Aidan – For the record I pretty much disagree with what you said about the characters, I thought there was plenty to engage with but that’s more about me and what I got out of the book.
Nice review

Can’t wait to hear what you think of the book!

As I mentioned a few times, I could tell while reading the novel that Kearney is certainly a good writer and I’m still very much looking forward to reading The Sea Beggars and The Monarchies of God when the omnibus editions are finally released.

I’ll be very interested to see the reaction from the public when the novel is released in a few weeks.

James – As I was finally deciding to put the novel down for good, your words kept haunting me and were almost enough to keep me going. But, in the end, I decided that my gut reaction was the right one. I usually give a novel the benefit of the doubt 100 pages or 1/4 of its length before deciding it wasn’t for me. Kearney’s novel, and glimmers of greatness that I saw buried beneath the problems, were enough to get it along even farther than this, but in the end couldn’t win out.

Who knows, it’s short enough that I’ll probably end up picking up a copy of it and giving it another go when I feel like I’ve given it enough time. My upcoming trip to Europe would be the perfect place, I think. In that event, I’d probably revisit the review and see how my opinions had changed, if at all.

Sean – That’s a good question, a very good question. I suppose I should have qualified that statement by saying that I’m feeling burnt out on ‘Epic’ or ‘Secondary-world’ fantasy, rather than the genre as a whole. What I’m really craving and enjoying at the moment seem to be novels with a more modern spin to them and, most importantly, a modern cadence and flow to the dialogue.

Science Fiction (especially set in the near future, like Spin by Robert Charles Wilson, which I’m reading now) and Urban Fantasy (I’m itching to read some more Gaiman at the moment) are some of the obvious sub-genres of speculative fiction that fill this itch.

How is it impacting Through Bended Grass? Well, not really, as far as I can tell. It’s set in a contemporary setting, as you know and that allows me to play around with a modern language (it also helps that it’s written in first person) and Rowan views the Fey world through the eyes of someone everyone of our generation can relate to. I think, in many ways, writing Through Bended Grass is responsible for how my tastes are shifting at the moment, rather than the other way around.

Hope that clears up your concerns!

If it counts – read “The Mark of Ran” (book one of The Sea Beggars); it’s done differently and might suit your moods atm better I think.