Galveston

Rating:
Summary: Galveston
Review: This is an immensely enjoyable fantasy novel.

The unpredictable, nonlinear plot kept catching me by surprise. And Stewart's style emphasizes the unpredictability all the more by having crucial, often tragic, events take place in an instant, with little or no warning that a turning-point has arrived. There is no such thing as foreshadowing in this book, or forewarning.

But by giving up foreshadowing--admittedly a powerful literary tool to sacrifice (I'm not sure Stephen King could ever do it!)--Stewart instead creates an odd realism. The reader is always in the moment with all the wonderful characters and their strange environs: various gods, angels, revellers, living dolls, apothecaries, ghosts, prawn men, cannibals,and human citydwellers spread out amongst two versions of Galveston...one all too real and steeped in disaster, and one a place of pent-up fantasy. Sloane and Josh, the two main characters, give the book its human side; most of the rest is intriguingly dangerous or magical, or both.

Rating:
Summary: dark Southern fantasy
Review: What I loved about this book was the fact that even though there's a certain Southern Gothic feel to this fantasy, it still didn't leave me feeling sad & depressed, like some of the other dark fantasy writers I've read. The story-line could use some fleshing out-- I did wonder, as other negative reviewers, what about the other places? What happened, for instance, to New Orleans-- if the magic of Mardis Gras hit Galveston, whoa nelly, New Orleans!!! But at the same time, I was drawn into this incredibly well-drawn, deeply satisfying narrative. I don't think it has anything to do with magic being always "dark" or "evil" as one reviewer seems to imply, but it is always dangeous-- the "be careful what you wish for" sort of warning that some folks forget about in the world of Unicorns and happy little fairies.

Based on this and several others I have read by him, Sean Stewart is one of those authors whose book I will buy just from seeing his name on the cover-- I don't even have to read the plot blurb, I know I will like it. You will too if you enjoy a complex look at magic realism with a Southern twist.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating book, maddening but understandable ending
Review: When I saw this book, I'd never heard of Sean Stewart. I was just wandering around an SF bookstore when I saw this with its various awards noted beneath. Tim Powers is awfully good competition for the mythopoeic award, and the World Fantasy Award usually picks something good, so I decided a paperback was well worth the risk. After approaching the beginning with more curiosity than comprehension, I found myself engrossed in this magic-ridden world, and the characters (more fleshed out than many real people seem to be!) kept my eyes locked on the pages. One warning: this book will depress ... you in a lot of parts, but that's part of what makes it so bleedin' good.

I read this book in an absolute frenzy, even a feverish one. However, as the last 40 pages came up, I began more and more to fear an unsatisfying ending. There were simply too many threads in the air to tie them up right. As those pages dwindled, a whirlwind of events bring things closer to satisfaction, but not enough to begin the stirrings of anger when 10 remained. By the last line, however, he had managed to bring the tale to an understandable close, if not a beautiful finale. I was mad enough that I tossed the book down in disgust, but captivated enough to run back through the pages for minute upon minute after I completed it. I still don't know whether it was the best way to go, but I know that the book as a whole was brilliant, it seriously deserved the WFA, and I just can't stop thinking about it. Please read it, but not if you're looking for the feel-good book of the year.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating book, maddening but understandable ending
Review: When I saw this book, I'd never heard of Sean Stewart. I was just wandering around an SF bookstore when I saw this with its various awards noted beneath. Tim Powers is awfully good competition for the mythopoeic award, and the World Fantasy Award usually picks something good, so I decided a paperback was well worth the risk. After approaching the beginning with more curiosity than comprehension, I found myself engrossed in this magic-ridden world, and the characters (more fleshed out than many real people seem to be!) kept my eyes locked on the pages. One warning: this book will depress ... you in a lot of parts, but that's part of what makes it so bleedin' good.

I read this book in an absolute frenzy, even a feverish one. However, as the last 40 pages came up, I began more and more to fear an unsatisfying ending. There were simply too many threads in the air to tie them up right. As those pages dwindled, a whirlwind of events bring things closer to satisfaction, but not enough to begin the stirrings of anger when 10 remained. By the last line, however, he had managed to bring the tale to an understandable close, if not a beautiful finale. I was mad enough that I tossed the book down in disgust, but captivated enough to run back through the pages for minute upon minute after I completed it. I still don't know whether it was the best way to go, but I know that the book as a whole was brilliant, it seriously deserved the WFA, and I just can't stop thinking about it. Please read it, but not if you're looking for the feel-good book of the year.

Rating:
Summary: Magical, absorbing, honest
Review: _Galveston_ is set in the same world as two of Sean Stewart's earlier novels, _Resurrection Man_ and _The Night Watch_, though all three books are set at different times, and feature different characters, and are basically completely independent books. It's an alternate history of sorts: sometime around World War II, fantasy started to leak into our world, at first slowly, such that at moments of great emotional stress, "minotaurs", dangerous magical creatures would be created. Then, in 2004, some years before the action of _Galveston_, came the Flood, where the world was apparently inundated with magic. In the island city of Galveston, a semblance of order has been maintained, mainly by the agency of two women: Jane Gardner, the secular leader of the city, and Odessa Gibbons, the Recluse, who polices the border between the magical part of Galveston, and the ordinary city. Anyone who shows traces of succumbing to magical influence is sent by Odessa to the magical part, where it is always Carnival, always 2004, always a party; and where over time people undergo strange alterations: some become part shrimp (the Prawn Men), or part cat, or heron, etc.

_Galveston_ is mainly the story of two people, Jane's daughter Sloane Gardner; and Josh Cane, who was sweet on Sloane when he was a boy. But Josh's father lost their house in a poker game, and Josh's mother kicked him out and ended up becoming an apothecary in the poorest part of Galveston. Josh learned from his mother the bitter art of trying to make medicines in a mostly post-technological world, taking over the business when she died of diabetes after her insulin stock ran out. Josh is forever bitter at his exile from the high society of Galveston, at his mother's death and father's abandonment, and at the way most of his new neighbourhood is slow to accept him.

Josh and Sloane are about 23 when the main action occurs. Sloane is watching her mother die, fearing the time when she will be expected to take over running the town, a job for which she feels inadequate. A desperate trip to the magical part of Galveston leads to a disastrous bargain with Momus, the god who rules that part of town, a bargain intended to save her mother, but which of course goes wrong.

From there the action intensifies. Odessa helps Sloane make additional trips to the magical side, this time appropriately masked, while Josh and his friend Ham end up framed for a crime that didn't even occur, and exiled to the barbaric Texas coast. Just at this time, the disaster which has been foreshadowed throughout the book happens: a hurricane, and some deaths, which finally loose the tide of magic onto the long protected city of Galveston. Sloane is forced to learn more about herself, and to try to find a way to lead the newly changed city, while Josh is forced to even more bitter self-confrontation.

This is really an absorbing book, a wonderful read. The magical elements are very well described, as is the decaying "real world" landscape of post-Flood Galveston. The characters are bitterly and honestly portrayed, and despite manifold weaknesses, they are very sympathetic. My only disappointment was that the book doesn't really end so much as stop. I think this is a result of Stewart's refusal to "lie": he doesn't want any easy solutions, either easy happy endings, or easy tragedies. The book's theme could be described as "life isn't fair", or perhaps "it doesn't get any better than this". To some extent, this means reader expectations are frustrated: I sense because of a feeling that to satisfy conventional expectations would be cheating. At any rate, I felt the ending of the book read a bit flat, though the theme is driven home excellently, and the characters are treated honestly and their changes are real. In sum, a very good book.