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Conquest
Rachel's boyfriend Frank is different from other people. His strangeness is part of what she loves about him: his innocence, his intelligence, his passionate immersion in the music of JS Bach. As a coder, Frank sees patterns in everything, but as his theories slide further towards the irrational, Rachel becomes increasingly concerned for his wellbeing. There are people Frank knows online, people who share his view of the world and who insist he has a unique role to play. In spite of Rachel's fears for his safety, Frank is determined to meet them face to face.
When Frank disappears, Rachel is forced to seek help in the form of Robin, a private detective who left the police force for reasons she will not reveal. Like Frank, Robin is obsessed with the music of Bach. Like Frank, she has unexplained connections with the criminal underworld of southeast London.
An obscure science fiction story from the 1950s appears to offer clues to Frank's secret agenda, but not to where he is. As Robin and Rachel draw closer in their search for the truth, they are forced to ask themselves if Frank's obsession with an alien war, against all logic, might have a basis in fact.
Nina Allan's new novel is a work of the greatest imaginative power, an investigation of the human need to make connections, to find causes and effects, however fantastic. Conquest is the story of a disappearance, and of the mystery that follows.
When Frank disappears, Rachel is forced to seek help in the form of Robin, a private detective who left the police force for reasons she will not reveal. Like Frank, Robin is obsessed with the music of Bach. Like Frank, she has unexplained connections with the criminal underworld of southeast London.
An obscure science fiction story from the 1950s appears to offer clues to Frank's secret agenda, but not to where he is. As Robin and Rachel draw closer in their search for the truth, they are forced to ask themselves if Frank's obsession with an alien war, against all logic, might have a basis in fact.
Nina Allan's new novel is a work of the greatest imaginative power, an investigation of the human need to make connections, to find causes and effects, however fantastic. Conquest is the story of a disappearance, and of the mystery that follows.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 11, 2023
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1310 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
December 27, 2023
Where, oh where, is the hype for Nina Allan?
As far as philosophical literary fiction with a dash of scifi goes, Conquest is every bit as good as—or even better than—this year’s In Ascension but is getting nowhere near the same attention. For my money, Conquest is the warmer, more playful novel, deserving of a wide audience.
‘When he asks me if I believe what he has been telling me I find it more difficult to answer, because my mind is divided. In the front of my brain I believe no such thing. In the back room though, there is a fire going, and it is gaining in heat.’
Loosely following the case of Frank, who disappears after falling in with an online UFO conspiracy group, Conquest is the kind of unconventional, thought-provoking, ‘want to stop to Google that but don’t want to put the book down’, energising read that I didn’t know I’d been missing so badly. [For those of you who enjoyed Love and Other Thought Experiments a few years back, this one scratches the same itch.]
It is an intertextual feast, throwing references around with abandon—from Bach (lots of Bach!) to Bowie, films by Shane Carruth and Andrei Tarkovsky, hat tips to The X-Files and hardboiled detective fiction. There’s even a pastiche of 1950s scifi in the form of a novel-within-the-novel (a fictive work touted by one character as ‘the flip side of Ayn Rand’), which is possibly the key to everything.
That all probably sounds like a lot, and it sort of is, but at the same time Conquest is thoroughly enjoyable to read and I tore through most of it in a day. The freewheeling topics would read as unrelated digressions in a different book, but here they form a breadcrumb trail to be followed, examined for clues and decoded in service of the larger mystery and/or conspiracy. Everything connects, not in neatly interlocking jigsaw pieces, but in the organic sprawl of a mycelium.
Conquest has lots of clever things to say about the allure of conspiratorial thinking, cognitive biases, about music and art, and our current ecologically precarious moment. It is bold, experimental yet accessible, masterfully executed and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Five intergalactic stars.
As far as philosophical literary fiction with a dash of scifi goes, Conquest is every bit as good as—or even better than—this year’s In Ascension but is getting nowhere near the same attention. For my money, Conquest is the warmer, more playful novel, deserving of a wide audience.
‘When he asks me if I believe what he has been telling me I find it more difficult to answer, because my mind is divided. In the front of my brain I believe no such thing. In the back room though, there is a fire going, and it is gaining in heat.’
Loosely following the case of Frank, who disappears after falling in with an online UFO conspiracy group, Conquest is the kind of unconventional, thought-provoking, ‘want to stop to Google that but don’t want to put the book down’, energising read that I didn’t know I’d been missing so badly. [For those of you who enjoyed Love and Other Thought Experiments a few years back, this one scratches the same itch.]
It is an intertextual feast, throwing references around with abandon—from Bach (lots of Bach!) to Bowie, films by Shane Carruth and Andrei Tarkovsky, hat tips to The X-Files and hardboiled detective fiction. There’s even a pastiche of 1950s scifi in the form of a novel-within-the-novel (a fictive work touted by one character as ‘the flip side of Ayn Rand’), which is possibly the key to everything.
That all probably sounds like a lot, and it sort of is, but at the same time Conquest is thoroughly enjoyable to read and I tore through most of it in a day. The freewheeling topics would read as unrelated digressions in a different book, but here they form a breadcrumb trail to be followed, examined for clues and decoded in service of the larger mystery and/or conspiracy. Everything connects, not in neatly interlocking jigsaw pieces, but in the organic sprawl of a mycelium.
Conquest has lots of clever things to say about the allure of conspiratorial thinking, cognitive biases, about music and art, and our current ecologically precarious moment. It is bold, experimental yet accessible, masterfully executed and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Five intergalactic stars.
May 15, 2023
Nina Allan is my favourite writer and I love everything she does – everyone knows this – but Conquest is a truly extraordinary novel, possibly even the best of her career.
The plot revolves around the disappearance of a man, Frank, after he goes to meet some online friends in Paris. The situation is more complex than it first appears: Frank holds a variety of esoteric beliefs about a secret ‘supersoldier’ programme and a incipient war between aliens and humans; the friends are people he knows from a forum dedicated to discussing these ideas. Dismissed by the police, his girlfriend Rachel enlists the help of Robin, a private detective. By bizarre coincidence (or something else?), Robin shares a particular interest with Frank – an obsessive passion for the music of J.S. Bach. Compelled by both Frank’s story and her attraction to Rachel, Robin starts investigating, but the more she follows clues, the stranger the trail becomes.
Conquest is a story about many things: conspiracy theories, mental illness, the similarities between music and code, obsession, ambition (and apathy), love, legacy, belief; how information is corrosive, like acid – once you touch it, you’re changed by it, and how choosing not to believe in something you know to be true is an act of self-destruction. It shows how the lines between faith and doubt, between reasonable scepticism and fervid delusion, are thinner and more tenuous than we tend to believe; it shows what happens when someone falls into the cracks. It’s told from a number of perspectives – Robin and Rachel and Frank, but also an essay by one of Frank’s forum friends, a concert review by another, documents that illuminate both the characters’ individual stories and the broader themes of the novel.
At the heart of everything (including the book itself) is ‘The Tower’ by John C. Sylvester, an obscure 1950s sci-fi story which becomes one of Frank’s obsessions, a ‘sacred text’. It tells of a pioneering architect, a character like something out of Ayn Rand, who builds a vast, monumental tower out of an alien rock, only to discover it is both alive and contagious. Ultimately, the story seems a possible key to both Frank’s disappearance and his beliefs. ‘The Tower’ is a marvel in its own right, an unsettling tale that simmers with strange possibilities.
