notion of free will. He will pursue these beings and other, similar, creatures across decades across a European landscape wasted by the ravages of war and poverty, searching for Milena and a means to ensure humanity’s survival. Without question, “Fairyland” is still one of Paul J. McAuley’s greatest works in fantasy and science fiction, demonstrating his great gifts in storytelling and writing.
July 21, 2016
This is such an odd world that McAuley has created yet, as someone who was born and raised in London, it is oddly familiar too. Slightly reminiscent of the works of both Philip K Dick and Isaac Asimov through its use of robots as a metaphor for humanity, this story tells the history of how robotic slaves called Dolls rise up against their masters and create their own species, the fairies. This is both funny and dark, and manages to make feel real a story that is otherwise pure fantasy.
December 1, 2015
I really liked this book when I first started it but there were a few things that I struggled with later on. Initially it came across as a less extreme form of cyberpunk than William Gibson's but then the description of the futuristic nanobotery became a little too complex. Some of these concepts were interesting but I got lost in the details. I realise that it's supposed to be like this to a certain extent but it was a little too much, like showing off.
I was ok with the present tense narration for the first section, that only followed one character (as far as I can remember), but then there was a strange section that pushed the narrative forward in time and the present tense didn't sit properly there. From then on in the novel there would be moments where the present tense worked fine followed by sections where it didn't quite work.
I also felt, as the novel progressed more and more characters were introduced and I couldn't quite get to grips with what their motivations were, who's side they were on and why they were doing what they were doing. On top of that I found Alex's (the main protagonist) explanation that he was driven to act by some vague nanobot infection rather weak.
So overall I felt there were some good ideas in there and interesting concepts and characters but it was all too dense leaving me feeling like there were some unnecessary parts but I wasn't sure which ones they were.
I was ok with the present tense narration for the first section, that only followed one character (as far as I can remember), but then there was a strange section that pushed the narrative forward in time and the present tense didn't sit properly there. From then on in the novel there would be moments where the present tense worked fine followed by sections where it didn't quite work.
I also felt, as the novel progressed more and more characters were introduced and I couldn't quite get to grips with what their motivations were, who's side they were on and why they were doing what they were doing. On top of that I found Alex's (the main protagonist) explanation that he was driven to act by some vague nanobot infection rather weak.
So overall I felt there were some good ideas in there and interesting concepts and characters but it was all too dense leaving me feeling like there were some unnecessary parts but I wasn't sure which ones they were.
March 7, 2021
Maybe cyberpunk is just not for me.
September 27, 2013
Fits firmly into the cyberpunk genre, with hints of Neal Stephenson influence.... However, I didn't really enjoy the 'feeling' of the book. I liked McAuley's Confluence trilogy much more than this novel.
January 8, 2024
3.5*
Cyberpunk isn't really my thing, but this was more interesting than most. Very hard to follow at times, so more of a feel the book gave than a review of the story itself. It did have some very interesting ideas and characters that elevates it above other similar stories (yes, I mean Neuromancer which I did not like at all).
Cyberpunk isn't really my thing, but this was more interesting than most. Very hard to follow at times, so more of a feel the book gave than a review of the story itself. It did have some very interesting ideas and characters that elevates it above other similar stories (yes, I mean Neuromancer which I did not like at all).
November 11, 2012
Les romans de McAuley sont toujours assez indescriptibles. Celui-ci, toutefois, est assez clair.
Enfin, assez clair, assz clair, faut voir ...
Donc, ce roman se situe dans un futur proche, mais indéterminé. Le climat s'est suffisamment réchauffé pour faire de Londres une capitale au climat tropical, et des carpathes (où se finit le roman) une forêt subtropicale. Le progrès s'est comme d'habitude orienté dans des directions curieuses, qui cette fois-ci semblent être les biothechnologies dans leur ensemble, et les nano-technologies en particulier. Ca n'est pas la seule direction, d'ailleurs, puisqu'on trouve également des "poupées", sorte d'humains de synthèse assez particuliers, puisque dénués de la moindre intelligence.
Dans ce monde cyberpunk assez tropicalisé, le roman nous raconte donc l'histoire d'Alex Sharkey, chimiste spécialiste en neuro-transmetteurs récréatifs ... De la drogue autrement dit. Celui-ci va donc se faire embringuer par Milena, une jeune fille créée par ingéniérie génétique pour être géniale, qui veut libérer les poupées. Ces poupées libérées deviendront des fées qui, depuis un euro-Disney transformé en royaume des fées lugubre à souhait, émettront dans l'air des nano-robots - appelés dans le roman fembots - dont les objectifs sont multiples et la plupart du temps inconnus même des fées.
Je ne vous raconterais pas l'objectif principal de Milena, qui utilise les fées et leurs ennemis pour elle, sachez juste que c'est loin d'être la première à le viser (je pourrai typiquement citer La cité des permutants).
