Fantasy Book Club – December 2013: Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway

Our theme for December was Award Nominees from this year, and our members voted to read Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway.

Award List:

– Arthur C. Clarke Award Nominee for Best Novel (2013)
– Winner of The Kitschies for Red Tentacle (Novel) (2012)

Praise:

“Angelmaker is another cracking book from Nick Harkaway. It’s a mix of sci-fi, steampunk, adventure and romance and the mix of genres work really well together. Harkaway’s Angelmaker is a brilliant piece of escapism. It’s a wonderful example of how an irreverent approach to much loved genres can lead to a truly great story.” (Nudge)

“Nick Harkaway’s joyfully reckless invention is as intricate as clockwork…Edie has a tangled history, the uncovering of which is one of the chief pleasures of Nick Harkaway’s novel…is one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read in ages…brilliantly entertaining, and the last hundred pages are pure, unhinged delight. What a splendid ride.” (Patrick Ness Guardian)

“What kind of a mind dreams up Angelmaker. It could only be Nick Harkaway: bonkers, brilliant and hilarious. Clever and entirely fantastic.” (Sunday Times)

“An entertaining tour-de-force that demands to be adored.” (Independent on Sunday)

“A puzzle box of a novel as fascinating as the clockwork bees it contains.” (Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus)

Hope you can join in our discussions!

From the acclaimed author of The Gone-Away World, blistering gangster noir meets howling absurdist comedy as the forces of good square off against the forces of evil, and only an unassuming clockwork repairman and an octogenarian former superspy can save the world from total destruction.

Joe Spork spends his days fixing antique clocks. The son of infamous London criminal Mathew “Tommy Gun” Spork, he has turned his back on his family’s mobster history and aims to live a quiet life. That orderly existence is suddenly upended when Joe activates a particularly unusual clockwork mechanism.

His client, Edie Banister, is more than the kindly old lady she appears to be—she’s a retired international secret agent. And the device? It’s a 1950s doomsday machine. Having triggered it, Joe now faces the wrath of both the British government and a diabolical South Asian dictator who is also Edie’s old arch-nemesis.

On the upside, Joe’s got a girl: a bold receptionist named Polly whose smarts, savvy and sex appeal may be just what he needs. With Joe’s once-quiet world suddenly overrun by mad monks, psychopathic serial killers, scientific geniuses and threats to the future of conscious life in the universe, he realizes that the only way to survive is to muster the courage to fight, help Edie complete a mission she abandoned years ago and pick up his father’s old gun…

Buy on Amazon US
Buy on Amazon UK

WANT TO JOIN IN?

If you would like to join us you can visit our forums and add your name to the list here. Want to know how our Book Club works first? Read on!

CHOOSING A BOOK

All books are nominated and voted on by our members. Each month we will have a theme or subgenre for the nominations. Anyone can nominate a book and everyone can vote. In January we will be reading Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson. Check back soon to help pick a book for February, open nominations, so anything genre goes!

SUGGESTING A THEME/SUBGENRE FOR UPCOMING MONTHS

We want to make sure to put out themes/genres that people are interested in and cover a wide selection of books. We are happy to get suggestions and ideas for upcoming months. If you have something you would like to see us do in the future, please share it here.

SPOILER FREE DISCUSSION

Fantasy Book Club begins on the 1st of every month. Once a book is started, we discuss it in a way that will not spoil the story. We limit how much you can discuss and when, and break it down by week.

Week 1 – You may only discuss the first 1/4 of the book
Week 2 – You may only discuss the first 1/2 of the book
Week 3 – You may only discuss the first 3/4 of the book
Week 4 – Anything goes

We are going to go based on page count. So for example, if a book has 500 pages then week one you can discuss up to page 125 and then week two 250 and so on. Each week will have a separate thread, so as not to spoil the story for people who fall behind or come in late.

WHAT IF YOU WANT TO READ FASTER THAN THAT?

Not a problem at all. You are more than welcome to read ahead, but when discussing things just remember to post in the appropriate thread. And if you’re not sure when something happened you can always use the spoiler tag to hide your post.

Should you not want any spoilers or discussion during the reading process, then just come after the end of week three and start discussing the book once you have finished. (This is how most book clubs operate anyway.)

We would love for you to join us! You can sign up for this month’s book club here or visit our book club section to see all our past selections here.

WANT REMINDERS?

Follow @FFBookClub on Twitter for reminders when book club starts nominations, voting and discussions.

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