A Superior Spectre

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Pub Date 01 Aug 2018 | Archive Date 31 Jul 2018

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Description

Jeff is dying. Haunted by memories and grappling with the shame of his desires, he runs away to remote Scotland with a piece of experimental tech that allows him to enter the mind of someone in the past. Instructed to only use it three times, Jeff – self-indulgent, isolated and deteriorating – ignores this advice.
 
In the late 1860s, Leonora lives a contented life in the Scottish Highlands, surrounded by nature, her hands and mind kept busy. Contemplating her future and the social conventions that bind her, a secret romantic friendship with the local laird is interrupted when her father sends her to stay with her aunt in Edinburgh – an intimidating, sooty city; the place where her mother perished.
 
But Leonora’s ability to embrace her new life is shadowed by a dark presence that begins to lurk behind her eyes, and strange visions that bear no resemblance to anything she has ever seen or known…
 
A Superior Spectre is a highly accomplished debut novel about our capacity for curiosity, and our dangerous entitlement to it, and reminds us the scariest ghosts aren’t those that go bump in the night, but those that are born and create a place for themselves in the human soul.  
           
 

Jeff is dying. Haunted by memories and grappling with the shame of his desires, he runs away to remote Scotland with a piece of experimental tech that allows him to enter the mind of someone in the...


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ISBN 9781925183917
PRICE A$29.99 (AUD)

Average rating from 39 members


Featured Reviews

A Superior Spectre captivated me right from the first page. It is a fascinating study of human nature and what makes up our sense of self. It also considers personal responsibility when our actions impact on the lives of others. This was a real page-turner that kept me on the edge of my seat, wanting to know what would happen next and how things would work out. Although there is a sci-fi element to the tale, this work sits firmly on the literary fiction shelf. It offers both an exciting, interesting plot and a deep, thought-provoking premise. I would recommend it to readers looking for a read that poses questions while also entertaining. I would definitely read more from Meyer in the future as her prose still was simple yet engaging, her pacing excellent, and her characters beautifully formed.

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Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for a free copy of this remarkable book.

Jeff lives in an alternative present, or perhaps a near future, creepily reminiscent of Margaret Atwood, with a touch of J D Robb’s mid-21st Century urban life and the television series “Humans” where androids help us out at home, the state has too much control over our lives and health and technology has merged with the human body. He has a “tab” which allows him to enter the mind of a historical person for a time.

Leonora is a young Scottish woman who lives in the highlands in the 1860s. She lives with her father, her mother having died when Leonora was very young, and helps out with the animals on the farms on the Laird’s land. Her life is simple and she is happy, until things start to change, and she is sent to live with her aunt in Edinburgh. There, her life spirals out of control.

This is a beautifully written novel. The language is lyrical and atmospheric, but often frank and sometimes confronting. This is a warts-and-all account of Jeff and Leonora’s lives and the societies they live in. I could barely put this novel down and enjoyed the fast-paced action as well as the quiet, contemplative moments. The author has a special ability to set a scene and evoke the atmosphere her characters are experiencing.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and look forward to reading the author’s future work.

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When books are sold as being like a well known or well-loved book that you've already read, I'm always a little sceptical. A Superior Spectre was described on the NetGalley email, encouraging me to request it, as being similar to A Handmaid's Tale. I have to say, that although this is set in a dystopian future, it isn't really like it in any way. If it were like any of Atwood's frightening glimpses of a possible future, then it reminded me of the world the Oryx and Crake trilogy or The Heart Goes Last. Really, comparisons are pointless, this is a great read in its own right.

The book is really two stories, that are linked by technology that allows the futuristic Jeff to see into the mind of Leonora, a young Scottish girl from the 1800's. Jeff is dying and uses these journeys into Leonora's mind as a form of escape. The more he joins with her though, the more that his thoughts begin to break into her conscious and life. While Jeff battles his own demons and illness, Leonora struggles to find her place in life and questions her sanity. More than once I couldn't help but wonder if Jeff was a figment of Leonora's imagination, or that perhaps Leonora was a figment of Jeffs.

