WINTERLONG

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Summary: Seamlesly blends the sensual, gothic, and gristly.
Review: A gothic sci-fi tale with great depth of character and evocative imagry. Wendy Wanders is an innocent but deadly telepath who explores the darkly sensual post-apocalyptic ruins of Washington, DC. The imagry is truly unique and stunning, and keeps you captive. Strongly reccomended for sci-fi fans who seek truly "other-worldly" imagry within the familiar.

Rating:
Summary: Sensual, Gothic Twelfth Night?
Review: Don't read the back cover before reading the paperback. The characters are unashamedly seductive, the places and puzzles unfailingly intriguing. Let it all wash over you, and bring Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary.

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Summary: Elizabeth Hand is the BEST
Review: Elizabeth hand is the best, Iv read all her books and lover her love her love her. She has the most brilliant stories, charicters and atmospheres. Every fantasisy world she creates has an unparraleled feeling of infinite possibility. I really hope she writes another story like Winterlong

Rating:
Summary: Elizabeth Hand is the BEST
Review: Elizabeth hand is the best, Iv read all her books and lover her love her love her. She has the most brilliant stories, charicters and atmospheres. Every fantasisy world she creates has an unparraleled feeling of infinite possibility. I really hope she writes another story like Winterlong

Rating:
Summary: darkly beautiful
Review: Every once in a while a book comes along that changes the way you look at the world. This was one of those books for me. It's gorgeously written and full of deep symbolism and mythic imagry (don't even try to understand it without 1st looking into the myth of Baal and Anat,) But on many levels, it is, as one reviewer stated, shattering. This is a book for those who are willing to brave dense language, seemingly wandering narative, and difficult imagry (on more levels than one,) but it is worth the work.

Rating:
Summary: darkly beautiful
Review: I have never read something so completely jarring and overwhelming as this. I initially picked it up in a used bookstore before going on a trip as something to pass the timed and quickly became mired in the words and feelings and depth of this timeless piece of work. The reader feels the characters, the setting, the stories in a way that no other writer I dare say is capable of, with the exception of maybe Thomas Harris. But just like other novelists of her caliber, Elizabeth hand is underrated and forgotten all too quickly. Her writing is timeless, and this novel is the best example.

Rating:
Summary: Some things make worlds tilt....
Review: I have never read something so completely jarring and overwhelming as this. I initially picked it up in a used bookstore before going on a trip as something to pass the timed and quickly became mired in the words and feelings and depth of this timeless piece of work. The reader feels the characters, the setting, the stories in a way that no other writer I dare say is capable of, with the exception of maybe Thomas Harris. But just like other novelists of her caliber, Elizabeth hand is underrated and forgotten all too quickly. Her writing is timeless, and this novel is the best example.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping yet ultimately unfulfilling
Review: I truly enjoy Hand's writing - lyrical, expressive and detailed. As an example of her early work, this novel is a phenomenal piece of writing. Her characters are magnificent and she breaks just about every taboo you can think of without losing her sense of style. However, I found the ending to drag slightly, as she had left a great many loose ends to tie up. At this point I often found myself loosing sight of the plot. Certainly worth a read, but I would recommend Aestival Tide and Glimmering over it.

Rating:
Summary: Shattering
Review: One of the several works of Elizabeth Hand's that I picked up after being inspired by "Waking the Moon," this novel left me with a sense of chilled desolation. The characters touched a nerve that I don't want to feel again. Although I probably could not read "Winterlong" again, I am glad for the experience, and still give it high marks for its creative integrity and Ms. Hand's remarkable style.

Rating:
Summary: Winterlong - a poignant tale of dark beauty
Review: This book impressed me so much that I've read literally every novel published by Ms. Hand since. The story has the feel of a gothic fairy tale. Such elements as a girl with Death in her eyes, ancient prophecies and a world that is, in equal measures, hi-tech wonderland, post-acopalyptic waste and fantastic feudal realm, Hand has transcended many of the standard boundaries around science fiction. In fact, if I were forced to name the genre of this novel, I would call it gothic sci-fi.

If you like painfully beautiful, ambisexual, amoral characters, then you should *definitely* check this book out. A must-read for fans of Anne Rice's _Interview With the Vampire_, as this book captures the feel of that novel in a way that Rice hasn't been able to since