Conquest combines the speculative elements and missing-person angle of The Rift with the ‘fractured novel’ approach of the author’s earlier books and the detailed investigation central to The Good Neighbours. It’s strongly reminiscent of the haunting novella Maggots, my favourite of her shorter works, and also made me think of the short stories ‘The Silver Wind’ and ‘A Princess of Mars’. (As ever with Allan’s writing, I’m not sure whether I’m making connections that aren’t really there. But this – the connections, the not-knowing – is part of the pleasure of reading her work, and feels particularly appropriate for a book so much about hidden links and obscure connotations.)
As soon as I finished Conquest, I wanted to read it again. It’s a towering achievement (pun only slightly intended): a deeply complex and layered work of speculative fiction that rewards (and deserves) close reading yet is also incredibly enjoyable. I’ve tried to cover some of its ideas in this review, but the truth is that Conquest can’t be summarised neatly because it is about everything, about life. I have no doubt that when I revisit it, I will find completely different meanings and mysteries in the text.
I received an advance review copy of Conquest from the publisher through NetGalley.
The plot revolves around the disappearance of a man, Frank, after he goes to meet some online friends in Paris. The situation is more complex than it first appears: Frank holds a variety of esoteric beliefs about a secret ‘supersoldier’ programme and a incipient war between aliens and humans; the friends are people he knows from a forum dedicated to discussing these ideas. Dismissed by the police, his girlfriend Rachel enlists the help of Robin, a private detective. By bizarre coincidence (or something else?), Robin shares a particular interest with Frank – an obsessive passion for the music of J.S. Bach. Compelled by both Frank’s story and her attraction to Rachel, Robin starts investigating, but the more she follows clues, the stranger the trail becomes.
Conquest is a story about many things: conspiracy theories, mental illness, the similarities between music and code, obsession, ambition (and apathy), love, legacy, belief; how information is corrosive, like acid – once you touch it, you’re changed by it, and how choosing not to believe in something you know to be true is an act of self-destruction. It shows how the lines between faith and doubt, between reasonable scepticism and fervid delusion, are thinner and more tenuous than we tend to believe; it shows what happens when someone falls into the cracks. It’s told from a number of perspectives – Robin and Rachel and Frank, but also an essay by one of Frank’s forum friends, a concert review by another, documents that illuminate both the characters’ individual stories and the broader themes of the novel.
At the heart of everything (including the book itself) is ‘The Tower’ by John C. Sylvester, an obscure 1950s sci-fi story which becomes one of Frank’s obsessions, a ‘sacred text’. It tells of a pioneering architect, a character like something out of Ayn Rand, who builds a vast, monumental tower out of an alien rock, only to discover it is both alive and contagious. Ultimately, the story seems a possible key to both Frank’s disappearance and his beliefs. ‘The Tower’ is a marvel in its own right, an unsettling tale that simmers with strange possibilities.
Conquest combines the speculative elements and missing-person angle of The Rift with the ‘fractured novel’ approach of the author’s earlier books and the detailed investigation central to The Good Neighbours. It’s strongly reminiscent of the haunting novella Maggots, my favourite of her shorter works, and also made me think of the short stories ‘The Silver Wind’ and ‘A Princess of Mars’. (As ever with Allan’s writing, I’m not sure whether I’m making connections that aren’t really there. But this – the connections, the not-knowing – is part of the pleasure of reading her work, and feels particularly appropriate for a book so much about hidden links and obscure connotations.)
As soon as I finished Conquest, I wanted to read it again. It’s a towering achievement (pun only slightly intended): a deeply complex and layered work of speculative fiction that rewards (and deserves) close reading yet is also incredibly enjoyable. I’ve tried to cover some of its ideas in this review, but the truth is that Conquest can’t be summarised neatly because it is about everything, about life. I have no doubt that when I revisit it, I will find completely different meanings and mysteries in the text.
I received an advance review copy of Conquest from the publisher through NetGalley.
September 30, 2023
A disturbed young man convinced aliens are in control of Earth's power structures goes missing when he meets up with like-minded conspiracy theorists. A private detective is employed to find him. This had the potential to be so much better. You feel there's a great novel to be written about conspiracy theorists. Two problems I found here was that the conspiracy theory itself was lame and the author never really got into the mind of someone toiling under the conviction that we are all puppets in the hands of a handful of powerful people and there were clumsy problems of design. The connecting thread between the central story and the private detective's backstory felt lame and forced. The writing though was excellent. 3.5 stars because I don't feel it will stay long in my memory.
February 7, 2025
I was a little disappointed by this but I can't quite put my finger on why.
It's competently written, but no real distinctive stylistic flourishes.
I didn't really engage with the characters.
It's competently written, but no real distinctive stylistic flourishes.
I didn't really engage with the characters.
June 29, 2023
Conquest concerns a woman hiring a private eye to search for her possibly-autistic boyfriend, who disappeared after going to meet conspiracy theorists from the internet. Rather than taking a high-speed crime thriller approach to this plot, Allan uses it to gradually and thoughtfully examine conspiracy theory thinking. The pace is slow, plus long articles and a 1950s scifi novella are interjected into the text. While I usually enjoy this conceit (for example in John Brunner's novels), the interludes in Conquest didn't quite convince me. Notably, the 1950s novella had an intriguing concept but sounded rather too modern.
Allan is a skilled writer and her characterisation is subtle and deft. However, I wish Conquest had committed to being a bit weirder. I wanted something like Martin MacInnes' Infinite Ground or Gathering Evidence. I expected more of a speculative fiction angle based on the other novel by Allan I'd read, The Race, which is interestingly offbeat alternate history scifi. Perhaps readers expecting Conquest to be literary fiction would appreciate it more than I did? I enjoyed the quality of the writing while wishing for more strangeness.
Allan is a skilled writer and her characterisation is subtle and deft. However, I wish Conquest had committed to being a bit weirder. I wanted something like Martin MacInnes' Infinite Ground or Gathering Evidence. I expected more of a speculative fiction angle based on the other novel by Allan I'd read, The Race, which is interestingly offbeat alternate history scifi. Perhaps readers expecting Conquest to be literary fiction would appreciate it more than I did? I enjoyed the quality of the writing while wishing for more strangeness.
Read
July 26, 2023It took more than a week for me to read Nina Allan’s latest. Not because it’s a door stopper (its average length) and not because it’s not very good (far, far from it) but because sometimes you just need to soak in the work of a genius. Nina Allan is a genius. In Conquest, she tells the story of a bloke named Frank, a believer in aliens and other associated conspiracy theories - he thinks his Dad is a super soldier - who goes missing after a trip to Paris. Frank’s girlfriend, Rachel, hires a private investigator, Robin, to find Frank. The plot is that simple; the execution is less so. In Nina Allan style - and just as she did in her last novel, The Good Neighbours - she deconstructs genre - this time detective and science fiction, to tell us a story about alternative truth, misinformation and art. The novel, which features essays on the work of Shane Carruth and Hans Werner Henze, a 1958 science fiction novella that proves central to Frank’s ideology, and an obsession with J.S. Bach, reminded me of Shola Von Reinhold’s LOTE in its polyphonic and magpie attitude to literature. It’s bloody fantastic. It deserves lots of awards. But really, I just hope people read it and soak in some Nina Allan brilliance.
