The House of Rumour is an hugely enjoyable novel that melds and twists genres ‘historical’ ‘literature, ‘sci-fi’. Starring an amazing array of disparate historical characters including Rudolf Hess, Aleister Crowley, Jim Jones, L Ron Hubbard, Ian Fleming, et al, Arnott cleverly links their varying real biographies in a conceit that ties strands of mid-20th Century mythology. Hess’s 1941 flight to Scotland, early rocket science, British wartime intelligence service, and Crowley’s paranormal myth-making and sexual libertarianism all converge, reflecting and refracting the 20th century experience.The shadowy organising force that links these strands is a compelling and appealing plot device. The story rests on what sci-fi readers know as a Jonbar Hinge, a point at which the future could have taken a different path, and indeed House of Rumour continually threatens to become a science fiction novel (this teetering on the genre edge gives the novel a bit of it’s unhinged-ness). Whatever pigeon-hole you want to cram it in, it is one of the most enjoyable novels I read this last year.
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