The Etched City
So, the past month I've been reading The Etched City by K. J Bishop for a book club. I didn't get around to posting my review in the thread, so it seems I'll be writing it down here for the time-being.
The first thing that struck me about the book once I had finished it is that it could've been so good. Really, that's the thing that stands out to me most. The Etched City is a class example of what a talented writer but first-time author often does wrong.
While the style is slightly more purple than I normally prefer I am actually quite drawn in by the way Bishop works with words. The book has something fantastical about it and her wordplay capitalizes and expounds on that. There is something special in names and words like The Copper Country and Ashamoil. It paints vivid images of sand deserts in hues of copper green and red. Huge, looming cities driven by steam, slaves and magic. At the same time, Bishop fails to paint a cohesive picture for me. At the outset, I see things very clearly, the steampunkish city, 19th century in fashion and style. I really do have it before my inner eye and suddenly she mention something like rubber soles and everything fucking falls apart.
Things like this makes me want to stop reading and I quite honestly would've if it weren't for the fact I was reading it for a purpose. The main-reason for that however wouldn't have been the often-times jarring and clashing imagery, but the fact that this book doesn't have a story-line.
I have the distinct impression that Bishop had a wonderful world to play with, but no stories to tell about it. Writing and story-telling are two distinctly different things that should and needs to be combined. Bishop's mistake lay in her characterization and choice of timing/exposition. The premise and setting of the book is quite good, but both of the main characters, Raule and Gwynn, are extremely passive. This is a book about The After. After the war, after the revolution etc. I don't mind a slow-moving plot, but it has to be a plot.
The characters are broken people, there is nothing that really pushes them to action. They try to survive and that's pretty much it. Bishop's biggest mistake is her failure to introduce change and something to spur these characters to action. Indeed, the latter part of the book is the best because the notion of change and action is introduced in Gwynn's life by his lover/muse (whose name I've actually forgotten, I think it was Beth, so I'll go with that).
Other than that, this book is very much a slice-of-life of sorts. People come and go, seemingly at random in a way that's actually very realistic, but not very conductive to telling a good story. The way Raule glides away and disappears is extremely frustrating as Raule is needed to pair Gwynn to create a dynamic that can drive the story somewhere, either by character interaction or external plot elements.
Another thing about the book that was incredibly disorientating and jarring was the fact that either Bishop was trying to include too much in the book, or just couldn't plain decide what she wanted the book to be. She creates so many threads that she never ever picks up again. One long passage details a conversation with Gwynn and three men who all have had a dream/heard-a-story/something about a red hair they all need for something, and Gwynn has happened to find a red tuft of somebody's hair.
The purpose of the exchange for each man is to make Gwynn give them the hair. It comes completely at random, reads like a passage from The State by Plato or any other Greek book about philosophy and does absolutely nothing but consume a couple of thousand words. It does nothing for neither characterization nor plot. Once the scene is over, it's as if it never happened and hangs inside the book like a little bubble in a vaacum.
Like previously stated, despite the books many weaknesses and faults, there are several separate elements that I appreciate. While the book has been described as post-apocalyptic I'd like to go a step further and say that this is a book where the fabric of reality is obviously fraying at the edges, a concept I've only encountered in a positive fashion once before so far in a webcomic by Sandra Fuhr called 5ideways.
However, when it comes down to it, for all it's interesting philosophies, world, characters and writing, nothing ever really happened in this book and as such I never felt the drive and need to pick the book back up once I had put it down. For all the tightness of the writing style, the fantastical interesting world she was painting, she failed to hook me and that in and of itself, makes the book a failure.
The first thing that struck me about the book once I had finished it is that it could've been so good. Really, that's the thing that stands out to me most. The Etched City is a class example of what a talented writer but first-time author often does wrong.
While the style is slightly more purple than I normally prefer I am actually quite drawn in by the way Bishop works with words. The book has something fantastical about it and her wordplay capitalizes and expounds on that. There is something special in names and words like The Copper Country and Ashamoil. It paints vivid images of sand deserts in hues of copper green and red. Huge, looming cities driven by steam, slaves and magic. At the same time, Bishop fails to paint a cohesive picture for me. At the outset, I see things very clearly, the steampunkish city, 19th century in fashion and style. I really do have it before my inner eye and suddenly she mention something like rubber soles and everything fucking falls apart.
Things like this makes me want to stop reading and I quite honestly would've if it weren't for the fact I was reading it for a purpose. The main-reason for that however wouldn't have been the often-times jarring and clashing imagery, but the fact that this book doesn't have a story-line.
I have the distinct impression that Bishop had a wonderful world to play with, but no stories to tell about it. Writing and story-telling are two distinctly different things that should and needs to be combined. Bishop's mistake lay in her characterization and choice of timing/exposition. The premise and setting of the book is quite good, but both of the main characters, Raule and Gwynn, are extremely passive. This is a book about The After. After the war, after the revolution etc. I don't mind a slow-moving plot, but it has to be a plot.
The characters are broken people, there is nothing that really pushes them to action. They try to survive and that's pretty much it. Bishop's biggest mistake is her failure to introduce change and something to spur these characters to action. Indeed, the latter part of the book is the best because the notion of change and action is introduced in Gwynn's life by his lover/muse (whose name I've actually forgotten, I think it was Beth, so I'll go with that).
Other than that, this book is very much a slice-of-life of sorts. People come and go, seemingly at random in a way that's actually very realistic, but not very conductive to telling a good story. The way Raule glides away and disappears is extremely frustrating as Raule is needed to pair Gwynn to create a dynamic that can drive the story somewhere, either by character interaction or external plot elements.
Another thing about the book that was incredibly disorientating and jarring was the fact that either Bishop was trying to include too much in the book, or just couldn't plain decide what she wanted the book to be. She creates so many threads that she never ever picks up again. One long passage details a conversation with Gwynn and three men who all have had a dream/heard-a-story/something about a red hair they all need for something, and Gwynn has happened to find a red tuft of somebody's hair.
The purpose of the exchange for each man is to make Gwynn give them the hair. It comes completely at random, reads like a passage from The State by Plato or any other Greek book about philosophy and does absolutely nothing but consume a couple of thousand words. It does nothing for neither characterization nor plot. Once the scene is over, it's as if it never happened and hangs inside the book like a little bubble in a vaacum.
Like previously stated, despite the books many weaknesses and faults, there are several separate elements that I appreciate. While the book has been described as post-apocalyptic I'd like to go a step further and say that this is a book where the fabric of reality is obviously fraying at the edges, a concept I've only encountered in a positive fashion once before so far in a webcomic by Sandra Fuhr called 5ideways.
However, when it comes down to it, for all it's interesting philosophies, world, characters and writing, nothing ever really happened in this book and as such I never felt the drive and need to pick the book back up once I had put it down. For all the tightness of the writing style, the fantastical interesting world she was painting, she failed to hook me and that in and of itself, makes the book a failure.
Labels: reviews
posted by M | 6:18 pm
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4 comments
