Book reviews
Oct. 4th, 2005 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterMy care package from San Francisco, apart from copious quantities of Dr Pepper and soft-baked chocolate-chip cookies (both items unavailable in this particular backwater), included some books after all. Marvel 1602 and Lucifer: Devil in the Gateway have been reviewed to hell and back, but I've yet to run across a review of either of these two:
Guy Gavriel Kay, The Last Light of the Sun
This is the same universe as Lions of Al-Rassan and The Sarantine Mosaic, and I can’t say that the mentions of Fezana and Rustem’s books did not make me smile. On the other hand, either I missed something, or this is the first of Kay’s novels that does not contain a reference to Fionavar. Strange, that.
Just like Al-Rassan was composed as Arabic poetry and Sarantium was a mosaic of stories, Last Light is a combination of Viking saga and Celtic ballad. There is less complexity, and more focus on the actions, as they proceed to the conclusions that, like in all Kay books, are inevitable. The refrain is, it could not have been any other way.
Slash factor: low-ish. There is one almost explicit unrequited love, and several other notions that an expert slasher will seize upon, but nothing up to the heights of Ammar and Rodrigo (note to self: find more fic with these two).
And remember how I’m always complaining that Kay kills off my favourite characters? Well, this time as soon as he introduced a certain character, I said “okay, that’s the one who gets killed 50 pages before the end of the book”. And he didn’t. Respect.
Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys
This is a book that I think will improve upon re-reading, because the main theme in the first half is embarrassment. I have a failing – I find embarrassing scenarios just embarrassing and potentially infuriating, not funny. Still, the low-key feeling of the whole book, as a sequel to the epic world that was American Gods, is a masterstroke. Remember those little vignettes in American Gods, the ones that at first sight had nothing to do with the plot? Anansi Boys reads like one of them.
I also like the themes, the starfish theory, all the African mythology stuff. I love the concept that all the stories used to belong to Tiger, dark and cruel and catching your throat in their teeth, and Anansi stole them to make them full of wit and trickery and making fun of people.
I write a lot of Tiger stories.
Guy Gavriel Kay, The Last Light of the Sun
This is the same universe as Lions of Al-Rassan and The Sarantine Mosaic, and I can’t say that the mentions of Fezana and Rustem’s books did not make me smile. On the other hand, either I missed something, or this is the first of Kay’s novels that does not contain a reference to Fionavar. Strange, that.
Just like Al-Rassan was composed as Arabic poetry and Sarantium was a mosaic of stories, Last Light is a combination of Viking saga and Celtic ballad. There is less complexity, and more focus on the actions, as they proceed to the conclusions that, like in all Kay books, are inevitable. The refrain is, it could not have been any other way.
Slash factor: low-ish. There is one almost explicit unrequited love, and several other notions that an expert slasher will seize upon, but nothing up to the heights of Ammar and Rodrigo (note to self: find more fic with these two).
And remember how I’m always complaining that Kay kills off my favourite characters? Well, this time as soon as he introduced a certain character, I said “okay, that’s the one who gets killed 50 pages before the end of the book”. And he didn’t. Respect.
Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys
This is a book that I think will improve upon re-reading, because the main theme in the first half is embarrassment. I have a failing – I find embarrassing scenarios just embarrassing and potentially infuriating, not funny. Still, the low-key feeling of the whole book, as a sequel to the epic world that was American Gods, is a masterstroke. Remember those little vignettes in American Gods, the ones that at first sight had nothing to do with the plot? Anansi Boys reads like one of them.
I also like the themes, the starfish theory, all the African mythology stuff. I love the concept that all the stories used to belong to Tiger, dark and cruel and catching your throat in their teeth, and Anansi stole them to make them full of wit and trickery and making fun of people.
I write a lot of Tiger stories.