![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaTitle: The Wood Wife
Author: Terri Windling
Published: New York: Tor, 1996
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 72,793
Text Number: 213
Read For: personal enjoyment, checked out from the library
Short review: Poet Davis Cooper dies, leaving his home in the Tuscon mountains to Maggie Black, his friend and protégé. As she explores his home and the mysteries of his life and death, she begins to suspect that the magic that fills Cooper's poems is not allegory but rather reflects the reality of the desert mountains. Although well written and technically accomplished, exaggerated characters and a predictable plot render the book's magic flat. The Wood Wife may satisfy some readers, but I found it disappointing and don't recommend it.
Windling clearly knows her way around a piece of literature: her characters are well defined (almost to excess), every scene serves a purpose, the plot has a strong conclusion—all in all, she knows what she wants to say, says it well, and The Wood Wife is technically accomplished. But technical skill is only one part of a good book, and this novel lacks the other rather more elusive factors which would make it a success. It has no subtlety or passion. The characters are excessively defined, and they too easily accept the magic of their mountain. That magic is a thoughtful spin on some Native American and mythic fantasy tropes, but the plot and writing style that explore it are too straight-forward. Rather than hovering over the land like a mirage, the magic is as flat as the paper it's printed on.
I suspect that some of my apathy of the book is a result of personal preference. The Wood Wife is very similar to Charles de Lint's work and other mythic fantasy novels, which likewise fail to impress me. Readers who are more interested in artistic characters encountering native-styled magical beings on the edges of urban (American) environments, likewise readers which prefer straight-forward storytelling, will have better luck with this book. Regardless, I believe that Windling's technical skill is wasted on this lackluster novel. There is no passion, mystery, or magic here—just attempts at each. As such, I don't recommend The Wood Wife.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Terri Windling
Published: New York: Tor, 1996
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 72,793
Text Number: 213
Read For: personal enjoyment, checked out from the library
Short review: Poet Davis Cooper dies, leaving his home in the Tuscon mountains to Maggie Black, his friend and protégé. As she explores his home and the mysteries of his life and death, she begins to suspect that the magic that fills Cooper's poems is not allegory but rather reflects the reality of the desert mountains. Although well written and technically accomplished, exaggerated characters and a predictable plot render the book's magic flat. The Wood Wife may satisfy some readers, but I found it disappointing and don't recommend it.
Windling clearly knows her way around a piece of literature: her characters are well defined (almost to excess), every scene serves a purpose, the plot has a strong conclusion—all in all, she knows what she wants to say, says it well, and The Wood Wife is technically accomplished. But technical skill is only one part of a good book, and this novel lacks the other rather more elusive factors which would make it a success. It has no subtlety or passion. The characters are excessively defined, and they too easily accept the magic of their mountain. That magic is a thoughtful spin on some Native American and mythic fantasy tropes, but the plot and writing style that explore it are too straight-forward. Rather than hovering over the land like a mirage, the magic is as flat as the paper it's printed on.
I suspect that some of my apathy of the book is a result of personal preference. The Wood Wife is very similar to Charles de Lint's work and other mythic fantasy novels, which likewise fail to impress me. Readers who are more interested in artistic characters encountering native-styled magical beings on the edges of urban (American) environments, likewise readers which prefer straight-forward storytelling, will have better luck with this book. Regardless, I believe that Windling's technical skill is wasted on this lackluster novel. There is no passion, mystery, or magic here—just attempts at each. As such, I don't recommend The Wood Wife.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
