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The Great Wheel
Living on the Borderer town in what had once been northern Africa, Father John, a priest who has lost his faith but continues to help and befriend the people he encounters, investigates a cluster of myeloid leukemia deaths, falls in love, and struggles to make peace with the pain of loss. A first novel.
458 pages, Hardcover
First published August 15, 1997
10 people are currently reading
150 people want to read
About the author
Ian R. MacLeod
174 books127 followersIan R. MacLeod is the acclaimed writer of challenging and innovative speculative and fantastic fiction. His most recent novel, Wake Up and Dream, won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, while his previous works have won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and the World Fantasy Award, and have been translated into many languages. His short story, “Snodgrass,” was developed for television in the United Kingdom as part of the Sky Arts series Playhouse Presents. MacLeod grew up in the West Midlands region of England, studied law, and spent time working and dreaming in the civil service before moving on to teaching and house-husbandry. He lives with his wife in the riverside town of Bewdley.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 22, 2008
Macleod’s pretty much ignored first novel is a slow, somber, and yet achingly beautiful book. This is a science fiction book with more than a couple hints of Graham Greene and Paul Bowles. A strange utopian Europe almost cured of all disease with Africa caste as an equally bizarre dystopia called the Endless City. Details slowly build up and reveal Macleod’s vision in full: of kelp oceans, radioactive valleys of the dead, controlled weather systems, and an almost fully computerized humanity (in Europe). But the scientific wonders and gadgets are not what this one is about, but a very literate and melancholy character study of Father John, a catholic priest on mission in the neo-colonial Africa, his tragic romance, and his dealings with his family (including a brother in a coma). While fans of the trumped up adventure fiction that a lot of sci-fi is may be bored, as while there is a quest involved ( and a harrowing journey to the valley of death) its more of macguffin, as character and atmosphere are the emphasis. It really is the best of both worlds, the speculation on environment and technology that is at the heart of Sci-fi and the look at the inner self so important to so-called literature.
March 24, 2022
A priest struggling with his faith must find the source of a radiation sickness affecting the people in his parish.
MacLeod writes well and the story is age old and profoundly simple. The question he asks is how can those who come from paradise understand the purgatory in which they serve? However, throughout the novel, we see that Father John's home life is in many ways far from perfect.
MacLeod writes well and the story is age old and profoundly simple. The question he asks is how can those who come from paradise understand the purgatory in which they serve? However, throughout the novel, we see that Father John's home life is in many ways far from perfect.
March 22, 2025
The Great Wheel is a literary work, concentrating on Father John's internal struggle with his faith and with his role on his one-year mission to the Endless City, the sprawling slum of climate refugees that borders privileged Europe.
This isn't a YA novel where the protagonist defeats the corrupt system. It is a much more realistic novel and that is where its power lies. There are no easy solutions; there is no hero, god or miraculous technology that will save the day.
It is a struggle just to find inner peace between your own inner demons and the harsh realities of the world.
This isn't a YA novel where the protagonist defeats the corrupt system. It is a much more realistic novel and that is where its power lies. There are no easy solutions; there is no hero, god or miraculous technology that will save the day.
It is a struggle just to find inner peace between your own inner demons and the harsh realities of the world.
June 29, 2020
so glad I had already read this author's Song of Time before I started this book. Only 2 stars because the dystopian world of this tale and what happens with its characters left me feeling extremely sad. Just started a book f his short stories and am enjoying it more.
November 14, 2017
Long and depressing
Well written and atmopheric this is a dystopia set in the middle east of the foture. Could have benefitted from some pruning.
Well written and atmopheric this is a dystopia set in the middle east of the foture. Could have benefitted from some pruning.
April 12, 2021
This review is from my second reading of The Great Wheel, the rating is the same both times: I gave it 5 stars back in 2013, and I'm happy to be able to leave that unchanged on a second reading following the turn of the year into 2021.
Set in a future where hinted nuclear war and other calamities have rendered much of Africa and other parts of the world uninhabitable, the main character is Father John, an English priest who works in the Endless City - a sprawl along the North African coast packed with refugees from further south. Europeans live with a special implant which prevents illness, but the African 'Borderers' have no such technology and still suffer from sicknesses. Europeans have to wear gloves and avoid contact so as not to spread illnesses to them.
While the story follows Father John as he attempts to discover the source of so much myeloid leukemia in the Borderers who use his church run clinic, that isn't really what the story is about. To my mind at least, it's about John's faith, in people or life itself. He doesn't truly believe in God anymore, and the world often seems apathetic or even hostile to his attempts to improve things. His life in the Endless City contrasts with his memories of childhood in an idyllic England with an older brother he idolized.
I don't want to go into more details on the story, but I found the atmosphere and descriptions of the book really pulled me in and didn't let go. The places and institutions are brilliantly realized. The people stick less in my head - in part because so much happens that we don't get to spend too much time with any given characters, and I think also in part because I'm personally less interested in people than the world they inhabit, so your mileage may vary on that. I'm certainly not trying to say the characters are flat or uninteresting.
