This is a delightful subversion (for grown-ups) of a fairy tale. Including novel takes on princes, princesses, fairies, dragons and magic swords.
WithThis is a delightful subversion (for grown-ups) of a fairy tale. Including novel takes on princes, princesses, fairies, dragons and magic swords.
With two alternating unreliable narrators you cannot really be sure of anything, but they tend to cancel each other and let you choose what is really happening. Which is a lot, and most of it funny, some tender, and a good lot exciting.
I could not put it down, except for work and some rest. If you like Fantasy as letting your imagination go wild, and do not mind breaking a few stereotypes and conventions along the way, you will enjoy this. ...more
I was thinking of loaning this book, and then, before I realised it, I was engrossed on it. A short time later it was over and I felt better.
It is claI was thinking of loaning this book, and then, before I realised it, I was engrossed on it. A short time later it was over and I felt better.
It is classed as Science Fiction, even though it takes place in the then present (late nineties) time. But it is really fiction about Science (or maybe research, but I feel it is just about discovery). How Science works, how it should work, and why it works. As well as a great insight in researchers as people, and how introverted people face the world. Or don't face the world.
It is a simple, unassuming book, delightfully written. Its rating is based more on the effect it had on me, as it helped me decide what I was doing, why I was doing it, and what I wanted to do in the future. It certainly was not Connie Willis intention to change my world view, just to show how ridiculous and tender humans are. And she uses fads and trends in a creative way.
It is also one of those books I reread often, forced by a strange impulse that makes me give copies away. ...more
What amazes me of this book is how current it still is. It concenses in a nutshell most of what happened in the XXth century, and it reflects the brokWhat amazes me of this book is how current it still is. It concenses in a nutshell most of what happened in the XXth century, and it reflects the broken world we left to most of those outside the "West".
But it is not only the story which is amazing. Josef Conrad knows his fellow men, so all characters are both fallible and touched by the potential for greatness. People we could meet normally, taken to extreme circumstances. Only the horror of the white man for the black continent is not current, as we have moved from fascination and fear to pity and horror, and yet we still in a similar way to other unknown people and forces, so the power of the unknown still exerts its force.
It is a short, powerful novella, which will remain valid as long as some people exploit others because they have superior technology and think that gives them the right. Coppola tried to adapt it to Vietnam (Apocalypse Now), but the original is more enduring, less specific....more
It is always dangerous to reread your favorite books. And yet, how other way to reaffirm their power over our intellect?
Perdido Street Station managesIt is always dangerous to reread your favorite books. And yet, how other way to reaffirm their power over our intellect?
Perdido Street Station manages to pass the test in the last reread. It is still one of the most impacting pieces of fantasy I have ever met. Mieville throws away as filler ideas that would have been whole books in other authors' hands. He populates his book with people that breathe, live, curse and suffer, fail and triumph, and your heart goes to them in both cases. A clear contrast not only with fantasy, but with the cardboard characters in most books, in general.
The world is a grey on grey example, without the shining white of so much epic fantasy, but with shadows of the deepest black, because like all good fantasy he is really writing about our world, and unfortunately we may lack shining beacons of goodness, but there are plenty dark pits of despair.
Yet the book is optimistic, even with the shattered survivors we get by the end, because it could have been so much worse, and it may yet get better. Our boys pulled it through, and most important, the bad guys lost. That is enough, I am afraid, both here and in New Crobuzon.
I want to make a special mention to the language. It is so rich it may be choking at times. It has to be tackled measuredly. This is not a book to rush through, but one to explore carefully, to think some of the implications, or the feeling of an alien place that yet feels close to our own experience.
Specially recommended to those who feel jaded about conventional fantasy. ...more
This is a book that focuses on twisted people, those who feel strange from others. And it touches most people because in the end we all are a bit straThis is a book that focuses on twisted people, those who feel strange from others. And it touches most people because in the end we all are a bit strange, and we can find someone to identify with, whether it is the narrator or one of the other characters.
The book draws on those awkward years between adolescence and adulthood, though taking them to an extreme, and dares to deal openly with sex, love, manipulation, madness, loss, death and recovery. It does not judge, it just presents them naturally in a way it feels normal.
The writing is brilliant, giving the impression that the pages brighten up when Midori is in the scene, and dimming when we have Naoko, while at the same time we still feel for her. We feel for all of them, for Nasegawa the brilliant empty diplomat, his suffering girlfriend Hatsumi, friendly and wise Ryoko, and specially for Toru, torn between two damaged girls that need him in their different ways, and who also hurt him terribly.
The book is full with scenes that stay lodged in your mind, starting from the introduction, showing how universal is the story, touching parts of our lives.
A book to enjoy several times, as every reread reveals something new, while the characters become like old friends....more
This is, first and foremost, a love story. As a confessed Romantic, this is my favorite Iain M. Banks book. But it is much more than a love story, eveThis is, first and foremost, a love story. As a confessed Romantic, this is my favorite Iain M. Banks book. But it is much more than a love story, even if it is one that resonates very powerfully on me. It is also a vision on the wonders and depths of human fantasy, and how everyone of us holds the potential for wonder. In a way it is Whitman's quote given form:
Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)
And I love Bridges, and have a special spot for the two Firth of Forth bridges....more
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