Customer Reviews
Light - By: David Brookes, 04 Apr 2008 
The majority of the story appears complex as it unfolds, but blossoms into a beautifully written conjunction of the three main story arcs: three characters of different times & places, one the creator of the technology another relies upon, the other hopelessly intertwined with both. The inexplicable & deeply interesting events of the plot somehow follow one another into deeper madness, yet never confuse or put off the reader. The net result is an easy-to-read, intricately composed piece of literary fiction pretending to be sci-fi.
Awesome: 8.5/10
Simply beautiful and thought-provoking - By: William C. Heslop, 26 Jan 2008 
I have never read a greater feat of imagination since Dune or The Silmarillion. In its own sphere this is an unsurpassed masterpiece - & I am not prone to hyperbole.
Impenetrable Rubbish - By: John A. Browne, 19 May 2007 
Purchased this book on the recommendation of Ian M Banks, looking forward to a quality sci-fi read, bitterly disappointing. From the opening chapter to the closing paragraph this book was a struggle to read. Empty characters which evoke no emotion, empathy or hatred, on the part of the reader & a senseless plot that leaves you empty. Drivel is the best single word to describe it.
A Radiant read... - By: Shane Lucy, 13 Dec 2006 I'm not surprised that this book has polarized opinions, don't read this if you think it's going to be another formulaic space opera. Light is a book that asks more questions than it answers & certainly isn't from the Clarke or Asimov branch of "science" fiction. Instead you get something a lot like the film Pi, an exploration of madness & obsession mingled with the strangeness that is pure math & quantum theory. Nothing much is explained, it's just left for the reader to piece together in whatever way they want.
This is a challlenging read, but if you're tired of the same old formula of derivative fiction try this guy out. It is a truly intense book that might not be on everyone else's wavelength but is alll the better for that. I've been devouring his work since rediscovering him a while back. I had read the Virconium books a long time ago but had lost them (and his name wouldn't come to me) until I found Light.
Reading Harrison's work you begin to see his influence refracted through alll that is good in SF/Fantasy at the moment, from Iain Banks to China Mieville. His strength, apart from some wonderful prose, is his ability to transcend genres; moving through the full spectrum of pastiche, science fiction & literature, sometimes in the same paragraph.
Highly recomended if you like to think about what you're reading.
Brilliant - By: Mr. E. Smith, 11 Sep 2006 Interesting how this book polarises opinion. I loved it. I fail to see how some reviewers view it as "infantile" or "puerile", referencing the few sex scenes & the character name Billy Anker. Playful & honest, but not puerile. And I can see how the opening is a bit disorientating: it does take a fair while before you can tell what's going on, & even longer before the threads start weaving together. But that's part of the manic pleasure it provides as you're carried along through one atmospheric environment after another. I thought the writing was absolutely extraordinary in places, tight, precise, evocative. Yes, it is a bit overwrought in places, overwritten, too stylish for its own good. But overalll, it's stunning. The characters aren't particularly sympathetic, but one of the strands (Seria Mau) concerning a human in a symbiotic relationship with a starship, is superbly imagined & moving; as another reviewer noted, it captures actual sensation of N-dimensional space fantasticallly (comparable in quality to Christopher Priest's capturing of the perception of infinite width in Inverted World). Read it, unless you only like thick books which come in series & have swords on the front.
