_Wheel of the Infinite_, Martha Wells
Andrew Plotkin
Time ago (long enough that I don't remember when it was.) I've liked
her other books, but not enough to jump for a hardback edition, so I
just read it.
_WotI_ is excellent, and I *will* jump for Wells's next book, hardback
or paper.
Maskelle is a middle-aged priestess -- or ex-priestess, as she is
separated from the church hierarchy in some way unclear at the
beginning of the book. She is not nearly so separated from the gods.
She is travelling back to the capital, after seven years, in the
company of a nomadic theater company. And she rescues this guy from
a gang of pirates.
That's the setup, and things get considerably more complicated from
there. I don't need to recount it, it's in the book. My point is,
_WotI_ is a good solid portrayal of a woman and her religion, a
religion in a world where the gods really do talk to priests and give
them magical powers. Maskelle is not a one-note character; she has one
relationship with her deity, another with Rian (the warrior she
rescues), another with her superior (or ex-superior), the chief priest
of the Empire. These are all interesting people, and the relationships
are all convincing.
(I really liked the chief priest. He's probably an old drinking buddy
of Master Li.)
All the characters are grownups, and none of them are idiots. I
*really* appreciated that.
The setting is deftly done, as an empire in a tropical rainforest,
with the tremendous stone cities and temples and all. Much in the way
of the Maya, or (as the author credits at the end) Cambodia. But it's
a *living* stone-city empire, at the height of its power, with the
whole gamut of ritual and secular bustle running through the streets
and temples and palaces. I appreciated that too, after countless
fantasies and adventure stories (and computer games) set in dusty,
ruined, *abandoned* stone cities.
Given what I said about religion, I'm practically forced to compare
this to _Curse of Chalion_. I really think _Wheel of the Infinite_
holds its own. Bujold has the magic touch with personalities and
dialogue; but Wells keeps the story going, I cared about all the
people, and _WotI_ has a good solid kick-ass ending. Everything in the
book comes round and comes together, like, you know, one of those
"wheel" things. (Like many people, I felt a little off-balance at the
end of _Chalion_ -- it was good but not quite satisfying.)
Recommended.
--Z
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
* Make your vote count. Get your vote counted.
Konrad Gaertner
>
> All the characters are grownups, and none of them are idiots.
That alone is enough to make me consider reading it.
--KG
Eric Walker
[... nice positive review]
I liked this book, and it is on my shelves and I recommend it.
But in some way or ways I haven't yet troubled to articulate,
it seemed somewhat, somehow, a lesser thing than her prior
works. But still good, good.
--
Cordially,
Eric Walker, webmaster
Great Science-Fiction & Fantasy Works
http://owlcroft.com/sfandf
P.D. TILLMAN
Is this the one with an Islamic-looking babe on the
cover, and some futuristic-looking dune buggies in the
background?
TIA -- Pete
--
John S. Novak, III
> _WotI_ is excellent, and I *will* jump for Wells's next book, hardback
> or paper.
[...]
> All the characters are grownups, and none of them are idiots. I
> *really* appreciated that.
> The setting is deftly done, as an empire in a tropical rainforest,
> with the tremendous stone cities and temples and all. Much in the way
> of the Maya, or (as the author credits at the end) Cambodia. But it's
> a *living* stone-city empire, at the height of its power, with the
> whole gamut of ritual and secular bustle running through the streets
> and temples and palaces. I appreciated that too, after countless
> fantasies and adventure stories (and computer games) set in dusty,
> ruined, *abandoned* stone cities.
Good review; thanks.
I've been in a cycle of looking at the book on the shelves, then
putting it back by a small margin for a while, now. I'll have to bump
it up in my priority list.
--
John S. Novak, III j...@cegt201.bradley.edu
The Humblest Man on the Net
Andrew Plotkin
> Is this the one with an Islamic-looking babe on the
> cover, and some futuristic-looking dune buggies in the
> background?
Not the US paperback edition. And the highest-tech form of transport
we see is an ox-drawn wooden wagon, so if that *is* the cover of some
edition, the artist must have been smoking something particularly
expensive that day.
