Rating: 
Summary: I'm not sure I got it all, but it was beautiful
Review: "Beautiful" is a pretty good description of this book. It's part of the "Fairy Tales" series, all of which I love. The main character is a painter, but his creational experience (with a "big canvas") applies to any sort of artist (the creative types). The writing style rings as true, every single page. The minor characters are intriguing and fleshed out enough to be human; I found a couple of them humorous. It gives a very good insight into the craft of a painter (speaking as a musician) as well as the mind of a creator; the juxtaposition of the modern story, the fairy tale, and the incidents in the past of the narrator is fascinating. When I say I'm not sure I got it all, I wasn't kidding. While it resonated on all those levels, I don't think I fully understood the relationship of the Hungarian fairy tale to the painter's story; I'm not sure I caught all the symbolism within the painting, either. I'll just have to go reread it . . . darn!
Rating:
Summary: I'm not sure I got it all, but it was beautiful
Review: "Beautiful" is a pretty good description of this book. It's part of the "Fairy Tales" series, all of which I love. The main character is a painter, but his creational experience (with a "big canvas") applies to any sort of artist (the creative types). The writing style rings as true, every single page. The minor characters are intriguing and fleshed out enough to be human; I found a couple of them humorous. It gives a very good insight into the craft of a painter (speaking as a musician) as well as the mind of a creator; the juxtaposition of the modern story, the fairy tale, and the incidents in the past of the narrator is fascinating. When I say I'm not sure I got it all, I wasn't kidding. While it resonated on all those levels, I don't think I fully understood the relationship of the Hungarian fairy tale to the painter's story; I'm not sure I caught all the symbolism within the painting, either. I'll just have to go reread it . . . darn!
Rating:
Summary: I'm not sure I got it all, but it was beautiful
Review: "Beautiful" is a pretty good description of this book. It's part of the "Fairy Tales" series, all of which I love. The main character is a painter, but his creational experience (with a "big canvas") applies to any sort of artist (the creative types). The writing style rings as true, every single page. The minor characters are intriguing and fleshed out enough to be human; I found a couple of them humorous. It gives a very good insight into the craft of a painter (speaking as a musician) as well as the mind of a creator; the juxtaposition of the modern story, the fairy tale, and the incidents in the past of the narrator is fascinating. When I say I'm not sure I got it all, I wasn't kidding. While it resonated on all those levels, I don't think I fully understood the relationship of the Hungarian fairy tale to the painter's story; I'm not sure I caught all the symbolism within the painting, either. I'll just have to go reread it . . . darn!
Rating:
Summary: For the love of words
Review: As his characters paint their respective canvases, and the three gypsy brothers strive to put the sun, the moon and the stars in the sky, woven together with art philosophy, the joy of creating, and the history of the characters, Steven Brust works his magic by painting with words. The voice remains consistent throughout the piece, the mixing of different story telling genres works well, and most of all Steven Brust allows you to care about his subjects
Rating: 
Summary: Art for art's sake...
Review: Brust works art into a tale told about people, their emotions and their lives. While it can be easy to get caught up in the descriptions of art and the metaphors behind it, the real story here is one of people -- their progression, their advancement and their eventual change. A departure from Brust's "Vlad Taltos" series, "The Sun, The Moon and The Stars" was Brust's first book and reflects some of the deeper material he would later delve into with "To Reign In Hell" and "Cowboy Feng's" ... Overall, not his best work but a damn good read and worth picking up..
Rating:
Summary: The dilemmas of an artist
Review: First off: If you have little or no interest in art, this book might not be for you. Second, if you're looking for another book lik "Jhereg" or "The Phoenix Guards" this is not it. There is a Hungarian faerie tale(which I understand from the text is liberally adapted by the narrator) dispersed between the chapters, but chances are it will not fulfill your fantasy needs. That said, let's see what we have: The story is centered around Greg, a young painter who shares a studio with four fellow artists. They're almost broke, and they're reaching a point where their artistic ambitions must come to fruitition or be set aside for mundane pursuits. The fact that all their efforts might have been for nothing creates tension within the group, and the fact that Greg is a rather arrogant does not help. He's intelligent and he knows it, but he has trouble seeing things from more than one side, and this makes him rather insensitive. He takes art seriously to the point of pretentiousness, but he is not the most talented artist in the group. He is, all in all, human. The other characters are of course less thoroughly described, but I did not find them boring or one-dimensional. There are several sections where Greg is allowed to think aloud, expressing his thoughts about life, art and hungarian faerie tales. When you flip the last page, you have really gotten to know Greg. I consider this one of the strong points of the book. Even with his biased opinions and ill-considered remarks, Greg is a likable character. He lives off his girlfriend and feels rather guilty about this, but he can't let go of his artistic ambitions. Like a man who gambles with household money, he must either take the loss and admit failure, or go on, raise the stakes and hope for his luck to improve. The same goes for the rest of the group; they must take their shot at the stars or take a nine to five job. To sum it up, I loved this book. It made me wish I had taken more art classes, it made me want to tell stories of my own. It made me want to recommend it to everyone, but I realize(particularly after reading some of the other reviews) that it's not everyone's cup of tea. Fortunately.