May 19, 2025
My head is spinning. This was hard to read without constantly thinking "I should look this up in/on the interweb!", until I realized I would likely never finish the book (not good, as I would subsequently discover by choosing to continue with the book, not interweb-ing intermittently) but would end up being swarmed with so much info-knowledge as to feel intellectually contented for a while (not bad, but ultimately something I can do whenever I want, most notably after finishing this book; which I did in fact do, much to my enjoyment and awe). Went in hopeful and exited amazed and grateful for Allan's gift for writing such a wondrous tale. Swirls elements of noir, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, and facts into a magnum opus, unbelievably winning at every turn. A stunning piece of storytelling. Loved all the music references, it seems rather obvious Allan LOVES music, which is lovely! Book-inside-a-book works magically too, when it can often feel forced and trite. Honestly, there isn't one thing I would change about this book. Absolutely stupendous.
February 18, 2024
"Choosing not believe in something you know to be true is an act of self-destruction."
I love Nina Allan’s writing. This novel too is highly accomplished in terms of the prose, the structure and the concepts explored. You can tell Allan is very passionate about classical music and incorporates it expertly into the story. The mind boggles at the amount of research she must have done. The novel itself takes a fascinating look at the fine line between genius and madness, conspiracies, the nature of reality and possible alien infiltration in our eco-system. Despite the interesting subject matter, I did however fail to truly connect with the characters. I am not sure why that is, but I felt removed from them throughout the story.
I love Nina Allan’s writing. This novel too is highly accomplished in terms of the prose, the structure and the concepts explored. You can tell Allan is very passionate about classical music and incorporates it expertly into the story. The mind boggles at the amount of research she must have done. The novel itself takes a fascinating look at the fine line between genius and madness, conspiracies, the nature of reality and possible alien infiltration in our eco-system. Despite the interesting subject matter, I did however fail to truly connect with the characters. I am not sure why that is, but I felt removed from them throughout the story.
April 15, 2023
Read courtesy of NetGalley, opinions are my own.
Another genre-defying sf-adjacent mystery from Allan. The Good Neighbours would give a reader a good idea what to expect: an investigation that sees the world as we know it thrown off-kilter, but that is as punishing for the character as it is rewarding for the reader. An alienated woman investigator who becomes enamored of a person involved in her case. Case itself this time: a missing man, a conspiracy theory about alien infestation ("the conquest") whose signs are supposed to surround us.
I didn't love the ending, but it didn't detract from everything else, which was wonderful. Creepy, atmospheric, in conversation with the world around us, disorienting. I loved the integrated narratives - the essays, and in particular, the novella. And the story itself was compelling and surprising, with twists that rewarded focus and a simply wonderful voice.
I don't get how or why Allan isn't much more broadly read - she is gripping, accessible and yet never talks down to the reader. Highly recommended.
Another genre-defying sf-adjacent mystery from Allan. The Good Neighbours would give a reader a good idea what to expect: an investigation that sees the world as we know it thrown off-kilter, but that is as punishing for the character as it is rewarding for the reader. An alienated woman investigator who becomes enamored of a person involved in her case. Case itself this time: a missing man, a conspiracy theory about alien infestation ("the conquest") whose signs are supposed to surround us.
I didn't love the ending, but it didn't detract from everything else, which was wonderful. Creepy, atmospheric, in conversation with the world around us, disorienting. I loved the integrated narratives - the essays, and in particular, the novella. And the story itself was compelling and surprising, with twists that rewarded focus and a simply wonderful voice.
I don't get how or why Allan isn't much more broadly read - she is gripping, accessible and yet never talks down to the reader. Highly recommended.
September 9, 2025
A book about empty spaces, gaps that we impute meaning to as readers and as people. It’s patterened after a crime novel, the genre that circles obsessively around unknowns. If we don’t know the answer to the mystery, we can imagine it tells us everything—not just who did it or where the missing person is, but the key to character, morality, the modern world, life.
But in Allan’s world, as in ours, the answer itself doesn’t tell us much. Its power is in how we interpret it, as individuals, perhaps doomed never to agree with each other. She writes about conspiracy theorists here, but is sharp-eyed enough not to limit herself to the present day or to factual arguments. Both the detective and the victim are obsessed with Bach recordings, hypnotized by the deep well of interpretations each composition can produce, by the strange feel of his counterpoint as something discovered rather than invented, by how they hear the sacrality with their atheist ears.
There are metatextual layers too, invented texts within the text, from internet forum threads to a wonderful sci fi novellette, a dark haunting behind all stories of alien invasion and Randian progress.
I’m not sure how I feel about her characters as emotional beings or as traversers through a story. The generous person who loaned this book to me said he likes how kind she is to them, and I see that. She cares a lot about her characters’ difficulties and the painful traps they find themselves in; she doesn’t judge them for the terrible obsessions that determine the whole course of their lives. But there is an authorial cruelty to the denial of resolution, the permanence of their alienation. Maybe Allan doesn’t see a way out of our conflicting worldviews, our deep-seated patterns, our searching for answers in the wrong places. If that’s the case, I wish she hadn’t written an ending. The one we get is dissatisfying in a dissatisfying way, after a book that is dissatisfying in a beautifully satisfying way. Does that make sense?
Not so satisfied by her depiction of queerness. Her lesbian protagonist Robin isn’t all that different from the tragically heterosexual characters around her, or her emotional walls remain too high for us to see the difference. I don’t remember anyone commenting on anyone else’s sexuality, an odd choice given the book’s themes and its multiple plot points that would naturally bring those topics to the foreground. But she is a subtle writer, writing about gaps, so I might be missing her point.
Hm I was going to write a short review but writing ended up clearing some of my brain fog. Still, better quit while I’m ahead, even though there are more essays I could write. Strongly recommend this book if you’re the sort of person who writes long reviews and forgets that you could be sitting on the balcony in the sunshine. But I’ve remembered now, so I’m going to go have a date with Rakesfall.
But in Allan’s world, as in ours, the answer itself doesn’t tell us much. Its power is in how we interpret it, as individuals, perhaps doomed never to agree with each other. She writes about conspiracy theorists here, but is sharp-eyed enough not to limit herself to the present day or to factual arguments. Both the detective and the victim are obsessed with Bach recordings, hypnotized by the deep well of interpretations each composition can produce, by the strange feel of his counterpoint as something discovered rather than invented, by how they hear the sacrality with their atheist ears.
There are metatextual layers too, invented texts within the text, from internet forum threads to a wonderful sci fi novellette, a dark haunting behind all stories of alien invasion and Randian progress.
I’m not sure how I feel about her characters as emotional beings or as traversers through a story. The generous person who loaned this book to me said he likes how kind she is to them, and I see that. She cares a lot about her characters’ difficulties and the painful traps they find themselves in; she doesn’t judge them for the terrible obsessions that determine the whole course of their lives. But there is an authorial cruelty to the denial of resolution, the permanence of their alienation. Maybe Allan doesn’t see a way out of our conflicting worldviews, our deep-seated patterns, our searching for answers in the wrong places. If that’s the case, I wish she hadn’t written an ending. The one we get is dissatisfying in a dissatisfying way, after a book that is dissatisfying in a beautifully satisfying way. Does that make sense?
