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A review by cassandra67b07
Or What You Will by Jo Walton
5.0
update--Releases this week! Go get it.
Big thank you to Netgalley and Macmillian/Tor for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is a story that readers will either love desperately or hate and never finish and I imagine Walton knows this and thus the references to Sylvia's one-star reviews. No matter, readers who love Shakespeare, love art and good food, and love ideas will love this book. It's hard not to see this book as a tribute, a love letter, to Walton's readers over the years. It's all there: the dragon from the King's Peace books, Ficino and Pico from Thessaly, all of Florence from Lent wrapped up in one big meta-discussion on artistic creation and subcreation.
I'm still so gobsmacked by this book that it's hard to review it rationally and writing a synopsis is pointless because the story took me places I never expected to go. But they are wondrous places and I so want them to be real. Illyria, Brunelleschi's walk into canvas, Teatro del Sale, Miranda's house--all were marvels. And the ending, well who else could such a changeable spirit be but the one who carries out his mistress's imaginings and makes them come alive.
This is a marvel of a book and especially to be reading it now during the COVID-19 pandemic, it gives me hope that the best of people will prevail and find a way through.
I also read this with some sadness as I had to cancel a long-planned trip to Florence this spring due to the pandemic and quarantine. But Walton's story gave me hope I will get there in the end.
Big thank you to Netgalley and Macmillian/Tor for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is a story that readers will either love desperately or hate and never finish and I imagine Walton knows this and thus the references to Sylvia's one-star reviews. No matter, readers who love Shakespeare, love art and good food, and love ideas will love this book. It's hard not to see this book as a tribute, a love letter, to Walton's readers over the years. It's all there: the dragon from the King's Peace books, Ficino and Pico from Thessaly, all of Florence from Lent wrapped up in one big meta-discussion on artistic creation and subcreation.
I'm still so gobsmacked by this book that it's hard to review it rationally and writing a synopsis is pointless because the story took me places I never expected to go. But they are wondrous places and I so want them to be real. Illyria, Brunelleschi's walk into canvas, Teatro del Sale, Miranda's house--all were marvels. And the ending, well who else could such a changeable spirit be but the one who carries out his mistress's imaginings and makes them come alive.
This is a marvel of a book and especially to be reading it now during the COVID-19 pandemic, it gives me hope that the best of people will prevail and find a way through.
I also read this with some sadness as I had to cancel a long-planned trip to Florence this spring due to the pandemic and quarantine. But Walton's story gave me hope I will get there in the end.