Emma Bull, Bone Dance
Nov. 20th, 2009 11:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarienIn a post-apocalyptic city, Sparrow scrapes a living fixing the surviving electronics and collecting and selling old media, but is plagued by mysterious blackouts. A visit to a card-reader provides more questions than answers, but soon life is spiralling out of control and there are important lessons to be learned as well as villains to defeat. (I think that's about as long as I can keep that up!) The book is described as/subtitled "A fantasy for technophiles," which seems a reasonable way to describe a story with a science-fiction-flavored setting and voodoo gods. The setting and atmosphere are very well done, the characters quirky and distinct; the plot seems to sag a bit in the middle after a brisk start, but picks up again at the end.
I found myself mostly reading Sparrow as female, even knowing that it wasn't that simple. I think that's my problem -- and my own background that makes me less likely to see an interest in gadgetry as not-female -- than the author's. The issue is very deftly handled, but it's the sort of stunt that couldn't be pulled off very often.
I found myself mostly reading Sparrow as female, even knowing that it wasn't that simple. I think that's my problem -- and my own background that makes me less likely to see an interest in gadgetry as not-female -- than the author's. The issue is very deftly handled, but it's the sort of stunt that couldn't be pulled off very often.