Mockingbird

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, funny, touching
Review: It is hard to create and sustain a sympathetic belief in a protagonist who is literally riding to hell in a very small handbasket. But Sean Stewart manages this task and grants us a viewpoint in to many skewed and fragmented lives with great charm and power. Simply the finest fantasy produced this year.

Rating:
Summary: Witty, thoughtful and cleanly-written
Review: Mockingbird's protagonist is Toni Beauchamp, who lives in Houston. Her mother has just died at the start of the book, but her forceful character looms over the plot, gaining importance as Toni realizes she has inherited some of her mother's magic. It's an unwelcome gift though: the "riders" are something like ancestral spirits, except that it's not clear they give a hoot about Toni's well-being--most of the time, anyway. They take over Toni's body, as they did her mother's, whenever they feel like it.

This is not fundamentally a book about magic, though, or about multiple personalities, though it has a little of that feel. It's about Toni learning to cope with life; coping with her sister, with her love-life; with her job, and most of all with the memories of her mother. Stewart doesn't put a foot wrong with his characterization of Toni; a remarkable feat for a man and a sign of his skill. The writing is clean and clear, and frequently very funny.

However, in some ways I think the book is a failure. I think Stewart wanted Mockingbird to be meaningful and deep. He was aiming at being Isabel Allende, but in the end I think he only achieves humour, affection and interest. It feels a little unfair to criticize the book for not being brilliant, but I think Stewart can do even better than this. Meanwhile, this is a fine novel, and I unhesitatingly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Witty, thoughtful and cleanly-written
Review: Mockingbird's protagonist is Toni Beauchamp, who lives in Houston. Her mother has just died at the start of the book, but her forceful character looms over the plot, gaining importance as Toni realizes she has inherited some of her mother's magic. It's an unwelcome gift though: the "riders" are something like ancestral spirits, except that it's not clear they give a hoot about Toni's well-being--most of the time, anyway. They take over Toni's body, as they did her mother's, whenever they feel like it.

This is not fundamentally a book about magic, though, or about multiple personalities, though it has a little of that feel. It's about Toni learning to cope with life; coping with her sister, with her love-life; with her job, and most of all with the memories of her mother. Stewart doesn't put a foot wrong with his characterization of Toni; a remarkable feat for a man and a sign of his skill. The writing is clean and clear, and frequently very funny.

However, in some ways I think the book is a failure. I think Stewart wanted Mockingbird to be meaningful and deep. He was aiming at being Isabel Allende, but in the end I think he only achieves humour, affection and interest. It feels a little unfair to criticize the book for not being brilliant, but I think Stewart can do even better than this. Meanwhile, this is a fine novel, and I unhesitatingly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Mockingbirds Magic
Review: Mockingbirds Magic

The Book Mockingbird is set in present-day Houston Texas. Written by Sean Stewart, this novel is about a woman and her life becoming a mother while accepting her mother's last gift to her, a sip from the mockingbird cordial.
Toni Beauchamp, the main character, never wanted to accept that her mother was different in the sense that she had magic. She thought of her mother, Elena Beauchamp, as living in her own little world, at times temporarily completely controlled by the "Riders," one of the six gods. When her mother died, Toni thought that she was rid of all of her mothers silly magic except for the magic that her sister, Candy, inherited which was the ability to see happy thing in the future.
It is easy to understand why Toni does not want her mother's powers. One day, she and Candy went to the Galleria, a shopping mall, to buy clothes. By this time Toni was already artificially pregnant. She had already spent approximately 6 thousand dollars on clothes, when Sugar, one of the "Riders" mounted Toni. Sugar had complete control over her body. She spent an extra 28 thousand dollars on clothes. These clothes were Sugars, not Toni's even though they were spent with Toni's credit card. Anything that you buy while one of the "Riders" mounts you is theirs. Two hours later when Sugar left her body and Toni regained control over herself again, she felt dizzy and quiet sick. This is just one episode out of many when the "Riders" come in contact with Toni.
Throughout the book Toni describes short clippings of a story that her mother used to tell her when she was little. The story is about a lost little girl (who is also another one of the "Riders"). The lost little girl is trying to find her way home after her mother has left her. Through the whole story, the lost little girl has encounters with all of the other "Riders" at some point in the story. Toni soon finds out that the story her mother used to tell her plays a very important and a very real part in her life. She finds out several extremely shocking things that she would have wanted to know earlier on in her life. Then she figures out that almost everyone knows except for her and her sister, Candy.
Stewart's novel has an overall great supply of detail and thoroughly describes the acceptance that the characters have to accept and the relationships between mother and daughter.

