REVIEWS: CFQ March/April 2006
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The Prestige
Christopher Priest
Tor (416 p)
$14.95 ISBN: 0312858868
Reprint edition (November 29, 2005)
The upcoming film version has prompted this welcomed re-issue of Christopher
Priest's astounding 1994 novel. Reading or (re-reading) this intriguing Chinese
puzzle of a book will inspire high hopes for a movie directed by Christopher
Nolan, the auteur of Memento. The intricately constructed novel's core story
involves a monstrous rivalry between nineteenth-century British stage magicians
Rupert Angier and Alfred Borden, ancestors of the framing story's present-day
characters, Andrew Westley and Kate Angier. The feeling he has a lost identical
twin obsesses Andrew; Kate is obsessed with the death of a boy she witnessed as
child. Ultimately, the reasons for their fixations are uncovered we (and they)
read first Angier's personal journals then Borden's. The two magicians maniacal
efforts to upstage each other lead Angier to Nikola Tesla and his electrical
experiments in Colorado. Tesla's invention of an apparatus for Angier results in
the darkest of consequences Full of deception, duplicity, duality, and
misdirection the novel leads to a magnificently gothic end. You'll be left
bedazzled.
Giants of the Frost
Kim Wilkins
Warner (544 p)
$6.99 ISBN: 0446617288
(US edition January 1, 2006)
Victoria Scott, embittered after a second broken engagement, runs away from it
all (and toward her doctorate) by becoming a trainee at a meteorological station
on the remote island of Othinsey 200 nautical miles off the Norwegian coast.
She's warned of ghosts and told of a bloody past history, but Vicky's a
levelheaded scientist and not about to accept such nonsense. Nor do strange
noises in the forest and an odd sense of deja vu unsettle her. She does start
getting a little shakey when she dreams of ghastly hag, but even when left all
alone she clings to rational explanations for the weirdness. Considering the
set-up, an eventual encounter with supernatural danger and/or a bloodthirsty
killer is to be expected. But when Victoria meets the mysterious Vidar on
supposedly deserted Othinsey and feels as if she's known him forever the horror
story turns into a romantic fantasy of forbidden love and legendary beings
wielding world-changing powers. Vidar is a son of the mighty god Odin. Nearly
1000 years before, Vidar loved a mortal named Halla who is now re-born as
Victoria. Their undying love was murderously thwarted the first time by Odin and
the old man is not any happier with the hook-up this time out. (In other words,
supernatural danger and bloodthirstiness remain part of the mix.) Australian
author Wilkins has obviously done her research well and places Scandinavian lore
into a viable historical context while never losing sight of the importance of
story. Norse mythology often pivots on the inescapability of fate and the role
of the family in the determination of destiny this theme is well woven into the
dark fantasy. Unless you cannot abide romance, Wilkins multi-genre mix,
accomplished writing, meticulously drawn characters, and scrupulously
established setting will sweep you away.
The Wave
Walter Mosley
Warner Aspect (224 p)
$22.95 ISBN: 0446533637
(January 3, 2006)
Mosley, a bestselling mystery, author returns to allegorical SF-turf he
experimented with in Blue Light (1998) with The Wave. Errol Porter has lost his
job and his wife but he is vaguely establishing an alternative a career as a
potter and starting a relationship with fellow artisan Nella when a strange and
captivating young man appears out of a Los Angeles cemetery claiming to be his
nine-years dead father, Arthur Porter. Despite intimate knowledge of his life
and family, Errol can't accept "GT", as he dubs him, is his somehow resurrected
father. Then GT's revelations of a hidden murder prove there is undeniable truth
to his story. But this is no supernatural reanimation. Microorganisms buried
deep within Earth have been migrating toward the surface for billions of years
becoming a group-mind referred to as The Wave. The Wave is using the DNA and
memories of the buried dead to prepare for an ultimate cosmic rendezvous.
Inevitably the government sees The Wave as a threat to homeland security and the
odds of Errol, GT, and The Wave surviving seem nil. The novel is not entirely
successful. Told in first person by Errol the p.o.v seems limiting and awkward
at times. The book's brevity and its earnest attempt at deeper meaning, however,
make it a beguiling read.
The Town That Forgot How to Breathe
Kenneth J. Harvey
St. Martin's (480 p)
$24.95 ISBN: 0312342225
(US Edition: September 22, 2005)
Strange things are happening in Bareneed, Newfoundland. The village has suffered
since losing its lifestyle and livelihood with the death of cod-fishing
industry. Now people are contracting a mysterious respiratory ailment that
causes them to "forget to breathe" and lose themselves in overwhelming rage. An
albino shark cast up from the sea regurgitates the head of a man drowned five
years previously. The too-well-preserved corpses of other drowning victims
appear. A dead girl befriends the eight-year-old daughter of a summer tourist.
Sea monsters are seen. Locals with the "sight" warn of reckonings and ghosts.
Even the commander of the military unit called in to quarantine Bareneed sees
the inexplicable and dreams of spirits. Canadian author Harvey captures the
reader with haunting suspense and a remarkable sense of place as he builds his
complex plot. Both realistic and fantastic elements are well used and, although
he occasionally stumbles into a pretentious style, Harvey can spin a story. In
some ways, this is just a generic tale of an isolated community beset by
monstrous evil. In other ways it is a modern novel concerned with the loss of
self and culture and alienation from the environment, from one another, and from
belief. But Harvey overplays the allegory and unintentionally provokes the
reader to question the very premise he seems to promote: that the past is a more
idyllic place than the present. Of course it is better to provoke thought than
not provoke it. The Town That Forgot How to Breathe is not as profoundly
significant as the author may have meant it to be, but it is still somewhat
meaningful modern horror