The Adjacent
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
“One of the master illusionists of our time.” —Wired
“A head-spinning blast of blurred reality . . . jaw-dropping.” —NPR
“Completely fascinating.” —San Francisco Book Review
Set against “a kaleidoscopic backdrop of Earth’s past, present, and future”, this time-hopping science fiction novel is a moving meditation on “the resonance of history, memory, and love” (AV Club)
In the near future, Tibor Tarent, a freelance photographer, is recalled from Anatolia to Britain when his wife, an aid worker, is killed—annihilated by a terrifying weapon that reduces its target to a triangular patch of scorched earth.
A century earlier, Tommy Trent, a stage magician, is sent to the Western Front on a secret mission to render British reconnaissance aircraft invisible to the enemy.
Present day. A theoretical physicist develops a new method of diverting matter, a discovery with devastating consequences that will resonate through time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Priest (The Islanders) mistakes ambiguity for cleverness in this moderately ambitious tale of separated lovers. In a post-climate-change near future, recently widowed English freelance photographer Tibor Tarent returns from war-torn Turkey to find his homeland altered in the wake of a mysterious terrorist attack one that looks eerily similar to the strange event that killed his wife. Both turn out to have been caused by "adjacency technology," which disassembles matter and scatters copies of it through time. Tibor's confused wanderings are intercut with scenes from other timelines, as versions of him and his wife try to find each other. Priest pauses to wax lovingly on vintage war planes and stage magic (recalling his earlier hit, The Prestige). The structure is neat and leads smartly to a surprisingly strong ending, but the plot collapses under the weight of stilted prose ("But physical action is one thing, while silence is a judged opinion") and a thoroughly uninteresting yet inexplicably woman-attracting protagonist.
