"The City in These Pages" reviewed
Mar. 26th, 2009 12:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
realthogA short but extremely perceptive review of my The City in These Pages, done by Brian (not sure of surname), has just appeared over at Book Spot Central. I regard it as a rave -- I'm ever so pleased he's cottoned on to what I'm up to with the novella. Here's most of the review:
The City in These Pages is a mix of SF/F and a McBain-esque police procedural. Mixed in with this is a healthy dose of absurd. Most of the story is like an oil & vinegar dressing that has been shaken really well because the elements of the story are blended really well. But the separation of the dressing occurs when the story takes a veer at the end that may shake some readers; It’s a fairly abrupt moment that changes the story into something else entirely. I was able to hang on for the change but some may not.
Oh, I do like the idea of readers having to cling on by the fingernails for dear life as the story suddenly caroms out of genre expectations into "something else entirely". That's exactly the effect I wanted to create: to have the real story sneak up on the lulled, unsuspecting reader and suddenly just be there. Oh, yes: Brian's comments are music to this author's ears. He may most certainly claim a free drink should he ever run into me at a con or wherever.
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Date: 2009-03-26 06:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-28 12:26 am (UTC)Many thanks! As you'll have gathered, I'm mighty chuffed by it. The book's been getting some nice notices, but this guy in a way put his finger on it -- even though he sounds to have been moderately disconcerted on doing so!
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Date: 2009-03-26 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-28 12:27 am (UTC)Many thanks!
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Date: 2009-03-28 12:01 am (UTC)As the others have said, congratulations! I've just got a copy of the book myself, and I'm looking forward to reading it.
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Date: 2009-03-28 12:25 am (UTC)Well discovered, D! I had a look around, but I couldn't see it.
Thanks for the congrats! Hope you like the book. (That griding sound you hear in the background is of fingernails being chewed down past the quick . . .)
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Date: 2009-03-28 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-28 01:22 am (UTC)"I've never read a book of yours that I didn't like"
Your fiver's in the mail . . .
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Date: 2009-03-28 08:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-28 08:58 pm (UTC)Typical, isn't it? Their demands start off small, and they say you'll never hear from them again after just this single payment, but then . . .
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Date: 2009-03-28 01:54 am (UTC)Oh, I meant to say: Did you decide to go to Eastercon?
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Date: 2009-03-28 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-08 02:26 am (UTC)Have a good time there! Say hellow from Pam and me to anyone you think would like to have our hellos said to them.
And, David: seriously now. Make sure you don't imbibe too splendiferously. We all remember -- and some of us are still undergoing counselling as a consequence of -- your performance at Fantasycon that night after you'd had the 18th pint of Old Thumbstrangler.
'Nuff said.
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Date: 2009-04-08 10:51 pm (UTC)On the latter: would I..?
PS. Have spent the last four days in Exeter -- my first time that far south west. What a beautiful place.
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Date: 2009-04-08 11:36 pm (UTC)"Have spent the last four days in Exeter"
Did you pop in to see my ol' mucker Ron Tiner? And, if not, why not?
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Date: 2009-04-16 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 08:28 pm (UTC)"he wouldn't have known who I was"
He would have if I'd told him . . .
"most of my time on the university campus"
Lucky sod! It's wonderful up there. Have you ever been to a Microcon?