Not so satisfied by her depiction of queerness. Her lesbian protagonist Robin isn’t all that different from the tragically heterosexual characters around her, or her emotional walls remain too high for us to see the difference. I don’t remember anyone commenting on anyone else’s sexuality, an odd choice given the book’s themes and its multiple plot points that would naturally bring those topics to the foreground. But she is a subtle writer, writing about gaps, so I might be missing her point.
Hm I was going to write a short review but writing ended up clearing some of my brain fog. Still, better quit while I’m ahead, even though there are more essays I could write. Strongly recommend this book if you’re the sort of person who writes long reviews and forgets that you could be sitting on the balcony in the sunshine. But I’ve remembered now, so I’m going to go have a date with Rakesfall.
thank-u-next
May 15, 2024Hard pass. This was way too weird and way too “literary fiction” (and I mean this in the most derogatory sense possible, lol). I always talk so much shit about low quality romance, “commercial” fiction and thriller novels but then I come across something like this and I just wonder… who was this written for? What’s the point of this book? At least those other books have an audience and provide some entertainment…
May 26, 2023
I'm reviewing this for ParSec magazine so will return here and add that review once published. If there were half stars, this would be 3.5.
December 15, 2023
Very much enjoyed it. A missing person story in the conspiracy theory space. Makes you question whether things are really connected or whether it is a coincidence…
August 2, 2025
this was really engaging, highly recommend!! i’m not giving it 5 stars only because i thought the connection between the private investigator’s case and personal life was too far fetched and a stretch for me. but this was really engrossing and i loved it!
November 22, 2024
Allan’s writing has always been idiosyncratic, never straightforward. While skirting the borders of Science Fiction, though absolutely acknowledging the genre’s existence, often tipping over into Fantasy, there has usually been something that sets it apart. It has never quite been full-on SF. Perhaps this is as it should be. Her writing has all the qualities the reader of literary fiction would expect and any writer would want to broaden her possible readership. So much the better then if any Science-Fictional allusion can be taken as just that, or a manifestation of a character’s state of mind.
Such is the case here. Frank Landau imagines the Earth is engaged in an interstellar war and he is in training to be a supersoldier in that war. A friend of his is convinced that the next war will be fought against aliens, single-celled organisms and viral pathogens, biological contaminants that have been introduced into Earth’s eco-system without our realising. Which might already be here. Frank is also an enthusiast for music, especially of Bach. Indeed a fair bit of the book is given up to considerations of the merits of various recordings of differing, not necessarily classical, musical pieces – not a feature of your average SF novel it has to be said.
To give some flavour of these musings on music consider this, “I don’t think he (Bach) discovered tonality. I think tonality discovered him. Either that or he was given it. Tonality is like code – a complex programme that is all the more ingenious because it’s universally applicable. Everyone understands tonal counterpoint the moment they hear it. It’s as if the human brain is hard-wired to receive it.”
But the novel is more complicated than the above suggests. Of course it is. It’s by Nina Allan.
Frank may be the book’s driving force but the main narrative is actually concerned with Private Investigator Robin’s search for him after she is contracted to do so by his girl-friend Rachel Gabon when he disappears after meeting up in The Netherlands with a group known as LAvventura, a group whose obsession is The Tower, a 1950s SF novel as by John C Sylvester.
This book, no more than a novella really, is given us in its entirety as one of Conquest’s twelve sections, two others of which constitute a,) a review of The Tower by one Edmond De Groote, a LAvventura luminary, and b,) another review (by De Groote’s acquaintance, Jeanne-Marie Vanderlien,) of a concert at the Concertgebouw. Each of these is of course written in a different register to the rest of Conquest and each is entirely complete in itself. I note here that any dialogue in Conquest is not punctuated as such.
The plot of The Tower is important to Frank’s world view. In the future, Earth has won a gruelling war against an extraterrestrial civilisation. As a monument to human resilience and his own awesomeness, an egotistical billionaire plans to build an enormous residential tower out of a unique kind of rock mined from the alien homeworld. The rock is black and gives off a curious warmth. But what if it is also alive?
Which is fine - and arguably necessary to Allan’s creation. My problem with it is that it doesn’t actually read like a 1950s SF novella. But I suspect it’s not meant to.
LAvventura take The Tower to be an accurate prophecy of an actual forthcoming war among the stars. This is, of course, known to terrestrial governments, who have developed the secret supersoldier programme to deal with it and are probably quietly eliminating people who find out too much.
Robin’s search for Frank takes her to Scarborough to find out about a journalist who’d contacted Frank’s brother Michael about his disappearance but who died the day after the interview. There she discovers Edmund de Groote’s involvement with Frank.
There is a Scottish flavour to the book too. Ex-cop Robin’s memories of the speech of her former Chief Inspector Alec Dunbar, a man with a past to hide, and Robin’s trip to Tain, in Ross-shire, where the train’s journey through the landscape is described.
Robin has the perception that “my entire career has been focused on the dividing line between delusion and genius, which a lot of the time is barely a line at all,” and at one point begins “thinking about a story in which a private detective sets out to discover the truth behind the disappearance of a man who believes Earth stands on the brink of an interstellar war. I ask myself what might happen if the detective becomes convinced the war is real,” which prompts thoughts that maybe the book is about to disappear up its own fundament.
Then a late twist reveals Robin’s heretofore obscure and unsuspected parentage - this is perhaps another elaboration too far - before being presented with alternative endings.
Robin is an engaging protagonist and Conquest is an accomplished and exceedingly well-written book with many strings to its bow. But is it hedging its bets?
Such is the case here. Frank Landau imagines the Earth is engaged in an interstellar war and he is in training to be a supersoldier in that war. A friend of his is convinced that the next war will be fought against aliens, single-celled organisms and viral pathogens, biological contaminants that have been introduced into Earth’s eco-system without our realising. Which might already be here. Frank is also an enthusiast for music, especially of Bach. Indeed a fair bit of the book is given up to considerations of the merits of various recordings of differing, not necessarily classical, musical pieces – not a feature of your average SF novel it has to be said.
To give some flavour of these musings on music consider this, “I don’t think he (Bach) discovered tonality. I think tonality discovered him. Either that or he was given it. Tonality is like code – a complex programme that is all the more ingenious because it’s universally applicable. Everyone understands tonal counterpoint the moment they hear it. It’s as if the human brain is hard-wired to receive it.”
But the novel is more complicated than the above suggests. Of course it is. It’s by Nina Allan.
Frank may be the book’s driving force but the main narrative is actually concerned with Private Investigator Robin’s search for him after she is contracted to do so by his girl-friend Rachel Gabon when he disappears after meeting up in The Netherlands with a group known as LAvventura, a group whose obsession is The Tower, a 1950s SF novel as by John C Sylvester.
This book, no more than a novella really, is given us in its entirety as one of Conquest’s twelve sections, two others of which constitute a,) a review of The Tower by one Edmond De Groote, a LAvventura luminary, and b,) another review (by De Groote’s acquaintance, Jeanne-Marie Vanderlien,) of a concert at the Concertgebouw. Each of these is of course written in a different register to the rest of Conquest and each is entirely complete in itself. I note here that any dialogue in Conquest is not punctuated as such.
The plot of The Tower is important to Frank’s world view. In the future, Earth has won a gruelling war against an extraterrestrial civilisation. As a monument to human resilience and his own awesomeness, an egotistical billionaire plans to build an enormous residential tower out of a unique kind of rock mined from the alien homeworld. The rock is black and gives off a curious warmth. But what if it is also alive?