J'ai un avis plutôt contrasté sur ce roman.
Les décors sont parfois impressionants par leur côté décadent : Londres est globalement tombée en ruine, EuroDisney est réellement devenu un endroit flippant, et la forêt balkane dans laquelle se termine le roman est un endroit authentiquement devenu magique.
De la même manière, certains personnages ont une vraie personnalité, Alex Sharkey et sa copine Katrina en premier.
Pourtant, l'intrigue ne m'a pas accroché plus que ça (malgré des fées qui m'ont vraiment, mais alors *vraiment* rappelé le petit peuple qu'on trouve dans Hellboy. Vous savez, ces espèces de gnomes moches, grotesques avec leurs défense et leur espèce d'air grognon, mais d'une méchanceté et d'une haine pour l'humanité totallement invraissemblable.
Cela dit, il ne faut pas se leurrer, un roman ne tient que si son intrigue vaut le coup.
Et là, hélas, malgré ces éléments très bien pensés, l'intrigue est creuse, je ne sais pas comment le dire autrement. On ne se sent pas impliqué par les aventures d'Alex Sharkey, pas plus d'ailleurs que par celles des personnages secondaires qu'il rencontrera à Paris ou dans les balkans.
Du coup, forcément, le roman m'a paru moins intéressant que ce qu'il aurait pu être. Dommage, parce que ça partait de bonnes intentions.
Enfin, assez clair, assz clair, faut voir ...
Donc, ce roman se situe dans un futur proche, mais indéterminé. Le climat s'est suffisamment réchauffé pour faire de Londres une capitale au climat tropical, et des carpathes (où se finit le roman) une forêt subtropicale. Le progrès s'est comme d'habitude orienté dans des directions curieuses, qui cette fois-ci semblent être les biothechnologies dans leur ensemble, et les nano-technologies en particulier. Ca n'est pas la seule direction, d'ailleurs, puisqu'on trouve également des "poupées", sorte d'humains de synthèse assez particuliers, puisque dénués de la moindre intelligence.
Dans ce monde cyberpunk assez tropicalisé, le roman nous raconte donc l'histoire d'Alex Sharkey, chimiste spécialiste en neuro-transmetteurs récréatifs ... De la drogue autrement dit. Celui-ci va donc se faire embringuer par Milena, une jeune fille créée par ingéniérie génétique pour être géniale, qui veut libérer les poupées. Ces poupées libérées deviendront des fées qui, depuis un euro-Disney transformé en royaume des fées lugubre à souhait, émettront dans l'air des nano-robots - appelés dans le roman fembots - dont les objectifs sont multiples et la plupart du temps inconnus même des fées.
Je ne vous raconterais pas l'objectif principal de Milena, qui utilise les fées et leurs ennemis pour elle, sachez juste que c'est loin d'être la première à le viser (je pourrai typiquement citer La cité des permutants).
J'ai un avis plutôt contrasté sur ce roman.
Les décors sont parfois impressionants par leur côté décadent : Londres est globalement tombée en ruine, EuroDisney est réellement devenu un endroit flippant, et la forêt balkane dans laquelle se termine le roman est un endroit authentiquement devenu magique.
De la même manière, certains personnages ont une vraie personnalité, Alex Sharkey et sa copine Katrina en premier.
Pourtant, l'intrigue ne m'a pas accroché plus que ça (malgré des fées qui m'ont vraiment, mais alors *vraiment* rappelé le petit peuple qu'on trouve dans Hellboy. Vous savez, ces espèces de gnomes moches, grotesques avec leurs défense et leur espèce d'air grognon, mais d'une méchanceté et d'une haine pour l'humanité totallement invraissemblable.
Cela dit, il ne faut pas se leurrer, un roman ne tient que si son intrigue vaut le coup.
Et là, hélas, malgré ces éléments très bien pensés, l'intrigue est creuse, je ne sais pas comment le dire autrement. On ne se sent pas impliqué par les aventures d'Alex Sharkey, pas plus d'ailleurs que par celles des personnages secondaires qu'il rencontrera à Paris ou dans les balkans.
Du coup, forcément, le roman m'a paru moins intéressant que ce qu'il aurait pu être. Dommage, parce que ça partait de bonnes intentions.
June 18, 2017
On an elemental level this is hard science fiction, as billed, replete with detailed explanations of atomic biology that seem to do more for the author than the book he writes. Reading it, though, it feels a lot more in the vein of Thomas Harris and his Red Dragon than anything in my admittedly limited collection of sci-fi. A wholly imperfect man (okay, Paul, you don't need to mention his weight every time he meets a new character) who is both out of his depth and in possession of an incredibly rare and useful skill set, chases his elusive red dragon with the aid and hamperings of the morally corrupt.
