Well, written, but kind of falls apart at the end, and doesn't have much of a point. ( )

Loved it. Unsettling, disorienting, and disturbingly familiar. Like one of those weird awesome fever dreams you try to hang on to. Only written better. ( )

Tras el fracaso de la revolución, el capitán de una compañía de soldados de fortuna y su cirujana se ven abocados a huir a través del desierto para salvar sus vidas. Perseguidos de cerca por el ejército, su única escapatoria es la fabulosa meseta tropical de Teleute, donde hallarán refugio. En la decadente ciudad estado de Ashamoil, Gwynn el militar pone sus pistolas al servicio de los traficantes de esclavos, mientras que Raule la curandera, truncada su esperanza de entrar en el Colegio de Medicina, se resigna a auxiliar a los desfavorecidos en un hospicio. Pero la aparición de una enigmática admiradora que envía grabados en los que aparece Gwynn demuestra que la corrupta y bulliciosa Ashamoil les reserva todavía unos destinos muy distintos.

"The Etched City" is not your typical fantasy novel, by any means. There is a broad spectrum of technology in the land where the story takes place. There are no elves or dragons (thank you). Bishop creates memorable characters, but there are no heroes or heroines. There is, however, plenty of evil. There is a great deal of pain. Each of the characters is suffering in some fashion, if not physically then existentially. There is graphic violence, and no one to cheer for. There are discourses on religion and reality that will make you question the sanity of the speaker. I liked Bishop's use of language, but her characters' dialogue was frequently not believable. The plot is hard to tease out, and it's frequently hard to know where the book is going. Some scenes are so surreal, it makes you wonder what you're supposed to really be "seeing". This kind of book may appeal to some, but frankly I don't know why I read it to the end. Despite the Locus blurb on the cover, I see only a tenuous similarity at best to the works of Italo Calvino, all of which I've read. Dive into this book at your own risk: its rewards, if there, may be so subtle as to be easily missed. ( )

Simply brilliant.

It does require a lot of patience, this novel, since around 60% of it is setup for a series of events which, at the beginning, seem to bear no relation to anything else that is going on.

My advice is to read it as you would read a Wolfe book: by which I mean, sit back and enjoy the exquisite prose, and stop worrying about what you are supposed to be focusing on. The author has a goal, the story does go somewhere, and everything is included with a purpose.

I fear that we are losing the ability to read books like this in the mainstream, despite its relatively recent publication (although it's been 11 years since it came out--not that recent I guess). I notice that many readers and writers want to be able to see a book's direction, from the get go, which always puzzles me. Why on earth would you want to read something where you are basically invited to guess the thrust of the narrative in advance?

Enjoy the surprises, the allegories, the musings, the carefully constructed scenes.

Oh, and the head hopping. I'm loving that. I love books which break rules in this way and I think the head hopping here is brilliant. ( )