After a busy couple of weeks, my standard 4 books at a time routine wasn’t really satisfying my need to read (its kind of like the need for speed, trust me). Currently, I have in process Valis by P.K. Dick, Ulysess by Joyce, Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis (just finished), and Simple Genius by D. Baldacci. Most are rereads so 10 minutes here and there is fine.
To break out of the rut, I hit Powell’s and looked for something new. In the Sci-Fi section, an employee recommendation suggested that if you are fan of Neil Gaiman (I am) then you would like Sean Stewart (whom I now do).
Picked up Mockingbird since it seemed the least “pulpy” of the titles on the shelf. I’m glad I did. The book has a tone similar in feel to Anansi Boys. You know: voodoo/magic exists, but it never becomes the real theme of the story. Its the characters, and their relation to the magic, that drive the story.
Being a “stormtrooper atheist” (at least for the time being), most people are surprised by my fascination for all things related to religious magic, including voodoo. To me, its so easy to draw the corollaries between the loa and psychological archetypes. When someone is ridden, its akin to acting out on subconscious desires. Needless to say, this book didn’t disappoint in this area.
Another awesome feature of the book: The Method. Instead of a simple afterword by the author, he spent a couple of pages detailing his mindset and motives when writing the book.
So, now I get to troll the web, see what else he’s written and check another one out.
No related posts.
So glad you discovered him! IMO, he’s one of the most underappreciated great writers out there — probably because his novels don’t fit comfortably in any particular genre. Your average sword and sorcery fan isn’t going to enjoy Mockingbird, for example, and fans of magical realists like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who I think would love it, aren’t going to be caught dead in the fantasy section.
If you liked Mockingbird, I think you’ll really like Perfect Circle, his most recent adult novel. Even though it deals with different themes, the aesthetic is similar, and the wry humor is even more pronounced. Galveston was written before Perfect Circle, and it’s more traditional fantasy — or at least more epic — but it’s also amazing. John Clute, one of the few respectable sci-fi literary critics, said it’s just shy of being one of the ten best fantasy novels ever written. I love Resurrection Man because it was the first of his books I ever read, and The Night Watch because it is beautiful, but I think his newer novels have greater mass appeal, so start with those.
More recently, Sean’s been pioneering a new form of internet storytelling, known as alternate reality gaming. (See his essay here: http://seanstewart.org/interactive/ or a great article here: http://news.cnet.com/A-novelist-turned-gaming-innovator/2100-1043_3-5995637.html)
You can wander through the archive of the Beast, the first alternate reality game, graced with what I think is still some of the best writing he’s ever done, at cloudmakers.org where they’ve lovingly preserved every website and file used in the game.
Finally, most recently, he has been attempting to combine the interactivity of alternate reality gaming with novels in two fantasy-tinged young adult mystery novels, Cathy’s Book and Cathy’s Key. Cathy’s Book made the bestseller list, and even though they’re YA, I think they’re both fun reads for adults too.
And yes, I work with him and am biased as hell, so take everything I say with a grain of salt, but if you liked Mockingbird, there’s a lot more out there where that came from.