Book Review - War Of The Flowers
Ah, Tad Williams, how I love thee (in a platonic way, of course). I was introduced to the works of Mr. Williams by a crazy sci-fi lovin' pathologist girl I used to knew (haven't seen or heard from her in about ten years, wonder what happened to her...), through his 'Otherland' saga, which I thought to be stupendously brilliant, and hold on an equal level to Lord Of The Rings in the 'books I love' list, in my brain. This is a slightly less weighty tome, but I thought it was an enjoyable romp, and a real page-turner (I finished it in 3 days, while on holiday, and it's over 700 pages. I'm a slow reader, Dan). Anyhoo...
Theo, yeah? Main character. Bit of a 'dude'. Smokes weed, plays guitar in a band, does a bit of songwriting. Doesn't give a crap about anything except his poor sick Ma. Finds (in a convoluted way) this old journal belonging to an uncle of his, which talks about another place, another world, the land of 'Faerie'. Thinks it's all a load of bollocks, but it like, sounds so real, n' shit. Then a big slimy monstry thing made out of bits of old winos and dead cats comes after him while he's chilling out in a cabin in the woods, and a little fairy called Applecore appears and opens a gateway and the two of them bugger of outta dodge and away from the monstery pile of wino-cat. Good start, eh? But it IS only the start.
There's a bit of a Mafia vibe going on between the Fairies in Faerie (stay with me), the heads of all the families are kinda getting towards having a big scrap (the families are all named after flowers, hence the big scrap will be the 'War Of The Flowers', see?). Theo is caught in the middle of all this, and hasn't a clue what the fuck is going on. Applecore fills him in on what she knows, with her charming 'oirish' accent and her filthy mouth, and they become bestest friends.
I'm going to stop with the storyline description there, or else I'm really going to ruin it for anyone who actually wants to read it. Tad Williams is a master of two things (imho), he can conjure up fantastical, but believable, worlds, and the character development that occurs in his books makes you genuinely empathise with the people that populate his books. I love them (I will eventually get around to reading his 'Memory, Sorrow and Thorn' saga, but probably not until the next time I go on holiday).
In short (I'm kinda dragging with the reviewage at this stage), it's brilliant, even if that's not apparent due to my lack of descriptiive writing skills. Buy it, read it. If anyone wants my copy, you can feck off, because I'll probably read it again, I liked it so much. I might lend it to you though, if you ask real nice like. But I'm going to want it back, or I'll set Babs on you.
[For those of you who have noticed that I went on holiday at the end of May/start of June, but claim that I read this book 'on holiday', I had to wait until Nikki had finished it before I reviewed it on this here blog, otherwise I would've 'ruined it', apparently]
4.21-en
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Comments
on an equal level to Lord Of The Rings
Are you mad?
It was like ok. At best.
Posted by: Adrian | August 9, 2006 9:27 AM
In your opinion. I thought it was an amazing, incredible tale, and the only book set in a virtual world that I had more than a vague interest in.
It's a definite 5 out of 5 for me anyway.
Posted by: Matt | August 9, 2006 11:27 AM
Besides the fact that Tad Williams language skills themselves are far from even par with Tolkein, and the story whislt interesting was far from unique, you really have to do a hell of a lot more to get a 4/5 never mind a 5/5 from me for a book.
Read CJCherryh and then tell me Tad Williams is that good.
Posted by: Adrian | August 9, 2006 5:02 PM
What I said was:
"...his 'Otherland' saga, which I thought to be stupendously brilliant, and hold on an equal level to Lord Of The Rings in the 'books I love' list..."
I love it as much as LOTR. I didn't say it was linguistically better or a stronger story, I just said I love it as much as I love Lord Of The Rings. You may not, and I respect your opinion, but mine remains as I have said. It's an excellent, excellent read, and one I couldn't recommend higher to anyone who like sci-fi or fantasy.
Anyhoo, have you read 'War Of The Flowers'? It's great (see review above).
Posted by: Matt | August 9, 2006 9:42 PM
I'm not familiar with Tad Williams works (i.e. I haven't read any of his books) - I'm still more at the Roger Hargreaves level. It does sound like it [War of the Flowers] may appeal so I'll be sure to add this to my 'books to read' list. Thanks for the heads up.
Posted by: SharkyUK | August 10, 2006 12:00 PM