"An astonishing literary crossover novel about the pressures of growing up and the nature of authorship. In January 2314, Rowena Savalas - a curator of the vast archive of the twenty-first century's primitive internet - stumbles upon a story posted in the summer of 2024. She's quickly drawn into the mystery of the text: Is it autobiography, fantasy or fraud? What's the significance of the recurring number 381? In the story, the protagonist Fairly walks the Horned Road - a quest undertaken by youngsters in her village when ...
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"An astonishing literary crossover novel about the pressures of growing up and the nature of authorship. In January 2314, Rowena Savalas - a curator of the vast archive of the twenty-first century's primitive internet - stumbles upon a story posted in the summer of 2024. She's quickly drawn into the mystery of the text: Is it autobiography, fantasy or fraud? What's the significance of the recurring number 381? In the story, the protagonist Fairly walks the Horned Road - a quest undertaken by youngsters in her village when they come of age. She is followed by the "breathing man," a looming presence, dogging her heels every step of the way. Everything she was taught about her world is overturned. Following Fairl's quest, Rowena comes to question her own choices, and a predictable life of curation becomes one of exploration, adventure and love. As both women's stories draw to a close, she realises it doesn't matter whether the story is true or not: as with the quest itself, it's the journey that matters."--
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Add this copy of Three Eight One to cart. $18.76, new condition, Sold by GreatBookPrices rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Columbia, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2024 by Solaris.
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New. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
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Fine. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 272 p. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
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Add this copy of Three Eight One to cart. $20.71, new condition, Sold by Ambis Enterprises LLC rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Benton Harbor, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2024 by Solaris.
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New. Brand New! Not Overstocks or Low Quality Book Club Editions! Direct From the Publisher! We're a small town bookstore that loves books and loves it's customers! Buy from US! Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket.
Three Eight One is an interesting premise; a curator from 300 years in the future becomes obsessed with a story from 2024 and is drawn into its mysteries - but is it fact or fiction?
Most of this book focuses on the story that is being told about Fairly and her quest on the Horned Road, with asides and comments from the historian written in footnotes. Thankfully these are clickable in the Kindle edition which makes them easy to read but I'm not sure how well they'd work in a print version -you'd either have to spend a lot of time flicking backwards and forwards (there are 85 of them in total), or they must take up a lot of room at the bottom of each page. I personally found these just ended up breaking up the flow of the narrative and I found myself getting annoyed at them - particularly as I got more engaged in the fantasy story.
I really liked the idea of a future historian reading a text from present day and trying to piece things together, but I think it was a real shame and a missed opportunity that the novel the author chose to write was a straight fantasy. There is nothing in Fairly's story that mirrors or parallels real life and so I found myself caring very little about what the historian thought of any of it. If there had been references to life now, or asides where she misunderstood certain things or had incorrect information, it could have been quite a fun read, but I found the footnotes to be increasingly irritating.
The fantasy story itself was an ok read, however it's very fractured and I struggled to picture or understand a lot of what was being written about. I didn't understand the Breathing Man or the Cha or the fact that everyone didn't seem to mind that certain people just went on quests. The chain machines that were sometimes buttons and sometimes phones also made little sense. I think there could have been a stronger or darker reveal about what the quest really was, and after the reveal the rest of the story just got confusing. I didn't really feel like we got to know Fairly as a character either, she made some odd choices and took quite a lot of side tangents on her quest.
Overall, I found Three Eight One to be a bit of a mess, the fantasy element of the story took away from the historian narrative, and the story itself was muddled and frustrating. Thank you to NetGalley & Rebellion - Solaris for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