It is both intensely compelling and chaotically jarring. Gunfights the other side of town play out immediately after long discussions on posthuman nature, with barely a line-break between them. Scenes and times change drastically and eratically, and explicit constants ("it's monsoon season," he says... the rain is never so much as hinted at again) are subverted where things that are inherently changing don't seem to make any progress at all.
Critics seem to agree this is a masterful use of language that serves to impress upon the reader how confusing and unreliable this dystopic world is, and I could agree if in places it didn't feel like blatant laziness. The lack of many transitions feel very much like an admittance the writer doesn't know how to handle them than the clever manipulation of a master craftsman.
He paints a world of people and not places--I can hardly tell the difference between America, Albania, London and the Eastern Bloc--and while this is surely a conscious reflection of a hyperconnected planet without real borders, none of the characters are compelling enough on their own, nor do they possess enough chemistry when together, for McAuley to really pull it off.
Don't expect "archetypes of fantasy" (the blurb), don't expect "hipness" (Mail on Sunday), nor "characters needy and vivid" (The Washington Post), and don't expect "a rich sense of place" (The Times). I don't feel these quotes are in any way accurate. If anything, they diminish a good read and draw attention away from the expert blend of thriller, sci-fi and adventure that will linger in the memory long after places and characters.
It is both intensely compelling and chaotically jarring. Gunfights the other side of town play out immediately after long discussions on posthuman nature, with barely a line-break between them. Scenes and times change drastically and eratically, and explicit constants ("it's monsoon season," he says... the rain is never so much as hinted at again) are subverted where things that are inherently changing don't seem to make any progress at all.
Critics seem to agree this is a masterful use of language that serves to impress upon the reader how confusing and unreliable this dystopic world is, and I could agree if in places it didn't feel like blatant laziness. The lack of many transitions feel very much like an admittance the writer doesn't know how to handle them than the clever manipulation of a master craftsman.
He paints a world of people and not places--I can hardly tell the difference between America, Albania, London and the Eastern Bloc--and while this is surely a conscious reflection of a hyperconnected planet without real borders, none of the characters are compelling enough on their own, nor do they possess enough chemistry when together, for McAuley to really pull it off.
Don't expect "archetypes of fantasy" (the blurb), don't expect "hipness" (Mail on Sunday), nor "characters needy and vivid" (The Washington Post), and don't expect "a rich sense of place" (The Times). I don't feel these quotes are in any way accurate. If anything, they diminish a good read and draw attention away from the expert blend of thriller, sci-fi and adventure that will linger in the memory long after places and characters.
January 13, 2015
I had to rate this book four stars purely because of the impressive scope and dazzling imagination of it, even though I probably only enjoyed it to a three-star degree. I'm not sure exactly why that is; I just found it a bit of a slog, particularly in the first two parts. I suppose it took me that long to figure out what was really going on—what the book was trying to do—and that made it difficult. I think it was also made a little difficult by the somewhat underdeveloped settings. The world as a whole is certainly complex and richly detailed, but many of the landscapes were left rather vague, more like mirages than actual places. Overall, I get the sense the author erred on the side of under-telling rather than over-telling, and I'm sure that is probably the better of the two, although it did make it difficult to be fully immersed in the story sometimes. Definitely an interesting and compelling piece of science fiction, though.
May 22, 2023
I don’t know how to rate this because I’m not sure I understood much of it, especially the third act. It’s not particularly complex compared to other sci-fi I’ve read, but I struggled to grasp what characters were doing and why. I can’t tell if the issue is bad storytelling or my own smooth brain.
I’ll assume the latter for now, because the novel is for the most part legitimately well written, dark, complex and full of grimy cyberpunk goodness.
I’ll assume the latter for now, because the novel is for the most part legitimately well written, dark, complex and full of grimy cyberpunk goodness.
August 9, 2017
Fat Englishman meme hacker riding a tiny mammoth saves a race of korean bio engineered blue sex slaves from a little girl that gave them consciousness and then turned itself into a construct living in the vastness of the Net.
i mean the first two parts are really interesting with the biopunk ideas (using virus as drugs and to "hack" people minds) but the last part felt like there was not a good way to bring all together to a conclusion.
i mean the first two parts are really interesting with the biopunk ideas (using virus as drugs and to "hack" people minds) but the last part felt like there was not a good way to bring all together to a conclusion.
May 10, 2021
Review to come :)
March 17, 2017
Remember, this book was first published in 1995.
The first third of the book is great fun, full of a compelling and frightening near-future London. Given this was written in 1994-1995, it's an amazingly accurate dystopian conception. Alex is an interesting quasi-hero, and the accelerated divide between rich and poor is clearly shown.
A global climate disaster has already occurred as the story begins, horrific in its implications. The war between rich and poor, corporations and workers, is nicely imagined. And the gene engineering and nano-bots are firmly founded in hard science.
