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I read KJ Bishop's _the Etched City_ on the train journey Friday evening. My finishing it was aided by FirstNorthWestern's being late into Bolton, meaning I missed my connection for the Glasgow train, and so had an extra hour, although saying that the station platform was so cold I could barely turn the pages!
Not a great book, but not bad. A couple of reviews have compared it with China Mieville's _Perido Street Station_, so I guess I shall have to find the copy of that I have hanging around somewhere half-read. I can see a similar tone, but not having finished PSS yet, can't comment further. _The Etched City_ is a first novel, but with previous history between the two main characters from the start, we shall have to see if a prequel is in the offing. Both could do with some exposition on how they got there, I think. Having a bit of a soft spot for black-haired rogues with dandyish streaks (I said *rogue* ;-)) I liked Gwynn, for all his bad habits, while the fairly resolutely unfeminine doctor Raule, with a habit of collecting deformed fetuses, was an interesting departure. The settings have an air of familiarity about them, if from a variety of sources, with bits of classic western, Saturday morning serial in the desert and Chinese traid-in-the-tropics following the geographical changes. I did enjoy the other-worldly quality of Gwynn's obsessive relationship. It's character-led, and there is a thread of plus ca change... and a twist to close, of course.
Worth a re-read, which is above-average, I guess!
Not a great book, but not bad. A couple of reviews have compared it with China Mieville's _Perido Street Station_, so I guess I shall have to find the copy of that I have hanging around somewhere half-read. I can see a similar tone, but not having finished PSS yet, can't comment further. _The Etched City_ is a first novel, but with previous history between the two main characters from the start, we shall have to see if a prequel is in the offing. Both could do with some exposition on how they got there, I think. Having a bit of a soft spot for black-haired rogues with dandyish streaks (I said *rogue* ;-)) I liked Gwynn, for all his bad habits, while the fairly resolutely unfeminine doctor Raule, with a habit of collecting deformed fetuses, was an interesting departure. The settings have an air of familiarity about them, if from a variety of sources, with bits of classic western, Saturday morning serial in the desert and Chinese traid-in-the-tropics following the geographical changes. I did enjoy the other-worldly quality of Gwynn's obsessive relationship. It's character-led, and there is a thread of plus ca change... and a twist to close, of course.
Worth a re-read, which is above-average, I guess!
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but i absolutely just could NOT get into it
& i dont know why!!!!!
(aside from the fact that im not much
of a sci-fi fan: i prefer straight up horror
& mysteries.)
i just kept reading a few pages & putting it
down & then going & reading something else.
i finally gave up & loaned it to my mom a couple
days ago. hopefully she'll like it so much that i'll
be inspired to finally finish it.
what do you think of it so far?
:)
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