Fascinating writer, fascinating (with flaws) book.

I came upon Caitlín R. Kiernan when asking for some non-male voices in weird lit; and came upon this book at my local indie bookstore.

I essentially bought it on the name of the author alone, which may have been a mistake... this book is the second in a series, and although none of that is made explicit in the narrative, it does feel like I'm in the middle of a party that's already halfway started.

The narrative jumps across wide swaths of time, from the 60's to some 150 years in the future, and usually a different character each time as well. There may or may not be a struggle between two forces, over either twin sisters or something that those sisters represent. The sisters and a doctor who has some control over them are referred to in most of the vignettes, but usually obliquely.

This means that the actual conflict and dramatic intent of the scenes is always elsewhere than in the scene itself. This can be done to really compelling effect, but it misses the mark here, because it feels as though either I should already know the stakes involved, or that obscuring those details is somehow enhancing the mystery.

The climactic end of the book, and it's denouement, both suffer from this lack of information. I think I know what happened, but I couldn't tell you why it was important, or why all of these shadowy forces seemed to care.

There are also a lot of pop culture and literary references, which don't feel like they add to the story so much as wink at the audience... and an overarching chess motif which again doesn't feel like it adds to the story so much as adopts a genre convention of opposing forces referring to chess. It's even weakened by the characters themselves using it; moments like that drop me out since it feels like no one would refer to 'taking someone's knight' with a straight face, unless we're in a melodramatic genre mode, and we're not. We're in a gritty semi-realistic weird lit mode.

My first impression was that this might be a symptom of an author being just a bit too clever. Leaning on not giving information as a way of making the puzzle difficult, and references to tickle the dopamine part of our brain that enjoys making correlations. Not giving information to the reader doesn't inherently make it more interesting, especially when the characters have the information and we don't. It's a fine line between compelling us to want to figure it out and just frustrating us with too few pieces to be able to intuit the whole... and this book feels like it teeters towards that second result.

After reading it, I read other reviews to see if anyone else was experiencing something similar, and it does seem like I'm not alone here. However, the fans of Caitlín and her work make a good case for a continual re-reading of the text, suggesting that there are more answers to be found in the hints and references. This might be true... and I'm willing to keep reading more of her work and coming back to this.

I will also say that Caitlín can definitely write. The character voices are all distinct and the prose wonderfully reflects the voice and tone of the characters. There are descriptions and scenes that stick with me even now. In that respect, as an introduction to her work and answering the question about reading more, it's done it's job. I'll be reading more of Caitlín in the future, despite my somewhat lacking opinion of this book!


( )

I'm still confused, but less so.

The only sections of this I didn't like were the ones set on the off-world colonies. The characters were so all-knowing and cold that they were unfathomable in a bad way. Like I seriously didn't care about anything they had to say. Plus I don't know any French outside of the few Romance language words that have drifted into English. I suppose I could look them up, but yeah, way too lazy.

Once I got the hang of the rhythms of the other stories, I was good. The characters were really interesting and well fleshed out. The overall mood for most of the apocalyptic stories was despair and longing. The only characters that seemed to flourish were lost to pain and self harm. Paranoia was completely over the top.

I might go back and read the first book now. It might be a good idea. LOL. ( )

Second in the Tin Foil Dossier series of novellas, a Delta Green style mix of espionage and the Cthulhu Mythos. It isn't a strict sequel, although it uses the same setting.

Like the first in the series, this story uses a very stylized format. We actually have to piece together the plot ourselves as details are revealed through intercut scenes with several sets of characters, which are at different points in time. There's no exposition, and when elements of the Mythos are used, they aren't fully described or given their usual names. I found that this made the books constantly interesting, because I had to read the clues, but if you aren't into the Cthulhu Mythos, it might just be baffling.

The writing and plot didn't feel quite as good as Agents of Dreamland, the first in the series, but that book was really excellent. If you like the first book and want more, this one is worthwhile. ( )

Having not read the initial version of this story I can't say whether or not the expanded version is an improvement, and I have to admit that I didn't enjoy it as much as "Agents of Dreamland." However, I don't regret picking it up and I look forward to the forthcoming installment in this cycle. ( )

Beautifully written, but REALLY hard to follow. ( )