Which is fine - and arguably necessary to Allan’s creation. My problem with it is that it doesn’t actually read like a 1950s SF novella. But I suspect it’s not meant to.
LAvventura take The Tower to be an accurate prophecy of an actual forthcoming war among the stars. This is, of course, known to terrestrial governments, who have developed the secret supersoldier programme to deal with it and are probably quietly eliminating people who find out too much.
Robin’s search for Frank takes her to Scarborough to find out about a journalist who’d contacted Frank’s brother Michael about his disappearance but who died the day after the interview. There she discovers Edmund de Groote’s involvement with Frank.
There is a Scottish flavour to the book too. Ex-cop Robin’s memories of the speech of her former Chief Inspector Alec Dunbar, a man with a past to hide, and Robin’s trip to Tain, in Ross-shire, where the train’s journey through the landscape is described.
Robin has the perception that “my entire career has been focused on the dividing line between delusion and genius, which a lot of the time is barely a line at all,” and at one point begins “thinking about a story in which a private detective sets out to discover the truth behind the disappearance of a man who believes Earth stands on the brink of an interstellar war. I ask myself what might happen if the detective becomes convinced the war is real,” which prompts thoughts that maybe the book is about to disappear up its own fundament.
Then a late twist reveals Robin’s heretofore obscure and unsuspected parentage - this is perhaps another elaboration too far - before being presented with alternative endings.
Robin is an engaging protagonist and Conquest is an accomplished and exceedingly well-written book with many strings to its bow. But is it hedging its bets?
August 24, 2024
INCREDIBLE, didn’t think I’d like this but so engaging from the get go, amazing book to get you thinking
October 2, 2025
je mettrais 2,5 pour la moyenne parce-que je suis très mitigée. je pense que l’histoire était très bien mais le style d’écriture était trop lourd donc j’ai eu du mal à suivre tout ce qui se passait, les personnages et les métaphores et ce qui fait qu’à la fin bah j’ai pas forcément était passionnée par le livre
December 16, 2022
This is my third Nina Allan book after enjoying The Dollmaker and The Good Neighbour.
Conquest opens with Frank as a little boy, learning about the world and not quite fitting in, falling in love with Rachel and going down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, before we get to current day where Frank is missing.
I loved all the modern day sections - the relationship between Rachel and Robin, the private detective hired on the case. The story gets deeper into conspiracies, gang violence and old novels with secret meaning.
The “book within a book” trope is something I don’t enjoy and I think from the introduction of other texts and context onwards this book started to lose me, and I got a bit lost with all the different characters and threads and context.
I wish the ending had been developed a bit more and there had been a bit more focus on Frank after going missing, but overall an interesting and original read.
3.5 stars
Conquest opens with Frank as a little boy, learning about the world and not quite fitting in, falling in love with Rachel and going down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, before we get to current day where Frank is missing.
I loved all the modern day sections - the relationship between Rachel and Robin, the private detective hired on the case. The story gets deeper into conspiracies, gang violence and old novels with secret meaning.
The “book within a book” trope is something I don’t enjoy and I think from the introduction of other texts and context onwards this book started to lose me, and I got a bit lost with all the different characters and threads and context.
I wish the ending had been developed a bit more and there had been a bit more focus on Frank after going missing, but overall an interesting and original read.
3.5 stars
June 2, 2023
Found this a bit boring to be honest
Probably more literary than I tend to be interested in
Some interesting ideas but they didn’t really lead anywhere
As I say this is probably more my issue than the writers
Probably more literary than I tend to be interested in
Some interesting ideas but they didn’t really lead anywhere
As I say this is probably more my issue than the writers
May 7, 2025
I’m really not quite sure what I’ve just read. It’s the kind of book that feels too ‘high-brow’ for me. It’s written incredibly well, almost poetically, and the first few pages really drew me in with its sense of confusion and claustrophobia. But then, for me at least, it went off the rails. The central story is good but I am really struggling to see why on earth I had to read so many pages discussing Bach’s work and also the plot of a film I have no desire to see. I don’t see the connections with the central story, and that’s why it left me with the felling that this is a novel that is too ‘intelligent’ for me.
I’d definitely read The Tower, though. That was probably my favourite chapter.
I’d definitely read The Tower, though. That was probably my favourite chapter.
January 4, 2024
You know you're reading a Nina Allan book when (1) someone goes missing for an extended period of time, (2) the book you're reading gets interrupted in the middle by another, tangentially related book, and (3) there is critical commentary on the interrupting book in the framing story, although (4) it is implied that the framing story may be a fictional work written by one of the characters anyway. A meditation on music, movies, and conspiracy theories, Conquest is more a theme and variations than a story that comes to any particular conclusion, which is both its strength and its weakness as a book. I suspect this kind of narrative isn't for everyone, but it's like catnip for me.
March 22, 2024
Nina Allan continues her trend of using stories-within-a-story to illuminate her prose and provide a different angle on the tale she is telling. In this book, there is an excerpt of a key novel, and a supposed music review by one of the characters that is more of a personal meditation.
The first major character is Frank, a simple yet focused computer programmer who becomes involved in an online forum that purports to know a secret that threatens the world. The second character is his girlfriend Rachel, who doesn't believe those things but loves him for his simple and forthright nature. The plot hinges on Frank's journeying from England to Paris (his first trip off-island) to meet some people from the forum. Then he disappears for nine months.
Rachel eventually hires a private detective, an ex-cop named Robin, to find Frank. Robin has her own issues with her former mentor who was brilliant at solving crimes but a bully, leading her to leave the force.
These are the three main viewpoint characters, and we rotate among them while occasionally venturing into those sidebar stories. Frank indeed disappears from the narrative for some time, and we learn much more about Robin who may have been just the device to solve the crime, but in Nina Allan's hands is so much more and so integral to the story.
As in Allan's other work there is an element of doubt about what constitutes reality. Our assumption would be that there is a group of people working a conspiracy theory to rope in innocent victims, but be careful what you assume about an Allan novel. There is, however, one passage that highlights one of the themes of the book:
“The decline of religion and the rise of the secular society has led to the fragmentation of belief systems into a multitude of micro-faiths: spontaneous amalgamations of pseudoscience, cod philosophy and conspiracy theory that appear to tap into the same reservoirs of popular extremism, moral rectitude and abnegation of intellect as any of the more established religions and with a similar proliferation of factions and hierarchies. Conspiracy theories are the new religion.”
In our media-saturated world where the most outlandish of claims get the biggest voice, we can all probably relate to that. Nina Allan asks, what happens to the people who go down this road? Does it give them a happy and satisfying life? Is it acceptable for us to try to change their beliefs (while realizing that we have our own)?
Many of the characters are enamored of classical music, especially J.S. Bach, and there's a lot of discussion of the various recordings of those pieces. I'm not a classics fan so most of that was puzzling to me. But just because I didn't 'get it' doesn't mean it didn't have a purpose. In a Nina Allan book, there's little that's not for a purpose.
The first major character is Frank, a simple yet focused computer programmer who becomes involved in an online forum that purports to know a secret that threatens the world. The second character is his girlfriend Rachel, who doesn't believe those things but loves him for his simple and forthright nature. The plot hinges on Frank's journeying from England to Paris (his first trip off-island) to meet some people from the forum. Then he disappears for nine months.
