Rating: 
Summary: Never Become a Doctor
Review: This is a very fine tome indeed. It rates well with the literary outpourings of China Meiville and Jeff Vandermeer. What struck me is what an exciting life Gwynne has and what a boring miserable life Raule has. It seems being a gunslinger beats being a doctor any time. But this is a fantasy novel after all. In the real world Gwynne would have died around chapter 3.
It was also struck by the number of passages where Gwynne is tripping the light fantastic under the influence of strange drugs. The Author seems to have a wonderfullly immediate knowledge of drug induced halucagenic experiences.
Rating: 
Summary: All hail KJ, Bishop of Ashamoil!
Review: What a fine book this is! While the world between these pages has been --justly-- compared with M. John Harrison's Viriconium and China Mieville's New Crobuzon, the world of Ashamoil and its environs is uniquely Bishop's own. Bishop's world is every bit as fleshed out as either of the formers', and there's plenty of action and plot to move things along. Ashamoil is not a pretty place, and I found myself immersed in the decadence and savagery of the place.The author doesn't take the easy path of painting her characters in manichean black-and-white. Gwynn and Raule --the antiheroes and main characters of the story-- are very human in that they are both bad and good, and thus neither completely likeable nor unlikeable. As their paths cross and diverge, and as they confront their respective moral dilemmas, we come to see something of ourselves. In this aspect, she outdoes both Harrison and Mieville. Should mention that it's written such that you may read it quickly, or linger over it for maximum effect. I chose the latter. I thoroughly enjoyed The Etched City and plan to return to Ashamoil again soon. Books like this keep me excited about "what's to come" in fiction.
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