Synopsis
The Realm of Kiteworld has survived nuclear catastrophe and is governed by a feudal and militant religious oligarchy - the Church Variant.
In the outer Badlands, real or imagined Demons are kept at bay by flying defensive structures of giant interlocking Cody kites piloted by an elite and brave Corps of Observers.
Through a series of Kite stories we are drawn compellingly into a strange but recognizable world where loyalty to the Corps is everything and non-conformity a sin. Keith Roberts depicts the fortunes, passions and failings of his characters against this background of a fragile and superstitious society. As the fanatical Ultras embark on a religious campaign of destruction, the Realm starts to disintegrate — fast.
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From Publishers Weekly
This remarkable book of linked stories by one of the best prose stylists in SF is set in a future England that has become a tight little island in a destroyed, postholocaust world. Powerful churches have long kept their grip on the people with a theology of fear that makes formidable demons out of the poor, weak mutants of the surrounding badlands. To ward off these specters, an elaborate, tradition-encrusted system of kites with hex signs or armed observers fly over the realm. The men of this Kite Corps, performing hazardous duty to sustain a myth, are driven to find a separate peace, to transform, if they can, disillusionment into enlightenment, to move forward from an assumption of guilt to an assumption of responsibility. These obdurate moral and intellectual questions, together with a pastoral vision of a working, Constable-esque countryside, and the appealing characters whose lives open up to reveal the web of their society are all part of the debt Roberts owes George Eliot, as he acknowledges by naming a key city Middlemarch. Structurally, however, Roberts is so expansive and indirect that he challenges the reader to put the pieces together and some individual sequences are reticent to the point of obscurity. There is also a strong streak of Victorian, paternalistic fantasy in the repeated rescue of waifs. If it is slow and demanding, this is still a rich, complex work that marks a considerable advance in maturity and skill over Roberts's early stories.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Kiteworld
Seller: Mad Hatter, West Kelowna, BC, Canada
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Very Good. Tight and unmarked-" A novel of 8 individual short stories:- Contents: Kitemaster / Kitecadet / Kitemistress / Kitecaptain / Kiteservant / Kitewaif / Kitemariner / Kitekillers:- Synopsis: The Realm of Kiteworld has survived nuclear catastrophe and is governed by a feudal and militant religious oligarchy - the Church Variant. In the outer Badlands, real or imagined Demons are kept at bay by flying defensive structures of giant interlocking Cody kites piloted by an elite and brave Corps of Observers. Through a series of 'Kite' stories, we are drawn compellingly into a strange but recognizable world where loyalty to the Corps is everything and non-conformity a sin. Keith Roberts depicts the fortunes, passions, and failings of his characters against this background of a fragile and superstitious society. As the fanatical Ultras embark on a religious campaign of destruction, the Realm starts to disintegrate - fast:- Review(s): "Keith Roberts remains one of Britain's best-kept literary secrets: a baffling state of affairs that 'Kiteworld', another of Robert's extraordinary time-slips into a parallel universe, should go most of the way to redressing" - Time Out / "In his best book since the legendary 'Pavane', the author's wondrous myth-making here creates a world with all the circumstances of truth and all the clarity of hallucination. It is a quite remarkable feat in contemporary science-fiction" - The Times. Seller Inventory # 14048
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Kiteworld
Seller: SAVERY BOOKS, Brighton, East Sussex, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. Paperback 1986. Back cover corner has a minor crease. Flat spine. Clean & tight. No inscriptions. Dispatched ROYAL MAIL FIRST CLASS with TRACKING next working day or sooner securely boxed in cardboard. ref B34. Seller Inventory # 043137
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