Describe Books Concering The Etched City
Original Title: | The Etched City |
ISBN: | 0553382918 (ISBN13: 9780553382914) |
Edition Language: | English |
Literary Awards: | World Fantasy Award Nominee for Best Novel (2004), IAFA William L. Crawford Fantasy Award (2004), Ditmar Award for Best Novel (2004), John W. Campbell Award Nominee for Best New Writer (2005) |
K.J. Bishop
Paperback | Pages: 382 pages Rating: 3.66 | 2434 Users | 239 Reviews
Narration To Books The Etched City
Gwynn and Raule are rebels on the run, with little in common except being on the losing side of a hard-fought war. Gwynn is a gunslinger from the north, a loner, a survivor . . . a killer. Raule is a wandering surgeon, a healer who still believes in just--and lost--causes. Bound by a desire to escape the ghosts of the past, together they flee to the teeming city of Ashamoil, where Raule plies her trade among the desperate and destitute, and Gwynn becomes bodyguard and assassin for the household of a corrupt magnate. There, in the saving and taking of lives, they find themselves immersed in a world where art infects life, dream and waking fuse, and splendid and frightening miracles begin to bloom . . .Specify About Books The Etched City
Title | : | The Etched City |
Author | : | K.J. Bishop |
Book Format | : | Paperback |
Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 382 pages |
Published | : | November 23rd 2004 by Spectra (first published 2003) |
Categories | : | Fantasy. Fiction. Weird Fiction. New Weird. Science Fiction. Steampunk |
Rating About Books The Etched City
Ratings: 3.66 From 2434 Users | 239 ReviewsCriticize About Books The Etched City
This book took me a while to get into.It starts out as a somewhat typical western, albeit set in a fictional realm. This is why it took me so long to get into; I hate westerns.However, having read rave reviews about the book from blogs that highly recommend some of my favorites, I decided to stick it out. It is, after all, only a 300 page book. I can whip through 300 pages in no time. I mean, I read the last Song of Ice & Fire book in 2 days and it is a tome.WRONG. This book is thick, and ifI picked up The Etched City because it was name-dropped in the jacket copy of Jay Lakes Trial of Flowers, along with texts by China Miéville and Jeff VanderMeer. Like Lake, Miéville, and VanderMeer, Bishop's novel is Fantasy, but a branch of Fantasy that owes more to the Surrealist, Magical Realist, and Noir literary movements than to the swords and sorcery of epic fantasists like J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert E. Howard. Although it does occasionally get bogged down, particularly near the novel's
K.J. Bishop's The Etched City fits into the fantasy genre due to its elements of the fantastic (of course!) and emphasis on world building, but has more in common with other modern fantasists like China Mieville, Jeff Vandermeer, and other authors who are included in the New Weird circle than traditional fantasists. And it is a delicious novel. It is about metamorphosis and the gravity some individuals possess that can slowly draw another into their orbit, exerting a force which reshapes them
Given the wealth of glowing reviews on the cover, I went in hoping to like this book, but I couldn't. The main problem was that I couldn't connect with any of the characters. I can deal with morally grey characters and anti-heroes sometimes, but Gwynn is outright despicable. I spent most of the book wanting to be out of his company. Raule is more sympathetic, but never really pulled me in.The plot has sections where it's gripping, but mostly it meanders way too much. I don't refer to the surreal
Ah, I'll seem star-happy, but I think this is one of those books everyone should read. It is made of layers on layers of shiny.Also, a man and a woman who *remain friends* throughout the book without any kind of sexual tension! Dude.And a sword called Not My Funeral.
The Etched City is a beautifully surreal book, In it we follow two world weary adventurers as they move through a dreamscape of bizarre characters and inexplicable events.The barren Copper Country and the lush city of Ashamoil are brought to life by vivid prose. The two main characters are sometimes painfully real while remaining essentially enigmatic. The plot meanders down a strange and discursive path to something that, in the end, approaches a resolution.This is is a book that seems to have
Etched City is the story of gunslinger Gwynn and doctor Raule. Together, they flee the wasteland of the Copper Country and make their way to the city of Ashamoil. Raule starts treating the poor of Ashamoil, occasionally delivering crocodilian babies, while Gwynn gets a job as a guard for a slave trader and has a heated affair with an artist.The Etched City is definitely atmosphere over action but when the action comes, it's hard and fast. Bishop knows how to build tension as well as create a
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