Novels of Phil Rickman

[methodius]

I've just finished reading a couple of novels I picked up in the cheap books tray in a supermarket. They were "Midwinter of the Spirit" and "A crown of lights" by Phil Rickman. I bought them because they seemed suitable light reading to fill in odd moments -- on Tuesdays I travel to Johannesburg to give a one hour lecture on church history, but I

Comments

Re: Novels of Phil Rickman

[52darkstar]

Strange sort of serendipity going on here. I was just thought I'd check to see if a new Phil Rickman was out yet and this sight also came up when I was looking for Phils site.

I've been reading Phil's books for the last seven years. One of the things that attracted me was way he uses earth mysteries, conventional religion and contemporary issues to tell his stories. I'm particularly enamored of the Merrily Watkins novels I enjoy the complexity of the the relationships and the ongoing character stories. I also like the way that the same characters turn up in different stories. He creates a very believable world populated with people whom we have all meet. The 'supernatural' aspects of the stories compliament the character driven plots rather than act as a distraction. In fact whilst the supernatural elements provide the plot basis the reader is not required to be a believer just accept that others are. I particularly like his take on contemporary spirituality and his version of an inclusive christianity accepting of others faiths or lack of.

Re: Novels of Phil Rickman

[methodius]

I've just been rereading Candlenight, which I think was one of his first novels, and it's definitely not as good as the later ones. I keep having to go back to check up on things that he has said -- the reader has to remember quite trivial details in order to make sense of things that come up later. It's not as if they were clues in a whodunit.

But the more recent ones seem much better and very true to life, and what you say about some of the characters being people we have all met is very true.

So he does seem to be seriously underrrated, to judge by the lack of his books in the bookshops.