Scan barcode
A review by dylanrostek
The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams
5.0
This review is somewhat biased.
I absolutely love Tad Williams. His stories and the way he writes is amazing in my opinion.
That being said this book isn't written like anything else I've read of his.
I'm going to skip the synopsis as you can read that on your own (that and I finished this a little while ago and am working on distant memories.) I will, however, expand upon what the book is and why that makes it different than most Tad Williams.
Tad Williams tells amazingly complex and woven stories throughout his multi-volume books. His previous endeavors (The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, the Otherland tetralogy, and the Shadowmarch tetralogy,) are truly each one long story spread among multiple volumes. The single books barely tie up anything and instead leave the readers with a plethora of unanswered questions and simply stop at a lulled point in the story. This book, while part of a trilogy, isn't so harsh on the ending. There are still unanswered questions relating to the overall story but it feels like more of an ending than he usually does. Where it doesn't differ is in the fact that it is still an engrossing enjoyable story that never disappoints.
Another aspect of Tad Williams that makes him one of my favorite writers is his actual writing. He has an amazing ability to grow characters and get you invested in them. In most books this consists of hundreds of pages of growing the story and coming to know the characters by a slow, and to some, tedious opening. In The Dirty Streets of Heaven his character development is just as good but you aren't giving the long slow opening where you watch the character in order to get to know them; you don't have to, the character already knows themselves and just tells you what they think and feel (albeit this is somewhat skewed as what we think of ourselves isn't always our true nature, but we learn about the character through this aspect as well.) How does the character tell us? Well that leads to my next point of difference between this and other William's works.
One of my favorite things about Williams is his writing style. He has a great talent of making believable dialog full of slang and realistic speech yet his narration is incredibly precise in grammar and description and can borderline on prose, even surpassing that border at times, in the beauty of his words. This book offers plenty of the first and a lot less of the second, but it works fantastically. The story strays from his usual medieval-esque fantasy and sci-fi writings and is easily a modern day Noir mystery (only containing angels and demons, an intriguing twist,) and in staying with the Noir vain is narrated in first person. because of this the narration has to stay true to the voice of Bobby Dollar and it does this well. This doesn't mean there isn't any prose and beauty, Dollar has that side to him, but mostly it gives the story a grittier more intense feel that adds to the pacing and excitement of the tale and adds a new level to both William's writing and his ability to develop character.
If you're a fan of Tad Williams expect something different and yet very familiar but know that you won't be disappointed in the least. If you're new to Williams this is a great place to start. It's shorter and has a much faster pace than most of his works but still stands up as another great addition to his already stellar work.
I absolutely love Tad Williams. His stories and the way he writes is amazing in my opinion.
That being said this book isn't written like anything else I've read of his.
I'm going to skip the synopsis as you can read that on your own (that and I finished this a little while ago and am working on distant memories.) I will, however, expand upon what the book is and why that makes it different than most Tad Williams.
Tad Williams tells amazingly complex and woven stories throughout his multi-volume books. His previous endeavors (The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, the Otherland tetralogy, and the Shadowmarch tetralogy,) are truly each one long story spread among multiple volumes. The single books barely tie up anything and instead leave the readers with a plethora of unanswered questions and simply stop at a lulled point in the story. This book, while part of a trilogy, isn't so harsh on the ending. There are still unanswered questions relating to the overall story but it feels like more of an ending than he usually does. Where it doesn't differ is in the fact that it is still an engrossing enjoyable story that never disappoints.
Another aspect of Tad Williams that makes him one of my favorite writers is his actual writing. He has an amazing ability to grow characters and get you invested in them. In most books this consists of hundreds of pages of growing the story and coming to know the characters by a slow, and to some, tedious opening. In The Dirty Streets of Heaven his character development is just as good but you aren't giving the long slow opening where you watch the character in order to get to know them; you don't have to, the character already knows themselves and just tells you what they think and feel (albeit this is somewhat skewed as what we think of ourselves isn't always our true nature, but we learn about the character through this aspect as well.) How does the character tell us? Well that leads to my next point of difference between this and other William's works.
One of my favorite things about Williams is his writing style. He has a great talent of making believable dialog full of slang and realistic speech yet his narration is incredibly precise in grammar and description and can borderline on prose, even surpassing that border at times, in the beauty of his words. This book offers plenty of the first and a lot less of the second, but it works fantastically. The story strays from his usual medieval-esque fantasy and sci-fi writings and is easily a modern day Noir mystery (only containing angels and demons, an intriguing twist,) and in staying with the Noir vain is narrated in first person. because of this the narration has to stay true to the voice of Bobby Dollar and it does this well. This doesn't mean there isn't any prose and beauty, Dollar has that side to him, but mostly it gives the story a grittier more intense feel that adds to the pacing and excitement of the tale and adds a new level to both William's writing and his ability to develop character.
If you're a fan of Tad Williams expect something different and yet very familiar but know that you won't be disappointed in the least. If you're new to Williams this is a great place to start. It's shorter and has a much faster pace than most of his works but still stands up as another great addition to his already stellar work.