The book has a melancholy mood to it in my opinion, which appeals to something deep in me. Father John's attitude is melancholy, but he has determination to keep going and I guess an underlying belief that things can be better. As life goes on in the Endless City despite privation and well-meaning disregard from Europe, so life goes on everywhere. Particularly with the world and Covid as it is, I find that - and the book overall - comforting. Comforting in a way that encourages you to think that things are possible, rather than the numbing comfort of being told not to worry yourself or hiding away from the negative things of life. I hope I'll read it again in less than seven years time.
Set in a future where hinted nuclear war and other calamities have rendered much of Africa and other parts of the world uninhabitable, the main character is Father John, an English priest who works in the Endless City - a sprawl along the North African coast packed with refugees from further south. Europeans live with a special implant which prevents illness, but the African 'Borderers' have no such technology and still suffer from sicknesses. Europeans have to wear gloves and avoid contact so as not to spread illnesses to them.
While the story follows Father John as he attempts to discover the source of so much myeloid leukemia in the Borderers who use his church run clinic, that isn't really what the story is about. To my mind at least, it's about John's faith, in people or life itself. He doesn't truly believe in God anymore, and the world often seems apathetic or even hostile to his attempts to improve things. His life in the Endless City contrasts with his memories of childhood in an idyllic England with an older brother he idolized.
I don't want to go into more details on the story, but I found the atmosphere and descriptions of the book really pulled me in and didn't let go. The places and institutions are brilliantly realized. The people stick less in my head - in part because so much happens that we don't get to spend too much time with any given characters, and I think also in part because I'm personally less interested in people than the world they inhabit, so your mileage may vary on that. I'm certainly not trying to say the characters are flat or uninteresting.
The book has a melancholy mood to it in my opinion, which appeals to something deep in me. Father John's attitude is melancholy, but he has determination to keep going and I guess an underlying belief that things can be better. As life goes on in the Endless City despite privation and well-meaning disregard from Europe, so life goes on everywhere. Particularly with the world and Covid as it is, I find that - and the book overall - comforting. Comforting in a way that encourages you to think that things are possible, rather than the numbing comfort of being told not to worry yourself or hiding away from the negative things of life. I hope I'll read it again in less than seven years time.
October 25, 2016
I love Ian R MacLeod's writing, so what can I say in a review? Because I wouldn't even care what the story is. The mood of the story stays with me, the places seem real until I shake myself and remember he only made them up. This is some of the best science fiction around. I like a good action-packed space opera too, but when a writer creates a world, and a situation in that world, and then plunks down characters that could be me or you, I love that. This is what MacLeod does.
For example in a short story of his I read years ago, I pictured him sitting around imagining, let's see what if a species were like us in every way, except for one thing: they have three sexes. Now take a couple of teens in love who want to run away and buck the system. Let's see what happens to them. And you have an amazing, perfect short story, a wistful coming-of-age story you can never forget. Except it has this crazy twist. That was Grownups, a Tiptree finalist in 1993.
That is how I pictured him crafting The Great Wheel. I didn't like everything in it. It's philosophical, but that also gives it incredible depth, and the character development is not sacrificed for that. There's a big political message too. But I know that is not what I will remember about it. I will remember the relationship between the two brothers and that amazing Endless City that I'm pretty sure I've walked in in the course of my travels.
For example in a short story of his I read years ago, I pictured him sitting around imagining, let's see what if a species were like us in every way, except for one thing: they have three sexes. Now take a couple of teens in love who want to run away and buck the system. Let's see what happens to them. And you have an amazing, perfect short story, a wistful coming-of-age story you can never forget. Except it has this crazy twist. That was Grownups, a Tiptree finalist in 1993.
That is how I pictured him crafting The Great Wheel. I didn't like everything in it. It's philosophical, but that also gives it incredible depth, and the character development is not sacrificed for that. There's a big political message too. But I know that is not what I will remember about it. I will remember the relationship between the two brothers and that amazing Endless City that I'm pretty sure I've walked in in the course of my travels.
August 17, 2015
According to my handy dandy Kindle listening app I gave up on that at the 28% complete mark. It was disappointing because I've had a hardcover of this book for ages and kept trying to get to it. I was super excited to see it on audio in the free amazon-prime-bundle-thingy. The world building was very nice, it just needed characters and some plot. I'm sure there was a plot coming eventually (I hope) but if it's not there by 28% and if at that point I don't really care about the characters either it's time to move on.
Didn't work for me but if you're into talking about diseases a lot and enjoy alternate history, missionaries in foreign lands working with "savages" and have the patience/time to wait for the plot then go for it..
Didn't work for me but if you're into talking about diseases a lot and enjoy alternate history, missionaries in foreign lands working with "savages" and have the patience/time to wait for the plot then go for it..
January 15, 2015
I've loved some of his other books, but I found the main character unsympathetic. Stragely, I enjoyed the book more as a went on - McLeod's talent is undeniable, and his world-building superb - making up for the unevenness of this, his first novel.
October 24, 2013
Depressing and sort of boring.
gave-up
July 13, 2016Despaired of the story ever starting.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews