The Gone-Away World
  • Published: 1 September 2010
  • ISBN: 9781407005621
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 592

The Gone-Away World

Formats & editions
EBook
1 Sep 2010
Paperback
1 Jun 2009
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The literary debut of 2008 - part adventure, part comic opera, part geek nirvana

The Jorgmund Pipe is the backbone of the world, and it's on fire. Gonzo Lubitsch, professional hero and troubleshooter, is hired to put it out - but there's more to the fire, and the Pipe itself, than meets the eye. The job will take Gonzo and his best friend, our narrator, back to their own beginnings and into the dark heart of the Jorgmund Company itself.

Equal parts raucous adventure, comic odyssey and Romantic Epic, The Gone-Away World is a story of - among other things - love and loss; of ninjas, pirates, politics; of curious heroism in strange and dangerous places; and of a friendship stretched beyond its limits. But it also the story of a world, not unlike our own, in desperate need of heroes - however unlikely they may seem.
  • Published: 1 September 2010
  • ISBN: 9781407005621
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 592
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About the author

Nick Harkaway

Nick Harkaway was born in Cornwall in 1972. Author of the novels The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker and Tigerman, he lives in London with his wife and two children.

portrait photo of Nick Harkaway

Also by Nick Harkaway

Gnomon
Angelmaker
Tigerman
Doctor Who: Time Trips (The Collection)
Doctor Who: Keeping Up with the Joneses (Time Trips)
Edie Investigates
See all

Praise for The Gone-Away World

[A] post-apocalyptic triumph ... Immensely rewarding ... Genuinely terrifying

The Times

A big new book by a big new writer. Well done! Harkaway describes The Gone-Away World in words that whiz and ping like bullets ricocheting off the walls of the reader's mind. He's the real thing

Russell Hoban

A debut novel of the kind that comes along only once every couple of years, overflowing with imagination yet powered by the kind of cleverly twisting plot that marks him out as a master storyteller ... A quirkily original writer

The Scotsman

A genuine panoramic, 3D, surround-sound, total-immersion, thrill-factor ten miracle - it is the kind of book that you just don't want to end! ... Engrossing, action-packed ... Very highly recommended

SFRevu

A stunning debut

Scotland on Sunday

A stunning debut ... By turns thrilling, silly, gripping, crazy, daring and outrageous. I loved every minute ... The Gone-Away World is brakes-off fiction

Scotland on Sunday

Breathtakingly ambitious ... A bubbling cosmic stew of a book, written with such exuberant imagination that you are left breathless by its sheer ingenuity

Observer

Exuberant...Wildly inventive

Michael Gove, The Times

Has the pace and action of an episode of 24 ... The agility of the narrative is one of the great strengths of this book ... Harkaway is robustly confident ... Particularly effective are his Matrix-like fight scenes, brought to life in meticulous yet flowing prose

The Times

I loved it...exuberant, mind-bending science-fiction/fantasy adventure about truckers, weapons that wreck the very fabric of existence, foul-mouthed drill instructors, ninjas and stuff like that. But by golly it's well written, funny and enjoyable

Sam Leith, Daily Mail

Its scope and ambition are extraordinary, its execution is often breathtaking, and its style is by turns hilarious, outrageous, devastating, hip and profound ... Hugely entertaining

Independent on Sunday

There are delightful moments aplenty ... Any author who has come up with the beautifully silly plan of melding a kung-fu epic with an Iraq-war satire and a Mad Max adventure has to be worth keeping an eye on

Guardian

With his debut The Gone-Away World, Nick Harkaway has created a fictional universe that is out of this world

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