Rating: 
Summary: Modern writing style, surreal, vivid, emotional
Review: The truth about 'Black Wine' -- This book reads both like a story woven carelessly from dream-logic and like a story masterfully and carefully crafted. The writing style is like a piece of modern art: sometimes abstract and filled with strange brevity. The issues of the story are raw, emotional, and distinctly adult: feminism, dominance and submission, sex, power. 'Black Wine' is not a "fun" escapist storybook -- it is a highly stylized and challenging piece of literature that invites you to read closely and see deeply. If you seek challenging literary fiction, I highly recommend this book to you.
Rating: 
Summary: Just a bit pretentious....
Review: Funny, I liked this book at first. I was a little thrown off (as I was intended to be) by shifts between characters and time-frames. My usual approach when I encounter this kind of writing is to put myself at the author's mercy, hoping things will be tied together and that the end result will be worth the discomfort of reading something written this way. Well, the ends get tied together, but I was disappointed with the whole. I felt as if the author kept trying to impress me with how very "artistic" her writing could be, while failing to tell me a story that meritted this kind of treatment. "Black Wine" tells the story of four generations of women trying to choose their own destinies or avoid responsibility, depending on how you view the plot. Yes, there is a fair amount of sex, all of it integral to the plot and characterizations. But while the characters initially intrigued me, they all seemed to fizzle out sooner or later. A more minor gripe: the book is being heavily marketed to a U.S. audience, but its editorial conventions don't conform to U.S. standards--I got really tired of seeing the term "no one" hyphenated. On a literary level, the editing failed to pull this book together and help it move beyond the realm of pretentiousness. "Black Wine" isn't a terrible book, but it didn't seem to offer a whole lot of insight into anything except the author's ego. It caught my attention, but it didn't seduce me or give me anything new to think about.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely amazing book....
Review: I got this book as a birthday present from my sister.
As soon as I was done reading it (with that shuddering pleasure that only the absolute best books give you), I passed it back to her to read... and I still haven't got it back, because when she was done, she gave it to her boyfriend to read (someone who is not the biggest fantasy fan), and he won't read the very end, because "But once I finish it, it'll be over!"
I'm considering buying another copy, to re-read it and pass it on again to someone else. It's amazing that 'Black Wine' is a first novel. The characters are complex enough to fully immerse yourself in their lives. The world is not some faux-medieval wish-fulfillment daydream, but a real, gritty and harsh land - that still somehow has the feel of one of your deepest dreams.
Recommended for fans of Ursula LeGuin, Margaret Atwood, and Sheri S. Tepper. (But having said that, I feel I should add that the "feminist" undercurrent of the book is neither distracting, nor does it leave you with that nasty "agenda" taste in your mouth.) (oh, and they play Scrabble! Yay! (as Scrabble fanatics, both me & my sister got a big kick out of that!)
Rating:
Summary: This book was O.K.
Review: I had no idea what was going on for the first 75 pages of this book, but eventually all became clear. I just had a hard time really caring about the characters once I was finally able to figure out what was happening.
Rating:
Summary: This book was O.K.
Review: I had no idea what was going on for the first 75 pages of this book, but eventually all became clear. I just had a hard time really caring about the characters once I was finally able to figure out what was happening.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant.
Review: I have just finished this book- and I feel very lucky to have found it. With so much mediocre to good fiction and/or sf/fantasy around, Black Wine reminded me how enjoyable and transforming a really good book can be. I am reminded of Ursula le Guin- perhaps Russ. It is slightly confusing at the beginning, as it jumps between characters in the manner of a connected series of short stories. But I was delighted as I read on and realised exactly what Dorsey was doing. As for plot/ character/setting- set in a far future, or other world, on a continent with very different cultures in different regions. THere are the sailors, who fly the sky-ships (dirigibles) and have gene tech, allowing same sex couples or families of three parents etc to have children. There is the idyllic mountains, where people share everything, but then there is the SOuth, where no one touches one another, and a mother helps her toddler up after a fall with the end of her broom. And then there is the land ruled over by an evil despot, where slaves have their tongues cut out, and sadism, incest and violence is the norm. The book is first class, superbly and consistently written. i see from one of the reviews on this page that Black Wine may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I am stumped as to why! I think that the more people read this wonderful book- the better!
Rating:
Summary: Am I getting old? Anyone else notice all the sex?
Review: I have some catching up to do. Although I have read an abundance of sci-fi over the years I was not quite ready for the amount of sex in this book nor the continuous use of the "f---" word. I don't know how I would feel if this book were to be read by someone in their early teens (just how old should you be to read about someone watching their grandmother doing it with a slave? Although the 3-way encounter was handled more lovingly.) Did I continue reading because it was a fine example of literature or because I was curious to find out how the next few pages might surprise me? As for fantasy sci-fi, this book has a wonderful, dreamlike quality (wet dream?). Prehaps Amazon should cross-reference this book under "erotica", or at least include a sentence in their capsule review about the sexual content. Prehaps I'm just behind the times - it should be interesting to catch up on the last 5 years of science fiction.
Rating:
Summary: drunk on black wine
Review: I loved this book! It was a challenge, but a facinating one. I thought of this as a mystery-who was related to whom and what it meant for everyone. I would have to disagree with the reviewer who wanted to know the "Point." I think this book highlights something that eventually confronts everyone, their past and how to deal (or not) with it.
Rating:
Summary: Best fantasy of decade
Review: I note a recommendation for fans of LeGuin and the like above. Well, I'm not a big LeGuin fan (I read the Earthsea trilogy in high school), and I loathe Atwood, but I loved this book. Recommendation? Read it. It's amazing. The only fantasy from the '90s that I can think of that compares at all is Brust's Agyar, which is written by one of the best, and most definitely is not a first novel. Out of first novels, this book stands out. I hope she writes more. All I can say is, The Hobbit was a first novel, and this book is too.
Rating: 
Summary: A pleasant surprise
Review: It often annoys me when a book's back cover has nothing but praise, without even a hint of what the book may be like. In this instance however, I ended up glad that I had gotten into the book without knowing just what it was I was getting into. I did find the first part of the book difficult to follow, but the allure of the book came from watching it weave together and begin to make sense (starting around p100 or so for me).Unlike a lot of fantasy I have read, where the author takes familiar (tired?) themes and stories and tells them in an alien world with alien characters, Candas Jane Dorsey tells a dream-like, surreal narrative in settings and with characters that seemed quite familiar. To me the book read almost like a feminine 'Naked Lunch'. Although I say the settings seemed very familiar, the book conjured imagery that was fantastic, dark and beautiful. Reading this book was a wonderful escape from this mundane earth, and perhaps if read a second time (which I may do one day) deeper running themes can be found. The only reason I've given this novel 4 rather than 5 stars is that at some points it felt a touch too academic to be a fantasy novel.
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