This
one came from three pieces of short fiction. After I'd written the first story
I knew there was far more to do with that background; the second and third stories,
set earlier, were deliberate explorations of the idea of a virtual heaven, with
the intention always being that they would become part of a novel.
And that's what I did. The first story was published in one of the Solaris SF anthologies and was then reprinted in the 2008 Gardner Dozois Year's Best. The other two stories appeared in Postscripts (summer 2008) and Pete Crowther's AI anthology, We Think, Therefore We Are (January 2009), both shortly before the print edition of the novel came out in March 2009.
To me, the best SF sets huge ideas against the intimate and personal, and this was what I quite explicitly tried to do with The Accord. Sure, it's about building a complete virtual universe - ideas don't come much bigger than that - but equally, it's a love triangle; but when the triangle involves multiple personalities and different instances of the people taking part, the geometry gets a whole lot more complicated than that...
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Order the print edition online from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
The first published response was a starred review at Publishers
Weekly: "The emotion-driven love triangle neatly complements the tech-
and philosophy-heavy nature of the Accord, making this rumination on posthumous,
posthuman love a rare treat."
The Guardian liked it too: "Brooke's fifth science-fiction novel is an intelligent examination of the technological possibilities of VR and a brilliant dissection of how individuals and society will change when freed from material bounds. The Accord is not only Brooke's best novel to date, but one of the finest to broach the subject of virtual reality."
D Douglas Fratz at SF Site described The Accord as "one of the finest novels of virtual reality yet written."
SciFi Wire said: "Brooke first came to my attention with his brilliant 2006 novel, Genetopia, which I reviewed in Science Fiction Weekly in 2006. The two books have little in common except for the high quality of the prose and compellingly unpredictable narratives ... Brooke keeps his narrative compelling and unpredictable throughout, and he creates characters that you care about even after they are all dead in the real world and exist only in virtual reality ... He makes fine use of difficult but very effective literary techniques ... The Accord is a literary science fiction tour de force that is sure to be one of the best novels of 2009. Novels this good have seldom appeared as mass-market paperbacks since the halcyon days of the Ace Specials."
SF Site's featured review described it as "a novel that combines elements of love story, thriller, and work of ideas, yet gains its impact from being more than the sum of these. And it all works. It works brilliantly. In The Accord, Keith Brooke has created a dazzling work of the imagination." Reviewer David Hebblethwaite went on to say on his blog: "Everything I’ve ever read by Keith Brooke has been excellent, and The Accord is no excepton. This tale of love and revenge in a virtual 'afterlife' is my favourite book of the year so far. I’ve reviewed it for SF Site."
Fantasy Book Critic said it's "first and foremost a superbly written novel, featuring beautiful prose that instantly hooked me from the powerful opening page and kept the pages turning... a rare combination of thought-provoking ideas including hard sf... a lyrical novel of love, loss, revenge, exploration and adventure... The Accord is highly, highly recommended. And while I am reluctant to make predictions about how my 2009 rankings will shake out at the end of the year, I strongly believe The Accord will be one of the best science fiction novels I read all year."
The Waterstone's 5* bookseller review said The Accord is "a masterfully constructed novel exploring the possibilities of a virtual world and the natures of humans, whatever world they find themselves in... This is a very human love story, set in a fascinating new world where almost anything becomes possible and even endings can't be taken for granted. You will not be disappointed."
It received a 5* customer review at Amazon.com; while at Amazon.co.uk one customer review said "An absolute corker of a tale that really does get the reader to think and a tale that takes Sci-Fi into a slightly new direction... Its quirky, it has wonderful characterisation and above all it's a tale where love is the ultimate goal."
SFF World said it's "a truly major sf work that should be considered for all eligible awards in 2009."
SF Signal's review only gave The Accord 3.5 stars, but said: "Keith Brooke's take on posthumanism is one of the best approaches of the subject I've ever seen."
Interzone said, "As well as being a masterful story, The Accord is a feat of daring and accomplished composition... Romantic, edgy, moving, tight and fast, The Accord is Keith Brooke on incandescent form and in an angry, sweary mood. The Accord offers a sense of obscene wonder the likes of which this reviewer might not have felt since Geoff Ryman's The Child Garden. This is Keith Brooke at his absolute best."
And here's what the guys at Solaris said about it:
"The Accord, a virtual utopia where the soul lives on after death and your perceptions are bound only by your imagination. This is the setting for a tale of love, murder and revenge that crosses the boundaries between the real world and this virtual reality. When Noah and Priscilla escape into the Accord to flee Priscilla’s murderous husband, he plots to destroy the whole Accord and them with it. In revenge they arrange to have him assassinated but their success comes at the price of giving him the keys to the virtual kingdom. How can they hope to escape their stalker when he can become anything or anyone he desires and where does the pursuit of revenge stop for immortals in an eternal world? Consultant Editor George Mann said of the deal: 'I had the pleasure of publishing Keith’s short story, "The Accord", in the first Solaris Book of New Science Fiction. When Keith approached us with his idea to expand it into a novel, we were all incredibly enthused. This is a major breakthrough novel from an author I’ve admired for many years.'"
Their press release is quite scary, though...