Dark Cities Underground

Rating:
Summary: This is a GREAT read!
Review: I love stories that have myths and fantasies right in modern cities, and this is the best I've read in ages! It is not as dark and bloody as the Tim Powers kind of fantasy. It is more about people, and how the things they do have bigger effects than they think, or even imagine, they can. I live in Fremont so I LOVE that riding BART will never be the same! It certainly explains a lot of odd things anyway. If you live in or ever lived in the Bay Area this is a must-read. It is like those great Diane Duane books about the wizards in New York, making it real.

Rating:
Summary: A promise betrayed
Review: If this had been the first novel I ever read by Lisa Goldstein, I think I would have loved it without reservations. Unfortunately, as much as I love the ideas presented in this book, the plot seems less coherent than those of her previous novels, despite being somewhat simpler, and the characterizations just don't seem as rich as those in earlier novels.

Each of her novels has been very different from every other. Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon is a brilliantly realized Elizabethan fantasy, Summer King Winter Fool is classic high fantasy, Tourists is a haunting novel about modern American travelers in a strange land where all the rules are different, and Walking the Labyrinth is an eerie but fun "exploring my family's mysterious and magical past" type of novel. I would give any of these novels five stars.

With Dark Cities Underground, Goldstein seems to be going further into Charles De Lint urban fantasy territory, where there is magic all around us, if only we can open our eyes to see it. I do enjoy books like this sometimes, but Goldstein's earlier books all seem much more lyrical to me, and oddly much more evocative of the strangeness in everyday things.

I still recommend reading this novel. The story is wonderful, and it's fun the way it connects so many of the best-loved stories of childhood. But if you enjoy this novel, do yourself a favor and check out any of Lisa Goldstein's other novels. Each of them is a uniquely beautiful fantasy masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: A good book, but not Goldstein's best
Review: If this had been the first novel I ever read by Lisa Goldstein, I think I would have loved it without reservations. Unfortunately, as much as I love the ideas presented in this book, the plot seems less coherent than those of her previous novels, despite being somewhat simpler, and the characterizations just don't seem as rich as those in earlier novels.

Each of her novels has been very different from every other. Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon is a brilliantly realized Elizabethan fantasy, Summer King Winter Fool is classic high fantasy, Tourists is a haunting novel about modern American travelers in a strange land where all the rules are different, and Walking the Labyrinth is an eerie but fun "exploring my family's mysterious and magical past" type of novel. I would give any of these novels five stars.

With Dark Cities Underground, Goldstein seems to be going further into Charles De Lint urban fantasy territory, where there is magic all around us, if only we can open our eyes to see it. I do enjoy books like this sometimes, but Goldstein's earlier books all seem much more lyrical to me, and oddly much more evocative of the strangeness in everyday things.

I still recommend reading this novel. The story is wonderful, and it's fun the way it connects so many of the best-loved stories of childhood. But if you enjoy this novel, do yourself a favor and check out any of Lisa Goldstein's other novels. Each of them is a uniquely beautiful fantasy masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: Urban fantasy by a master storyteller.
Review: Lisa Goldstein is one of the finest storytellers of our generation, and "Dark Cities Underground" shows this in vivid detail. Who else do you know who can weave together the themes from favorite childrens books sucha as "Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan," "The Wind in the Willows," and even "The Hobbit" to create an excursion through the archetypes that form the Dark Cities Underground? Add in enough Egyptian mystery via the tales surrounding Isis, Osiris and Set -- and you have yourself a potent little tale that is hard to forget.

If you like the works of James Blaylock or early Tim Powers, then this is one you should give a try. The characters are well developed, the themes are fascinating, and the book is thoroughly entertaining. Highly Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Urban fantasy by a master storyteller.
Review: Lisa Goldstein is one of the finest storytellers of our generation, and "Dark Cities Underground" shows this in vivid detail. Who else do you know who can weave together the themes from favorite childrens books sucha as "Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan," "The Wind in the Willows," and even "The Hobbit" to create an excursion through the archetypes that form the Dark Cities Underground? Add in enough Egyptian mystery via the tales surrounding Isis, Osiris and Set -- and you have yourself a potent little tale that is hard to forget.

If you like the works of James Blaylock or early Tim Powers, then this is one you should give a try. The characters are well developed, the themes are fascinating, and the book is thoroughly entertaining. Highly Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Ideas abound while the story strays
Review: The idea for this book is marvelous but the individual characters are not always as interesting or as developed as the adventures. There is too often one character suddenly explaining at length everything around them when it could have been more interesting for the characters, and the reader, to slowly learn the secrets and be surprised themselves as books from their childhood seem to be part of this underworld conspiracy. It was not always clear how these Egyptian legends could have been transformed into such a wide variety of children's booksm, either. It was entertaining and a fast, pleasurable read, but it could have been so much more.

Rating:
Summary: Ideas abound while the story strays
Review: The idea for this book is marvelous but the individual characters are not always as interesting or as developed as the adventures. There is too often one character suddenly explaining at length everything around them when it could have been more interesting for the characters, and the reader, to slowly learn the secrets and be surprised themselves as books from their childhood seem to be part of this underworld conspiracy. It was not always clear how these Egyptian legends could have been transformed into such a wide variety of children's booksm, either. It was entertaining and a fast, pleasurable read, but it could have been so much more.

Rating:
Summary: Good idea, carelessly written
Review: The idea was great; grand, even. But,when Mattie looked at Ruthie and asked, "Does your child look like you?" and Ruthie answered with a somber affirmative, I put the book down to read no more, and fetched some Joe Lansdale to wash this stuff from my eyes. Sorry, Ms. Goldstein -- I really wanted to like this one.

Rating:
Summary: Tim Powers light
Review: This book shows that Lisa Goldstein clearly is channeling the same spirit as Tim Powers and Neil Gaiman: there's a shadow world just beneath our own, and anyone who can see it risks being labelled crazy...or much worse yet, being noticed by the denizens of the second world.

I say "Tim Powers light", but that's not dismissive - there are times when one doesn't want a 12 course meal. This novel is just an app, a salad, and an entree, but that's not to speak poorly of it. There are paths not taken, and ideas not explored, but one nice effect of that is that one leaves the table feeling full, but not bloated.

Rating:
Summary: Fasten your seat belt and keep your hands inside the windows
Review: This book will become an "underground" best seller (pun intended)! The author ties in history, myth and literature to create a timeless story. A fast paced and exciting roller-coaster ride. No, make that a fast paced and exciting subway ride! You'll get my meaning when you read the book.

No, I'm not going to tell you the plot. That would just spoil the fun. And shame on those reviewers who do tell you the whole story instead of just wetting your appetite. So, here's your hors d'oeuvre...

Could there possibly be a connection between Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, The Hobbit and Wind in the Willows? Could they all be stories that were told, not by the authors to their children, but rather by the children to their parents? Could they all be about the same place, a fantastic world that only children could enter and return to tell stories about? When a struggling journalist is hired to do a biography of A. E. Jones, the author of the classic children's series "Jeremy in Neverwas", her suspicions are aroused. Especially when she meets the author's son, now a disturbed, middle-aged man, who has become estranged from his mother for stealing his childhood. As she continues her research into truth behind Neverwas she never expects that her own daughter will also be drawn into this fantastic world. A world far more dangerous than any children's book.