Anne Lyle

Hmm. HMM. Frankly, I was disappointed with this, but for various reasons I went in really hopeful about it, so perhaps the letting down of my high hopes evens out at not bad really.

My feeling, though, is that the plot lacked power and significance (by which I mean it didn't build itself solidly, or have big damn consequences front and centre keeping one's attention riveted), the storytelling was too caught up in minutiae and justifications (by which I mean there were a lot of little scenes of characters doing little things for little reasons that were too closely explained), and the prose was workmanlike and not sufficiently elevated by its Elizabethan gracenotes.

Mostly, I was just hoping for more - more skullduggery, more magic, more machinations, more breathtaking scope - and mostly this was concerned with theatre and personal issues.… (meer)

Larry Rostant’s Renaissance cover art has once again persuaded me to take a punt on a novel: a compelling blend of fantasy and gritty historical fiction, populated by players, spies, noblemen, and swordsmen who are down on their luck. This is London, in the fading days of Elizabeth I’s reign, but not as you know it. The queen tarries at Nonsuch, mourning her late husband Robert Dudley, while the reins of power are in the hands of her elder son Prince Robert. The capital seethes not only with religious strife, but also racial tension, for the discovery of the New World has brought Europe into contact with the skraylings: human-like and yet not human; great craftsmen, traders and warriors. And the imminent arrival of the first skrayling ambassador to the Court of St James may well be the spark that ignites the blaze. Imagine Shakespeare in Love seasoned with grit, intrigue and more than a hint of otherworldly magic...

For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2018/02/07/the-alchemist-of-souls-anne-lyle/… (meer)