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A review by themanfromdelmonte
The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox
4.0
I liked the style and thoughts underpinning this book, from the opening fractured narrative, revealing Taryn's damage, to the nature of the Sidhe (and other Powers) and thence to a thriller. One minute it's psychodrama and the next, supernatural entities are players.
There were some neat little twists e.g. "Then 'Hell is the Homeland" is the rallying cry of an independence movement." or, later on, "What is in the box?" she shouted. "What the bloody hell is in the box?" I loved the latter, how do you find something designed to be hidden from god-like entities? Especially as it contains the Language of Command!
There is a tendency in modern fantasy to the effect that size matters (q.v. Sarah J Maas) and so what I liked rather less was that this could have been achieved in possibly two-thirds the length. The near interminable middle section where the author rhapsodizes about the land of the Pact or Sidh (faerie to you and me) for example. Discovering that there was a nasty side to all this sylvan loveliness was a little anti-climactic and what was the point of the seduction of Jacob Berger?
My last complaint is the inclusion of the completely unnecessary Epilogue. In thirty or so pages it wraps everything up in a cozy rural socialist utopia imposed on us from above, so I confess to a little sympathy for Raymond Price, even if we are going to have to endure a Great Dieback because people like him are still in charge.
There were some neat little twists e.g. "Then 'Hell is the Homeland" is the rallying cry of an independence movement." or, later on, "What is in the box?" she shouted. "What the bloody hell is in the box?" I loved the latter, how do you find something designed to be hidden from god-like entities? Especially as it contains the Language of Command!
There is a tendency in modern fantasy to the effect that size matters (q.v. Sarah J Maas) and so what I liked rather less was that this could have been achieved in possibly two-thirds the length. The near interminable middle section where the author rhapsodizes about the land of the Pact or Sidh (faerie to you and me) for example. Discovering that there was a nasty side to all this sylvan loveliness was a little anti-climactic and what was the point of the seduction of Jacob Berger?
My last complaint is the inclusion of the completely unnecessary Epilogue. In thirty or so pages it wraps everything up in a cozy rural socialist utopia imposed on us from above, so I confess to a little sympathy for Raymond Price, even if we are going to have to endure a Great Dieback because people like him are still in charge.