Saturn Over the Water (1961)
J.B. Priestley
With a new introduction by David Collard
Book Description
Tim Bedford, a young English painter, has made a promise to his dying cousin to find her husband, a scientist who vanished while working on a top-secret project in South America. The only clue is a scrap of paper with a scribbled list of words and a curious symbol resembling a figure 8 over a wavy line. As he follows the trail from Cambridge to New York to the sultry streets of Lima, the remote Peruvian desert, and the volcanic coast of southern Chile, Bedford finds himself facing danger at every turn. The action and suspense build towards a thrilling climax in the mountains of Australia, where Bedford will uncover the truth behind a sinister conspiracy that threatens the entire world . . . but can it be stopped, or is it already too late?
One of the most popular and critically successful of J.B. Priestley’s later novels, Saturn Over the Water (1961) is a fast-paced and clever mix of adventure, mystery, and science fiction that remains, as David Collard writes in the new introduction to this edition, ‘an entertaining and marvellously eccentric jeu d’esprit.’
J.B. Priestley
With a new introduction by David Collard
Book Description
Tim Bedford, a young English painter, has made a promise to his dying cousin to find her husband, a scientist who vanished while working on a top-secret project in South America. The only clue is a scrap of paper with a scribbled list of words and a curious symbol resembling a figure 8 over a wavy line. As he follows the trail from Cambridge to New York to the sultry streets of Lima, the remote Peruvian desert, and the volcanic coast of southern Chile, Bedford finds himself facing danger at every turn. The action and suspense build towards a thrilling climax in the mountains of Australia, where Bedford will uncover the truth behind a sinister conspiracy that threatens the entire world . . . but can it be stopped, or is it already too late?
One of the most popular and critically successful of J.B. Priestley’s later novels, Saturn Over the Water (1961) is a fast-paced and clever mix of adventure, mystery, and science fiction that remains, as David Collard writes in the new introduction to this edition, ‘an entertaining and marvellously eccentric jeu d’esprit.’
reviews
‘Written with tremendous pace and panache. It sweeps you along in excitement. John Buchan, Ray Bradbury, science fiction or suspense – it is all the same to Mr Priestley. He takes on a dozen writers and shows himself a match for them all.’ – The Times
‘[O]ne of the finest novels I have read for some time ... I found Mr Priestley’s book utterly convincing ... the settings are so well observed whether they be in London, New York, South America, or Australia. Mr Priestley, indeed, takes us on a Cook’s tour of the world and a very knowledgeable guide he turns out to be ... the book is packed with vivid little portraits of people and places that have all the note of the unexpected which makes them ring authentically true.’ – Burns Singer, Listener
‘Vivid, fast-moving, crisp as an air ticket to a rare and unlikely destination ... a novel that reads, as they say, like a bomb, and sets the reader pondering once again over its author's exuberant and richly grooved imagination.’ – Sunday Times
‘Mr Priestley’s new novel is immensely entertaining and the fun and excitement give point to the seriousness of the conclusion. Saturn Over the Water has the pace of the best Buchan, together with some of the SF qualities of Professors Hoyle and Lewis; and above all the moral – or rather spiritual – values of the late Charles Williams ... Mr Priestley has added a secret something of his own and created a potent and exhilarating punch.’ - John Davenport, Observer
‘[O]ne of the finest novels I have read for some time ... I found Mr Priestley’s book utterly convincing ... the settings are so well observed whether they be in London, New York, South America, or Australia. Mr Priestley, indeed, takes us on a Cook’s tour of the world and a very knowledgeable guide he turns out to be ... the book is packed with vivid little portraits of people and places that have all the note of the unexpected which makes them ring authentically true.’ – Burns Singer, Listener
‘Vivid, fast-moving, crisp as an air ticket to a rare and unlikely destination ... a novel that reads, as they say, like a bomb, and sets the reader pondering once again over its author's exuberant and richly grooved imagination.’ – Sunday Times
‘Mr Priestley’s new novel is immensely entertaining and the fun and excitement give point to the seriousness of the conclusion. Saturn Over the Water has the pace of the best Buchan, together with some of the SF qualities of Professors Hoyle and Lewis; and above all the moral – or rather spiritual – values of the late Charles Williams ... Mr Priestley has added a secret something of his own and created a potent and exhilarating punch.’ - John Davenport, Observer
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BOOK DETAILS
ISBN: 1939140811 ISBN-13: 978-1939140814 $17.99 US, 258 pp. Trade paper Published 2013 |
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
John Boynton Priestley was born in 1894 in Yorkshire, the son of a schoolmaster. After leaving Belle Vue School when he was 16, he worked in a wool office but was already by this time determined to become a writer. He volunteered for the army in 1914 during the First World War and served five years; on his return home, he attended university and wrote articles for the Yorkshire Observer. After graduating, he established himself in London, writing essays, reviews, and other nonfiction, and publishing several miscellaneous volumes. In 1927 his first two novels appeared, Adam in Moonshine and Benighted. In 1929 Priestley scored his first major critical success as a novelist, winning the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Good Companions. Angel Pavement (1930) followed and was also extremely successful. Throughout the next several decades, Priestley published numerous novels, many of them very popular and successful, including Bright Day (1946), and Lost Empires (1965), and was also a prolific and highly regarded playwright.
Priestley died in 1984, and though his plays have continued to be published and performed since his death, much of his fiction has unfortunately fallen into obscurity. Recently, some of his most famous novels have been reprinted in England by Great Northern Books; Valancourt Books is republishing Benighted and Priestley’s excellent collection of weird short stories The Other Place (1953).
For more information on J.B. Priestley, visit the official website at http://www.jbpriestley.co.uk/JBP/Home.html or the website for the J.B. Priestley Society at http://www.jbpriestleysociety.com/.
Priestley died in 1984, and though his plays have continued to be published and performed since his death, much of his fiction has unfortunately fallen into obscurity. Recently, some of his most famous novels have been reprinted in England by Great Northern Books; Valancourt Books is republishing Benighted and Priestley’s excellent collection of weird short stories The Other Place (1953).
For more information on J.B. Priestley, visit the official website at http://www.jbpriestley.co.uk/JBP/Home.html or the website for the J.B. Priestley Society at http://www.jbpriestleysociety.com/.