Matthew De Abaitua'snovelThe Red Menwas shortlisted for the Arthur
C Clarke Award and adapted into a short film 'Dr Easy' by Shynola
and produced by Film4/Warp Films.His science fiction novelsIF
THEN(Angry Robot, September 2015) andThe Destructives(Angry Robot,
2016) complete the loose trilogy begun withThe Red Men.His bookSelf
& I- A Memoir of Literary Ambition(Eye Books, 2018) was widely
reviewed in the national press, chosen as a Financial Times Summer
Read and described by The Times Literary Supplement as "a
compelling reminiscence".He teaches creative writing and science
fiction at the University of Essex and lives in Hackney.
harrybravado.com
twitter.com/mdeabaitua
Author hometown-London, UK
“Sumptuously written, with prose that glitters with a dark lustre
like a Damien Hirst fly collage. intricately plotted, and a
satirical point as sharp and and accurate as the scalpel of a brain
surgeon: De Abaitua operates on the smiling face of the present to
reveal the grimacing skull of the future.”
– Will Self“This is the kind of post-apocalypse,
after-it-all-changed novel – with clever codicils – that the Brits
do with so much more classy, idiosyncratic style than anyone else.
It is full of magisterial weirdness, logical surrealism, melancholy
joy and hopeful terror. If I begin to toss out names like Adam
Roberts, Brian Aldiss, Keith Roberts, and J. G. Ballard, I will not
be lavishing undue praise.”
– Paul Di Filippo, for Locus Magazine“If Then may be one of
the most important works of British SF to appear in recent years.
It is stunningly original and superbly well written. For those who
care about such things, it is firmly of SF, not the literary
mainstream – yet it is technically as complex and well executed as
any modernist novel you may meet on your Booker travels. I hope
this book will be discussed and debated and praised, for it
deserves all three sorts of attention in generous measure. If
Then is the opposite of the literature of reassurance, it is
everything science fiction should be aiming for, and it is
wonderful to see de Abaitua back on the scene.”
– Nina Allan“I cannot praise (If Then) highly enough:
eloquent, intelligent, brilliant.”
– Elsa Bouet, Shoreline of Infinity“I can’t recommend this book
more highly. It’s slipstream fiction for polymaths. If Then
flips off expectations of genre and leaves me feeling like I’m
riding its shockwave into the future of literature.”
– Boldly Read“De Abaitua builds on the promise he demonstrated in
The Red Men in this intellectual science fiction novel, whose
ambition is matched by its execution. The author’s thoughtful
world-building is enhanced by a cast of relatable characters.”
– Publishers Weekly“The alternating viewpoints set in a modern town
and during World War I will have you itching to know what’s really
going on.”
– Kirkus Reviews“One of the most intriguing and disturbing
near-future speculations published for some years.”
– Strange Horizons“This is a powerful novel, both in its portrayal
of the horrors of World War I, the wasteful loss of life, the
dreadful conditions, the failures of those who let the war happen,
and also in showing how easily the systems that support our
modern-day lives could fall apart.”
– Steven Theaker, Interzone“De Abaitua draws on the techniques of
British science fiction from Wells, Huxley and Stapledon through to
Ballard and deploys them like a master in crafting this
simultaneously parochial and profound meditation on the nature of
war understood as an evolutionary process. With language that is
both lyrical and precise he has created a philosophical fiction
that is compelling, extremely moving and deeply unsettling. An
extraordinary book.”
– James Flint, author of The Book of Ash and 52 Ways to Magic
America“Both bucolic and an oppressive love story set against the
background of an enigmatic dictatorship of sorts, this tale of
reality askew is also a powerful meditation on the nature of war,
the misuse of technology and the grit and determination of the
common man. Thoughtful, at times frustrating but well worth the
final reward, and stylically elegant, a different kind of science
fiction.”
– Maxim Jakubowski, Lovereading“If Then is an incredibly
enthralling and original tale that still has me thinking about it
weeks after I read it. A brilliant entry onto the scene, If Then is
a must read for anyone even remotely interested in speculative
fiction.”
– Smash Dragons“A fascinating read.”
– Susan Hated Literature“Six out of five stars.”
– One Breath Book Reviews“We are forced to reflect on the way
modern society normalises war and conflict for the many by
concentrating the horror of it in a few. If Then asks us what value
we place on people beyond their role as economic units, and whether
we would rethink our actions if we were able to truly experience
their consequences at first hand.”