Rachel eventually hires a private detective, an ex-cop named Robin, to find Frank. Robin has her own issues with her former mentor who was brilliant at solving crimes but a bully, leading her to leave the force.
These are the three main viewpoint characters, and we rotate among them while occasionally venturing into those sidebar stories. Frank indeed disappears from the narrative for some time, and we learn much more about Robin who may have been just the device to solve the crime, but in Nina Allan's hands is so much more and so integral to the story.
As in Allan's other work there is an element of doubt about what constitutes reality. Our assumption would be that there is a group of people working a conspiracy theory to rope in innocent victims, but be careful what you assume about an Allan novel. There is, however, one passage that highlights one of the themes of the book:
“The decline of religion and the rise of the secular society has led to the fragmentation of belief systems into a multitude of micro-faiths: spontaneous amalgamations of pseudoscience, cod philosophy and conspiracy theory that appear to tap into the same reservoirs of popular extremism, moral rectitude and abnegation of intellect as any of the more established religions and with a similar proliferation of factions and hierarchies. Conspiracy theories are the new religion.”
In our media-saturated world where the most outlandish of claims get the biggest voice, we can all probably relate to that. Nina Allan asks, what happens to the people who go down this road? Does it give them a happy and satisfying life? Is it acceptable for us to try to change their beliefs (while realizing that we have our own)?
Many of the characters are enamored of classical music, especially J.S. Bach, and there's a lot of discussion of the various recordings of those pieces. I'm not a classics fan so most of that was puzzling to me. But just because I didn't 'get it' doesn't mean it didn't have a purpose. In a Nina Allan book, there's little that's not for a purpose.
May 5, 2023
I read The Dollmaker a while back and really quite enjoyed it so I was quite excited to get my hands on this book. So, expectations were quite high and I am pleased to say that my expectations were well and truly met. Having read her as an author before I knew what I was likely getting myself into. A cracking story that does spur off at a tangent occasionally, but soon comes back to progress the narrative satisfactorily each time. Now, some might find this distracting. I did at first but, I found that dedicating a decent chunk of time to read the book overcame this small niggle.
So... Frank is a little different. He delights in things others find difficult. Like maths and coding and, interestingly enough, finds patterns in most things, especially music; specifically that of JS Bach. Pattern that develop into theories. His girlfriend Rachel fears for him and does her best to look out for him. Especially now that he appears to have found his place in an online forum of like-minded individuals. Which is OK, mostly, until he decided that he must up and meet them face-to-face. In Germany. So off he flies, and Rachel doesn't hear from him again. Increasing getting more and more concerned, the police being useless as Frank is an adult (they ignore the fact he is vulnerable) so she seeks help from Robin, a PI who, coincidentally is also obsessed by Bach.
And so begins a strange tale that also takes the reader through an strange tale from the 50s, but I think it's best you discover all that for yourself as the author intends.
I took to Frank instantly I met him. I do love a wounded soul, I think I have a saviour complex for characters! As with Rachel I worried for him. And that also took me closer to her, and subsequently also to Robin as she joined in the mission. Frank's obsession confused me at first but, as the book progressed, as more of the theories were exposed, I started to see the whole picture. And the story within the story, that of The Tower got me thinking too... There were also other snippets, essays, reviews peppered throughout to keep the reader on their toes.
As already mentioned, it was a little difficult to follow at times and I did get a wee bit bogged down in all the goings on and the characters. I did write a few notes for myself but doing that did take me out of the story a bit so, although it helped me follow, it didn't help me connect. That said, I was willing to put in the work for the reward the book eventually gave me.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.
So... Frank is a little different. He delights in things others find difficult. Like maths and coding and, interestingly enough, finds patterns in most things, especially music; specifically that of JS Bach. Pattern that develop into theories. His girlfriend Rachel fears for him and does her best to look out for him. Especially now that he appears to have found his place in an online forum of like-minded individuals. Which is OK, mostly, until he decided that he must up and meet them face-to-face. In Germany. So off he flies, and Rachel doesn't hear from him again. Increasing getting more and more concerned, the police being useless as Frank is an adult (they ignore the fact he is vulnerable) so she seeks help from Robin, a PI who, coincidentally is also obsessed by Bach.
And so begins a strange tale that also takes the reader through an strange tale from the 50s, but I think it's best you discover all that for yourself as the author intends.
I took to Frank instantly I met him. I do love a wounded soul, I think I have a saviour complex for characters! As with Rachel I worried for him. And that also took me closer to her, and subsequently also to Robin as she joined in the mission. Frank's obsession confused me at first but, as the book progressed, as more of the theories were exposed, I started to see the whole picture. And the story within the story, that of The Tower got me thinking too... There were also other snippets, essays, reviews peppered throughout to keep the reader on their toes.
As already mentioned, it was a little difficult to follow at times and I did get a wee bit bogged down in all the goings on and the characters. I did write a few notes for myself but doing that did take me out of the story a bit so, although it helped me follow, it didn't help me connect. That said, I was willing to put in the work for the reward the book eventually gave me.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.
Read
March 31, 2025This feels like the sort of thing that people who like Martin MacInnes would like, and indeed there’s a MacInnes quote on the front cover of the (totally beautiful, by the way) paperback edition I read. Frank Landau is a brilliant but vulnerable young man who disappears after travelling to France to meet with a group of people he knows through a conspiracy theory website. (He’s clearly autistic, but Allan never goes there.) His girlfriend, Rachel, hires private investigator Robin to find him. That barely scratches the surface of Conquest‘s brilliance and beauty, though. Its formal innovation includes chapters disguised as a cult ’50s short story, an essay on Shane Carruth’s 2013 film Upstream Colour, and a concert review; its thematic, or theoretical, innovation is to both evoke and evade the structures of genres like mystery novel, space invasion tale, and political thriller.
I think you could say it’s a novel not about faith but about belief, and specifically about what we believe has meaning. There are one too many coincidences in the plot, which seems exactly intentional—it’s of a piece with the paranoia that all of Allan’s main characters begin to feel, even if they sternly try to shake themselves out of it. There’s a great moment near the end of the book where Frank is speaking about Bach’s formal rigour, and he moves seamlessly from insightful to totally irrational within the space of a sentence. We’re perhaps poised to think that the visionary geek will ultimately be vindicated, but that moment is a real challenge to those expectations. Meanwhile, the cult ‘50s short story doesn’t read like ‘50s sci fi at all; there’s a tone to those Heinleinian/Campbellian tales that’s completely missing, and instead it feels far more 21st century in its concerns as well as in its style. Again, that doesn’t seem accidental. (Is it really from the ‘50s? Who was its author, John C. Sylvester, actually? Could it be a forgery, or a satire? What would the implications be for the conspiracy theorists who have organised their lives around a belief in the story’s truths?) I’m finding it very hard to talk about. I hate being so inarticulate about a book, but Conquest is the sort of thing that’ll come back to me weeks or months hence. Maybe it’s good that I lack the certainty to pronounce on it now, except to say that it’s a work of art. Source: local council library #loveyourlibrary
I think you could say it’s a novel not about faith but about belief, and specifically about what we believe has meaning. There are one too many coincidences in the plot, which seems exactly intentional—it’s of a piece with the paranoia that all of Allan’s main characters begin to feel, even if they sternly try to shake themselves out of it. There’s a great moment near the end of the book where Frank is speaking about Bach’s formal rigour, and he moves seamlessly from insightful to totally irrational within the space of a sentence. We’re perhaps poised to think that the visionary geek will ultimately be vindicated, but that moment is a real challenge to those expectations. Meanwhile, the cult ‘50s short story doesn’t read like ‘50s sci fi at all; there’s a tone to those Heinleinian/Campbellian tales that’s completely missing, and instead it feels far more 21st century in its concerns as well as in its style. Again, that doesn’t seem accidental. (Is it really from the ‘50s? Who was its author, John C. Sylvester, actually? Could it be a forgery, or a satire? What would the implications be for the conspiracy theorists who have organised their lives around a belief in the story’s truths?) I’m finding it very hard to talk about. I hate being so inarticulate about a book, but Conquest is the sort of thing that’ll come back to me weeks or months hence. Maybe it’s good that I lack the certainty to pronounce on it now, except to say that it’s a work of art. Source: local council library #loveyourlibrary
January 29, 2024
What is it about
Frank Landau is a software programmer obsessed with the theory that Earth is being invaded by aliens and that a secret group of humans are waging a secret war against them. When he disappears after the first face meeting with a group of fellow conspirators his girlfriend Rachel hires a private investigator called Robin to find him. During her investigation she finds evidence connecting Frank with London's criminal underworld that she was connected with when she worked in the police.
