By Coincidence
Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys is a good read, a huge improvement over the Neverwhere days where I thought it would be a good story if someone illustrated it. Distinctive characters, good narrative voices, nice use of local details, and a great sense of humor. But all the coincidences converging at the end put me off a bit. One thing I dislike about fantasy is that authors can excuse a mass of convenient coincidences as magic or fate. Still, I recommend the book.
***
Into the Ruins by Kate Elliot is pretty good but has a lot of flaws. Sixth in the Crown of Stars series, a big-ass novel in a series of big-ass novels that have been released over the course of several years, it drops you right into the midst of everybody’s business and it takes a while to remember who every one of what seems like a hundred characters is and what their backstories and beefs are. I wonder if some novelists create a huge cast just to make larger books. It can be frustrating dealing with all of these people, especially when a character you don’t like has a whole chapter taking you away from ones you’re more interested in. What’s even more frustrating is that almost all of them here are petty or idiots. I don’t like any of them. Yet the plot kept me interested enough in what happens next that I read this big-ass book to the end and may check out the next big-ass book in the series.
***
Poppy Z. Brite’s Liquor frustrated me. Thing rambles worse than the other three novels of hers I read, and a lot of it could, in my opinion, be cut without the story suffering. Worse is that she makes the antagonist ridiculously pathetic (though still psychotic) and seals the deal by laying on an unnecessary coincidence to further cement the man’s hatred. It’s overkill. Yeah, okay, she can be the queen of overkill, but making this case of overkill a lynchpin bothers me. Besides, overkill works better in horror novels, not regular fiction.
***
Into the Ruins by Kate Elliot is pretty good but has a lot of flaws. Sixth in the Crown of Stars series, a big-ass novel in a series of big-ass novels that have been released over the course of several years, it drops you right into the midst of everybody’s business and it takes a while to remember who every one of what seems like a hundred characters is and what their backstories and beefs are. I wonder if some novelists create a huge cast just to make larger books. It can be frustrating dealing with all of these people, especially when a character you don’t like has a whole chapter taking you away from ones you’re more interested in. What’s even more frustrating is that almost all of them here are petty or idiots. I don’t like any of them. Yet the plot kept me interested enough in what happens next that I read this big-ass book to the end and may check out the next big-ass book in the series.
***
Poppy Z. Brite’s Liquor frustrated me. Thing rambles worse than the other three novels of hers I read, and a lot of it could, in my opinion, be cut without the story suffering. Worse is that she makes the antagonist ridiculously pathetic (though still psychotic) and seals the deal by laying on an unnecessary coincidence to further cement the man’s hatred. It’s overkill. Yeah, okay, she can be the queen of overkill, but making this case of overkill a lynchpin bothers me. Besides, overkill works better in horror novels, not regular fiction.