The Unstable Realities of Christopher Priest

Priest's relationship with the wider science fiction community, his prioritizing of being human and exploring what happens in our own minds over what happens in the distant reaches of space, is a point of reflection throughout Paul Kincaid's book. The volume divides itself into a series of chronological and thematic readings of Priest's life and work. The key points of historical context run parallel to the discussion of islands, reality, doubles, and the arts. This duality, which is captured in the innovative arrangement of the text, provides an excellent space for Kincaid to use his incisive powers of critical thinking to capture the evanescence and ambivalence of Priest's writing. "Christopher Priest is one of Britain's best writers: Paul Kincaid brings his considerable critical skills to this broad yet carefully focussed view of Priest's intense and determined oeuvre." - M. John Harrison "An absolutely invaluable book: not just the first critical account to cover Priest's whole career, but the first critical engagement with Priest of any kind to provide a persuasive overall critical approach to this major but hard-to-categorise writer. Kincaid alternates a broadly chronological account of Priest's writing life with analysis of Priest's recurring themes and symbols, balancing these two approach such that each illuminates each, and without ever losing sight of the distinctiveness that makes Priest so important—even if part of that distinctiveness is, precisely, his resistance to conventional critical approaches. Kincaid's critical engagement is always judicious, eloquent, often brilliant and it remains throughout sensitive to the studied ambiguities and shifting complexities of its subject. Critical writing is rarely this good." – Adam Roberts