COMP CLOSED | Book Giveaway | Chevalier & Gawayn

The best of speculative fiction from the pen of award-winning author Phillip Mann. Frank Herbert’s Dune meets Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me.

Once upon a time in the future, things are looking grim. Plague stalks the land, people live behind city walls, or underground, or huddle in remote hamlets. No more animals, no more birdlife, no more freedom… never has the divide between rich and poor been so evident, never has the Earth been so despoiled, and never has the need for a hero been stronger.

Enter Chevalier, an unassuming and mild-mannered tax inspector by day but a secret law-breaker and risk-taker by night who decides to experiment with a new virtual reality headset – CIRCE. And before he knows it, our hero finds he can dip in and out of a world long ago and far away where his deepest hopes and fears are met, where there’s magic in the air, and where his spirit and bravery can emerge.

Helped (and hindered) by a collection of heroes, heroines, gods, goddesses and raving beauties from ages both ancient and modern, our hero gradually takes on the spirit and bravery of the legendary Gawayn. Masks, disguise and identity are key to the journey, and Chevalier discovers he is not alone. A bold and cunning plan is called for… the evolution of Gawayn is essential.

This is a fable for our times. Serious, whimsical, funny, powerful and sexy, Chevalier & Gawayn is a thrilling mix of adventure and adversity and the need to heed the past. It is also a warning of the dangers facing society, but most of all, it is a celebration of our power to face and overcome them.

Endorsements for Chevalier & Gawayn:

“Since The Eye of the Queen, in 1982, Phillip Mann has gathered an international reputation as a master of ‘speculative fiction’, and the creator of ‘credible aliens’. Yet as the author puts it, ‘I think of my books as being about us, no matter how outlandish the scenario.’

In this, his eleventh published novel, he extends his range even further, as his narrative shuttles between the knights of King Arthur, figures from Greek mythology, and an imaginatively vivid dystopia challenged by much the same disasters as our own world now faces. And what so enlivens this intricate web of stories leading off to further stories, is Mann’s brilliant decision to have those who live in his overlapping worlds speak with the verve and colloquialism of our own everyday lives. Chevalier & Gawayn gives us, yet again, what we read his novels for – its imaginative reach, its moral intensity, its linguistic brio.”

– Vincent O’Sullivan

“A masterful book from a master storyteller. Philip Mann creates a fully-realised world, alive with fascinating characters, vivid descriptions, historical and mythological allusions, and universal truths that touch the heart of what it is to be human.”
– Mandy Hager

About the Author

Phillip Mann is a leading internationally acclaimed and published science fiction writer. He is also a theatre director and academic, founding New Zealand’s first university drama studies course at Victoria University in 1970.

Since 1982 he has published ten novels and has also written for theatre and radio. Phillip received the Sir Julius Vogel Award for services to science fiction in 2010 and his The Disestablishment of Paradise was shortlisted for the prestigious Arthur C. Clark Award.

He is an Honorary Fellow of the New Zealand Society of Authors and Patron of the Phoenix Science Fiction Society, and in 2017 was awarded an MNZM for services to theatre and literature.

Terms and conditions

1. 1. You must be a GrownUps member and receive our newsletter to be eligible to win.
   2. Competition closes on the 2nd August 2022, winners will be notified via email by 4th August 2022.
   3. As a competition winner, you must confirm you have received our email notifying you of the win within three days. If we have not heard from you in three days the prize will be redrawn, and your prize will be forfeit.
   4. Winners are drawn at random by the GrownUps administration team.
   5. GrownUps employees and family are not eligible to enter.
   6. By entering the giveaway, you approve for GrownUps to use your name on social media as winner of the competition.
   7. One entry per person.
   8. Prize is non transferrable.
   9. You must reside in New Zealand – the prize will only be posted within New Zealand.
   10. You must be over 50 years of age to enter, check your details are correct in your membership dashboard.