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Swordspoint
Jun. 13th, 2006 06:04 pmI'm reading Ellen Kushner's novel at the moment, I'm only about 1/4 of the way through and already I'm very impressed. It's a great book.
True, the world building isn't stellar, but as it's not the focus in the book, it doesn't really matter. You can't imagine the world or the history of the place, seeing as so far it's just served as a backdrop to the story and the characters.
It's a very character driven story.
In that way, the writer reminds me very much of Mary Brown, who wrote 'The Unlikely Ones', and 'Pigs Don't Fly but Dragons Do'. I don't think even George Martin can write characters as well as she can, but that's probably because his story is more plot driven than hers, and he has so many to write about he can't forcus on most of them, the closest he comes is with Tyrion.
Ellen Kushner's as good, but it's still great, she also has the added bonus of not letting gender stand in the way of chemistry :) So I'm rather biased due to that.
She can write sex scenes though, I can't really compare her to published writers because I've not found any who write gay sex :(, however, she is a match for the best R-rating slash writers in any fandom. NC17 tends to be better as it's not quite so flowery, but she did a pretty damn good job (not to mention a rather hot one, I heart those characters, I really do).
I like her writing style, again, it's up there with Mary Brown, if not George Martin's, very readable, and not too poetic or flowery, she knows when to decend into gritty realism when she needs to.
All in all, it would take a huge turn around (or the death of one of the main characters, which, seeing GMMR's praise for the novel, seems likely) for me to change my mind about this books. It's fun, it's great, and it's certainly worth a read.
True, the world building isn't stellar, but as it's not the focus in the book, it doesn't really matter. You can't imagine the world or the history of the place, seeing as so far it's just served as a backdrop to the story and the characters.
It's a very character driven story.
In that way, the writer reminds me very much of Mary Brown, who wrote 'The Unlikely Ones', and 'Pigs Don't Fly but Dragons Do'. I don't think even George Martin can write characters as well as she can, but that's probably because his story is more plot driven than hers, and he has so many to write about he can't forcus on most of them, the closest he comes is with Tyrion.
Ellen Kushner's as good, but it's still great, she also has the added bonus of not letting gender stand in the way of chemistry :) So I'm rather biased due to that.
She can write sex scenes though, I can't really compare her to published writers because I've not found any who write gay sex :(, however, she is a match for the best R-rating slash writers in any fandom. NC17 tends to be better as it's not quite so flowery, but she did a pretty damn good job (not to mention a rather hot one, I heart those characters, I really do).
I like her writing style, again, it's up there with Mary Brown, if not George Martin's, very readable, and not too poetic or flowery, she knows when to decend into gritty realism when she needs to.
All in all, it would take a huge turn around (or the death of one of the main characters, which, seeing GMMR's praise for the novel, seems likely) for me to change my mind about this books. It's fun, it's great, and it's certainly worth a read.