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A review by jav094
Bearing an Hourglass by Piers Anthony
4.0
Time is a complicated concept. Humans have known this ever since we first began to entertain the idea of time travel and of paradox. So it should come as no surprise that "Bearing an Hourglass" is a seriously complex novel, with storylines crisscrossing each other at every opportunity. I mean this in a good way; "Hourglass" is a great book if you're looking for a plot that begins as an indecipherable mass of intrigue and slowly (Very. Slowly.) introduces the reader to it, even as the plot itself races onward. One thing to keep in mind; this book would be approximately 12 pages long if not for all the time traveling going on. The story twists and weaves within itself such that the reader will return to a point in time that happened in chapter 1 sometime around chapter 15, but with the perspective of someone that now knows exactly what's happening. At that point in chapter 1, nobody, not even the protagonist, and definitely not the reader, knew what was going on.
Being a writer myself, there's always a little something to be learned from the books I read. Anthony is a favorite author of mine, especially because his writing style seems subtly different in every story, as if he changes his writing to match the mood of the story, rather than all his work "sounding" the same. It dawned on me that writers don't need to maintain the same voice throughout their books, even through a series like this one. Throughout the Incarnations of Immortality series, Anthony has sounded more and more like the characters that star in the books; in Upon a Pale Horse he sounded depressed and pensive to match the Incarnation in that book (Death). In Hourglass, he develops a knowledgable (wise, even) tone as the story progresses, sounding more like my idea of Father Time than anyone has a right to. I've learned to do the same in my writing: put enough of yourself into your characters that readers can recognize you in it. At this, Anthony is a master.
Being a writer myself, there's always a little something to be learned from the books I read. Anthony is a favorite author of mine, especially because his writing style seems subtly different in every story, as if he changes his writing to match the mood of the story, rather than all his work "sounding" the same. It dawned on me that writers don't need to maintain the same voice throughout their books, even through a series like this one. Throughout the Incarnations of Immortality series, Anthony has sounded more and more like the characters that star in the books; in Upon a Pale Horse he sounded depressed and pensive to match the Incarnation in that book (Death). In Hourglass, he develops a knowledgable (wise, even) tone as the story progresses, sounding more like my idea of Father Time than anyone has a right to. I've learned to do the same in my writing: put enough of yourself into your characters that readers can recognize you in it. At this, Anthony is a master.