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Title: Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was by Angelica Gorodischer, Ursula K. Le Guin ISBN: 1-931520-05-4 Publisher: Small Beer Press Pub. Date: 15 August, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.86 (7 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Slow read
Comment: I got all the way through this book because I figured that Ursula LeGuin saw something in it and I can see how she did, but it's mostly lacking the interest I find in her work. The habit of having a storyteller for every tale makes the characters distant so that you don't end up caring about them, and the scenery less vivid. This technique is supposed to give them the universal wisdom of fables but what the stories and characters tend to achieve is either common sense or a sort of vague mysticism that doesn't really accomplish the amount of depth it would need to have this style work. Well written and seemlessly translated, but overall a plodding read.
Rating: 5
Summary: ANGELICA GORODISCHER IS JUST WONDERFUL
Comment: I am so proud of meeting her almost everyday, since she lives where I do. Her books are so deep, she is such a terrific person!!!!!!!! I love her work. I love this book, too.
Rating: 4
Summary: Fabulous Fantastic Fables
Comment: "The storyteller said..." So begins almost every one of the stories in this charming collection. And what stories they are! Fantastic fables of a mythic empire that has existed, risen, fallen and risen again for countless ages. Stories of emperors, the wise, the foolish, the mad, the bad and the good. And most of all, stories of human folly and madness, stories of how human beings go astray following their thoughts or emotions--anger, bitterness, resentment, lust, greed.
The stories can be taken on many levels--as simple tales, or as allegories about the human condition. And because they are always told in this detached way--by a nameless storyteller--they acquire a mythic resonance. It doesn't matter whether any of it "really" happened. The last story in the collection is just a little different, well, surprising. And I won't tell you how it ends.
Author Angelica Gorodischer is an Argentine writer, previously unavailable in English, and she is translated here by that engaging fabulist, Ursula K. Le Guin. They must be kindred spirits, for the stories in this collection have a familiar tone to Le Guin's readers. Other worlds, fantastic worlds, with a dark, haunting edge. The book is not perfect. Long, repetitive, almost Proustian sentences make for slow going. There were times when the narrative really dragged, the chatter of the "storytellers" became just a bit much to listen to. Still, this is a great book and worth reading. Don't try to rush it, though. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.
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Title: The Etched City by K. J. Bishop ISBN: 189481522X Publisher: Prime (OH) Pub. Date: 01 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Trampoline: An Anthology by Kelly Link ISBN: 1931520046 Publisher: Small Beer Press Pub. Date: 15 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases by Jeff Vandermeer, Tim Lebbon, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, China Mieville, Michael Moorcock, Kage Baker, Mark Roberts, Stepan Chapman ISBN: 1892389541 Publisher: Night Shade Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Veniss Underground by Jeff Vandermeer ISBN: 1894815645 Publisher: Prime (OH) Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Wave in the Mind : Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination by URSULA K. LE GUIN ISBN: 1590300068 Publisher: Shambhala Pub. Date: 17 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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