Chris Camfield
<ra...@owlcroft.com> wrote:
>On Sat, 23 Feb 2002 17:37:43 +0000 (UTC), Andrew Plotkin wrote:
>
>[... nice positive review]
>
>I liked this book, and it is on my shelves and I recommend it.
>But in some way or ways I haven't yet troubled to articulate,
>it seemed somewhat, somehow, a lesser thing than her prior
>works. But still good, good.
I agree. In particular I preferred the way the general concepts were
handled in _City of Bones_.
Chris
Lois Tilton
>>I liked this book, and it is on my shelves and I recommend it.
>>But in some way or ways I haven't yet troubled to articulate,
>>it seemed somewhat, somehow, a lesser thing than her prior
>>works. But still good, good.
> I agree. In particular I preferred the way the general concepts were
> handled in _City of Bones_.
Indeed. And I look forward to her next.
--
LT
Mike Kozlowski
Eric Walker <ra...@owlcroft.com> wrote:
>On Sat, 23 Feb 2002 17:37:43 +0000 (UTC), Andrew Plotkin wrote:
>
>[... nice positive review]
>
>I liked this book, and it is on my shelves and I recommend it.
>But in some way or ways I haven't yet troubled to articulate,
>it seemed somewhat, somehow, a lesser thing than her prior
>works. But still good, good.
Yeah, that's what I'd say, too. It was a perfectly good book, and I
couldn't really articulate any problems with it, but it didn't inspire any
particular reaction in me. It's an enjoyable book, but I'd take _The
Death of the Necromancer_ over it every day of the week.
--
Mike Kozlowski
http://www.klio.org/mlk/
Andrew Plotkin
I liked _Death of the Necromancer_ and _City of Bones_, but to be
honest, they didn't really stick with me. I wasn't all that drawn in.
(I remember _CoB_ was set in some kind of holocaustic wasteland, and
_DotN_ was, um, Victorian. There was a sewer, I know there was a sewer.)
_WotI_, in contrast, lit right up.
Troyce
>
>Is this the one with an Islamic-looking babe on the
>cover, and some futuristic-looking dune buggies in the
>background?
No, that's not it. Wheel has an image based on a Tibetan Mandala, with
the temple city in the background, and Maskelle on the front, and Rian on
the back (except the paperback version for some reason did a negative reverse
with the man on the front and the priestess on the back. Go figure).
Easily her most beautiful cover, and I think the same artist is doing the
cover for the next book.
Troyce
Mike Kozlowski
Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> wrote:
>Mike Kozlowski <m...@klio.org> wrote:
>> Yeah, that's what I'd say, too. It was a perfectly good book, and I
>> couldn't really articulate any problems with it, but it didn't inspire any
>> particular reaction in me. It's an enjoyable book, but I'd take _The
>> Death of the Necromancer_ over it every day of the week.
>
>I liked _Death of the Necromancer_ and _City of Bones_, but to be
>honest, they didn't really stick with me. I wasn't all that drawn in.
>(I remember _CoB_ was set in some kind of holocaustic wasteland, and
>_DotN_ was, um, Victorian. There was a sewer, I know there was a sewer.)
>
>_WotI_, in contrast, lit right up.
Maybe our differing reactions are a function of past reading. The
Victorian setting in DotN was, for me, "Ooh, neat! A post-Renaissance
setting!" Whereas the WoTI setting was, "Oh, another jungle empire with a
priestly caste and Imperial politics."
Joe Bernstein
Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> wrote:
> This recently came out in paperback, after a hardback edition a Long
> Time ago (long enough that I don't remember when it was.) I've liked
> her other books, but not enough to jump for a hardback edition, so I
> just read it.
>
> _WotI_ is excellent, and I *will* jump for Wells's next book, hardback
> or paper.
Wells's first book or two came out while I still worked at The Stars
Our Destination and had easy access to used books, but I didn't read
them then, having been strongly urged to read one by someone whose
taste I really distrust. Oops.
Nowadays the pattern seems to be that I see a book by her in the
library, dither about it long enough that it moves to the non-new
section, then *finally* borrow it and fall in love with it. Very
odd. I used to do something similar with Patricia McKillip. But I'm
learning: I nabbed a galley copy of <Wheel> while visiting Stars.
