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No Present Like Time - book review
Nov. 30th, 2011 10:57 am'No Present Like Time' is the second book in Steph Swainston's 'Castle' series. It's a lot better than the first one.
Most of the things that annoyed me in the first volume are absent now. It's much better plotted, characters are introduced in a more organised manner, the lapses into present are almost (but not entirely) eliminated.
Without these annoyances and distractions, the writer's talent for language can show forth to much better effect. Swainston has a real gift for descriptive language and a delight in playing with words. In the 'Shift', the alternative world that Jant reaches under the influence of drugs, many of the strange beings there have names that are puns or clever plays on word meanings.
Sadly, there were still a few minor things that threw me out of the text. It's usually the bits that the writer adds as almost throwaway afterthoughts that tend to spoil the book for me. A description of a hurricane has windmills rotating so fast that 300 catch fire and burn. Clearly the writer doesn't know that any miller worth his salt will take the canvas off his sails and lock the sails in position at the first sign of really bad weather.
And Tris, which ironically has no need of a long-distance communication system, turns out to have the semaphore towers which were lacking in the Fourlands - which did need them.
Still, overall, a well-written book and one that encourages me to continue with the series.
Most of the things that annoyed me in the first volume are absent now. It's much better plotted, characters are introduced in a more organised manner, the lapses into present are almost (but not entirely) eliminated.
Without these annoyances and distractions, the writer's talent for language can show forth to much better effect. Swainston has a real gift for descriptive language and a delight in playing with words. In the 'Shift', the alternative world that Jant reaches under the influence of drugs, many of the strange beings there have names that are puns or clever plays on word meanings.
Sadly, there were still a few minor things that threw me out of the text. It's usually the bits that the writer adds as almost throwaway afterthoughts that tend to spoil the book for me. A description of a hurricane has windmills rotating so fast that 300 catch fire and burn. Clearly the writer doesn't know that any miller worth his salt will take the canvas off his sails and lock the sails in position at the first sign of really bad weather.
And Tris, which ironically has no need of a long-distance communication system, turns out to have the semaphore towers which were lacking in the Fourlands - which did need them.
Still, overall, a well-written book and one that encourages me to continue with the series.
