Reviews

The January Dancer by Michael Flynn

jonathanpalfrey's review

A couple of months ago I bought this book, read about a sixth of it, put it down, and haven't picked it up again. So I can't write a proper review of it; all I can say is that it seemed quite well written, but the initial chapters failed to hold my interest. Some books suck me in and I read on compulsively, but not this one. Your reaction may be different.

I give it two stars because I can't definitely identify it as a bad book. Perhaps it's just a slow starter and you need to read the whole thing to appreciate it.

Also by [a:Michael Flynn|126502|Michael Flynn|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1282631351p2/126502.jpg]: I loved [b:The Forest of Time - Hugo Nominated Novella|11539011|The Forest of Time - Hugo Nominated Novella|Michael Flynn|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1416605278s/11539011.jpg|16478070] and quite liked [b:In the Country of the Blind|416325|In the Country of the Blind|Michael Flynn|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312053809s/416325.jpg|1922459].

spindleshanks22's review

3.0

3.5

branch_c's review

3.0

This is a tough one for me to review. There's no doubt that it's meticulously constructed and sophisticated. The main story is interesting and creative; the writing is polished and, as I said about the one previous Flynn book I read (Eifelheim), even erudite.

The problem for me though, was that the various threads of the plot were just too complicated to easily follow, and this blunted the excitement that should have carried the story forward. The reader, it seems, was intended to pay careful attention to every detail, and be rewarded for figuring out the subtle twists and deceptions that wind through this book. Is that too much to ask of the reader? Probably it shouldn't be, but I don't consider myself a lazy reader, and in this case yeah, it seemed it was a bit much.

The revelation at the end, by the way, was one of the best parts of the story, but that was the one thing I don't think the reader was intended to see coming. If we had gotten some better hints about that earlier on, it might have made it more worth the effort to keep track of things; as it was, it ended up being an elegant but minor flourish on a somewhat tedious read rather than a crowning finale to a glorious adventure.

thegoodmariner's review

3.0

3.5, actually. This is the most ambivalent I've felt about a book lately. Flynn writes beautifully, but both he and his characters slip in and out of a planetary patois that gets distracting at times. The worlds are so well-developed, using traces of Earth-bound cultures that he imagines as precursors to intergalactic societies, but he also goes so far into explaining the science of landing a jet or cross-spatial communication that parts of the book become burdensome. The plot is exciting, twisting more than the Dancing Stone around which the story is set, but it twists maybe one or two times too many, leaving the final chapter pay-off a little anti-climactic and the final-page twist so esoteric I had to read it three times to make sure I understood.

Having said all of these things, good and bad, I will say that it is the first book in a series of three (the third due out next week) and I fully intend to come back to the arc, sooner than later. The characters are engaging and the set-up for book number two intrigues me. I'll probably read another book or two first before I return, but it feels at least good enough to return to at this point.

camshaft97intexas's review

adventurous challenging slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

jhouses's review

4.0

Una inoportuna avería desemboca en el hallazgo de un misterioso artefacto prehumano. Como el halcón Maltés, urde a su alrededor una trama de traiciones y sospechas. Espías, rufianes, agentes de la autoridad, piratas... todo tiene cabida en esta space Ópera que, con sencillez, alcanza un gran nivel narrativo.

take2teach's review

3.0

Space opera that took awhile to get into gear.

maxed's review

3.0

A far cry from the excellent "Firestar" series, this book seems to be a somewhat cliche space opera, but without charm of Bujold or epic action of Weber. It's not a bad book, but nothing write home about: a quarter of unlikely comrades in an inter-planetary search for MacGuffin is a plot that has been done too many times to stand on its own, and I don't see any additional merit here, though the book is competent for its genre. The setting is somewhat original, but not to the point where it can carry the weight on its own, the characters are OK, but not too engaging, or funny. I expected more, and I'll put off reading the next book in the series for now.

leovinas's review

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

mferrante83's review

4.0

Everything in the universe is older than it seems. Blame Einstein for that. We see what a thing was when the light left it, and that was long ago. Nothing in the night sky is contemporary, not to us, not to one another. Ancient stars exploded into ruin before their sparkle ever caught our eyes; those glimpsed in glowing “nurseries” were crones before we witnessed their birth. Everything we marvel at is already gone.

So begins The January Dancer a modern space opera full of the action, politics, and mystery told with poetic language and deft touch. The book opens up with the appearance of a mysterious bard seeking the story of the titular January Dancer (which goes by a number of other names throughout the story) a mysterious stone that twists its shape. Thereafter the novel unfolds on two levels: the story, told by the scarred man at the harper’s behest, and the interaction between the bard and the scarred man. Both are interesting in their own right with the italicized sections detailing the conversation between the bard and the scarred man providing a kind of running commentary not only the story itself, but on the nature of stories in general.