I enjoyed very much this author’s book A Stranger in Olondria – it was written in such a unique style. This newer book is written in much the same style, but it imagines a much deeper history of Olondria, and has the courage to let you figure most things out on your own.
Once again I felt like I was reading the descriptions of a dream. Characters and scenes appear and pass, timelines suddenly jump forward and back, and important background information doesn’t appear until nearly the end of the novel. Side characters become main characters and vice versa – it can be a lot to take in. But the author doesn’t really hold your hand through it – and I’m sure some people will be turned off by this. But the confusion was worth it to me, and this book would especially benefit from a re-read. My guess is that the author is counting on it.
I loved the details in the writing – almost as if each sentence was a drifting image – and it hard to imagine someone sitting down to write a novel of this length and all the effort it would take to maintain this level of quality writing. It was a long book, and a little more judicious editing might have made it less confusing and more impactful to even more readers.
Without giving things away I would say that I liked the level of fantasy in this novel. Just how much magic there is in this world is a carefully guarded secret – while reading we don’t know what might be real, what could be “magic” and what is hearsay and gossip. It was skillfully done and so I can’t really go into it much here.
It was an excellent book and I hope to come back to it down the road for a re-read to see if I get more out of it. Next I am reading The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin.
