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October 03, 2004
Reviews: (Books) Agyar
Steven Brust is very good at what he does. Fortunately, what he does is tell stories, rather than rob banks. I have to be careful when reading a new one by him: often I do not wish to put them down. This can be dangerous around finals time. Anyway, go read Agyar...
The Jack Agyar character is a vampire, though that word is never used in the book itself. The ennui he suffers is a sensation familiar to those who have read Anne Rice (take that however you wish), but the central struggle in Agyar is the titular character’s struggle to get past his lethargy...
The book is interestingly structured-- as a series of type-written journal entries. Every now and again, Jack will remark on the fact that he hasn’t mentioned certain things, and wonder why he did not see fit to set them out. While I normally am not fond of this device, Brust doesn’t make too much of it, so I let it pass...
Jack himself seems a likeable sort, the Horror of the piece did not become apparent for me until one understated bit of writing, where he tosses a woman down on a couch and-- stops typing. My eyes got wide and I realized oh gods! This is a rape scene. It is to this poor girl that Agyar returns repeatedly, haunting her, killing her slowly and driving her mad. All the while, he is falling in love with the girl’s roommate...
The book itself is under 300 pages, and rife with pathos, ethos, and good writing. It is very different from just about anything else in the Brust Collection, but also very worth reading...
Rating: 5 cloves of Garlic out of 5 wooden stakes. Bravo, Mr. Brust...
Posted by Andrew at October 3, 2004 04:14 PM
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Comments
Hmm, glad I'd read this one before reading your review. It's a fine review, but I don't like that much information going into a story, especially one of Brust's.
One of the many things I like about Brust (my favorite author) is his ability to write in some many different voices. There are definite similiarties in a lot of his main characters, but they're often very distinctive voices.
Granted, it can be a little frustrating when coming out with books in your favorite series get's put on hold while he plays around with the history centuries earlier, but those are great too, so I can't complain ;-)
Posted by: Dazed_and_Confucius at October 4, 2004 01:59 AM