However, after the first third of the book, the narrative shifts to a very confusing perspective of all new, mostly non-human characters. The cruelty here is depressing, and the plot wanders around and around.
The last third of the book or so, some plot direction is restored, but quickly deteriorates into a repetitive random walk around war zones, concluding in a 30 page yawn sequence, and ending the book with a big "who cares". Very sad.
Given this is one of McAuley's first books, much can be forgiven, and the hard science attempts and good beginning pull this up to three stars.
I suggest you read my "updates" below. There are some fine quotes, and one exposition is very fine.
-- Partial quote --
"Daphoene, the huntress of the moon, the triple goddess of air, earth and the secret waters of death.
...
‘The Age of Reason was almost a fatal blow to the triple goddess, but in its ending is her new beginning. For the last century saw the deposition of the paternal God who was set on the throne of Zeus, which was once her throne. The Age of Theocracy in the West was already in decline when in our country Cromwell forcefully rejected the ceremonies that obscured the godhead from the common man. He couldn’t see that the Age of Reason, in which every man was entitled to read and interpret the scriptures, would bring about the death of the idea of God. The god of science and reason, Apollo, was raised up in His place, and at either side of Apollo were Pluto and Mercury. I worshipped Apollo and Mercury when I was young, but it is Pluto who is in the ascendant now. Pluto, the hoarder, god of the geezers and the babushkas, god of all the people who hide away in the ribbon arcologies and in virtuality, jealous of the young and denying death, for that would mean losing all they’ve accumulated."
The first third of the book is great fun, full of a compelling and frightening near-future London. Given this was written in 1994-1995, it's an amazingly accurate dystopian conception. Alex is an interesting quasi-hero, and the accelerated divide between rich and poor is clearly shown.
A global climate disaster has already occurred as the story begins, horrific in its implications. The war between rich and poor, corporations and workers, is nicely imagined. And the gene engineering and nano-bots are firmly founded in hard science.
However, after the first third of the book, the narrative shifts to a very confusing perspective of all new, mostly non-human characters. The cruelty here is depressing, and the plot wanders around and around.
The last third of the book or so, some plot direction is restored, but quickly deteriorates into a repetitive random walk around war zones, concluding in a 30 page yawn sequence, and ending the book with a big "who cares". Very sad.
Given this is one of McAuley's first books, much can be forgiven, and the hard science attempts and good beginning pull this up to three stars.
I suggest you read my "updates" below. There are some fine quotes, and one exposition is very fine.
-- Partial quote --
"Daphoene, the huntress of the moon, the triple goddess of air, earth and the secret waters of death.
...
‘The Age of Reason was almost a fatal blow to the triple goddess, but in its ending is her new beginning. For the last century saw the deposition of the paternal God who was set on the throne of Zeus, which was once her throne. The Age of Theocracy in the West was already in decline when in our country Cromwell forcefully rejected the ceremonies that obscured the godhead from the common man. He couldn’t see that the Age of Reason, in which every man was entitled to read and interpret the scriptures, would bring about the death of the idea of God. The god of science and reason, Apollo, was raised up in His place, and at either side of Apollo were Pluto and Mercury. I worshipped Apollo and Mercury when I was young, but it is Pluto who is in the ascendant now. Pluto, the hoarder, god of the geezers and the babushkas, god of all the people who hide away in the ribbon arcologies and in virtuality, jealous of the young and denying death, for that would mean losing all they’ve accumulated."
October 23, 2019
By far, the best cyberpunk book I've ever read. It explores the deep implications of the technology of its world, as every good sci fi book should. The tone is dark and a tad noir, and every mystery reveals deeper forces at work.
The main character starts of creating drugs out of custom crafted viruses that deliver tailored psychoactive effects. As time passes, customized viruses are obsoleted by programmed nanobots that interact with the brain on a molecular level. The technology is so accessible that script kiddies create rampant nanobot breeds, causing infected people to act out memes. A cult religion springs up, born of people infected by a particular strain of nanobots.
A new species emerges from an enslaved genetically modified sub-race, freed by carefully crafted nanobots. They become the fairies of Fairyland, every bit as dark, enticing, and capricious as the fairies of folklore. The main character follows the rabbit hole deeper and deeper into the heart of their world in his quest to find the girl he is obsessed with.
The main character starts of creating drugs out of custom crafted viruses that deliver tailored psychoactive effects. As time passes, customized viruses are obsoleted by programmed nanobots that interact with the brain on a molecular level. The technology is so accessible that script kiddies create rampant nanobot breeds, causing infected people to act out memes. A cult religion springs up, born of people infected by a particular strain of nanobots.
A new species emerges from an enslaved genetically modified sub-race, freed by carefully crafted nanobots. They become the fairies of Fairyland, every bit as dark, enticing, and capricious as the fairies of folklore. The main character follows the rabbit hole deeper and deeper into the heart of their world in his quest to find the girl he is obsessed with.
