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ISBN 0-575-06070-0 (UK hbk), 0-575-06071-9 (UK trade pbk)
novel, science fiction, nanotechnology, 'fembots', genetic engineering
Near future, Earth. Winner of the 1996 Arthur C.Clarke Award. Three short stories and one novella take place in the same future as this novel (see the collection The Invisible Country for story titles and publishing details).
"In the twenty-first century, change is the certainty amidst endless civil wars and technological revolutions. Post-Millennial Europe is divided between the First World bourgeoisie, made rich by nanotechnology and the cheap versatile slave labour of genetically engineered Dolls, and the Fourth World of refugees and homeless displaced by war and economic upheavals.
"In London, Alex Sharkey is trying to make his mark as a designer of psychoactive viruses, whilst staying one step ahead of the police and the Triad gangs. At the cost of three hours of his life, he finds an unlikely ally in a scary, super-smart little girl called Milena, but his troubles really start when he helps Milena quicken intelligence in a Doll, turning it into the first of the fairies.
"Milena isn't sure if she's mad or if she's the only sane person left in the world; she only knows that she wants to escape to her own private Fairyland and live for ever. But although Milena has created the fairies for her own ends, some of the Folk, as fey and dangerous as any in legend, have other ideas about their destiny...
"Fairyland is a giddily baroque journey across landscapes where nanotechnology and genetic engineering have turned the archetypes of fantasy into fact." [jacket blurb, UK trade pbk, 1995]
"McAuley is part of a spearhead of writers who for pure imagination, hipness, vision and fun have made Britain the Memphis Sun Records of SF... Like great science fiction should do, it says more about our world through a vision of the future. This great book is as sharp and judgemental as the offspring of Joan Rivers and a TV evangelist... It's the book a Nineties Mary Shelley would have written." -- (in the Mail on Sunday ).
"Fairyland addresses the Big Issues in an astonishingly insightful and absorbing manner." --Kim Newman.
"A wild and bizarre vision of the future...I LOVE this book." --Pat Cadigan.
Recommended.
To reach Paul J.McAuley himself:
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