This is an interesting and engaging read. I wanted to follow the paths of both of the main characters and find out what would happen to them. It is in some ways a book with a science fiction setting, but to describe it as such really sells it short. The tech that allows this all to happen, isn't really the point, but it is about the two main characters and how they deal with their lives and situations.

A Superior Spectre is a fantastic read and I found it gripping from the beginning. I found myself involved in the storyline and just couldn't put it down.

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“The historical richness of Outlander meets the dystopian feminism of Margaret Atwood in this highly accomplished book from the most exciting debut novelist of 2018 – Angela Meyer.”

The first thing I want to say about A Superior Spectre is this: do not go into this novel thinking it is anything at all like Outlander. It's not. It's a curious blend of science fiction and historical fiction, the resulting story presenting as a cautionary tale with gothic leanings about the perils of greed and power alongside the misuse of science. It's startlingly clever yet intensely discomforting and it should possibly come with a content warning as it has the potential to upset some readers.

Jeff is the most vile creature I have ever come across in a novel. His self flagellation did nothing to balance out the perversion of his desires, it just made him even more contemptible. He is given a device which enables him to indulge in a digitised neural experience (DNE), a futuristic invention akin to time travel for your mind. Yet, because he is dying, he doesn't follow the instructions and overuses it to the point where he has invaded the mind of a young Scottish woman living in the late 1860s, whose connection to him slowly sends her mad. Jeff’s entire life has been about him, every step of the way, so it stands to reason that he will die that way: self absorbed and self indulgent. He disgusted me and once his ‘desires' became apparent, I will admit to distancing myself from his sections. And yet, Jeff's sections were quite an accomplishment for the author. When you have a character who is so repulsive, reader instinct is to turn away. I felt like Jeff was trying to make us feel for him, while at the same time, the author was giving us every reason not to. It was an interesting dynamic.

With Leonora, I was fully invested in her journey. These historical sections were so steeped in atmosphere and authenticity. There was a gothic element to the setting and the sense of Victorian restraint was ever present. To me, there was a Dracula kind of feel to this part of the story, with Leonora's mind being inexplicably invaded while her body became infused with sensation and desire. I liked this blend of the gothic historical with science fiction. It was so unique and provided a solid canvas for the author to explore many themes, most notably, the abuse of power within the context of male privilege and the idea that female promiscuity is linked with mental instability.
“We cannot do this, or it will create some external evidence of my madness. A woman who has burst from her corset, from the cage of her bones. That's what it feels like, like I am uncontained and spreading out.”
Leonora was oppressed, in so many ways, and Jeff seemed to take upon himself to ‘enrich’ her by infusing her with his own memories and desires. Yet he oppressed her further and it was incredibly sad to see her unravelling under his influence. And infuriating as well. I was so angry at him, wishing he would just get on with the business of dying and leave her in peace, which was what he was wishing as well! I was also angry at the other men in Leonora's life. Her father, who simply wanted to get rid of her so he could have a new life with his new wife; Oskar, who wanted to indulge in her sexuality yet despised her for it; William, who betrayed her confidence in him. Leonora suffered in the way so many women have throughout the ages: she was not permitted to live freely, to simply be herself.
“I want to live in the Highlands – to have physical duties but to be free in my thoughts, to use my hands while my mind has time to draw connections between ideas.”

I very much liked the ending of this novel. It rounded things out for all of the characters and provided closure for the reader. I don't mind an open ended finish but I was pleased the author avoided that in this case. A Superior Spectre is a clever piece of literary fiction. I feel there will be resistance to and adulation heaped upon this novel in equal spades. It will depend on how you approach it, but an open mind will lead to a greater appreciation.

Thanks is extended to Ventura Press via Netgalley for providing me with a copy of A Superior Spectre for review.

Review will be published in line with the book's publication date at www.theresasmithwrites.com and on Goodreads.

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Jeff is dying. He flees from his home in Australia to the north of Scotland so that he can die alone, haunted by the secrets of his past. He takes with him an experimental technology that allows him to inhabit the mind of another person, in another time. While he has been warned not to overuse it, it is a temptation that he struggles to resist.

Leonora is a young woman living in the Highlands in 1860. Living alone with her widowed father on a small farm, Leonora likes nothing more than the company of animals. However, her father remarries and sends her to Edinburgh to live with her aunt and prepare herself for the seemingly inevitable marriage.

Leonora starts to sense intrusions into her mind, seeing visions and hearing unusual music. She suspects that these are some kind of spiritualist experiences and seeks help. She also feels drawn towards some medical students that she encounters at the university, company that her aunt does not approve of.

Meyer touches on issues of gender fluidity, class differences, the dawn of feminism, the exploitation of women, the imminence of death, the abuse of technology and a few other weighty concepts, all in the space of about 350 pages. Her characterisations are excellent. Leonora is easy to feel for; a fairly typical historical romance heroine. Meyer does very well to present the fundamentally flawed person that is Jeff in a light that does not lead to the visceral rejection you might expect. I was surprised at the degree of empathy that I felt for him.

This is a really good debut from an Australian author of great promise.

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‘I am conjuring the past, while she is beginning to see the future.’

At some time in the future, Jeff is dying. Burdened with the baggage of his memories, Jeff flees Australia for Scotland. He has a piece of experimental technology, a device that will enable him to enter someone else’s mind through digitised neural experience (DNE). It’s a technology that has not yet been successfully trialled, and Jeff has been advised to only use it three times. It’s advice that Jeff plans to ignore.
Leonora is a young woman living in the Scottish Highlands in the late 1860s. She is busy and happy at home when her life changes forever. Leonora’s father sends her to stay with her aunt in Edinburgh. But her new life becomes unbearable as Jeff connects to her mind and gives her glimpses of a future that she cannot begin to understand.

There’s more to the story than this. Imagine a world where it’s possible for one individual to invade the mind of another. A world in which the invading individual has no scruples, no care for the person whose mind is being invaded. Imagine how terrifying it would be to see glimpses of a future you don’t understand and to experience longings which are abhorrent to you. Imagine two people trying to control one mind. If you don’t want to imagine this, or at least entertain the possibility that it is imaginable, them you may not wish to read this novel.

I kept reading, sickened by Jeff and his actions, by his disregard for others. I kept reading, saddened by what was happening to Leonora and by the perceptions of those around her. I kept reading, wondering about possibility and about ethics.

I finished the novel, disturbed in part by what I’d read but in awe of the way in which Ms Meyer developed the story. I wondered how many people like Jeff there might be:

‘Or perhaps I will just destroy this. Take no responsibility. Life is chaos; people are all the time causing minute fluctuations which will change history’s path.’

How does it end? You’ll need to read it for yourself.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster (Australia) for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

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From the description I was interested to read how the author would achieve a good story. Sci-fi and history mixed with two minds learning about each other without ever meeting. I enjoyed the characters even though I found Jeff very unlikable and thought the author also used the other characters well to round out the story.. She also raised issues of class differences and feminism, both issues that interest me. I enjoyed the cocept and the story. Thank you.

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A Superior Spectre is one of those great surprises you’re sometimes lucky enough to find in a first novel—this one is as strong and assured as if it had come from the mind of a seasoned writer at the peak of her powers.

In this book, a dying man by the name of Jeff is struggling with personal demons as he retreats from his home in Melbourne to go hide out in the Scottish Highlands. He wants to escape his past, the urges that both sicken and frighten him, and maybe just himself completely. The thing is, we’re in some kind of future setting where the use of technology has become so all-consuming (I guess it’s not very far from the present) that individuals can do and get away with just about anything they want. Jeff has a droid helper, and though he says he’s always been the type to disdain people who rely too much on tech (as, for instance, in marrying their sex dolls) he starts to use a new device that can send his mind into a random individual from the past. When he’s inside this individual he has no thoughts of his own, he is the person—Leonora, a young woman in the 1860s, living in the Highlands.

Unlike Jeff her life has been fine, but a series of events brings her troubles that threaten to tear her life apart.

There are so many great things about this book: the basic idea wouldn’t be out of place in straight science fiction, and it contains a marvellous philosophical bent. Though a lot happens and A Superior Spectre proves to be a thorough page turner, it’s quite thoughtful in its way. Jeff isn’t the most admirable of characters—he has the same mordant self-disgust one might find in a Michel Houellbecq novel, but this is a strength of Meyer’s story, not a weakness. Leonora has a gentler, kinder disposition but she’s no less fascinating.
Angela Meyer uses description and setting incredibly well; I felt myself transported not only into the lives of these characters but the places (and eras) as well.
Very highly recommended.

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A Superior Spectre, by Angela Meyer, is based on a fascinating premise of time travel by haunting.

Leonora is a fabulously strong 1860s character. Raised by her father in the Scottish Highlands after her mother dies in Edinburgh, she wants nothing more than to tend to the animals and crops.

Then the local laird takes an unhealthy interest in her.

Powerless to protect her from what he sees as her impending ruin, Leonora’s father sends her to Edinburgh to stay with her aunt and find an appropriate man to marry.

There’s just one problem: a man from the future is already invading Leonora’s mind for his own entertainment. And he’s slowly driving her mad.

Jeff is a young man who is dying from an unnamed but incurable illness.

But hold your tears: it quickly became clear to me that the only tragedy here is that he’s not dying faster.

Jeff has left behind his family in Melbourne and just vanished – not an easy thing to do when everyone in the future is microchipped and tracked. He wants to die in peace. He doesn’t even leave them a note.

In fact, Jeff is such a downtrodden individual in need of comfort in his final hours that he’s managed to procure an illegal humanoid robot servant to masturbate beside in his remote Scottish hideaway.

He’s also acquired a piece of outlawed technology which allows him to time travel back to the 1860s and hang out in somebody else’s mind. Just for fun. He’s warned not to use it more than 3 times.

But Jeff is a narcissistic prick. So Jeff ignores the instructions and continues to visit Leonora and peer out from behind her eyes to spy on her life.

The effects on Leonora – who believes she is being haunted – are devastating.

You’re clearly supposed to seriously dislike Jeff, so don’t feel bad. He is the embodiment of narcissism and a sneak preview of a fairly hideous future that we can look forward to if we continue down the track of inventing new high-tech toys with little regard for ethics. Just because we can. Just because it will turn a healthy profit.

Jeff’s only redeeming feature is that he is aware of his own multitude of failings. The question you need to ask yourself as a reader is this: can somebody be redeemed if they repent their sins, only to continue repeating them?

The casual feminism in this book is brilliant. In the opening pages, Leonora gives us a detailed but incidental account of her period pain and how she tries to relieve it each month with herbal tea. Meyer goes on to use Leonora’s monthly cycle to give the reader a sense of time passing.

It’s subtle, but it’s there. And why not? Often seasons are used to mark the passing of time, but they only come every 3 months. Menstruation is conveniently monthly.

A Superior Spectre is a brilliantly written feminist tract about a young woman’s simultaneous fight against the 1860s patriarchy and 21st-century narcissism.

Despite Jeff’s revolting presence, it’s well worth reading to the end to find out who wins the fight, and how.

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I found the book fascinating but also difficult to read. It wasn't something I could devour in one or two sittings, but had to dip in to for an hour or so at a time - I needed time to think. The premises was interesting but there were too many loose ends - things I wanted to know about and have clarified, but which were left unexplained. If I hadn't read the synopsis it would have taken me a long time to understand what was happening. I couldn't engage with either main characters and in the main felt that neither were changed by their experiences - neither of them grew or learned from what happened to them. I found Jeff less engaging than Leonora - I actually didn't like Jeff much at all - selfish and self-indulgent - but it wasn't his fault as this was how his character was moulded. But then good books do make you think, they are polarising and get talked about. I think A Superior Spectre will be talked about - an excellent, thought-provoking book club book or to share with other literary friends. It's not a book I'll forget in a hurry, and I'm not sure I entirely liked it, but would recommend it strongly to others so they can make up their own minds. A clever book and an amazing debut novel by Angela Meyer - I feel some awards coming along in her future!

