The Moon of Gomrath, Alan Garner

Flashback Friday review from 12th August, 2009

I liked this book better than the first book, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. Maybe that’s because I’ve already had some of the world building from the first book and I know kind of what to expect, though. It was weird to me that it was a sequel, but it completely ignored the ending of the last book. There was virtually no reference to it at all, which is amazing considering the total lack of resolution I felt at the end. The only references are in a recurring enemy — the Morrigan — wanting revenge, and the fact that the characters are the same, plus the backstory about the sleepers in the cave.

The mythology in this one was interesting, anyway. I’m amused at how often the concept of the Wild Magic and the Wild Hunt comes up in fantasy books — here, in the Fionavar Tapestry, in The Dark Is Rising… I like it. The descriptions of Susan riding with them, and the way she gets left behind and feels both joy and anguish, are lovely.

Again, I felt a lack of resolution at the end of this book. Both books just end, with no reactions from the characters, nothing. Just. An end. It’s weird, I like things to be rounded off a little better. It’s not that they stop with big plot things left to happen, but they stop without making it feel satisfying.

It also feels like there should be more books in the series — you have all these comparatively little events, dealing with Grimnir and the Brollachan and the Morrigan, but throughout there’s the threat of Nastrond hovering over it, and the idea of the waking of the sleepers, but nothing happens with them. It feels like the focus is on the wrong thing. In one way it’s nice to have a big story hovering in the background, but when you know you’re never going to find out how that story resolves, it’s not so nice. There’s plenty of room for sequels, but I read that Alan Garner never intended for there to be another book. There’s so much that feels unfinished, though…

At least he didn’t write a shoddy page long epilogue in which we find out exactly what happened to everyone in as few words as possible.

This book is fun enough to just read, but I didn’t really get emotionally invested in it. Characters can die and I don’t really care. Not good!

Rating: 3/5

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

Originally reviewed May 9th, 2010

(You may consider this review spoilery, if you read all of it. I state something explicitly that is below the surface of the book, at any rate.)

This book is a bit like having a one-sided conversation with the narrator. In consequence, it kinda feels like it rambles a bit — they digress to talk about something else and then a couple of pages later, wrench it back to the original point. In some ways that makes it feel very natural, like someone talking, but to read it, it gets irritating.

There’s a difficult tone to it… Very resigned, unemotional, and somewhat, I don’t know, superficial. The narrator skims the surface of the truths revealed. It’s natural to do that, in some ways, for a real person, but in a character, it’s hard to engage. The characters of Ruth and Tommy were much more vivid for me than Kathy: Ruth and her needing to be in the know, needing to be superior; Tommy and his anger issues and his struggle to be creative. Ruth felt especially real to me: I knew a girl who was very much like her, and I was pretty much the Kathy in our interactions, too.

The way it engages with the issues — with the idea of clones — without dragging out all the backstory is interesting, dealt with it in this way. Like it’s a fact of life, like what you’re reading is all very matter of fact. And you go along with it a little, and then you stop, and you think about it… It actually reminds me of the way Kathy describes being taught about what her life will be: somehow it builds up so you’ve known it all along, but you never have this big moment of revelation. Unfortunately, that deadens the sharper shocks, I think.

I enjoyed it, and it was very easy to just settle down and read it. It’s not racing action or anything, pretty leisurely, and not compelling in the sense that I couldn’t put it down. But I wanted to know — even suspecting what the end would be like, I wanted to get there and see.

Rating: 4/5

The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle

Originally reviewed on September 12th, 2010

Having just finished reading The Last Unicorn, I’m not at all sure what to say about it, or how I feel about it. I felt vaguely enchanted by it — not in the sense of it being twee and sweet and Disney, but in the sense of it having a hold over me. I loved the writing, the richness of it, the strange and new descriptions, e.g. “the air hung shiny as candy” — things that don’t quite make logical sense, and yet, you know what they mean.

I loved the fairytale qualities interspersed with bits of humour, with funny references, like Shmendrick knowing how to deal with Cully because he knows his Anglo-Saxon folklore, and the reference to Child — a reference I got: he collected a lot of Robin Hood ballads. I loved the bittersweetness of it, even with the humour, the way it doesn’t come out fairytale-perfect.

I might have to come back later, and say more, when it’s settled in my mind/heart.

Rating: 5/5

Sunshine, Robin McKinley

Originally reviewed 1st May, 2009

Sunshine was a reread, but it’s been a while and some things were a surprise to me all over again. I was worried it wouldn’t stand up to a reread: I skimmed a couple of other reviews and saw that people had some pretty negative things to say about it. And I certainly saw the truth in the things that were said, but I also enjoyed reading the book again. It helps that it’s an incredibly rich experience. The writing appeals a lot to my synaesthesia. It’s pretty sensual writing as it is: there’s a lot of detail, a lot of talk about cooking, and also a lot of feeling. Descriptions of sight and smell and hearing.

The whole book is written in first person POV. The main character is Sunshine, and she’s “not your average heroine”, as they say. She has no ambition, she’s not all that smart, she’s not that brave, and she’d quite happily live in her bakery all her life. Some people find her hard to like, but I think she’s quite human and although she does get a lot of power, eventually able to kill vampires with her bare hands, she doesn’t want it and she’s scared of it. I find the writing interesting and absorbing, but I’m sure for some people it’s too rambling and/or dense. It does take her an awful long time to do something as simple as log onto the internet equivalent.

The book is set in a post-apocalyptic world where magic, vampires, demons and succubi — to name a few — exist. All those kinds of things are for real. This could be ‘our world in the future’ given the references to Bram Stoker, or an alternate reality. It’s never made exactly clear, but I suspect the latter because of the slang words the characters use — “carthaginian hell”, “spartan”, “sheer”. I like that there’s no explanation of the slang, given that the book is narrated by someone who is a part of that world. You just don’t really think about that kind of thing in normal life: why would you? Sometimes Sunshine explains things that shouldn’t need explaining, like how to kill vampires, but you can’t avoid doing exposition entirely!

The thing that really impresses me about this is that the vampires aren’t overly sexualised, and while Constantine is still an ally, he remains unsettling. Okay, there are a couple of scenes in which Sunshine has chemistry with him, but she’s also more often than not aware that there’s something vastly different about him. He moves differently, he looks different, there’s no heartbeat… I like the way it ends on an awkward note, with them not quite sure what’s going to happen now but not wanting to lose contact with each other.

A lot of the more minor characters are completely fascinating and have big backstories that we clearly barely glimpse — Mel, Yolande, Sunshine’s grandmother, the goddess of pain, the SOFs in general… There’s a lot to work with in this world, and I’d really love to see a sequel.

My main problem with this book is how it made me crave cinnamon rolls. Argh!

Rating: 5/5