Rating: 
Summary: Reviewers Didn't Let me Down
Review: As a fan of traditional fantasy, I was skeptical at first, but I over-whelmingly agree with the reviwers who said they couldn't put the book down. I read it in just two nights!
The story started out rather like a systematic unveiling of history, but before I knew it, I was knee-deep in a complex man's life- a character, by the way, I will never forget!
I was appreciatively swept away.
Rating:
Summary: A captivating fantasy adventure
Review: Gideon's Wall is a captivating fantasy adventure by Greg Kurzawa which is set forty years after the demise of a great empire. As an age of fear ends, a group of truth-seekers set out to delve the ruins and learn what terrible enemy brought about such utter devastation upon human civilization. Gideon's Wall is a captivating and recommended fantasy novel of post-holocaust rebuilding in the wake of despair and a haunting quest for knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: Heroic Fantasy at its Best
Review: Gideon's Wall is heroic fantasy at its best. A straightforward tale without any of the silly trappings and tired cliches of standard fantasy. This is about soldiers called to fight in a war they cannot win. Period. Kurzawa's writing is vivid, and he outlines the triumphs and sorrows of his characters with great skill. Gideon's Wall holds no punches. This book is highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: I want more!
Review: Gideon's Wall left me with a hunger for a stack of books just like it. It's been far too long since a story has taken me in as such. No necklines and sighs, no kidstuff, no rambling, no re-told D&D sessions, no kidding!Falling closer to the line of a speculative-fiction/fantasy hybrid, the creative voice that resonates throughout is a believable one. It has a good flow and I can honestly say I cared about the main characters--unfortunately very rare for me. Even though the book is fairly clear throughout concerning their fate, I found the ending to be very 'European' and I didn't want to deal with it.
But I'll be all right.
All in all, four out of five thumbs up.
Rating:
Summary: I want more!
Review: Gideon's Wall left me with a hunger for a stack of books just like it. It's been far too long since a story has taken me in as such. No necklines and sighs, no kidstuff, no rambling, no re-told D&D sessions, no kidding! Falling closer to the line of a speculative-fiction/fantasy hybrid, the creative voice that resonates throughout is a believable one. It has a good flow and I can honestly say I cared about the main characters--unfortunately very rare for me. Even though the book is fairly clear throughout concerning their fate, I found the ending to be very 'European' and I didn't want to deal with it.
But I'll be all right.
All in all, four out of five thumbs up.
Rating: 
Summary: Great character but story problems
Review: I picked up Gideon's wall based on Amazon linking it to authors like Gene Wolfe & Ian MacLeod. The writing is direct and compelling, and the main character is easy to like -- embodying competence and honor, but without that "special providence" most fantasy/sci-fi main characters have. He's near enough to normal to identify with, and moves through the plot without being destined for a great purpose. That much of the book makes it worthwhile, and most will read it in a day or two.
The problem with the book relates to the story itself, rather than the otherwise compelling delivery. As noted in the general book description, Gideon's wall concerns the mysterious fall of a great civilization (an empire sunk beneath an ocean of sand). With the whole focus of the book on why the civilization fell, I had expected a more thoughtful and interesting cause of death.
Without providing a spoiler, I can say that there was a cause, but that it lacked any real significance. I was left feeling really bad for lots of dead people, and with a sense of abstracted respect for all those who fought valiantly against the inevitable. But I didn't have any real idea whether there was a point.
This, I suppose, is both a positive and negative about new fantasy: the good-evil binary that powers traditional fantasy provides each book with its own significance (good triumphs over evil, much happiness and freedom ensues). In doing away with it, you've got to come up with some reason why the book should be read. Why invent a whole world of people just to kill them all off unless you've got a reason? If the cause simply "is", and no philosophical/moral/political, etc. implications can be drawn from it, then it seems to make sense to focus the story on how the cause of death is reacted to by others. No such thing here. It's just: there was an empire; it was destroyed. The end. And even though an entire civilization was destroyed 40 years previous, only archaeologists seem care why it happened.
Good thing the main character was cool.
Rating:
Summary: I want more!
Review: I purchased this book on a recommendation from a good friend. I rarely read fiction, but I figured I'd see if I could get into it. It took me about 2 chapters to get into the book and then I was hooked. The storyline and characters are different from anything I've read before. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone. I look forward to the author's next book....
Rating:
Summary: Hard to put down.....
Review: I purchased this book on a recommendation from a good friend. I rarely read fiction, but I figured I'd see if I could get into it. It took me about 2 chapters to get into the book and then I was hooked. The storyline and characters are different from anything I've read before. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone. I look forward to the author's next book....
Rating:
Summary: Seems to me like a good read
Review: I was encouraged to read this by a colleague of mine and, at first, I was hesitant: I'm not one to read a lot of fiction/fantasy. I finally gave in and I have to admit I rather enjoyed it. The build up was slow but neccesary to set the tone and atmosphere for the plot. There's a sense of emptiness at the end of the book but at the same time a deep, burdoning understanding that civilizations fall by the simplest of means.
Rating:
Summary: Barren but Beautiful
Review: This is a really lovely, sparse, intelligent work of fantasy well worth a read for anyone who is tired of 10,000 page 15-part series of vaguely Tolkienish crap. The prose is clean, the exposition is minimal, the narrative is human and elemental. In the end, it's not a wildly original story against the broader backdrop of human experience, but that is what makes it original as a work of speculative fiction: it is more in tune, fantasy elements and all, with how history unfolds over the longue duree, and with the way that individual human stories get tangled up in the sadness of endings.
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