Rating:
Summary: The dilemmas of an artist
Review: First off: If you have little or no interest in art, this book might not be for you. Second, if you're looking for another book lik "Jhereg" or "The Phoenix Guards" this is not it. There is a Hungarian faerie tale(which I understand from the text is liberally adapted by the narrator) dispersed between the chapters, but chances are it will not fulfill your fantasy needs. That said, let's see what we have: The story is centered around Greg, a young painter who shares a studio with four fellow artists. They're almost broke, and they're reaching a point where their artistic ambitions must come to fruitition or be set aside for mundane pursuits. The fact that all their efforts might have been for nothing creates tension within the group, and the fact that Greg is a rather arrogant does not help. He's intelligent and he knows it, but he has trouble seeing things from more than one side, and this makes him rather insensitive. He takes art seriously to the point of pretentiousness, but he is not the most talented artist in the group. He is, all in all, human. The other characters are of course less thoroughly described, but I did not find them boring or one-dimensional. There are several sections where Greg is allowed to think aloud, expressing his thoughts about life, art and hungarian faerie tales. When you flip the last page, you have really gotten to know Greg. I consider this one of the strong points of the book. Even with his biased opinions and ill-considered remarks, Greg is a likable character. He lives off his girlfriend and feels rather guilty about this, but he can't let go of his artistic ambitions. Like a man who gambles with household money, he must either take the loss and admit failure, or go on, raise the stakes and hope for his luck to improve. The same goes for the rest of the group; they must take their shot at the stars or take a nine to five job. To sum it up, I loved this book. It made me wish I had taken more art classes, it made me want to tell stories of my own. It made me want to recommend it to everyone, but I realize(particularly after reading some of the other reviews) that it's not everyone's cup of tea. Fortunately.
Rating: 
Summary: White Male Pontificating...
Review: I am saddened to see all but one reviewer has accepted the main character's trite and poorly informed "dialogs" as informative of art theory or the artistic process. The characters, except Greg the main character, are not much more than cheap sterotypes of artists and Stephen Brust's writing displays no great thought or effort.
The Fairy Tale is actually only about 20 pages of the 203 page total. The author claims in the afterword to have done us all a hugh favor by bringing this flat and unadorned tale to us - it's Hungarian!
Probably the worst thing about this book is the main character, who I am afraid is probably an alter-ego of the author, and reminds me of the almost intelligent, almost educated jerks you meet in the college coffeeshop. He lives off his girlfriend who is also artistic but takes a menial job so she can support THE GREAT ARTIST. Greg, the genius in training, admits to some guilt about this, after three years of making no contribution to their relationship, except of course his great talent and intellect. After brow beating the only woman in the studio group throughout the novel, on page 197, Greg is finally confronted by his fellow artist, "Maybe she just isn't as pretentious as you, that's all." Too bad someone didn't accuse Stephen Brust of pretension when he presented this lazy exercise for publication.
Rating:
Summary: White Male Pontificating...
Review: I am saddened to see all but one reviewer has accepted the main character's trite and poorly informed "dialogs" as informative of art theory or the artistic process. The characters, except Greg the main character, are not much more than cheap sterotypes of artists and Stephen Brust's writing displays no great thought or effort.
The Fairy Tale is actually only about 20 pages of the 203 page total. The author claims in the afterword to have done us all a hugh favor by bringing this flat and unadorned tale to us - it's Hungarian!
Probably the worst thing about this book is the main character, who I am afraid is probably an alter-ego of the author, and reminds me of the almost intelligent, almost educated jerks you meet in the college coffeeshop. He lives off his girlfriend who is also artistic but takes a menial job so she can support THE GREAT ARTIST. Greg, the genius in training, admits to some guilt about this, after three years of making no contribution to their relationship, except of course his great talent and intellect. After brow beating the only woman in the studio group throughout the novel, on page 197, Greg is finally confronted by his fellow artist, "Maybe she just isn't as pretentious as you, that's all." Too bad someone didn't accuse Stephen Brust of pretension when he presented this lazy exercise for publication.
Rating:
Summary: Nice blending of three different themes
Review: I enjoyed this book a lot. Brust intertwines three separate
stories to create this book. One story is the actual
Hungarian fairy tale "The Sun, The Moon, and The Stars".
Another is the story of the main character's interactions
with his friends. The third story is of the main character's
creation of a painting.
In reading this book, I learned a lot about what makes a painting a masterwork. Because of this, I thought it was
a great book. On the other hand, my friend who has two
art professor parents thought it was a boring book. I guess
he already knew the subject matter. Unless you are a total
art guru, I recommend this book.
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