This book is not a thriller but a psychological / philosophical exploration of the notion of infection, conquest and our reaction to things that are novel and change us turning us into something else. This could be a virus, music, a new idea or a new person. This is explored through the main McGuffin (the alien invasion), interactions between characters and books and essays contributed by some of the suspects in Robin's investigation.
A key point seems to be that paranoia / conspiracy theories aren't anything new - through history people have resorted to them to explain complex patterns in reality including the seeming randomness with which new things emerge and transform the world.
What I liked
Wonderfully poetic writing
Incredible change in tone with almost each chapter from 1950s pulp to urban dystopia to kitchen sink dramas to trippy epiphanies to pretentious essays...
Evocative description of run-down UK / urban sprawl in general
Borges-esque combination of fiction, non-fiction and fiction that looks like non-fiction (and probably vice versa) creates a hypnotic effect - the book is a strange new thing conquering our reality!
Focus on Bach's music, which I have started listening nonstop since I read the book
What I didn't like
Very inconclusive ending
Some of the connections between Frank's disappearance and Robin's past felt too far fetched and unbelievable. Unclear if this was supposed to add to the feeling of conspiracy or to represent Robin's own delusion but they took me a bit out of the story.
Frank Landau is a software programmer obsessed with the theory that Earth is being invaded by aliens and that a secret group of humans are waging a secret war against them. When he disappears after the first face meeting with a group of fellow conspirators his girlfriend Rachel hires a private investigator called Robin to find him. During her investigation she finds evidence connecting Frank with London's criminal underworld that she was connected with when she worked in the police.
This book is not a thriller but a psychological / philosophical exploration of the notion of infection, conquest and our reaction to things that are novel and change us turning us into something else. This could be a virus, music, a new idea or a new person. This is explored through the main McGuffin (the alien invasion), interactions between characters and books and essays contributed by some of the suspects in Robin's investigation.
A key point seems to be that paranoia / conspiracy theories aren't anything new - through history people have resorted to them to explain complex patterns in reality including the seeming randomness with which new things emerge and transform the world.
What I liked
Wonderfully poetic writing
Incredible change in tone with almost each chapter from 1950s pulp to urban dystopia to kitchen sink dramas to trippy epiphanies to pretentious essays...
Evocative description of run-down UK / urban sprawl in general
Borges-esque combination of fiction, non-fiction and fiction that looks like non-fiction (and probably vice versa) creates a hypnotic effect - the book is a strange new thing conquering our reality!
Focus on Bach's music, which I have started listening nonstop since I read the book
What I didn't like
Very inconclusive ending
Some of the connections between Frank's disappearance and Robin's past felt too far fetched and unbelievable. Unclear if this was supposed to add to the feeling of conspiracy or to represent Robin's own delusion but they took me a bit out of the story.
August 27, 2023
3.5*
A fascinating genre-defying read, part detective fiction, part speculative sci-fi, part literary fiction. A collection of beautifully drawn characters holds together the experimental narrative, as the author dives down several side roads to muse esoterically on Bach (at length), David Bowie, Solaris, classical music, an experimental sci-fi movie, and even the wonderful Roadside Picnic.
This reminded me conceptually a lot of The Passenger, which also opens as a very intriguing conspiracy theory and then diverts into philosophical reflections. The difference with Conquest is that Allan does a far better job of wrapping her meditations on Bach and Bowie into her overall exploration of a sinister alien invasion and the nuanced influence of conspiracy theories on modern society, while never losing sight of the importance of her characters.
As much as I found the main plot very intriguing, I found the inclusion of the fictitious vintage sci-fi novella The Tower a distraction that took me out of the overall story, but I suspect that is more on me for not fully grasping the purpose of this juxtaposed narrative voice.
Overall a very interesting page-turning read, but I found myself admiring the author's remarkable balancing act of intertwining a number of challenging concepts, more so than loving the story. A book I would very much like to revisit when I become clever enough to properly appreciate it.
A fascinating genre-defying read, part detective fiction, part speculative sci-fi, part literary fiction. A collection of beautifully drawn characters holds together the experimental narrative, as the author dives down several side roads to muse esoterically on Bach (at length), David Bowie, Solaris, classical music, an experimental sci-fi movie, and even the wonderful Roadside Picnic.
This reminded me conceptually a lot of The Passenger, which also opens as a very intriguing conspiracy theory and then diverts into philosophical reflections. The difference with Conquest is that Allan does a far better job of wrapping her meditations on Bach and Bowie into her overall exploration of a sinister alien invasion and the nuanced influence of conspiracy theories on modern society, while never losing sight of the importance of her characters.
As much as I found the main plot very intriguing, I found the inclusion of the fictitious vintage sci-fi novella The Tower a distraction that took me out of the overall story, but I suspect that is more on me for not fully grasping the purpose of this juxtaposed narrative voice.
Overall a very interesting page-turning read, but I found myself admiring the author's remarkable balancing act of intertwining a number of challenging concepts, more so than loving the story. A book I would very much like to revisit when I become clever enough to properly appreciate it.
February 4, 2025
"If they are among us already what am I running from?
If the worst thing has already happened why am I afraid?"
.
"Conquest" by Nina Allan is telling us about Frank. Frank is a strange man: he loves classical music, coding, his girlfriend Rachel and spending time on online forums about aliens. One day, Frank went to meet his internet friends and disappeared. Rachel therefore hires a private detective to look for him.
.
This novel was a huge style change from the previous one. It took me some time to realise that the style was a reflection of the inner monologues of the characters it focuses on. While it is interesting from an analytical point of view, it makes the book very very hard to read, having very long sentences with barely any punctuation, and a very complicated lexical.
Furthermore the story line is interrupted to give us excerpts of texts written by protagonists, which are very very long and honestly, not that interesting.
Adds the fact that this novel is also filled with musical and art references you better look up in case it's important, you get a very indigestible book I am not even sure the subject of is...
