Passionate Ambivalence

Spoilerific ranting will be found in this post and all the other ones I make on the subject.


My overall impressions of the book are these:

Why can't all of this book be as good as some of this book?!?

...yeah...

Specifically my two favorite bits, although it sounds weird to say that because they were so vividly horrible at times, were the part with Salim and the ifrit and the story of Wututu and Agasu, the African twins. But when I was reading those parts I was deeply involved in the story and I cared about the characters in a way that wasn't true in the other parts of the book.

In the back of my copy there's an interview with Neil Gaiman and he said something about trying to write in an uncomplicated "American style." That could be part of it, but I think it's more about the characters, and maybe their cultural context...somehow?

Plus also, my opinion of the big story is mostly "You seem to think you can tell stories like this without the Asynjur, but you are WRONG wrong wrong." (Ack, I wrote that, and then I realized I had forgotten about Easter, so hmmm. Maybe it's more my massive discomfort with telling stories about Odin and Baldur and sacrifice and ERASING FRIGGA AAAARGH.)