Rating: 
Summary: Intense and beautiful
Review: Our SF reading group which has a special focus on books that challenge gender roles and issues considered this our most exciting book this year. It is an intense reading experience, layered with difficult questions about power and sexuality, the potential of community, and the possibility of transforming one's identity through language. If you enjoy contemporary fiction, especially fiction that plays with ideas of identity, you will enjoy this "fantasy." Lovers of the most recent work by LeGuin and Nicola Griffith will find this interesting too.
Rating: 
Summary: A twisty, ungrounded novel
Review: The first chapter of this book is intriguing, raising questions about the nature of the protagonist and the odd world she lives in. Unfortunately, this is the only interesting part of the novel. Once the protagonist (I cannot name her, because she really has no official name) begins her journey, all I can find in this book is unecessarily harsh language that does not serve the plot, bizarre voice changes that force me to flip around to figure who is talking, and a style of prose that is beautiful in some spots but tacky in most. Unfortunately, such things seem characteristic of "literary" sci-fi, which is what this novel claims to be. I detect promise in Candas Jane Dorsey, but only if Ms. Dorsey promises that her next novel will make sense, literary or not.
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: Interesting setting and characters, but for what?
Review: This fantasy work of Dorsey's involves a unique and interesting setting and distinct characters, but after finishing the book I truly had no idea what the book was trying to say. I suppose the work could be taken as a celebration of the bonds between sisters and between daughters and mothers, but outside of that "Black Wine" really doesn't have anything to prove. Although I wouldn't tout the author's language as anything worthy of instant attention, I felt her use of words did well to build the mysterious, dark mood of much of the novel, and it is on this that I give the book 3 stars. There were quite a few graphic sex scenes, and numerous simply inexplicable sexual references (was I the only one who thought the mention of "handprints" was just kind of silly?), so those with easily-offended morals would best avoid this book.
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