May 7, 2017
The dyspepsia world of Fairyland is vivid in its filth and brutality. The technology introduced makes for compelling mechanics, and they build upon and play off of one another.
Sound like a great (albeit, unpleasant) book? Well, it was for the first two thirds. The book was broken up into three independent stories. The switch from "book" one to two felt like it added a lot of depth to the world, and that the main character grew and changed a lot. By contrast, the switch from two to three felt frustrating that things still weren't resolved, and the main character seemed pathetic to still be on this quest.
The pace of my reading slowed to such a comical crawl towards the end. It took me weeks to force myself through the last five pages. I'm stunned, and more than a little bit relieved that it's finally done with.
Sound like a great (albeit, unpleasant) book? Well, it was for the first two thirds. The book was broken up into three independent stories. The switch from "book" one to two felt like it added a lot of depth to the world, and that the main character grew and changed a lot. By contrast, the switch from two to three felt frustrating that things still weren't resolved, and the main character seemed pathetic to still be on this quest.
The pace of my reading slowed to such a comical crawl towards the end. It took me weeks to force myself through the last five pages. I'm stunned, and more than a little bit relieved that it's finally done with.
Read
August 7, 2011Tough going, without much reward. A dark, dystopian future of genetic engineering gone mad. Sone great sequences in occasional bursts, but overall leaves too much unexplained.
January 8, 2017
Thrilling dystopian exploration of possibilities of technology and genetic engineering, lush with myth and metaphor, and with a humane heart.
May 1, 2020
In the near future humanity has created blue skinned 'dolls' to use as human-like slave labor. But a biohacker and a superintelligent child come up with a way to give this new race its freedom... however the consequence echoes in strange ways, creating a new type of fairyland and potentially alter the future of humanity forever.
I've never read a novel by this author before, but I was feeling like a little bit of cyberpunk and saw it in the store and decided to give it a shot. Overall, though, I'm a little mixed. And I'm going to give a disclaimer that it's possible my negative reactions were, more than usual, due more to state of mind issues rather than the book itself.
In short, as the book went on I felt less and less invested and missed more and more of what was going on... or wasn't caring what was going on enough to pay attention more than a surface level.
The book is divided into three sections, with time jumps between each and often following different characters (although a few recur in multiple chapters, sometimes they take a while to show up). The first part (which also corresponds most cleanly to the conventional tropes of Cyberpunk) is the one I was interested in most... it didn't blow me away (and cyberpunk itself is often a mix of stuff I like and stuff I don't), but I enjoyed it. The second part began with a jarring shift in perspective and the story I was following suddenly ajumped ahead several years where 'fairys' existed widely and used high technology to warp minds of people who were too nearby.
The weird thing is I really like the central concept of that, artificial life with radically different mindset using technology-advanced-to-the-point-of-near-magic sort of functioning like faeries in old stories did. I just thought there was too much disconnect to the story I was following and the levels of technology involved that as things went on I just couldn't work up as much interest, especially with multiple groups of them running around with different agendas that I never really grasped (some I'm not sure if I was intended to) and the constant knowledge that anyone's mind or perceptions might have been rewritten made it seem less relevant, and by the time the third part came around and tried to wrap things up I was just... not into the book as much anymore. Again, it might be that if I was a more attentive reader I would have picked up on more of what was going on and been more interested but for whatever reason I didn't and so wasn't.
All in all, I'd rate it about 2.5 stars. I'll round up only because of the fact that I feel like I might get more out of it on a reread.
I've never read a novel by this author before, but I was feeling like a little bit of cyberpunk and saw it in the store and decided to give it a shot. Overall, though, I'm a little mixed. And I'm going to give a disclaimer that it's possible my negative reactions were, more than usual, due more to state of mind issues rather than the book itself.
In short, as the book went on I felt less and less invested and missed more and more of what was going on... or wasn't caring what was going on enough to pay attention more than a surface level.
The book is divided into three sections, with time jumps between each and often following different characters (although a few recur in multiple chapters, sometimes they take a while to show up). The first part (which also corresponds most cleanly to the conventional tropes of Cyberpunk) is the one I was interested in most... it didn't blow me away (and cyberpunk itself is often a mix of stuff I like and stuff I don't), but I enjoyed it. The second part began with a jarring shift in perspective and the story I was following suddenly ajumped ahead several years where 'fairys' existed widely and used high technology to warp minds of people who were too nearby.
The weird thing is I really like the central concept of that, artificial life with radically different mindset using technology-advanced-to-the-point-of-near-magic sort of functioning like faeries in old stories did. I just thought there was too much disconnect to the story I was following and the levels of technology involved that as things went on I just couldn't work up as much interest, especially with multiple groups of them running around with different agendas that I never really grasped (some I'm not sure if I was intended to) and the constant knowledge that anyone's mind or perceptions might have been rewritten made it seem less relevant, and by the time the third part came around and tried to wrap things up I was just... not into the book as much anymore. Again, it might be that if I was a more attentive reader I would have picked up on more of what was going on and been more interested but for whatever reason I didn't and so wasn't.
