Unquenchable Fire

Rating:
Summary: A very strange but satisfying read
Review: I don't know what it was that attracted me to this book-- perhaps it was the striking cover art of a floating figure with a flaming mask. Perhaps (as I now think having read it) it was something greater than random chance.

This is not a book that I would characterize as a light, enjoyable read. It is exceedingly strange, both in form, and in the world it describes. The world of the book is loosely based on our own, although that world has been transformed by a spiritual force acting through designated tellers of stories. These stories are so apocryphal and so powerful as to have led to a "revolution" in the very nature of the world. The story is told as a narrative with bits of these world- defining recitations interspersed. The main character, a plain young woman who works servicing the shrines to the revolution, is battered by visitations that appear contrary to the ones sanctioned by the government. Her struggle to understand the meaning of her experiences is mirrored by the reader's own attempt to understand them in the context of our own, more mundane world.

It is difficult to describe the power of this book because of its very unusual nature. The oddity of this book persists throughout until the very end, when this reader (for one) experienced that moment of pure clarity and light which makes me think back on it, even thought I read it almost a year ago now. Overall, for those who like speculative and unusual fiction and who are willing to spend the time puzzling over Unquenchable Fire's deeper meanings, I would highly recommend this as one of the most striking books I have read in many years.

Lastly, the protagonist becomes pregnant during the story, and this is a central event to the narrative. I think that anyone who is expecting (as my wife was when I read this book) or is a new parent will get something extra from this book!

Rating:
Summary: A very strange but satisfying read
Review: I don't know what it was that attracted me to this book--perhaps it was the striking cover art of a floating figurewith a flaming mask. Perhaps (as I now think having read it) it was something greater than random chance.

This is not a book that I would characterize as a light, enjoyable read. It is exceedingly strange, both in form, and in the world it describes. The world of the book is loosely based on our own, although that world has been transformed by a spiritual force acting through designated tellers of stories. These stories are so apocryphal and so powerful as to have led to a "revolution" in the very nature of the world. The story is told as a narrative with bits of these world- defining recitations interspersed. The main character, a plain young woman who works servicing the shrines to the revolution, is battered by visitations that appear contrary to the ones sanctioned by the government. Her struggle to understand the meaning of her experiences is mirrored by the reader's own attempt to understand them in the context of our own, more mundane world.

It is difficult to describe the power of this book because of its very unusual nature. The oddity of this book persists throughout until the very end, when this reader (for one) experienced that moment of pure clarity and light which makes me think back on it, even thought I read it almost a year ago now. Overall, for those who like speculative and unusual fiction and who are willing to spend the time puzzling over Unquenchable Fire's deeper meanings, I would highly recommend this as one of the most striking books I have read in many years.

Lastly, the protagonist becomes pregnant during the story, and this is a central event to the narrative. I think that anyone who is expecting (as my wife was when I read this book) or is a new parent will get something extra from this book!

Rating:
Summary: Wow. Fantasy or SF? This book is its own thing.
Review: In the medium-near future, a revolution has taken place. The forces of science and rationality have lost. The newage Founders of the new reality have loosed the forces of mysticism and the world has changed. Miracles happen routinely. Government and society have restructured themselves to accomodate this new strange reality.

A suburban woman has a strange experience during a holy day. She finds that she has been made pregnant by an unknown agent. How will she cope? How will her very suburban neighborhood cope?

My husband had been trying to get me to read this book for ages. Finally he got me when I couldn't escape and began reading this aloud to me. When he stopped after the first chapter, I demanded he hand the book to me so I could finish.

This book came from nowhere for me. I don't know of anything like it. I guess this is shamanistic fantasy. It feels SF-ish, though, in that it's a consistent future world with sensible rules. Whatever it is, it's a stunner, the kind of book that leaves me incredibly excited and optimistic about the state of SF & fantasy.

Rating:
Summary: Pure Imagination...
Review: Jennifer Mazdan is pregnant.. except she's a virgin, and there was no man involved but an Agency who needs Jennifer to give birth to this child to save humanity from dry morals, banal religion and oppressive dogma.

Wait.. doesn't this seem familiar...?

Here, Rachel Pollack has created a Messiah story that focuses on the mother of the Messiah, and how she doesn't want to be "chosen", how she'd prefer to be left alone and be obscure, the same way everyone else in her world is - dry, homogenized, merely going through the motions of life. Jennifer rebels in every way possible, but the Agency finds ways to keep her on track... but never docile and accepting.

The book tells several stories at once, each from different times, told for different purposes - "The Place Inside", "The Meaning of a Story", "The Lives of the Founders", Valarie Mazdan's adventures (a few), and, of course, Jennifer Mazdan's saga. "The Place Inside" chills me still.

The editing is uneven to say the least, but we can't fault the author for that, but rather Tusk Press. Typos abound.

Find a copy of this book and enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: Pure Imagination...
Review: Jennifer Mazdan is pregnant.. except she's a virgin, and there was no man involved but an Agency who needs Jennifer to give birth to this child to save humanity from dry morals, banal religion and oppressive dogma.

Wait.. doesn't this seem familiar...?

Here, Rachel Pollack has created a Messiah story that focuses on the mother of the Messiah, and how she doesn't want to be "chosen", how she'd prefer to be left alone and be obscure, the same way everyone else in her world is - dry, homogenized, merely going through the motions of life. Jennifer rebels in every way possible, but the Agency finds ways to keep her on track... but never docile and accepting.

The book tells several stories at once, each from different times, told for different purposes - "The Place Inside", "The Meaning of a Story", "The Lives of the Founders", Valarie Mazdan's adventures (a few), and, of course, Jennifer Mazdan's saga. "The Place Inside" chills me still.

The editing is uneven to say the least, but we can't fault the author for that, but rather Tusk Press. Typos abound.

Find a copy of this book and enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: Surreal novel a mind-bending experience
Review: _Unquenchable_Fire_ takes the reader down Main Street, USA where everything s/he knows is right there in front of their eyes, but there's more... Sometime in the previous seventy years a global Revolution in Consciousness has taken place. People now all operate on a higher spiritual level than they do now, but this Higher level is so commonplace that it has lost any meaning, any speciality it may once have had. The text shifts between the story of the main character --Jennifer Mazdan-- and the past--with brief histories of The Founders (The Revolutionary Leaders), brief glimpses of the future and a character named valerie Mazdan, interwoven with the text of a Story "found" by Li Ku Unquenchable Fire--"The Place Inside". It's confusing enough that it you're not paying attention, there's going to be trouble finding your way around. This book is a novel along the lines of _The_Handmaid's_Tale_ for the sheer scope of its vision, and for it's portrayal of an America so much like ours, despite the obvious differences, that it doesn't speak well for racial memory. We forget the important things too quickly and easily, and try to live within the bounds other people set up for us. Wonderful!