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grav_ityHistorical Fantasy, All Of This Has Happened Before (And All Of It Will Happen Again), short story anthology, watch me freak out about Egyptians (again), why do I have to be allergic to cats?
Oh, short stories. I swear, I hear the word and immediately flash back to high school English, where short stories were a method of punishment in class and I got so sick of looking for themes and symbols that I went out of my way to tie in Greek Mythology just for SOMETHING TO DO.
There are a few short stories that I actually really liked before I started reading them on the internet (and writing them myself). I adore "The Pit and the Pendulum", for starters. And there's a story I can never remember about a guy who hunts people and the dude who escapes him. And something that might be called "The Destroyers" that has something to do with Christopher Wren. But mostly, before January of 2009, I didn't really think about short stories a lot.
Thank goodness I've grown up.
THIS BOOK, YOU GUYS!
I'll admit straight up that I read it way too fast and that I need to go back and give it a more measured read through so that I can figure out who everyone is. As always, it's not that Graham's writing is confusing, it's more that I have trouble picking people out when they are just different enough this time around. I can usually pick out Gull and Emrys (BECAUSE I ADORE THEM), but as I was falling asleep last night, I kept having thoughts like "Have I met Corbineau before?" and "WAIT! IS SUBERVIE SISGMUND?" and "Why can I never find Iras until someone points her out?". I don't know why I fail at this so badly, but generally speaking I need a wall chart and coloured markers and very small words.
But that's not really my point. My point is that what Graham has done here is write a bunch of short stories that range over THOUSANDS OF YEARS, involving the same people with similar problems, and it's JUST BEAUTIFUL.
(There's also a part where Alexander the Great is reincarnated in Elizabeth I that makes me SO BEYOND THRILLED that I can't even word about it yet.)
The anthology begins with The Ravens of Falkenau, which is the story of the scariest version of Gull/Lydias we've yet seen. This is what happens when Gull's potential and love is stifled and twisted, and Georg is a little bit terrifying at first, because he's going to get the job done, but then he meets his Neas, and it's just amazing. As the centrepiece, Ravens does a fabulous job of letting you see the Numinous World if you haven't already, and sets up the rest of shorts really well by showing you how These People always find each other and reaffirm their oaths.
(Why isn't the plural of "oath" "oaves?")
Anyway from there we take a romp back and forth through history meeting old versions of old friends (DION! HONORE! ELZA! HOLD ME!), new versions of old friends (Georg, who scares me, Jauffre, who might scare me even though I love him, and others), and just plain old friends (LYDIAS + PTOLEMY = BEST FRIENDS FOREVER (LITERALLY!))
I think the kicker, what makes this book absolutely stunning (besides the whole of "Small Victories" and "The Messenger's Tale"), is how nearly every short story left me feeling "Great...NOW WHERE IS THE NOVEL?" because I wanted more. I could read These People FOREVER. Also, there are more than a dozen wildly different historical periods represented, and they are all executed flawlessly. There's just SO MUCH packed into so many tiny packages and, so help me, I WANT MORE.
9/10, for being awesome, historical, beautiful, sad, wondrous, hilarious and including the following conversation, which sums up the Numinous World to perfection:
I couldn't look away from his eyes, and the chill ran down my arms, all the way to my fingertips. "Sigismund, do you believe that oaths are stronger than death?"
He couldn't look away either, or he would have. "Yes," he said. "And may the gods curse me if I ever betray my friends, living and dead. I'll look out for you, Lucia. That I swear on the memory of the men I fought beside who are all gone now. That I swear."
You can purchase The Ravens of Falkenau and Other Stories here, at Crossroad Press.
Oh, short stories. I swear, I hear the word and immediately flash back to high school English, where short stories were a method of punishment in class and I got so sick of looking for themes and symbols that I went out of my way to tie in Greek Mythology just for SOMETHING TO DO.
There are a few short stories that I actually really liked before I started reading them on the internet (and writing them myself). I adore "The Pit and the Pendulum", for starters. And there's a story I can never remember about a guy who hunts people and the dude who escapes him. And something that might be called "The Destroyers" that has something to do with Christopher Wren. But mostly, before January of 2009, I didn't really think about short stories a lot.
Thank goodness I've grown up.
THIS BOOK, YOU GUYS!
I'll admit straight up that I read it way too fast and that I need to go back and give it a more measured read through so that I can figure out who everyone is. As always, it's not that Graham's writing is confusing, it's more that I have trouble picking people out when they are just different enough this time around. I can usually pick out Gull and Emrys (BECAUSE I ADORE THEM), but as I was falling asleep last night, I kept having thoughts like "Have I met Corbineau before?" and "WAIT! IS SUBERVIE SISGMUND?" and "Why can I never find Iras until someone points her out?". I don't know why I fail at this so badly, but generally speaking I need a wall chart and coloured markers and very small words.
But that's not really my point. My point is that what Graham has done here is write a bunch of short stories that range over THOUSANDS OF YEARS, involving the same people with similar problems, and it's JUST BEAUTIFUL.
(There's also a part where Alexander the Great is reincarnated in Elizabeth I that makes me SO BEYOND THRILLED that I can't even word about it yet.)
The anthology begins with The Ravens of Falkenau, which is the story of the scariest version of Gull/Lydias we've yet seen. This is what happens when Gull's potential and love is stifled and twisted, and Georg is a little bit terrifying at first, because he's going to get the job done, but then he meets his Neas, and it's just amazing. As the centrepiece, Ravens does a fabulous job of letting you see the Numinous World if you haven't already, and sets up the rest of shorts really well by showing you how These People always find each other and reaffirm their oaths.
(Why isn't the plural of "oath" "oaves?")
Anyway from there we take a romp back and forth through history meeting old versions of old friends (DION! HONORE! ELZA! HOLD ME!), new versions of old friends (Georg, who scares me, Jauffre, who might scare me even though I love him, and others), and just plain old friends (LYDIAS + PTOLEMY = BEST FRIENDS FOREVER (LITERALLY!))
I think the kicker, what makes this book absolutely stunning (besides the whole of "Small Victories" and "The Messenger's Tale"), is how nearly every short story left me feeling "Great...NOW WHERE IS THE NOVEL?" because I wanted more. I could read These People FOREVER. Also, there are more than a dozen wildly different historical periods represented, and they are all executed flawlessly. There's just SO MUCH packed into so many tiny packages and, so help me, I WANT MORE.
9/10, for being awesome, historical, beautiful, sad, wondrous, hilarious and including the following conversation, which sums up the Numinous World to perfection:
I couldn't look away from his eyes, and the chill ran down my arms, all the way to my fingertips. "Sigismund, do you believe that oaths are stronger than death?"
He couldn't look away either, or he would have. "Yes," he said. "And may the gods curse me if I ever betray my friends, living and dead. I'll look out for you, Lucia. That I swear on the memory of the men I fought beside who are all gone now. That I swear."
You can purchase The Ravens of Falkenau and Other Stories here, at Crossroad Press.
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-23 07:34 pm (UTC)