All in all, I'd rate it about 2.5 stars. I'll round up only because of the fact that I feel like I might get more out of it on a reread.
March 3, 2019
In Fairyland, Paul McAuley seem to wear his William Gibson/cyberpunk influences firmly on his sleeve. The language style, the jargon-filled dialogue, the purposely ambiguous themes are all present. The Web features prominently, with cowboys jacking into decks, but it's the bioengineering that takes centre stage here. However, as another reader put it, this books provides diminishing returns until you hit the end and the whole thing... just... peters out.
The book is divided into three quite distinctive parts, spread over 20-odd years, with only the character of Alex Sharkey connecting them. Part 1 is set in a deliciously grimy London, while part 2 moves to Paris and part 3 ends in Algeria. There isn't much at all structurally that connects them and it feels very much like three novellas written over a number of years, now published together. While McAuley evokes each setting very well, you never spend long enough with any one group of characters to discover the heart of their motivations. Which is a shame, because if the novel had been structured differently, as more of an interwoven story, it might have have played a long game that delivered more catharsis. As it stands, I hardly cared about the fairies or their plight, and never really understood what compelled Sharkey to such great lengths, beyond his being smitten with the central protagonist, Milena.
The themes and ideas that McAuley deals with have been handled by many Japanese writers in much more satisfying ways, well before Fairlyland was originally published. The cyberpunk ethos seemed to have clicked with the Japanese much more readily in some ways and fuelled a whole swathe of works dealing with the question of how humanity might reconcile itself with new creations that supersede it. I see Fairlyand as fitting somewhere in this tradition, even if there are more engaging, less cryptic examples out there.
The book is divided into three quite distinctive parts, spread over 20-odd years, with only the character of Alex Sharkey connecting them. Part 1 is set in a deliciously grimy London, while part 2 moves to Paris and part 3 ends in Algeria. There isn't much at all structurally that connects them and it feels very much like three novellas written over a number of years, now published together. While McAuley evokes each setting very well, you never spend long enough with any one group of characters to discover the heart of their motivations. Which is a shame, because if the novel had been structured differently, as more of an interwoven story, it might have have played a long game that delivered more catharsis. As it stands, I hardly cared about the fairies or their plight, and never really understood what compelled Sharkey to such great lengths, beyond his being smitten with the central protagonist, Milena.
The themes and ideas that McAuley deals with have been handled by many Japanese writers in much more satisfying ways, well before Fairlyland was originally published. The cyberpunk ethos seemed to have clicked with the Japanese much more readily in some ways and fuelled a whole swathe of works dealing with the question of how humanity might reconcile itself with new creations that supersede it. I see Fairlyand as fitting somewhere in this tradition, even if there are more engaging, less cryptic examples out there.
August 6, 2017
Alex Sharkey lives by his wits as he develops drugs only just inside the law, drugs based on genetics. When he falls in with Milena, a girl who seems to know too much, they hatch a plan to liberate the genetically engineered 'dolls' that do so much manual labour in the early 21st century. This book follows the consequences of that fateful decision.
I must confess that I'm not really that fond of cyberpunk, so didn't hugely get into this book. It was that sort of tarnished chrome near-future stuff (to start with, at least) that's not fully dystopic but well on its way there. And the first segment was set in London as well, so a society that I'm familiar with, and I was much more interested in the untold story of why the welfare state and NHS had collapsed than the dolls storyline, which didn't help my engagement with the story.
The three parts of the story take us progressively further forward in time, although all within a single lifetime, as Alex tries to come to terms with what he's done, and find Milena again, which is what drives much of the second and third parts of the book.
There's a lot of good imagery here and some very interesting ideas (I'm still not entirely sure if all the animals are actually dead or not, although I'm pretty sure it was heavily implied [yet another untold story that I would have liked to read more about]) but I wasn't hugely invested in Alex or any of the other viewpoint characters and, really wasn't sure where we were by the end of the story.
So not really my cup of tea, but in no way am I saying that this is a bad book, it's just one that I didn't enjoy.
I must confess that I'm not really that fond of cyberpunk, so didn't hugely get into this book. It was that sort of tarnished chrome near-future stuff (to start with, at least) that's not fully dystopic but well on its way there. And the first segment was set in London as well, so a society that I'm familiar with, and I was much more interested in the untold story of why the welfare state and NHS had collapsed than the dolls storyline, which didn't help my engagement with the story.
The three parts of the story take us progressively further forward in time, although all within a single lifetime, as Alex tries to come to terms with what he's done, and find Milena again, which is what drives much of the second and third parts of the book.