– Astounding Yarns“If Then is a very interesting combination of
science fiction and war literature, questioning what people are
capable of and how far they should go. The book poses some great
questions on artificial intelligence and technology without really
giving you any answers, but it definitely makes it worth it reading
this book with someone else and then discussing it to death. If
Then definitely demands your attention and if you’re looking for a
mind-boggling and challenging read then you should definitely give
this one a try.”
– Bored to Death Book Club“If Then is an extremely satisfying story
about humanity’s inability to cope with both change and
uncertainty.”
– Lit/Rant“If Then is a particular kind of British rural science
fiction, in which a deeply unsettling pall overshadows what should
be a Utopian idyll. The novel has antecedents in the works of John
Wyndham, George Orwell and Aldous Huxley – and it is every bit as
good as the best works of those writers. It is full of mind-bending
ideas, great characters and wonderful writing. If there is any
justice, it deserves a nomination for the next Hugos.”
– Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing“This is a really tremendous
speculative fiction book that examines humanity and society. The
tenor of the book reminds me of the speculative fiction writers I
was reading back in the 1970’s. Michael Bishop, Thomas Disch, Gene
Wolfe, Roger Zelazny. I consider some of their work to be
thoughtful, introspective studies on humanity and self. And while
it reminds me of these authors, this book strikes me as quite
original. I was hooked early on with author Matthew de Abaitua’s
descriptions of the people and the community. He created something
very real and easy to believe in, and managed to let us know right
away that we were outside our modern norm. I am impressed with
science/speculative fiction is headed these days. If you want
something more than just a space opera or fantasies with trolls and
elves and lots of magic, there are strong works out there, such as
this one.”
– Looking for a Good Book?“Interesting and intriguing.”
– YLogs“If Then is a vitally intelligent book that asks the
difficult, probing questions we need to be asking ourselves about
consciousness, morality, how we are going to live in the future and
our own humanity. It is, in the best sense, a profoundly worrying
novel, one that the reader’s mind keeps returning to long after
finishing.”
– Golden Apples of the West“If Then is by any measure an extremely
fine work s which stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the best
for several reasons. The overall concept is complex and original
and is handled with complete confidence. The characters are fully
formed and the sheer quality of both the vivid descriptive passages
and the believable dialogue makes the book a complete cerebral and
visceral three-dimensional experience.”
– The Generalist“If you like a challenging read, worry about the
human mind and our cognitively dissonant yearnings for
self-destruction and self-preservation, or you’re interested in the
horrors of war or the Gallipoli landings of 1915, or you have a yen
for dystopian near-futures, or are a fan of Brian Aldiss, Aldous
Huxley (whose brother makes an indirect appearance) or, indeed,
Olaf Stapledon, then you should pick up a copy as soon as you
can.”
– MetaliteratureFurther praise for Matthew De Abaitua:“De Abaitua’s
extraordinary fictions, scientific and otherwise, emerge from a
deep and mysterious understanding of culture, and show it to us in
a new light.”
– James Bridle“The Red Men is a breathtaking novel of ideas.”
– I09.com“The Red Men is an exciting and confident debut.”
– Strange Horizons“If Then is a love story, the history of a
marriage, a topical meditation on the end of capitalism; best of
all, it is a bone-deep, blood-sweet British fantasy, naive and
ingenious as William Morris and as warpedly nostalgic as Richard
Jeffries’ After London. As disturbingly hyperreal as any
Pre-Raphaelite painting, If Then imagines what the end of history
really will really look like, what’s really at stake, and maybe,
just maybe, what we can do about it.”
– Simon Ings, author of Wolves“This near-future literary thriller
is remarkably prescient… it is De Abaitua’s pinsharp observations
of human nature that make this an uncomfortably standout read for
me.”
– Sarah Higbee“Matthew de Abaitua challenges the expanding
enactment of modern culture through social media and its devices by
taking it to its furthest extreme, and that’s only one of the
issues he grapples with in this extraordinarily well-written,
intelligent and meticulously researched work… This brilliant book
tests the reader with questions relevant to our day-to-day
lives.”
– Fiction Uncovered“De Abaitua deliciously smashes together today’s
worst middle-class fears of economic catastrophe with the
empire-fracturing legacy of the First World War. He equates
our surrender to a digitised society with the soldiers’
incorporation into the imperial war machine – and, through some
clever attention to historical detail, he suggests that our past
might yet hold the key to a weird and hopeful future.”
– Matt Finch / Mechanical Dolphin“The prose has a wonderful
lightness and simplicity at odds with its complex subject; at no
point is the dense narrative difficult or obtuse. Visceral yet
bracingly clever; haunting but more timely by the day, If
Then is one of the most insightful and relevant English
science fiction novels of recent years.”
– Andrew Wallace, author of Sons of the Crystal Mind
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