Rating: 
Summary: A Compelling First Effort
Review: There are authors who write well and there are authors who are good story-tellers; few it seems are both. Mr. Irvine appears to be among the rare few blessed with both talents. A "Scattering of Jades" is the most absorbing book I've read since Terry Goodkind's "Wizard's First Rule". As with all those who make a dramatically compelling entry, expectations rise that perhaps we've seen just a first effort of rare genius and the best is yet to come. Mr. Goodkind disapponited with follow on books that were no more than slight and sometimes tortured variations on a good first book. Now we wait to see if Mr. Irvine will fulfill the promise. A "Scattering of Jades" has a strong feeling of authenticity. Mr. Irvine can invoke passionate sympathy or antipathy for his characters. He gives his evil charaters enough redeeming virtue and his good charaters enough flaws to make them real. His description is compelling and his narrative and dialog are not stilted. Altogether a book that I hated to put down and eagerly searched for time to continue reading. What will Mr. Irvine do with just a little more tempering?
Rating:
Summary: A Different type of fantasy...
Review: This was a solid, good book. It kept me reading, especially towards the end, and the gods were exquisitely rendered by Irvine.
It was a bit jarring at first, and a bit unbelievable with the way the mesoamerican gods supposedly tied in with history heavyweights such as Aaron Burr and PT Barnum. But eventually (about a quarter of the way through the book) the wierdness wore off and I began to enjoy the story more. At it's most basic form the story reminded me of the movie "The Mummy," but transposed to American myths.
There is a lot of good description and effectively creepy stuff going on here, especially the parts where the chacmool creates old Aztec mosters out of humans. Lots of fun to read and think about, and the best characterization of Aztec gods I've found in any novel!
Rating:
Summary: A Different type of fantasy...
Review: This was a solid, good book. It kept me reading, especially towards the end, and the gods were exquisitely rendered by Irvine.
It was a bit jarring at first, and a bit unbelievable with the way the mesoamerican gods supposedly tied in with history heavyweights such as Aaron Burr and PT Barnum. But eventually (about a quarter of the way through the book) the wierdness wore off and I began to enjoy the story more. At it's most basic form the story reminded me of the movie "The Mummy," but transposed to American myths.
There is a lot of good description and effectively creepy stuff going on here, especially the parts where the chacmool creates old Aztec mosters out of humans. Lots of fun to read and think about, and the best characterization of Aztec gods I've found in any novel!
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