There's a lot of good imagery here and some very interesting ideas (I'm still not entirely sure if all the animals are actually dead or not, although I'm pretty sure it was heavily implied [yet another untold story that I would have liked to read more about]) but I wasn't hugely invested in Alex or any of the other viewpoint characters and, really wasn't sure where we were by the end of the story.
So not really my cup of tea, but in no way am I saying that this is a bad book, it's just one that I didn't enjoy.
July 24, 2019
This was one of those books that make you work at it...not too much; it wasn’t that convoluted. But it was dense and attention needed to be paid. The bio-tech, especially, was described in detail that someone with the right sort of academic background would have appreciated. I am not that someone and I rather struggled. I like to learn things from my sci-fi so I did a fair amount of googling in an attempt to wrap my mind around the tech. Nonetheless my less than firm grasp on the intricacies did not lessen my enjoyment of the story. But, to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure I quite grasped what the hell happened in the end!
This book definitely requires a reread or two, which I don’t mind at all.
I’ve found McAuleys books to be a bit hit or miss, but this one was a hit.
Excellent world building with social aspects described and great tech. I liked how all the action was in Europe because America had been essentially written off as a big old mess that didn’t matter anymore.
This was really quite grim and violent but not without amusing lines and interesting characters. The storyline moved rather erratically. Just as I was settling in, we jumped a number of years and then focused on a whole other character, who was not particularly drawn that well. It all came to together in the end and it was clear that Todd, the journalist provided the perspective on the issue from another angle, but still.
I’m looking forward to reading other reviews, which I never do until I’ve written mine!
This book definitely requires a reread or two, which I don’t mind at all.
I’ve found McAuleys books to be a bit hit or miss, but this one was a hit.
Excellent world building with social aspects described and great tech. I liked how all the action was in Europe because America had been essentially written off as a big old mess that didn’t matter anymore.
This was really quite grim and violent but not without amusing lines and interesting characters. The storyline moved rather erratically. Just as I was settling in, we jumped a number of years and then focused on a whole other character, who was not particularly drawn that well. It all came to together in the end and it was clear that Todd, the journalist provided the perspective on the issue from another angle, but still.
I’m looking forward to reading other reviews, which I never do until I’ve written mine!
May 23, 2024
A SIMPLE MAN'S REVIEW:
If you want a patchy story filled with incomprehensible imagery, this book is for you!
The story follows two individuals over time, but segmented into three periods. There are plenty of characters that come and go to fill in the gaps, but ultimately, the story is about one person trying to find the other.
As for the fairies, huh? They're definitely not what you are picturing and so much of their story goes so far into the bizarre, that it's hard to even picture what is happening. For such a big role in the story, they aren't involved with the plot much, if that makes sense.
The main problem I had with this book is that it often feels as if you skipped a page. The action jumps without transitions and it takes a minute to figure out what happened. Maybe the author had it all visualized, but those details didn't make it into the print.
There isn't anything compelling enough in this book to make the problems worth it, so...
Skip it!
If you want a patchy story filled with incomprehensible imagery, this book is for you!
The story follows two individuals over time, but segmented into three periods. There are plenty of characters that come and go to fill in the gaps, but ultimately, the story is about one person trying to find the other.
As for the fairies, huh? They're definitely not what you are picturing and so much of their story goes so far into the bizarre, that it's hard to even picture what is happening. For such a big role in the story, they aren't involved with the plot much, if that makes sense.
The main problem I had with this book is that it often feels as if you skipped a page. The action jumps without transitions and it takes a minute to figure out what happened. Maybe the author had it all visualized, but those details didn't make it into the print.
There isn't anything compelling enough in this book to make the problems worth it, so...
Skip it!
September 24, 2018
So in the near future, nanotechnology allows the manipulation of biology to create new forms of life. Humans naturally use them for their own purpose but the fairies become free, and they want a very different world.
Its a very interesting idea, and well told on some level. There is a complex story arc that combines the history of the fairies with the tale the author wants to tell. The fairies are definitely interesting and how they can fulfil the fairytale version of themselves is clever.
Unfortunately it's all a bit..disjointed. I had no sense of caring for the characters or the world. Things that turned out important in the story didn't seem important when introduced, and I never saw why they were in the story. It was more of a world building exercise than a proper narrative.
I struggled to finish the book and honesty the good stuff was done with by one third through.
Its a very interesting idea, and well told on some level. There is a complex story arc that combines the history of the fairies with the tale the author wants to tell. The fairies are definitely interesting and how they can fulfil the fairytale version of themselves is clever.
Unfortunately it's all a bit..disjointed. I had no sense of caring for the characters or the world. Things that turned out important in the story didn't seem important when introduced, and I never saw why they were in the story. It was more of a world building exercise than a proper narrative.
I struggled to finish the book and honesty the good stuff was done with by one third through.
