October Books 17) White Crow, by Mary Gentle

[nwhyte]

A few years ago, shortly before I began bookblogging, I read and totally loved Mary Gentle's Ash. More recently, I was rather disappointed with her 1610. I'm afraid that White Crow was more towards the 1610 end of the scale. It brings together three short stories about her protagonists Valentine and Casaubon, and three novels, Rats and Gargoyles,

Comments

[tchernabyelo]

I remember enjoying Rats and Gargoyles - in particular the way she wove the plots of the different people trying to save the city in such a way that you didn't know, in the end, which (if any) of them had "worked".

But the whole recreation of the same two characters in different settings really didn't work for me. Character arises from culture and trying to replicate these people in different milieux just seemed like an author way too in love with her own creations for my taste.