The Dry Salvages

Rating:
Summary: Poetry in Space
Review: Caitlin Kiernan's lastest offering reads like poetry by Harlan Ellison would sound. Kiernan possesses a gift for describing vivid stories in effortless, flowing movement and an insight into the human condition far beyond her young years. So very much more than an 'alien' tale, The Dry Salvages resonates with the reader long after the reading is done. It touches the very essence of 'humanness', which is the best sort of 'science fiction' one could ever hope to read. This book is destined to be another well-deserved award-winner for Ms. Kiernan.

Rating:
Summary: Another fine work from Kiernan.
Review: Caitlin R. Kiernan, The Dry Salvages (Subterranean, 2004)

There's something utterly cool about a book whose back jacket lists the author's last publication as a huge unpronounceable stream of words published in an obscure archaeological journal (well, obscure to everyone save archaeologists). Especially when the book you're holding will not be filled with the same types of unpronounceable words. Such is the case with The Dry Salvages, a short sci-fi novel from the always-fine pen of Cait Kiernan. The setting is Piros, a small red moon orbiting a gas giant in another galaxy. The players are four scientists and an unknown number of artificial persons headed to Piros to work with a bunch that's already there. The plot is... hmm. Well, basically nonexistent. This is a character study about the interactions of four people with themselves and others, told by one of them many years after the events in question.

After watching the flood of negative reviews come in for the last book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series, I can see a lot of people hating the way this novel ends. I, personally, thought it was the bees' knees. Your mileage may (and likely will) vary. Can't say more than that for fear of spoilage.

Kiernan hasn't yet writ the book not worth reading. This one is another fine addition to the library. *** ½

Rating:
Summary: Creepy, without the gouging of eyes
Review: Very unsettling. It remineded me of Event Horizon, but without the too-exact explanation of what the "bad thing" was. I find the unexplained and unknown more frightening than the diagrammed and dissected evil being that's just a trounced-up version of my neighbor. This book pulled that off perfectly. I especially liked the futuristic slang that the characters used, made it seem like a completely foreign world.

Now begins the excrutiating wait for Daughter of Hounds.