Night Watch

Rating:
Summary: Another Strong Effort from Stewart
Review: Set in the world of Resurrection Man, this novel continues to exhibit Stewart's powerful narrative and characterization gifts. I was riveted-- other reviewers below seem not to have been enchanted as I was, but I think they've cheated themselves of a deep and meaningful experience. Stewart, like Tim Powers, has a deft touch with fantasy, and creates a persuasive and comprehensible fantasy world that he peoples with "real" protagonists. I've loaned this book to others, and do not hesitate to recommend it to mature readers with a taste for subtle fantasy.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written, some of the best I've read!
Review: This book shows the depth of Sean Stewart's writing -- the Chinatown sections in particular are as delicate as blown glass. Stunning. This is a book full of vision and ideas supported by a brilliant writing style. However, ultimately, the technical beauty of this didn't overcome, for me, an unfocused story ... I didn't feel there was a satisfying climax, though the book still remains, in parts, some of the best work I've ever read. When Sean Stewart hits his stride by locking down an absolutely coherent story, he'll be unstoppable.

Rating:
Summary: Too unfocused to make me care
Review: This is really just an average book by an average author. Stewart's writing is adequate, but it lacks a certain artistry. He has a tendency to overindulge himself in his descriptions, which occasionally caused me to roll my eyes as I was reading. One of my pet peeves is when an author goes into great detail describing what some character is wearing -- the color, what type of fabric, the jewelry and what it's made of, etc. FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, I DON'T CARE WHAT THIS PERSON IS WEARING, GET ON WITH THE STORY. Stewart's attempts at humor, usually spoken through his character's mouths, left me flat -- I never even cracked a smile.

At one point, Stewart describes a man trying to save himself from freezing to death in the bitter cold. The whole scene is terribly overdone, with Stewart time and again describing the poor sap warming his hands between his legs and stomping his feet to keep from freezing. At more than one point the author reminds us that "it certainly was very cold." Yeesh.

It wasn't until I approached the end of the book, that I really realized it wasn't going to come together into something satisfying. In the end, there were so many major characters in this book that I ended up not caring about any of them. The denoument, which comes some 30 pages from the end, is almost inexplicable and sucks the life out of the final pages. This isn't a terrible book, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Too unfocused to make me care
Review: This is really just an average book by an average author. Stewart's writing is adequate, but it lacks a certain artistry. He has a tendency to overindulge himself in his descriptions, which occasionally caused me to roll my eyes as I was reading. One of my pet peeves is when an author goes into great detail describing what some character is wearing -- the color, what type of fabric, the jewelry and what it's made of, etc. FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, I DON'T CARE WHAT THIS PERSON IS WEARING, GET ON WITH THE STORY. Stewart's attempts at humor, usually spoken through his character's mouths, left me flat -- I never even cracked a smile.

At one point, Stewart describes a man trying to save himself from freezing to death in the bitter cold. The whole scene is terribly overdone, with Stewart time and again describing the poor sap warming his hands between his legs and stomping his feet to keep from freezing. At more than one point the author reminds us that "it certainly was very cold." Yeesh.

It wasn't until I approached the end of the book, that I really realized it wasn't going to come together into something satisfying. In the end, there were so many major characters in this book that I ended up not caring about any of them. The denoument, which comes some 30 pages from the end, is almost inexplicable and sucks the life out of the final pages. This isn't a terrible book, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it.