Rating:
Summary: Mockingbirds Magic
Review: Mockingbirds Magic

The Book Mockingbird is set in present-day Houston Texas. Written by Sean Stewart, this novel is about a woman and her life becoming a mother while accepting her mother's last gift to her, a sip from the mockingbird cordial.
Toni Beauchamp, the main character, never wanted to accept that her mother was different in the sense that she had magic. She thought of her mother, Elena Beauchamp, as living in her own little world, at times temporarily completely controlled by the "Riders," one of the six gods. When her mother died, Toni thought that she was rid of all of her mothers silly magic except for the magic that her sister, Candy, inherited which was the ability to see happy thing in the future.
It is easy to understand why Toni does not want her mother's powers. One day, she and Candy went to the Galleria, a shopping mall, to buy clothes. By this time Toni was already artificially pregnant. She had already spent approximately 6 thousand dollars on clothes, when Sugar, one of the "Riders" mounted Toni. Sugar had complete control over her body. She spent an extra 28 thousand dollars on clothes. These clothes were Sugars, not Toni's even though they were spent with Toni's credit card. Anything that you buy while one of the "Riders" mounts you is theirs. Two hours later when Sugar left her body and Toni regained control over herself again, she felt dizzy and quiet sick. This is just one episode out of many when the "Riders" come in contact with Toni.
Throughout the book Toni describes short clippings of a story that her mother used to tell her when she was little. The story is about a lost little girl (who is also another one of the "Riders"). The lost little girl is trying to find her way home after her mother has left her. Through the whole story, the lost little girl has encounters with all of the other "Riders" at some point in the story. Toni soon finds out that the story her mother used to tell her plays a very important and a very real part in her life. She finds out several extremely shocking things that she would have wanted to know earlier on in her life. Then she figures out that almost everyone knows except for her and her sister, Candy.
Stewart's novel has an overall great supply of detail and thoroughly describes the acceptance that the characters have to accept and the relationships between mother and daughter.

Rating:
Summary: A cross between 100 Yrs of Solitude and Fried Green Tomatoes
Review: Not the fantasy/SF Sean Stewart's fans might expect, but a kind of funny southern gothic, with a little magic realism thrown in for good measure. I've read all Stewart's books, but this one is far and away the best - and includes the most hysterical, and accurate description of morning-sickness I've ever read. (All I'll say it that it involves a revolving restaurant, a Cobb salad, and a voodoo curse.) If you've not yet discovered Stewart, here's the place to start. And if you already know his work, get ready to enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Another excellent novel from Sean Stewart.
Review: Sean Stewart has produced yet another great fantasy novel that differs from his others in the same way Nobody's Sun was different from Resurrection Man. This time, he's chosen to explore the intersection of voudon, white folk magic, and Mexican folk magic -- and the result is brilliant.

Rating:
Summary: A true Rollercoaster of Emotions...
Review: This book is top notch, the character development is fantastic and the story so real that it turns into a roller coaster of emotions.... Top Notch!

Rating:
Summary: Mockingbird
Review: This is a hard book to rate. I didn't enjoy it all that much, definitely not as much as Stewart's other work; but at the same time I suspect that it's excellent of its kind, but that kind just isn't quite my thing.

So what's its kind? This is magic realism, set in present-day Houston; quiet and understated, with a story that's about people coming to terms with reality, rather than about any great conflict or threat. I found it a little slow and mundane.

Toni, the main character, has invented a connection with certain gods... they're really more like loa... from her eccentric, difficult mother. In Mockingbird, she has to deal with these gods, their possession of her, as well as her pregnancy. The gods are well described. But when they take possession of Toni... they tend to want to do things like playing the stock market. Whole pages of this book are devoted to online trading, with numbers and all. Probably someone's cup of tea; not mine. Lengthy description of the discomforts of pregnancy is vivid, but also tends to drag. There's not a lot of drama here.

But, on the other hand, there isn't *intended* to be a lot of drama. It's not that kind of book.

Recommended for people who like this sort of thing.

Rating:
Summary: Anne Rice-ish, but funny, funny, funny
Review: Zombie frogs, cursed oilfields, and mouth-watering Mexican recipes abound in this wild tale of one young woman's trip from daughterhood to motherhood. I don't usually read SF, but a friend recommended this book, and I loved it. It reminded me a bit of Like Water for Chocolate, or like one of Anne Rice's witch-books....except this writer has a sense of humor.