I gave up at 67%, after having hold on for a while solely on "you're halfway there, you can do it!" Motivation thoughts, because I didn't see how the author was possibly gonna wrap this up in so little time left, while literally nothing had happened the whole time I read it! Fear came over me that this novel might be...gloups... The first tome of a serie, and that finishing it would not even give me the satisfaction to find out what happened to Frank.
I will not recommend it at all, unless you like pretentious writing without story!
If the worst thing has already happened why am I afraid?"
.
"Conquest" by Nina Allan is telling us about Frank. Frank is a strange man: he loves classical music, coding, his girlfriend Rachel and spending time on online forums about aliens. One day, Frank went to meet his internet friends and disappeared. Rachel therefore hires a private detective to look for him.
.
This novel was a huge style change from the previous one. It took me some time to realise that the style was a reflection of the inner monologues of the characters it focuses on. While it is interesting from an analytical point of view, it makes the book very very hard to read, having very long sentences with barely any punctuation, and a very complicated lexical.
Furthermore the story line is interrupted to give us excerpts of texts written by protagonists, which are very very long and honestly, not that interesting.
Adds the fact that this novel is also filled with musical and art references you better look up in case it's important, you get a very indigestible book I am not even sure the subject of is...
I gave up at 67%, after having hold on for a while solely on "you're halfway there, you can do it!" Motivation thoughts, because I didn't see how the author was possibly gonna wrap this up in so little time left, while literally nothing had happened the whole time I read it! Fear came over me that this novel might be...gloups... The first tome of a serie, and that finishing it would not even give me the satisfaction to find out what happened to Frank.
I will not recommend it at all, unless you like pretentious writing without story!
August 1, 2024
I am a fan of Nina Allan's books and hugely enjoyed 'Conquest'. It's beguilingly multifaceted. Her prose is, as always, clear and accessible. I don't really know why she isn't more well known. Ease of reading isn't an issue but maybe the descriptions of her books make them sound more 'difficult' than they actually are.
An easy 5 stars from me. Of course, the Goodreads rating system is by definition entirely subjective, and when you add in the inevitable fact that each user will have their own interpretation of those stars and what they and other reviewers mean by them you probably have ratings that don't really mean much at all. The dangers of large scale ratings! My five stars is definitely enjoyment based. Would it be 5 if I were only scoring for quality? Quite possibly. I do have a quibble about the book. At its heart is a novella within the book that purports to have been written in the 50s. And, regretfully, I just don't buy it. It works as a piece of short fiction on its own and for what it does to link the story and characters but I couldn't believe it as a genuine piece of sci-fi from the 50s. In fact some of the terminology felt so anachronistic (and there was at least one thing mentioned that didn't exist in the 50s) that I wonder if it wasn't deliberate. One of the characters does subsequently says how prescient the story is. Allan's use of language is generally so precise that I'd like to believe that.
I'll leave my other quibbles about Robin's approach to travelling round the area of East London that she is lives in for another time!
An easy 5 stars from me. Of course, the Goodreads rating system is by definition entirely subjective, and when you add in the inevitable fact that each user will have their own interpretation of those stars and what they and other reviewers mean by them you probably have ratings that don't really mean much at all. The dangers of large scale ratings! My five stars is definitely enjoyment based. Would it be 5 if I were only scoring for quality? Quite possibly. I do have a quibble about the book. At its heart is a novella within the book that purports to have been written in the 50s. And, regretfully, I just don't buy it. It works as a piece of short fiction on its own and for what it does to link the story and characters but I couldn't believe it as a genuine piece of sci-fi from the 50s. In fact some of the terminology felt so anachronistic (and there was at least one thing mentioned that didn't exist in the 50s) that I wonder if it wasn't deliberate. One of the characters does subsequently says how prescient the story is. Allan's use of language is generally so precise that I'd like to believe that.
I'll leave my other quibbles about Robin's approach to travelling round the area of East London that she is lives in for another time!
January 5, 2024
A beautiful meander of a novel. Conquest wanders through lovingly described Scottish countryside while musing on conspiracy and music. Everything here it tinged with uncertainty, even the ending, for which two different options are presented; still, all of the writing feels deeply attuned to the mystery that lies like an aquifer below our daily humdrum routine. The characters find themselves led from one spring to another where the sublime bubbles up in flashes of music and art.
Nina Allan is wonderful at writing about music and I found myself needing to take regular breaks from reading to listen to the pieces she writes about: the Goldberg Variations, contemporary Russian chamber music, a Bach cantata... And throughout the book are stunning sentences that regularly took me by surprise.
I'm looking forward to revisiting this one next time I'm in the mood to slow down, get lost, and marvel.
Nina Allan is wonderful at writing about music and I found myself needing to take regular breaks from reading to listen to the pieces she writes about: the Goldberg Variations, contemporary Russian chamber music, a Bach cantata... And throughout the book are stunning sentences that regularly took me by surprise.
Robin feels the seismic thrum of the mountains, shouldering themselves free of the Earth, the train, her gaze, of everything human, a company of gods rising and waking in an alien land.
What is left is like a fossil, etched with the method, the instructions for building a planet: the skies, the burned-out galaxies, the great kaleidoscope of memory, of cleaving, of shift.
I'm looking forward to revisiting this one next time I'm in the mood to slow down, get lost, and marvel.
January 31, 2024
I think this is well written. I’m not clever enough to know definitely but it has a polish of literary fiction that is difficult to avoid.
That being said the apparently cult novella within feels slight and lacking in sufficient gravity to explain its cult status - a rock that feeds on hubris and meets someone with a surfeit. Kind of potentially interesting.
The rock’s purpose, ecology or ultimate intent beyond metaphorical nemesis is not clear or hinted at; it’s just the rock upon which the anti-hero founders.
Being a fan of the odd cultish book I’m not staying up for this one
The rest of the story, essays and meditations on Bach are interesting but not particularly enlightening.
Nothing said made me want to revisit or discover different interpretations of specific pieces of Bach. The descriptions of playing styles and approach to a concerto or piece became a bit samey and over focussed on physicality. Most of the explanations would probably work for a body building contest.
The story itself is potentially interesting but spends a long time hinting at something wicked this way comes only to suggest, somewhat faintly, that the end of days will be a slightly prosaic vegetarian take-over - although why any alien would want our slightly trashed planet is slightly beyond me unless they are a secret plastic, Teflon, carbon monoxide based race….?!
That being said the apparently cult novella within feels slight and lacking in sufficient gravity to explain its cult status - a rock that feeds on hubris and meets someone with a surfeit. Kind of potentially interesting.
The rock’s purpose, ecology or ultimate intent beyond metaphorical nemesis is not clear or hinted at; it’s just the rock upon which the anti-hero founders.
Being a fan of the odd cultish book I’m not staying up for this one
The rest of the story, essays and meditations on Bach are interesting but not particularly enlightening.
Nothing said made me want to revisit or discover different interpretations of specific pieces of Bach. The descriptions of playing styles and approach to a concerto or piece became a bit samey and over focussed on physicality. Most of the explanations would probably work for a body building contest.
The story itself is potentially interesting but spends a long time hinting at something wicked this way comes only to suggest, somewhat faintly, that the end of days will be a slightly prosaic vegetarian take-over - although why any alien would want our slightly trashed planet is slightly beyond me unless they are a secret plastic, Teflon, carbon monoxide based race….?!
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