The Book Depository The Chimes by Anna Smaill
307 ratings
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Price: £9.99
Brand: The Book Depository
Description: The Chimes : Paperback : Hodder & Stoughton : 9781444794502 : : 30 Nov 2016 : LONGLISTED FOR THE 2015 MAN BOOKER PRIZE. A stunning debut composed of memory, music, love and freedom, The Chimes pulls you into a world that will captivate, enthral and inspire. The Book Depository The Chimes by Anna Smaill - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: The Book Depository
Product ID: 9781444794502
MPN: 9781444794502
GTIN: 9781444794502
Author: Abi Walton
Rating: 5
Review: The Chimes is about an Orphaned boy named Simon who finds himself alone in London. He becomes a pactrunner for the Five Rovers, whose leader is Lucian, his best friend. In this future world memory no longer exists and is taken away by an instrument called the Charillon. With no memories, this novel looks at how connection to the people around us becomes non-existent. However, with Lucian's help memories start to return to Simon and they decide to take the Order down. I really enjoyed this book and read it in a couple of days. However, I did find that I couldn't totally connect with Simon and the emotions he was feeling throughout the novel, although it is in the first person. I felt there was a lot of distance between the reader and Simon's character. Overall though, the book is beautifully written and has a great plot with two main characters that are fleshed out and wonderful to read. And look at the cover!!
Author: Lola
Rating: 1
Review: What an awful, awful book. Yet again I struggle through the Booker (longlisted) novel. 304 pages of "The Chimes" by Anna Smaill were pretty much wasted time - too many words (so unnecessary), not enough character descriptions, not nearly enough storytelling. Post-apocalyptic world without memory governed by music. Everything is told in music and you keep your memories in your bag. Sounds fascinating? I got the whole picture of what's happening at about 42% - and in reality it is quite boring. Whoever said that this has "all the tension of a well-told, gripping thriller" was reading different book. "The Chimes" are so tacet, subito, lento... Ah yeah all the music terms, along with presto, da capo al fine, adagio, cantabile... - Anna Smaill's task is to describe the world in music terms. But this does NOT make a literary book. I do not want to read music - I'd rather listen to it. Ah, and adding to the special musical world (detect sarcasm here) of the book, Ms Smaill created "new language": apprentice is now "prentiss", yesterday - "yesternoch", police - "poliss", orchestra - "orkestra", electrics - "electricks". Wow, how ingenious. Then there is burning of the books (ingenious, once again!) and the most rigid love story. And re-told legend of Huginn and Muninn. Why oh why. If you are still going to read this, could you explain to me the meaning of the "Pale Lady" (i.e. palladium) - why such hunt for it? "It is illegal except for the trade", it can be found at the bottom of Thames - WHAT? And why?? Cannot stop myself from quoting: "I know they oppose the Order. They want to keep wordmemory. They know it is Chimes sends memory away and gives the shaking sickness. Their sign is the raven, which is a bird, which is an animal that died because of the Chimes. And it has the meaning of memory." All the punctuation etc. original to the author. Lovely, isn't it? So musical and inventive and thrilling. SPOILER ALERT! It all ends well.
