Caitlín R. Kiernan

Fascinating writer, fascinating (with flaws) book.

I came upon Caitlín R. Kiernan when asking for some non-male voices in weird lit; and came upon this book at my local indie bookstore.

I essentially bought it on the name of the author alone, which may have been a mistake... this book is the second in a series, and although none of that is made explicit in the narrative, it does feel like I'm in the middle of a party that's already halfway started.

The narrative jumps across wide swaths of time, from the 60's to some 150 years in the future, and usually a different character each time as well. There may or may not be a struggle between two forces, over either twin sisters or something that those sisters represent. The sisters and a doctor who has some control over them are referred to in most of the vignettes, but usually obliquely.

This means that the actual conflict and dramatic intent of the scenes is always elsewhere than in the scene itself. This can be done to really compelling effect, but it misses the mark here, because it feels as though either I should already know the stakes involved, or that obscuring those details is somehow enhancing the mystery.

The climactic end of the book, and it's denouement, both suffer from this lack of information. I think I know what happened, but I couldn't tell you why it was important, or why all of these shadowy forces seemed to care.

There are also a lot of pop culture and literary references, which don't feel like they add to the story so much as wink at the audience... and an overarching chess motif which again doesn't feel like it adds to the story so much as adopts a genre convention of opposing forces referring to chess. It's even weakened by the characters themselves using it; moments like that drop me out since it feels like no one would refer to 'taking someone's knight' with a straight face, unless we're in a melodramatic genre mode, and we're not. We're in a gritty semi-realistic weird lit mode.

My first impression was that this might be a symptom of an author being just a bit too clever. Leaning on not giving information as a way of making the puzzle difficult, and references to tickle the dopamine part of our brain that enjoys making correlations. Not giving information to the reader doesn't inherently make it more interesting, especially when the characters have the information and we don't. It's a fine line between compelling us to want to figure it out and just frustrating us with too few pieces to be able to intuit the whole... and this book feels like it teeters towards that second result.

After reading it, I read other reviews to see if anyone else was experiencing something similar, and it does seem like I'm not alone here. However, the fans of Caitlín and her work make a good case for a continual re-reading of the text, suggesting that there are more answers to be found in the hints and references. This might be true... and I'm willing to keep reading more of her work and coming back to this.

I will also say that Caitlín can definitely write. The character voices are all distinct and the prose wonderfully reflects the voice and tone of the characters. There are descriptions and scenes that stick with me even now. In that respect, as an introduction to her work and answering the question about reading more, it's done it's job. I'll be reading more of Caitlín in the future, despite my somewhat lacking opinion of this book!


… (mere)

Kiernan is one of those writers who, like Gene Wolfe or CJ Cherryh, affects my thinking process. The syntax structure and delivery of words is just... off... kilter... enough that I have to stop myself and review just what the heck is going on. I love it when a writer can make me do that.

This is the first published Kiernan novel but not the first one I have read. As an early work, it's not quite up to the weirdness of The Tindalos Asset trilogy or the brilliance of The Drowning Girl. Thematically, it is not really much like those works either. I would say it falls closer to The Red Tree in that respect. Regardless, there is more here than merely a glimmer of what is to come later in Kiernan's career. They are a writer that deserves every accolade, in my opinion.… (mere)