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Trajectories
First edition, first printing hardcover with plastic coated unclipped dust jacket, in very good condition. Light shelf wear to the jacket, and page block and page edges are a little tanned. Pages are otherwise clear and unmarked throughout. LW
- GenresFiction
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
10 people want to read
About the author
Julian Rathbone
69 books24 followersJulian Christopher Rathbone was born in 1935 in Blackheath, southeast London. His great-uncle was the actor and great Sherlock Holmes interpreter Basil Rathbone, although they never met.
The prolific author Julian Rathbone was a writer of crime stories, mysteries and thrillers who also turned his hand to the historical novel, science fiction and even horror — and much of his writing had strong political and social dimensions.
He was difficult to pigeonhole because his scope was so broad. Arguably, his experiment with different genres and thus his refusal to be typecast cost him a wider audience than he enjoyed. Just as his subject matter changed markedly over the years, so too did his readers and his publishers.
Among his more than 40 books two were shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. Both were historical novels: first King Fisher Lives, a taut adventure revolving around a guru figure, in 1976, and, secondly, Joseph, set during the Peninsular War and written in an 18th-century prose style, in 1979. But Rathbone never quite made it into the wider public consciousness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_R...
The prolific author Julian Rathbone was a writer of crime stories, mysteries and thrillers who also turned his hand to the historical novel, science fiction and even horror — and much of his writing had strong political and social dimensions.
He was difficult to pigeonhole because his scope was so broad. Arguably, his experiment with different genres and thus his refusal to be typecast cost him a wider audience than he enjoyed. Just as his subject matter changed markedly over the years, so too did his readers and his publishers.
Among his more than 40 books two were shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. Both were historical novels: first King Fisher Lives, a taut adventure revolving around a guru figure, in 1976, and, secondly, Joseph, set during the Peninsular War and written in an 18th-century prose style, in 1979. But Rathbone never quite made it into the wider public consciousness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_R...
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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January 8, 2023Read in Edinburgh.
December 9, 2011
Set in a disintegrating Britain of the near future, brought to its knees by global warming, rising sea levels, disease, unemployment and pollution. The rich live in enclaves surrounded by electrified fences and security cameras, mobs of urbanites roam the country looting and pillaging and the government maintains a shaky control over the county by controlling the dissemination of information and discouraging travel. It's a very believable future, and all the more disturbing for that.
The main characters are ex-rock star Richard Sommers, living in a mansion in Dorset in the enclave centred on the village he grew up in, and his sister Hannah-Rose, the proprietor of a travelling dance troup. When Hannah-Rose finds a computer disk containing an unpublished novel written by their author father, it precipitates a crisis that forces them out of their comfort zones, and changes both their lives. The novel (although it doesn't seem much like a novel to me), is the story of man's evolution, based on the aquatic ape theory.
When I finished, I had a look on my bookcase and found that I still have my copy of "The Aquatic Ape" by Elaine Morgan, which I bought in a library sale in 1989 and which is one of Thomas Somers' sources for his novel.
The main characters are ex-rock star Richard Sommers, living in a mansion in Dorset in the enclave centred on the village he grew up in, and his sister Hannah-Rose, the proprietor of a travelling dance troup. When Hannah-Rose finds a computer disk containing an unpublished novel written by their author father, it precipitates a crisis that forces them out of their comfort zones, and changes both their lives. The novel (although it doesn't seem much like a novel to me), is the story of man's evolution, based on the aquatic ape theory.
When I finished, I had a look on my bookcase and found that I still have my copy of "The Aquatic Ape" by Elaine Morgan, which I bought in a library sale in 1989 and which is one of Thomas Somers' sources for his novel.
June 17, 2019
A moderately entertaining tale.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews