![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Book Review: The Cipher by Kathe Koja
Aug. 31st, 2010 01:54 pmTitle: The Cipher
Author: Kathe Koja
Published: New York: Dell Publishing, 1991 (1984)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 356
Total Page Count: 91,975
Text Number: 263
Read Because: mentioned in the afterward to Caitlín R. Kiernan's "Standing Water" as it appears in To Charles Fort, With Love; purchased from Powell's Books
Review: When Nicholas and Nakota discover an inexplicable, endless hole which they christen the Funhole, they're both drawn to it. Nakota experiments with the hole's otherworldy transformative properties, but it's Nicholas who finds himself transformed by the Funhole. The Cipher is, at its heart, a simple book—but it sells itself on boldness. The premise is straightforward, but so outlandish that it immediately intrigues; the plot is sparse, but its simplicity allows the book to focus on the bizarre Funhole itself. The Funhole is introduced on page one, and it's so strange a concept that it seems like it couldn't get any weirder—but it does. With each page, Koja pushes the premise to a new extreme, and the evolving parade of grotesqueries and impossibilities is simultaneously fascinating and terrifying. All of this is couched in a strong narrative style: Nicholas's first person narration is somewhere between stream of consciousness and spoken word, thoroughly exploring the psychological effects of the Funhole and bringing his gritty dirty world and the cast of characters—most of them otherwise unlikable—to vivid and compelling life.
For all of this, The Cipher was not, for me, a perfect book. The ending lags, perhaps because I had adjusted to the style and premise, and so neither remained so compelling; perhaps because the ending is too intangable—and while intangibility compliments the book's themes, it's a weak conclusion to such a brutal and straightforward plot. These complaints are mere nitpicks, however, and The Cipher is as dark, compelling, and disturbing as the Funhole at its center. I recommend it with enthusiasm: if the premise of the Funhole intrigues, then Nicholas's long journey into it will satisfy.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Kathe Koja
Published: New York: Dell Publishing, 1991 (1984)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 356
Total Page Count: 91,975
Text Number: 263
Read Because: mentioned in the afterward to Caitlín R. Kiernan's "Standing Water" as it appears in To Charles Fort, With Love; purchased from Powell's Books
Review: When Nicholas and Nakota discover an inexplicable, endless hole which they christen the Funhole, they're both drawn to it. Nakota experiments with the hole's otherworldy transformative properties, but it's Nicholas who finds himself transformed by the Funhole. The Cipher is, at its heart, a simple book—but it sells itself on boldness. The premise is straightforward, but so outlandish that it immediately intrigues; the plot is sparse, but its simplicity allows the book to focus on the bizarre Funhole itself. The Funhole is introduced on page one, and it's so strange a concept that it seems like it couldn't get any weirder—but it does. With each page, Koja pushes the premise to a new extreme, and the evolving parade of grotesqueries and impossibilities is simultaneously fascinating and terrifying. All of this is couched in a strong narrative style: Nicholas's first person narration is somewhere between stream of consciousness and spoken word, thoroughly exploring the psychological effects of the Funhole and bringing his gritty dirty world and the cast of characters—most of them otherwise unlikable—to vivid and compelling life.
For all of this, The Cipher was not, for me, a perfect book. The ending lags, perhaps because I had adjusted to the style and premise, and so neither remained so compelling; perhaps because the ending is too intangable—and while intangibility compliments the book's themes, it's a weak conclusion to such a brutal and straightforward plot. These complaints are mere nitpicks, however, and The Cipher is as dark, compelling, and disturbing as the Funhole at its center. I recommend it with enthusiasm: if the premise of the Funhole intrigues, then Nicholas's long journey into it will satisfy.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
