Anna Smaill
Auteur de The Chimes
A propos de l'auteur
Anna Smaill was born in Auckland in 1979. She attended Canterbury University to study writing. She holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Auckland and an MA in Creative Writing from the Internatipnal Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington. Her first book afficher plus of poetry, The Violinist in Spring was published in 2005 and was listed as one of the Best Books of 2006 by the New Zealand Listener. The Chimes is her debut novel and it made The New Zealand Best Seller List. The Chimes also won the 2016 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. She was also named an Honorary Literary Fellows in the New Zealand Society of Authors' annual Waitangi Day Honours 2016. (Bowker Author Biography) afficher moins
Œuvres de Anna Smaill
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Date de naissance
- 1979-04
- Sexe
- female
- Nationalité
- New Zealand
- Lieu de naissance
- Auckland, New Zealand
- Lieux de résidence
- Auckland, New Zealand
Wellington, New Zealand
London, England, UK
Tokyo, Japan - Études
- University of Auckland
Victoria University of Wellington
University College London
University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand - Professions
- poet
novelist
creative writing teacher - Relations
- Shuker, Carl (husband)
- Organisations
- University of Hertfordshire
Membres
Critiques
Started really slow and showed evidence of heavy rewrites that changed the narrative, world and tone. Feels a bit like an assemblage of writing but quite successful. Could have used some foreshadowing to develop characters.
This is a rather original work revolving around music, the magical effect of music on memories, and how it takes this idea and runs full-hilt into total worldbuilding with it.
Huh?
I mean that certain music retains memories and others, including the Chimes, takes it away. Most of the world, or at least this oppressive, poverty-stricken future London, has forgotten itself. The Chimes are played to keep all the memories lost.
I love most of this. I really do. You can tell the author is very deep into her music. The main character and the group he runs with plays beautiful music, combatting the effects of the Chimes, surviving like street urchins, and finding love among all the questions and developing the tale into a quest to stop the Chimes.
I really enjoyed that.
What I didn't particularly enjoy was the slow, almost impersonal way the characterizations developed. It took a long time for me to wind my way through the musical riffs before some juicy handles presented themselves.
And then there was the way normal words were changed in spelling, for worldbuilding effect, that didn't really seem to have a reason. I didn't get the impression that this was a journal written by someone who had lost his ties with our standard language. I understood that Simon was a farmboy with some rather awesome musical talent and a side-talent for saving and storing memories. Writing, except for musical notation, seemed to be quite secondary.
*shrug*
That being said, I did enjoy the oppressiveness and the rather jazz-like discoveries and movements in plot and setting. :)… (plus d'informations)
Huh?
I mean that certain music retains memories and others, including the Chimes, takes it away. Most of the world, or at least this oppressive, poverty-stricken future London, has forgotten itself. The Chimes are played to keep all the memories lost.
I love most of this. I really do. You can tell the author is very deep into her music. The main character and the group he runs with plays beautiful music, combatting the effects of the Chimes, surviving like street urchins, and finding love among all the questions and developing the tale into a quest to stop the Chimes.
I really enjoyed that.
What I didn't particularly enjoy was the slow, almost impersonal way the characterizations developed. It took a long time for me to wind my way through the musical riffs before some juicy handles presented themselves.
And then there was the way normal words were changed in spelling, for worldbuilding effect, that didn't really seem to have a reason. I didn't get the impression that this was a journal written by someone who had lost his ties with our standard language. I understood that Simon was a farmboy with some rather awesome musical talent and a side-talent for saving and storing memories. Writing, except for musical notation, seemed to be quite secondary.
*shrug*
That being said, I did enjoy the oppressiveness and the rather jazz-like discoveries and movements in plot and setting. :)… (plus d'informations)
I don't read many YA dystopias. I appreciate the consistency and aesthetics of the world-building here. It's an original idea. The author also follows the process of memory recovery in a fresh and intriguing way. The political and philosophical ideas behind this dystopia are interesting, but unsophisticated. A lot of YA dystopias seem to be anti-authoritarian and anti-fascist, which is great, but not at all a hot or new take. And the origins of this dystopia are implausible, not rooted in our current reality. I think a really good dystopia says something about current state of the world. This one seems to be built more around an aesthetic than a political agenda.… (plus d'informations)
Listes
Prix et récompenses
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Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 4
- Membres
- 433
- Popularité
- #56,454
- Évaluation
- 3.4
- Critiques
- 21
- ISBN
- 21
- Langues
- 2
I thought the first 2/3rds was excellent, the idea behind it (experiencing so much of the world, and memory, through sound and music), but the end was too stereotypical/normal for the brilliance of the rest of the book.