Rats and Gargoyles

Rating:
Summary: Horrible
Review: The only fantasy genre book I never finished. It is a pet peeve of mine not to finish books even when they are bad. However, I made an exception for this one. I have no idea what the plot of this story is and what the heck was going on, but whatever it was it added up to bad reading. Seems like a good idea for a book; however, I'm not exactly sure what the author was trying to convey with this story or even what that idea may be. Apologies for lack of detail, but I just don't know how to describe this book except that it was bad.

Rating:
Summary: A difficult, uninvolving book
Review: This book is, first and foremost, a difficult read. That's not necessarily a bad. It's sometimes nice to sit back with a book where language and imagery are just as important as plot. Michael Williams' _Arcady_ and most of Patricia McKillip's works spring to mind as similarly "difficult" reads (that I have enjoyed), for comparison.

However, where those other works reward the reader's efforts with intriguing characters or classic story, Rats&Gargoyles failed to catch my interest at just about every turn. Too many characters, too much peripheral action, too little time spent on important elements left me feeling "at sea" throughout the book, wallowing through page after page of pretty language without any stable character or plot thread for me to latch onto as the "important" stuff. In the end, I finished the book more because I had paid for it and felt obligated to finish rather than out of any real enjoyment gained.

Rating:
Summary: A difficult, uninvolving book
Review: This book is, first and foremost, a difficult read. That's not necessarily a bad. It's sometimes nice to sit back with a book where language and imagery are just as important as plot. Michael Williams' _Arcady_ and most of Patricia McKillip's works spring to mind as similarly "difficult" reads (that I have enjoyed), for comparison.

However, where those other works reward the reader's efforts with intriguing characters or classic story, Rats&Gargoyles failed to catch my interest at just about every turn. Too many characters, too much peripheral action, too little time spent on important elements left me feeling "at sea" throughout the book, wallowing through page after page of pretty language without any stable character or plot thread for me to latch onto as the "important" stuff. In the end, I finished the book more because I had paid for it and felt obligated to finish rather than out of any real enjoyment gained.

Rating:
Summary: Rats and Gargoyles
Review: This is a gorgeously written book, involving some fascinating and very original concepts, and featuring some wonderful characters. It's also a very difficult read in terms of the plot; it's confusing; it rambles; and it probably could have stood some pruning. I recommend it anyway.

Gentle writes well. She uses language beautifully. Even when the plot had lost me, I still enjoyed the images she presents.

The setting is a sort of seventeenth -- maybe -- century European one, only with human-sized rats in charge of humans, and gods (Decans) over all. The gargoyles of the title are the Decans' bestial acolytes. Alchemical and architectural concepts, including illustrations from alchemical texts, give the world-building depth. There's no real discussion of how the rats got to be in charge, and little about rat society, which seems very human-like, but I didn't find that to be a major flaw.

Characters stand out in their refusal to be stereotyped as fantasy heroes. Casaubon, the large and personally unhygienic Lord Architect, is perhaps the best and I was happy to see that he "gets the girl" in the end -- the "girl" being the rather deadly scholar, sorceress and swordfighter White Crow. There are probably too many characters, over all, but I can't name one of them as being unentertaining.

The plot is utterly confusing. The world, at the will of one of the Decans, is going to end. The characters have to stop that from happening. Meanwhile, humans are rebelling against rats, humans are rebelling against Decans, rats are rebelling against Decans and rats are rebelling against their own monarchy. It's a wonderful chaos, and I became quite lost at various points. It's also true that the plot goes on for perhaps too long -- in particular the post-saving-the-world portion (though it included some lovely images). But the end is wonderful.

I'd recommend this to anyone who doesn't mind being somewhat befuddled and wants to read original, gorgeously written fantasy.

Rating:
Summary: A Refreshing Change from the Typical Fantasy Novel
Review: This is one of the more imaginative sci-fi books I've read. After all those typical fantasy books (eg. Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, etc.) Rats and Gargoyles really fired up my imagination again. The use of Hermetic magic is inspired - a whole lot better than the usual twiddling of fingers and some mysterious chanting most standard fantasy authors use. It brings a sense of realness to the world which is a melange of different time era. As the earlier reviews pointed out, the sometimes over-convoluted prose is hard to read and it took me a while to comprehend the what the author wants to tell me. The author also tends to disrupt the dialogue which can lead to reader confusion on who is speaking what. That's the reason why this book isn't getting a 5 star from me. But the immersive of the setting has had me reading it again and again and it just gets better with every read.