4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Gripping yet ultimately unfulfilling, 2002-08-08
I truly enjoy Hand's writing - lyrical, expressive and detailed. As an example of her early work, this novel is a phenomenal piece of writing. Her characters are magnificent and she breaks just about every taboo you can think of without losing her sense of style. However, I found the ending to drag slightly, as she had left a great many loose ends to tie up. At this point I often found myself loosing sight of the plot. Certainly worth a read, but I would recommend Aestival Tide and Glimmering over it.
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Rich, deep and satisfying., 2000-07-03
This is the kind of science fiction novel you do not see very often any more. Elizabeth Hand has managed to combine elements of mythology and weird fiction with cybernetic SF and spiced the brew with luxuriant blossoms from the garden of the Decadents. I say it this way because people have misunderstood so much. You cannot think Anne Rice when you read Elizabeth Hand. Yes, one can identify scraps of H.P. Lovecraft, Christina Rossetti and especially Tanith Lee, but Hand is not trying to write like anyone but herself. And I'm only midway through the first chapter.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
darkly beautiful, 2000-04-21
Every once in a while a book comes along that changes the way you look at the world. This was one of those books for me. It's gorgeously written and full of deep symbolism and mythic imagry (don't even try to understand it without 1st looking into the myth of Baal and Anat,) But on many levels, it is, as one reviewer stated, shattering. This is a book for those who are willing to brave dense language, seemingly wandering narative, and difficult imagry (on more levels than one,) but it is worth the work.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Some things make worlds tilt...., 2000-01-16
I have never read something so completely jarring and overwhelming as this. I initially picked it up in a used bookstore before going on a trip as something to pass the timed and quickly became mired in the words and feelings and depth of this timeless piece of work. The reader feels the characters, the setting, the stories in a way that no other writer I dare say is capable of, with the exception of maybe Thomas Harris. But just like other novelists of her caliber, Elizabeth hand is underrated and forgotten all too quickly. Her writing is timeless, and this novel is the best example.
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Dark and Serious Sci-Fi, 1999-12-18
Words, like shadows in a forest, evade me: they are tangled in the web of thoughts and feelings I felt while reading this masterpiece of post-apocalyptic beauty and horror. This is not light reading; it draws on mythic sources and tranmutes them into a world so darkly beautiful and rich, it's almost tangible. It will draw you in with its seductive, elegiac tone, reminiscent of the best writing from Anne Rice and, dare I say it, Edgar Allen Poe! Your mind will linger in this world long after the story is through, and you will keep the book near you while you read it so that you will be reminded that it is not a dream. Read this book and be forever changed.