Actually, this is two novels combined: The Infinity Concerto and The Serpent Mage, and it arrived so reeking of mothballs I had to put it outside next to the new flowers (white pansies, purple stock, dark pink cyclamen) in the afternoon sunlight for a little bit to let it air out first.
Do you think you know what imaginative is? You don’t. This book is beyond imaginative, and seems to owe quite a bit to Alan Dean Foster’s relentless sense of adventure. There are maestros, and soulless faeries, and wives turned into brain-snails, and Half-Breeds, and fangy bird-women, and Barbara Stanwyck, and magic, and more magic. I really enjoyed it, and I think it was written to be enjoyed. I especially like that the main character, after being kidnapped to the Magic Realm, simply tells his parents (whom he calls by first name, so L.A. in the 80s that) what is going on so he has friends on his side, instead of being secretive in solitude and misery. I love that women were the bearers of magic, and that almost all the people stolen by the Faerie were women. I loved Mozart and Mahler, and the truly inspired description of the symphonies – I’ve never seen a symphony described like that, and having read it, I realized that was the way it always should have been written. Amazing.
Another Writing Lesson: write stories for readers to enjoy, with characters who do things the readers want to do.
Visit Greg Bear's Website.
Do you think you know what imaginative is? You don’t. This book is beyond imaginative, and seems to owe quite a bit to Alan Dean Foster’s relentless sense of adventure. There are maestros, and soulless faeries, and wives turned into brain-snails, and Half-Breeds, and fangy bird-women, and Barbara Stanwyck, and magic, and more magic. I really enjoyed it, and I think it was written to be enjoyed. I especially like that the main character, after being kidnapped to the Magic Realm, simply tells his parents (whom he calls by first name, so L.A. in the 80s that) what is going on so he has friends on his side, instead of being secretive in solitude and misery. I love that women were the bearers of magic, and that almost all the people stolen by the Faerie were women. I loved Mozart and Mahler, and the truly inspired description of the symphonies – I’ve never seen a symphony described like that, and having read it, I realized that was the way it always should have been written. Amazing.
Another Writing Lesson: write stories for readers to enjoy, with characters who do things the readers want to do.
Visit Greg Bear's Website.
RSS Feed