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juushikaTitle: A Stranger in Olondria
Author: Sofia Samatar
Published: Easthampton: Small Beer Press, 2013 (2012)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 175,685
Text Number: 514
Read Because: multiple recommendations, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Jevick, a pepper-merchant's son with an unusual education, comes to the grand city of Olondria to find his life irrevocably changed by the ghost of a girl. This is a book about books and a fantasy travelogue, given to nested narration; it's dense, with disparate visual imagery and a strong sense of place. I wanted to love these aspects but often found them elusive—largely, I suspect, because so much is visual and I'm not a visual reader, hamstringing Samatar's otherwise powerful prose. Due to the format, there's not much in the way of plot and characters and interpersonal dynamics are slow to form; but when they do, the relationships, intimate and resonant and profoundly flawed, are strong enough to carry what's come before. It's a long warm-up but a beautiful book—especially in retrospect.
Author: Sofia Samatar
Published: Easthampton: Small Beer Press, 2013 (2012)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 175,685
Text Number: 514
Read Because: multiple recommendations, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Jevick, a pepper-merchant's son with an unusual education, comes to the grand city of Olondria to find his life irrevocably changed by the ghost of a girl. This is a book about books and a fantasy travelogue, given to nested narration; it's dense, with disparate visual imagery and a strong sense of place. I wanted to love these aspects but often found them elusive—largely, I suspect, because so much is visual and I'm not a visual reader, hamstringing Samatar's otherwise powerful prose. Due to the format, there's not much in the way of plot and characters and interpersonal dynamics are slow to form; but when they do, the relationships, intimate and resonant and profoundly flawed, are strong enough to carry what's come before. It's a long warm-up but a beautiful book—especially in retrospect.