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This was a wonderful and original book. If you are expecting something similar to The Outlander books, you will be disappointed, however, if you are wanting an original story that will keep you gripped from beginning to end - then this is the book for you.

Told from dual POVs, the author gives the reader the story of Jeff, an Australian who travel to the Scottish highlands to escape his life and his secrets. It is what he does once he is there that makes this story interesting. Due to a special device he has, he is able to transfer his mind to that of another, Lenora, a young woman who lives in the highlands during the 1860s.

Warned to only use the device a maximum of three times, Jeff ignores this warning and freely uses it to escape his own life and live Lenora's. This causes some disastrous results - Lenora begins to think that she is going crazy with some of the things that are happening to her. Her life begins to deteriorate and change in ways that she would never have imagined. There are many dramas, regrets, good and bad choices along the way, some more than likely will make you feel very uncomfortable. There is also some sexual enlightenment that is experienced bringing forth many desires, which are not quite understood.

This was a superb read and I will acknowledge that it will not be to every reader's taste. It was definitely a book that I could not put down.

Read and Reviewed for Reading Is Our Satisfaction

FIVE STARS

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A mastery of words. I loved this book because it gave me two worlds and I got immersed into them fully. The story was compelling and the characters interesting. Both characters are very interesting to follow for different reasons. One, the historical aspect of the book is great and then we have the science fiction part which is great!
I feel my word can't come close to the emotions that this book gave me. I would totally recommend it.
PS. I normally don't like science fiction but in this instance, it was written perfectly.

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Dark and tragic, A Superior Spectre combines a speculative future with historical fiction. Absolutely stunning.

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“This water is so clear I can lean over and see myself. I am Narcissus, in love with the image of my suffering, fixed in place and soon to drown.”

This book was marketed with a link to the Outlander series and Margaret Atwood’s dystopian feminism. While it does have the same vivid historical setting as Outland, I will say this book leans more to the dystopian side. There is quite a dark and gothic tone to this story.

Jeff has skyrocketed to the top of my most hated characters. He is a self-indulgent and self-absorbed man. It’s evident from the start when he flees Melbourne for the Scottish Highlands to die. He takes percussions so his family will never find him and—unwittingly—leaves his illness as the responsibility of his landlord, Bethea. He spends his time lamenting all the horrible things he’s done, trying to prove he is a changed man while the same time refusing to stop taking the drug that allows him to invade the mind of Leonora. He is despicable but at the same time oddly compelling. At the start of the book, Leonora’s sections were pulling me through the story but as it progressed I was equally invested in both.

I adore Leonora’s section; they were full of lush historical settings and authenticity. We see her struggle to find her voice as she’s pushed away from her family home in the Highlands due to her father’s wishes to remarry. It’s really heartbreaking to see that her firm desire to stay in the Highlands and work on the farm is disregarded, but she heads to Edinburgh to live with her Aunt with the purposes of finding a suitable husband. It’s at this time, Jeff seems to take it upon himself to infuse his own memories and desires with her. It was horrible to see Leonora, this strong-willed girl, struggle under the weight of Jeff’s influence and the strict patriarchal society of the 1860s. She suffers as she’s not allowed to live she wants, be free to set her own future — much like many women in our history.

I loved that Angela Meyer plays with the voice of the novel. At the start, Jeff’s sections are in first person as he’s essentially confessing his sins as a dying man. And Leonora’s sections are in third person. However, as Jeff abuses the drug and causes him to invade Leonora’s mind both are told in first person. It’s beautifully done as they both contain their own voice and you can feel Leonora’s struggle with the oppression.

A Superior Spectre is at times disturbing but wholly engrossing, a cautionary tale of greed and the misuse of science in gothic proportions. Meyer brings a strong voice to the Australian literary scene and I’m excited to see what she does next.

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Thank you Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect as I haven’t read the outlander series that other reviewers have compared this book to.

This is different to my usual genre and I was so glad that I had the opportunity to be introduced to this book.

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