Book review: Oligarchy, by Scarlett Thomas

There is something reliably unpredictable about Scarlett Thomas. Her novels have danced between genres: PopCo is a work which both admires the creativity of capitalism and deplores it; The End Of Mr Y was a frolic through quantum physics; Going Out was a study in loneliness; The Seed Collectors was a family saga that was as intricate as a root system. Then she shifted again, to produce a sequence of fantasy novels – Dragon’s Green, The Chosen Ones and Galloglass: if your teenage children have done with Pullman and haven’t discovered Cooper yet, then these stories about stories about stories are the ideal tonic.