A review by lesserjoke
Arcadia by Iain Pears

4.0

This novel takes a little while to get going and clearly establish its plot, but it ends up as a mind-trip of the highest caliber. There are essentially three layers of reality that author Iain Pears is playing with here: 1) the twenty-third century, where a brilliant scientist flees her unscrupulous employers in the time machine she's created, 2) the 1960s, where she arrives to find a contemporary of Tolkien and Lewis writing his own pastoral fantasy world inspired by Shakespeare's comedies, and 3) that fictional land itself, which the inventor's device inadvertently manifests as a real place that people can visit. It's a bit like The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. crossed with something like Inkheart or Thursday Next, a spy thriller full of meta literary discussions and daft but fun time-travel paradoxes. I recommend it heartily, especially for fans of Steven Moffat's work on Doctor Who.