Galveston

Rating:
Summary: Southern Gothic Fantasmagoria
Review: I'll be brief...This book is a sublime experience for any fan of fine dark fantasy. This book is not, however, for the faint of heart. Stewart tackles some tough ideas, and shows the situations to you in vivid, sometimes graphic detail. But I would not miss a word of this book; I would not change one, either...The characters are well crafted, complete humans, even the "monsters". The plotting is well paced, and builds to a fine ending. There is no good or evil in Galveston, no black and white in Mardis Gras, just an amazing array of shades af grey, with the occasional fabulous splash of color. Do yourself a favor & read this book. Now.

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't quite gel
Review: I've liked all of Sean Stewart's other books, but this one disappointed me. All the usual elements were there, but somehow they didn't fit together right. The ending didn't provide any real resolution. If you're new to Stewart, read Mockingbird instead - I think it's his best. This one has the same setting as Resurrection Man and Night Watch, and I think those are both better.

Rating:
Summary: Each snowflake is different....
Review: Sean Stewart came to my attention with Nobody's Son, and the fresh, adult look that it offered at Fantasy (Hey, I just found a magic sword....) made me consume every book of Stewarts I could find.

I am a big fan, and thus, if you are looking for a non-biased view (in my view, impossible) this review will not be particularly helpful.

Set in his "returned magic" universe, Galveston offers us a set of protag's who are not without warts, and antag's who have some humor and humanity (even if one is a god.)

It is not an exact copy, or rehash of his earlier works. It is different in pacing and form, thus no free ride by slipping on your complacency hat and just thumbing through the pages. You have to read this one.

And no doubt, you will be glad you did.

Rating:
Summary: Strong and very human characters, weak ending...
Review: Sean Stewart's mastery of language is overwhelming - his descriptions bring you right there into the 'changes' that Galveston faced as magic flooded into the city. Galveston is a first and foremost a character novel, however, and despite its fantasy-soaked roots, it remains a character-based novel.

Josh, the herbalist of the bad-side of Galveston, is haunted by his wealthy past and can never quite seem to get away from the distaste of his family's fall from wealth. Ham, his so-called 'best friend', is a black man from the poorer area of town, and secretly harbors an intense dislike for his friend, never quite forgetting that Josh always seemed to want to return to his wealthy roots. Sloane, born to wealth and power, is attempting to find her fate in this crumbling society, but lacks the courage to be a true leader on her own merit. Throughout the novel, Sean Stewart shows the inner complexity of these characters as they grow and evolve through problem after problem.

Even minor characters are detailed with vivid personalities -- at one point in the novel, Josh and Ham find themselves exiled to an area populated by cannibals. They are captured by a cannibal couple who intend to make them a meal. When Josh is alone with the old man, however, the cannibal shows layers of worry for his partner's deteriorating health. (But not to the point that he loses his determination to cook her after her demise- in a gruesomely funny scene, he asks Josh whether TB is contageous if the meat is well-cooked!)

I found the ending to not be truly satisfying - there were so many strong points to the book that the sudden ending felt hurried. However, I would still unhesitatingly recommend this book on its character sketches alone.

After all, "It doesn't get any better than this!"

[If you would like to see a great review for this novel, do a search on Salon.com's books website for Sean Stewart.]

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't quite gel
Review: So magic has leaked out into the real world and must be held at bay by a few unlikely heroes: So what? As most of us understand magic (in its typical representation in fantasy fiction), it's a tool that can be used for good or ill by those who know how to wield it, like any tool. Stewart assumes instead that magic is like a plague that warps and eventually destroys everything in its path, and would like us to assume so as well.

Fine. What about the rest of the world? We're told Galveston's magic was contained in an endless Mardi Gras so the rest of the population could live on in a banal relative peace, but what about Austin? Dallas? New York? We're told that manufactured goods can no longer be imported from the "outside world," yet Galveston enjoys electricity, plumbing, air conditioning, gas, and most of the other ensigns of civilization. So what was it that happened to the factories, exactly?

Stylistically, the book is uneven. As has been mentioned here, the characters are eminently unlikeable and uninteresting. One gets the impression that this is Stewart's point (in attempting to weave magic into "reality"), but there is a reason we read fantasy: Because it is NOT like real life and brings us to fantastic magical places. I spent the entire book wanting to get back to Mardi Gras where the magic was allowed to run rampant. The plot is hesitant and unclear, the themes are murky, and the ending is more like an amputation. All of this is shrink-wrapped in a heady self-congratulatory style that suggests we're reading something important and innovative. It's made the more pretentious by the reality that it's just a soap opera with a few feathers and snake scales sewn on for effect.

Rating:
Summary: So what?
Review: So magic has leaked out into the real world and must be held at bay by a few unlikely heroes: So what? As most of us understand magic (in its typical representation in fantasy fiction), it's a tool that can be used for good or ill by those who know how to wield it, like any tool. Stewart assumes instead that magic is like a plague that warps and eventually destroys everything in its path, and would like us to assume so as well.

Fine. What about the rest of the world? We're told Galveston's magic was contained in an endless Mardi Gras so the rest of the population could live on in a banal relative peace, but what about Austin? Dallas? New York? We're told that manufactured goods can no longer be imported from the "outside world," yet Galveston enjoys electricity, plumbing, air conditioning, gas, and most of the other ensigns of civilization. So what was it that happened to the factories, exactly?

Stylistically, the book is uneven. As has been mentioned here, the characters are eminently unlikeable and uninteresting. One gets the impression that this is Stewart's point (in attempting to weave magic into "reality"), but there is a reason we read fantasy: Because it is NOT like real life and brings us to fantastic magical places. I spent the entire book wanting to get back to Mardi Gras where the magic was allowed to run rampant. The plot is hesitant and unclear, the themes are murky, and the ending is more like an amputation. All of this is shrink-wrapped in a heady self-congratulatory style that suggests we're reading something important and innovative. It's made the more pretentious by the reality that it's just a soap opera with a few feathers and snake scales sewn on for effect.

Rating:
Summary: A promising author delivers his best yet
Review: Stewart delivers a vivid tapestry of a city assaulted by the release of magic into the world. Continuing on themes he's developed in previous books, Stewart turns his attention towards the fascinating island city of Galveston, a city with two sides.

The first side is that of an almost post-apocalyptic city. One in which civilisation has started to collapse and the surviviors struggle to make do with the remains of technology and rapidly dwindling 'comforts.' The other side is of a Carnival that never ends, where the magic lives, ruled by a god named Momus. In between are a handful of women and men who try to keep the two sides as apart as they can.

The clash of magic and modenr society has always been one of Stewart's main themes, but here, for the first time. he's created a story and characters which are fully as interesting as his themes. This brings to mind the best of Charles De Lint's books.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant! Brilliant!
Review: Stewart is one of the greats and this is his best book to date. Forget all those hobbit clones. Like Carroll, Gallagher, Mieville and a few others, he is bootstrapping his version of genre into genuine literature. This is real fiction by a real writer. Don't start reading Stewart until your brain is in gear. You'll be richly rewarded.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant! Brilliant!
Review: Stewart is one of the greats and this is his best book to date. Forget all those hobbit clones. Like Carroll, Gallagher, Mieville and a few others, he is bootstrapping his version of genre into genuine literature. This is real fiction by a real writer. Don't start reading Stewart until your brain is in gear. You'll be richly rewarded.

Rating:
Summary: the monkey bit off the fairy's toe
Review: this book was more like science-conviction