Though New Labour/Cool Britannia pretensions to rock ‘n roll coolness lurk in the background of this novel, early reviews have pointed out that its countercultural vision is really rooted in the ‘60s/‘70s. Certainly, the Counterculturals don’t come across as political descendants of 1990s anti-roads activists, or those who stopped the City of London and took to the streets on May Day. Neither did I hear mutated echos of hip-hop, drum ‘n’ bass and Asian dub in the musical mix, though a burqa’d ghazal singer appears in the first book. So readers expecting a near-future speculation incorporating recent British countercultures and turn of the 21st century anti-capitalism may be disappointed. Perhaps Jones’ Arthurian framework generates some political constraints: can a legend centred on royalty encompass the egalitarian and anti-hierarchy tenor of current anti-capitalist politics? I can’t imagine the denizens of Brixton and Hackney putting up with a bloke who calls himself Dictator!

Yet taken on its own terms as a mythic alternate history where the original counterculture holds sway, the series still stands as a fascinating examination of the present and an imagined future. ‘Castles Made of Sand’ atmospherically evokes the feel of post-Dissolution England: roads overtaken by weeds and wilderness, streets lit only by the ‘cell metabolism energy’ of passers-by, permanent festival encampments, queues and deprivation coexisting with a more cooperative spirit. And this is an England where witchcraft becomes a crime again, while a neo-pagan, racist right-wing movement fond of human sacrifice presents a growing threat to ‘techno-green’ Counterculturals.

"At last a chance to take stock, count the bruises, relax a little. A dangerous time," says the prologue. Hence, the more inward focus of ‘Castles.’ At its centre is the relationship between Fio, Sage and Ax, which becomes a sexual triad. The novel portrays all the highs, fall-outs and messiness of such a set-up, yet treats it as a real option for the characters. After reading far too many books where vampires, aliens, werewolves or futuristic humans still live in Mom & Pop nuclear families, it’s refreshing to read a sensitive portrayal of a non-traditional relationship.

During this ‘dangerous time’ the characters truly come into their own. Fiorinda’s story is especially moving as you realise just how damaged she is by childhood experiences: groomed by a devious aunt to be seduced by her own father. While Ax is on a diplomatic mission and Sage strives to attain his ‘Zen-self,’ Fiorinda faces another harrowing sexual ordeal - and her powerful father.

‘Castles’ refutes the usual complaint that sequels are never as good as the original. With its focus on character and emotion, ‘Castles’ surpasses ‘Bold as Love.’ It’s actually part of an open-ended sequence with at least three more novels to come - all named after Jimi Hendrix songs. We can look forward to years of wonderful reading.

Rosanne Rabinowitz’s published fiction includes stories in The Third Alternative, Visionary Tongue and Roadworks, plus a contribution to The Slow Mirror: New Fiction by Jewish Writers and Deep Ten. She has reviewed books for TTA as well. She lives in South London with a venerable 16-year-old cat, and sometimes works as a freelance sub-editor on various magazines and websites. She has also been a life model, oral history researcher, part-time mental health worker, full-time doley and an editor of the late great Bad Attitude, a feminist mag ‘devoted to the overthrow of civilisation as we know it’. A graduate of the Sheffield Hallam MA in Writing, she has completed Noise Leads Me - a kind of anti-capitalist vampire novel set in Brixton ( looking for a forward-thinking publisher unfazed by genre boundaries!). Currently she is working on a second novel about a woman leader of the Adamites, a wild, anarchistic free-loving movement in 15th century Hussite Bohemia.

© 2004 Laura Hird All rights reserved.