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A review by dknippling
Silverlock by John Myers Myers
5.0
A rotten sort of man is brought to the land of stories, in order to face himself.
This is exactly the sort of book whose plot I've read too much of: the narrator, who is a complete jerk, is the main problem to be resolved in the story. However, I very much enjoyed this variation, which drags said jerk through everything from the Odyssey to Hell, offering him a final choice as to the disposition of his soul. (The Hell sequence is delightfully, and surprisingly, dark and awful.) What this book does is puncture the illusion of being a reasonably good man when all you've done in life is coast on your entitlements, and show an alternate path to cynical disengagement. I came out of the book refreshed. Of course my description doesn't do the book justice.
This is one of those very rare books where I would say, "Keep reading." (I normally abandon books early on if I'm not having fun.) The narrator is a piece of work, and the book starts out nearly as tiresome to read as the narrator finds his own existence. Of note, there are a bunch of references. It may feel frustrating and belittling at first if you don't "get" them all: the narrator certainly feels that way. Again, I recommend to keep reading. I think the obscurity is intentional; the main guy that the narrator runs into is *very* obscurely named, and a lot of the references would have been mostly-missed by readers even when the book was first written (1949). If it really bothers you, you can look up the main ones on Wikipedia later. I think the point of all the references was to be confusing and almost offputting at first for the majority of readers, then bring them to appreciate plunging into new stories by the end of the book. I may be wrong.
Recommended for fantasy readers, and for those going through a discontentedness of spirit.
This is exactly the sort of book whose plot I've read too much of: the narrator, who is a complete jerk, is the main problem to be resolved in the story. However, I very much enjoyed this variation, which drags said jerk through everything from the Odyssey to Hell, offering him a final choice as to the disposition of his soul. (The Hell sequence is delightfully, and surprisingly, dark and awful.) What this book does is puncture the illusion of being a reasonably good man when all you've done in life is coast on your entitlements, and show an alternate path to cynical disengagement. I came out of the book refreshed. Of course my description doesn't do the book justice.
This is one of those very rare books where I would say, "Keep reading." (I normally abandon books early on if I'm not having fun.) The narrator is a piece of work, and the book starts out nearly as tiresome to read as the narrator finds his own existence. Of note, there are a bunch of references. It may feel frustrating and belittling at first if you don't "get" them all: the narrator certainly feels that way. Again, I recommend to keep reading. I think the obscurity is intentional; the main guy that the narrator runs into is *very* obscurely named, and a lot of the references would have been mostly-missed by readers even when the book was first written (1949). If it really bothers you, you can look up the main ones on Wikipedia later. I think the point of all the references was to be confusing and almost offputting at first for the majority of readers, then bring them to appreciate plunging into new stories by the end of the book. I may be wrong.
Recommended for fantasy readers, and for those going through a discontentedness of spirit.