Name: The Gone-away World
ISBN: 9780434018420

Nick Harkaway

A wildly entertaining debut novel, introducing a bold new voice that combines antic humour with a stunning futuristic vision to give us an electrifyingly original version of the apocalypse. 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 Gone-away World

The Gone-Away World

Janice Hopper

** spoiler alert **
           Whoa, what a crazy book!

You start out thinking you're going to read a save-the-world thriller. But first you need some backstory on the protagonist. Then you need some backstory on how the world got to be the way it was. Then you find out that almost everything you knew about the story was... kinda wrong. And then you STILL have the story about saving the world, sorta.

This is my first Nick Harkaway book. I've heard a lot about his and his writing, but honestly, I wasn't prepared for the wild ride this book was. It was mostly pretty fun, though at the part where everything gets tossed in the air, I had to slow down and skim for a bit. It was that disorienting to me. It's a pretty daring move to totally change up what the reader thinks like the author did.

I liked it! I may have a better idea about his writing going forward, so it'll be interesting to see how any other of his books strikes me. 

Good stuff. Dazzling, really.

Danny Engström

Brilliant. Intelligent. Vonnegutian.
My best read so far this year.

Cindy Lieberman

3.7 A sometimes wacky, sometimes satirical futuristic anti-war parable with mimes and ninjas.

With a fire burning along the Jorgmund Pipe, a vital protection from the bandits, monsters, and nightmares left in the wake of the Go-Away War, Gonzo Lubitsch and his troubleshooting colleagues at the Haulage and HazMat Emergency Civil Freebooting Company are hired to put it out--and to save humankind in the process--in a zany tale of a futuristic world. A first novel. 60,000 first printing.

Tara King

This book kept me up too late reading night after night. When I finally put it down, I couldn't sleep. And when I did sleep, my dreams were in the narrator's voice. It's a little bit Catch-22, a little bit Neal Stephenson, and a lot of awesome.

Tetiana Bilokin

It's difficult to read because the narrator needs to mention everything that's on his mind, and the sentences get complicated (sometimes unnecessarily so). But it's an exciting read (if you don't quit reading out of annoyance). It's creative, informative, and entertaining. I'd give it 5 starts if reading wasn't like trying to go though cobwebs.

Michael Hessling

Wonderful! It was hard to read, but the payoff was super.

Sherry

With a fire burning along the Jorgmund Pipe, Gonzo Lubitsch and his colleagues at the Haulage and HazMat Emergency Civil Freebooting Company are hired to put it out--and to save humankind in the process.

Kali Knowles

This hilarious, action-packed book takes a look at the apocalypse that combines a touching tale of friendship, a thrilling war story, and an all-out kung-fu-infused mission to save the world.