| | | I read the first one, and it's a decent fantasy (apparently China Mieville's claimed it as New Grotesque, whatever that means). I liked most of the characterisation. The insects make a machinelike enemy - no characterisation required, but this fact gives them the unstoppable feel of a natural disaster.
The settings are interesting, with a mix of gritty cityscapes filled with slums, drugs, homelessness, crime etc, and castles and keeps. I found the mix of the banal or familiar with the utterly unfamiliar/surreal to be an interesting technique. It was also good to see humour dropped into a genre which often takes itself far too seriously. Also some interesting comments on heroism.
I suspect that Steph Swainston may have listed the most common tropes in fantasy then set about breaking them. |
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