The downside is that this has made the wait for her next book even
longer than it otherwise would have been.
> All the characters are grownups, and none of them are idiots. I
> *really* appreciated that.
I don't pay enough attention to plots to think "this character is an
idiot" *nearly* as often as lots of posters here do. But the "all of
the characters are grownups" part, at the least, strikes me as
applying to all of Wells's books. A nice thing, although it denies
the coming-of-age-and-first-love Usual Consolation Set as a possible
way for her books to proceed.
I recently re-read a book which strikes me as similar to Wells in this
and other ways, even though one of the major characters actually *isn't*
a grownup, Marta Randall's <The Sword of Winter>. It's not as, oh,
rich as Wells's writing, but very good still.
Joe Bernstein
--
Joe Bernstein, writer j...@sfbooks.com
<http://these-survive.postilion.org/>
Serg
> >
> >_WotI_, in contrast, lit right up.
>
> Maybe our differing reactions are a function of past reading. The
> Victorian setting in DotN was, for me, "Ooh, neat! A post-Renaissance
> setting!" Whereas the WoTI setting was, "Oh, another jungle empire with a
> priestly caste and Imperial politics."
I think it's may be that I have too short attention span, but WotI was
a great deal more gripping for me then DotN. I like DotN , but it was
slow sometimes..
Justin Fang
Joe Bernstein <j...@sfbooks.com> wrote:
>I recently re-read a book which strikes me as similar to Wells in this
>and other ways, even though one of the major characters actually *isn't*
>a grownup, Marta Randall's <The Sword of Winter>. It's not as, oh,
>rich as Wells's writing, but very good still.
Cool, someone else who's read _The Sword of Winter_. Does anyone have any
opinions to offer on the rest of her books? I recently saw some of them
in a used book store. The only other novel of hers I've read is _Islands_,
which I found unsatisfactory.
Hmm. Maybe I should do a "Novels of" post for her.
--
Justin Fang (jus...@panix.com)
David Eppstein
jus...@panix.com (Justin Fang) wrote:
> Cool, someone else who's read _The Sword of Winter_.
It's one of my favorites too. But I haven't been inspired to read any
of her other books.
--
David Eppstein UC Irvine Dept. of Information & Computer Science
epps...@ics.uci.edu http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/
Richard Horton
I read _A City in the North_, _Journey_, and _Dangerous Games_ quite a
long time ago -- probably just as they came out, late 70s I guess. I
liked them all a fair bit -- maybe not great, deep, stuff, but fun.
Not sure if they'd still hold up, I don't remember them well.
Then (after _Islands_ and _The Sword of Winter_ and one other) she
seems to have pretty much stopped writing -- I've long wondered what
happened to her.
--
Rich Horton | Stable Email: mailto://richard...@sff.net
Home Page: http://www.sff.net/people/richard.horton
Also visit SF Site (http://www.sfsite.com) and Tangent Online (http://www.tangentonline.com)
Karen Lofstrom
Richard Horton wrote:
> I read _A City in the North_, _Journey_, and _Dangerous Games_ quite a
> long time ago -- probably just as they came out, late 70s I guess. I
> liked them all a fair bit -- maybe not great, deep, stuff, but fun.
> Not sure if they'd still hold up, I don't remember them well.
I have old, tattered copies of _Journey_ and _Dangerous Games_ and reread
them periodically. I wouldn't call them great art, but they are good
comfort reading. I think I read one other novel of hers, from the library
-- could have been _Sword of Winter_. I like her enough that I'm tempted
to cruise ABEbooks looking for the other books ... but no, must resist,
recent computer problems have been too expensive ...
> Then (after _Islands_ and _The Sword of Winter_ and one other) she
> seems to have pretty much stopped writing -- I've long wondered what
> happened to her.
AOL.
--
Karen Lofstrom lofs...@lava.net
---------------------------------------------------------------
"What a waste it is to lose one's mind--or never to have a mind.
How true that is." -- Mr. Edible Starchy Tuber Head