Black Wine

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely amazing book....
Review: I got this book as a birthday present from my sister.
As soon as I was done reading it (with that shuddering pleasure that only the absolute best books give you), I passed it back to her to read... and I still haven't got it back, because when she was done, she gave it to her boyfriend to read (someone who is not the biggest fantasy fan), and he won't read the very end, because "But once I finish it, it'll be over!"
I'm considering buying another copy, to re-read it and pass it on again to someone else.

It's amazing that 'Black Wine' is a first novel. The characters are complex enough to fully immerse yourself in their lives. The world is not some faux-medieval wish-fulfillment daydream, but a real, gritty and harsh land - that still somehow has the feel of one of your deepest dreams.
Recommended for fans of Ursula LeGuin, Margaret Atwood, and Sheri S. Tepper. (But having said that, I feel I should add that the "feminist" undercurrent of the book is neither distracting, nor does it leave you with that nasty "agenda" taste in your mouth.)

(oh, and they play Scrabble! Yay! (as Scrabble fanatics, both me & my sister got a big kick out of that!)

Rating:
Summary: This book was O.K.
Review: I had no idea what was going on for the first 75 pages of this book, but eventually all became clear. I just had a hard time really caring about the characters once I was finally able to figure out what was happening.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant.
Review: I have just finished this book- and I feel very lucky to have found it. With so much mediocre to good fiction and/or sf/fantasy around, Black Wine reminded me how enjoyable and transforming a really good book can be. I am reminded of Ursula le Guin- perhaps Russ. It is slightly confusing at the beginning, as it jumps between characters in the manner of a connected series of short stories. But I was delighted as I read on and realised exactly what Dorsey was doing. As for plot/ character/setting- set in a far future, or other world, on a continent with very different cultures in different regions. THere are the sailors, who fly the sky-ships (dirigibles) and have gene tech, allowing same sex couples or families of three parents etc to have children. There is the idyllic mountains, where people share everything, but then there is the SOuth, where no one touches one another, and a mother helps her toddler up after a fall with the end of her broom. And then there is the land ruled over by an evil despot, where slaves have their tongues cut out, and sadism, incest and violence is the norm. The book is first class, superbly and consistently written. i see from one of the reviews on this page that Black Wine may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I am stumped as to why! I think that the more people read this wonderful book- the better!

Rating:
Summary: Best fantasy of decade
Review: I note a recommendation for fans of LeGuin and the like above. Well, I'm not a big LeGuin fan (I read the Earthsea trilogy in high school), and I loathe Atwood, but I loved this book.

Recommendation? Read it. It's amazing. The only fantasy from the '90s that I can think of that compares at all is Brust's Agyar, which is written by one of the best, and most definitely is not a first novel. Out of first novels, this book stands out.

I hope she writes more. All I can say is, The Hobbit was a first novel, and this book is too.

Rating:
Summary: A pleasant surprise
Review: It often annoys me when a book's back cover has nothing but praise, without even a hint of what the book may be like. In this instance however, I ended up glad that I had gotten into the book without knowing just what it was I was getting into.

I did find the first part of the book difficult to follow, but the allure of the book came from watching it weave together and begin to make sense (starting around p100 or so for me).Unlike a lot of fantasy I have read, where the author takes familiar (tired?) themes and stories and tells them in an alien world with alien characters, Candas Jane Dorsey tells a dream-like, surreal narrative in settings and with characters that seemed quite familiar. To me the book read almost like a feminine 'Naked Lunch'.

Although I say the settings seemed very familiar, the book conjured imagery that was fantastic, dark and beautiful. Reading this book was a wonderful escape from this mundane earth, and perhaps if read a second time (which I may do one day) deeper running themes can be found.

The only reason I've given this novel 4 rather than 5 stars is that at some points it felt a touch too academic to be a fantasy novel.

Rating:
Summary: Modern writing style, surreal, vivid, emotional
Review: The truth about 'Black Wine' --

This book reads both like a story woven carelessly from dream-logic and like a story masterfully and carefully crafted. The writing style is like a piece of modern art: sometimes abstract and filled with strange brevity. The issues of the story are raw, emotional, and distinctly adult: feminism, dominance and submission, sex, power.

'Black Wine' is not a "fun" escapist storybook -- it is a highly stylized and challenging piece of literature that invites you to read closely and see deeply. If you seek challenging literary fiction, I highly recommend this book to you.

Rating:
Summary: drunk on black wine
Review: This fantasy work of Dorsey's involves a unique and interesting setting and distinct characters, but after finishing the book I truly had no idea what the book was trying to say. I suppose the work could be taken as a celebration of the bonds between sisters and between daughters and mothers, but outside of that "Black Wine" really doesn't have anything to prove. Although I wouldn't tout the author's language as anything worthy of instant attention, I felt her use of words did well to build the mysterious, dark mood of much of the novel, and it is on this that I give the book 3 stars. There were quite a few graphic sex scenes, and numerous simply inexplicable sexual references (was I the only one who thought the mention of "handprints" was just kind of silly?), so those with easily-offended morals would best avoid this book.