January 1, 2019
I’m not sure what to make of this novel. It is wonderfully evoked and challenging. I found myself unengaged. It is a cyber/biopunk novel set in a greatly unraveled Europe. What to make of these things?
The novel reads a bit like a conspiracy theory/mystery. A very smart drug maker is compelled into a string of violence by a hyper-brilliant young girl. She is a mastermind, and created herself, and seems bent on bending the future of the world to her creation. The man, Alex, spends the rest of the novel tracking her down. He is brought face to face with all manner of artificially created biological organisms that all seem to be evolving independently. The novel is dark and brooding. It was, admittedly, tough to read for me. In the end, though, I believe this is very well worth the effort, especially for those that are fans of scifi literature.
See my other reviews here!
The novel reads a bit like a conspiracy theory/mystery. A very smart drug maker is compelled into a string of violence by a hyper-brilliant young girl. She is a mastermind, and created herself, and seems bent on bending the future of the world to her creation. The man, Alex, spends the rest of the novel tracking her down. He is brought face to face with all manner of artificially created biological organisms that all seem to be evolving independently. The novel is dark and brooding. It was, admittedly, tough to read for me. In the end, though, I believe this is very well worth the effort, especially for those that are fans of scifi literature.
See my other reviews here!
October 4, 2021
This is a novel of three parts (literally) the first part is an excellent piece of cyberpunk, wet-ware, dark corporations, gritty, anti-hero's, the whole deal.
The second part, was interesting novella-like set in the same universe telling what happened to the characters next, more dystopian than part 1 in that you could see more of the world-building. I relaxed, big mistake...should have been paying more attention!
The third part, the world gets bigger, wider and more complex, cast of thousands some of which I should have recognised (maybe) all with conflicting (if little explained) motives. Probably wrapped up at the end but to be honest I'd lost track. By the end of this part felt like I'd read a 600 page novel not a 400 page one.
Given time I will probably read this again as I am sure it is a masterwork, you just need to pay attention.
The second part, was interesting novella-like set in the same universe telling what happened to the characters next, more dystopian than part 1 in that you could see more of the world-building. I relaxed, big mistake...should have been paying more attention!
The third part, the world gets bigger, wider and more complex, cast of thousands some of which I should have recognised (maybe) all with conflicting (if little explained) motives. Probably wrapped up at the end but to be honest I'd lost track. By the end of this part felt like I'd read a 600 page novel not a 400 page one.
Given time I will probably read this again as I am sure it is a masterwork, you just need to pay attention.
March 31, 2022
Written in the late Nineties, this novel predicts the narcissism fostered by the internet and the onset of climate change with unsettling accuracy. The focus is on the horrors genetic engineering could produce throughout the 21st Century. Thankfully, the nightmare possibilities of disposable people, or “fairies”, have not (yet) come about. Or have they? If taken metaphorically, Paul McAuley’s noir vision is remarkably prescient, if a little outdated in its delivery. That’s not to say it isn’t stylistically interesting. Quite the opposite. The prose is dense, the Kafkaesque melee into which we are cast, drawn with a deft hand and an eye for detail, and the humour is black as an empty mirror. Sound familiar? Yeah, there was loads of this sort of stuff about at the turn of the century. Fairyland is definitely one of the most accomplished examples. Excellent stuff!
October 26, 2025
Just as Dick-ish as you'd expect a Philip K. Dick Award winner to be. This takes the bioengineering paranoia of 90s cyberpunk to the next level in a very interesting take on the future. Very well written, at least on a sentence-by-sentence level. It's not 5 stars because of weird little discontinuities: I kept finding out that the characters had been double-crossed, looking back at the scene in which it supposedly happened, and not finding when or where it happened. By the end, the ponderous language made things seem important when they hadn't even been introduced. But it's not three stars because it's so interesting and unique. So, read but expect to be confused.
November 22, 2018
This was not an easy read.
The protagonist, Alex Sharkey, is not that likeable a character. He is a bio-chemical hacker, a creator of future drugs delivered in virus form.
The future has blue dolls, fembots, lots of grit, dirt and disease.
Well worth a read - Maybe my rating is a little harsh. I liked it more after I’d finished it, and I had some perspective on the full story. Honestly, at times it was a slog.
This was written in 1995, and now over 20 years later, some parts are pretty near the mark (migrant caravans of people, changing climate).
A definite read for the genre.
The protagonist, Alex Sharkey, is not that likeable a character. He is a bio-chemical hacker, a creator of future drugs delivered in virus form.
The future has blue dolls, fembots, lots of grit, dirt and disease.
Well worth a read - Maybe my rating is a little harsh. I liked it more after I’d finished it, and I had some perspective on the full story. Honestly, at times it was a slog.
This was written in 1995, and now over 20 years later, some parts are pretty near the mark (migrant caravans of people, changing climate).
A definite read for the genre.
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