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Metronome might well be a brave new world created by Tom Watson, as insightful and as premonitory as Orwell’s 1984. Sent to the island 12 years ago, there as punishment for committing a crime not immediately revealed to the reader, their survival relies upon pills which are dispensed from a box every eight hours. The descriptions of the landscape and Aina and Whitney’s relationship as it begins to break down are so well and subtly described.
The sudden appearance of a token sheep also throws things off kilter where, as readers, we are left pondering its significance. There is trekking, hiking, mapping, swimming, sailing, boating, farming, crofting – down to cutting peat – to stimulate our senses. Yan tan tethera is a sheep-counting system used by shepherds traditionally in Northern England and other parts of Britain 🐑. I cannot help but think that the premise of this novel is metastatic where even feelings about feelings are involved. Some choices might not be theirs to make, but the themes are very current, whether dystopian or not.The two central characters are compelling, if not overly so - I took a long while to connect with them, to be honest, and their frayed relationship. In Aina, you have written a very strong female lead, who drives the story and carries many of the most difficult aspects of the plot. When the tension attracts the mystery, the book becomes un-put-down-able, through its patterns and hints and red herrings, perfect in its use of double meanings. New and familiar characters abound, voiced by a bright mix of performers, including Kat Dennings, Regé-Jean Page, Emma Corrin, Michael Sheen, Kristen Schaal, Brian Cox, John Lithgow, Jeffrey Wright, and so many more, including fan-favorite narrators Simon Vance and Ray Porter.
Where did the inspiration for your novel come from, and has the final version strayed far from your original concept? I enjoyed reading this, it’s a story on it’s own but I’d recommend it for fans of Lost (where the repetitive activity may or may not actually mean anything). When several members of the ring soon turn up dead, Billy abruptly pulls Kate out, blowing her cover.I had submitted things to her previously, so I knew who she was, and I was massively taken aback when Metronome won the Giles Gordon prize, which she judged for Curtis Brown. The piano is central to the discovery of their 'crime' and their subsequent banishment to the island and it is a clever reminder of the time that ticks by between their eight hourly doses of medication. The Goldsboro exclusive edition of "Empire of the Damned" by Jay Kristoff will feature block sprayed. It focuses on Aina and Whitney, a couple who have been exiled on a remote island for the past twelve years for a crime they committed together.
Via flashbacks, the author takes the reader back to Aina and Whitney’s former lives, to how they met. Aina on the other hand has a very different take on things, she’s the one who wants to escape, and by virtue I wanted to be poised at her shoulder throughout. Now Caine delves into the real stories behind the gangs we think we know so well, revealing the hidden realities behind the myths.Punished for the crime of having an unauthorised child, Aina and Whitney are banished to an island and tethered to a pill dispenser which keeps them alive.
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