Alchemy and aliens
Oct. 15th, 2006 08:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyphomandraActually, I'm not sure if they are aliens, but it makes for a good title. I've bounced off a couple of Liz Williams' books before - both The Ghost Sister and Nine Layers of Sky had very good stuff in them, but I never quite clicked - and then read Snake Agent earlier this year, and loved it. So I thought I should track down some of her others.
In the late 1500s, John Dee (he and Christopher Marlowe show up so often in sf/f they should get royalties) is visited by an angelic being who tells him of another world he can travel to. Many years later, Alivet Dee, a distant descendent and alchemist on this world, seeks to rescue her sister from her servitude for the inhuman Lords of Night, rulers of her planet.
I didn't quite intend so much blurb-speak. Anyway, this has a lot of very good world-building, and more than one world at that - there are three other worlds (including Earth), each exemplifying certain extremes of alchemical principles (cold and damp, warm and damp, cold and dry, warm and dry), and the means of travel between them is a fascinating sort of sky-boat, evocative and strange. Alivet's world is heavily dependent on hallucinogenic drugs - the humans use them for temporary escapes, and for searching for the Origin, a race memory of their original planet - and her skills with these, again based on alchemical principles, are detailed and interesting.
The poison master of the title, Ghairen, is from one of the other worlds, here in secret to overthrow the Lords (for which he needs Alivet's help). I do like Alivet's confusion over whether to trust him, or other characters who tell her different things about his actions and motives, but unfortunately (from my point of view, anyway) this heralds the transformation of Ghairen and Alivet's relationship into the Gothic, where the isolated young female must rely on her wits in order to decide whether or not to distrust the mysterious brooding stranger in whose house she now dwells. Or something involving more capitals. I can like this plot-line - I'm very fond of Jane Eyre, for starters - but it feels forced on to the characters, here, and I'm never really convinced of Ghairen as a sexual presence. Still, it's not that all-consuming, and the rest of it was very enjoyable. I have Darklands in my room, somewhere, which I'm looking forward to, and I really need to decide whether I'm going to order The Demon and the City (sequel to Snake Agent) from Night Shade Books (supporting independent publisher, can buy limited edition with bonus story) or Amazon (sadly, much cheaper).
In the late 1500s, John Dee (he and Christopher Marlowe show up so often in sf/f they should get royalties) is visited by an angelic being who tells him of another world he can travel to. Many years later, Alivet Dee, a distant descendent and alchemist on this world, seeks to rescue her sister from her servitude for the inhuman Lords of Night, rulers of her planet.
I didn't quite intend so much blurb-speak. Anyway, this has a lot of very good world-building, and more than one world at that - there are three other worlds (including Earth), each exemplifying certain extremes of alchemical principles (cold and damp, warm and damp, cold and dry, warm and dry), and the means of travel between them is a fascinating sort of sky-boat, evocative and strange. Alivet's world is heavily dependent on hallucinogenic drugs - the humans use them for temporary escapes, and for searching for the Origin, a race memory of their original planet - and her skills with these, again based on alchemical principles, are detailed and interesting.
The poison master of the title, Ghairen, is from one of the other worlds, here in secret to overthrow the Lords (for which he needs Alivet's help). I do like Alivet's confusion over whether to trust him, or other characters who tell her different things about his actions and motives, but unfortunately (from my point of view, anyway) this heralds the transformation of Ghairen and Alivet's relationship into the Gothic, where the isolated young female must rely on her wits in order to decide whether or not to distrust the mysterious brooding stranger in whose house she now dwells. Or something involving more capitals. I can like this plot-line - I'm very fond of Jane Eyre, for starters - but it feels forced on to the characters, here, and I'm never really convinced of Ghairen as a sexual presence. Still, it's not that all-consuming, and the rest of it was very enjoyable. I have Darklands in my room, somewhere, which I'm looking forward to, and I really need to decide whether I'm going to order The Demon and the City (sequel to Snake Agent) from Night Shade Books (supporting independent publisher, can buy limited edition with bonus story) or Amazon (sadly, much cheaper).
