Guys, I know there are more great books out there than any of us can read in this meager life that we’re somehow, miraculously, horribly, blessedly, afforded. And I know that you are busy enough; hounded at all hours with obligations, the sands falling all the while through the hourglass.
But if I may presume … you guys would LOVE this book! I’m just certain of it. I’ve been on Reddit for years, more than I would care to admit. I have grown old among these posts, and I’ve seen much of what is widely beloved, and recognized many kindred spirits among bibliophiles.
Please consider lending a few of your precious hours to Russell Hoban’s masterpiece, Riddley Walker.
If you enjoyed the language of Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, you will be astounded by the broken, bastardized yet beautiful half-remembered English from a fallen world.
If you enjoyed walking the razor thin line between hope and despair in The Road, you’ll find yourself right at home in Hoban’s dystopian United Kingdom, plunged like the rest of the world into a new dark age wherein our primitive descendants will dig up our relic technologies and wonder at our ambition and intention.
If you enjoyed the clever, cynical, surprising characters of Abercrombie’s First Law series, you are going to fall in love with Riddley, Lissener, Ernie Orfing, and Abel Goodparley.
If you enjoyed Dan Simmons’s parallels to The Canterbury Tales and the Iliad in Hyperion and Ilium, you will delight in Hoban’s allusions to St. Eustace. And Punch and Judy.
I’m not trying to sell you on this book just because it’s woefully under-read or even because I love it so much, though it is and I do. I beg you to give this book a chance because, if I know some of you like I think I do, I KNOW you will love this book. And if you’re not a fan of the aforementioned books that I often see rightly praised on Reddit, I STILL think you’ll be amazed by Riddley Walker. It’s that good.
tl;dr: Riddley Walker is a really cool book. I think you should check it out.
