Author: Bess Appledore

I'm a literature freak obsessed with classics, fantasy, and eighteenth/nineteenth century revolutionaries.

How to Make Your Setting Captivating: “The Lies of Locke Lamora”

I think that everyone has their own definition of a 'working' eclectic setting in the fantasy genre. For someone, very vague inspirations may work. Someone may not need names and landscapes that are based on a given place or culture from our world. It works brilliantly in such classics as LeGuin's 'Earthsea', and it works … Continue reading How to Make Your Setting Captivating: “The Lies of Locke Lamora” →

“An Invincible Memory” and Demythologization

'An Invincible Memory' is a 1980s novel by the Brazilian writer João Ubaldo Ribeiro. Spanning over 150 years in its main action, it tells a story of several families from the region of Bahía. As many Latin-American novels, it isn't only a 'moving family saga' with 'epic scenes', for it is more thought-provoking than just … Continue reading “An Invincible Memory” and Demythologization →

‘The Night Circus’ by Erin Morgenstern

I really liked 'The Starless Sea' by this author. Maybe the pacing and the execution weren't perfect, but many elements there drew me in. But once I've read 'The Night Circus', the first book by Morgenstern, I think that it's a proof of certain thing. She's become a better writer, why not. However, it's hard … Continue reading ‘The Night Circus’ by Erin Morgenstern →

‘The Goblin Emperor’ Isn’t only About Fantasy Stuff

I don't mean that most fantasy books are shallow except for the Few Chosen (though I've been quite disappointed with the YA strain of the genre for a time). But if someone thinks that fantasy is only about adventures and fight, then they should read more books like 'The Goblin Emperor' by Katherine Addison. I … Continue reading ‘The Goblin Emperor’ Isn’t only About Fantasy Stuff →

When Magical Realism Works: “The Last Warner Woman”

Once I've written about 'The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina', concluding that copying the Marquez/Allende-like style in a magical realism novel isn't enough to make it good. Now I'm going to write about a 2010 novel by the Jamaican writer Kei Miller, 'The Last Warner Woman'. If someone asked me how to do magical realism, I'd … Continue reading When Magical Realism Works: “The Last Warner Woman” →

When Magical Realism Doesn’t Work: ‘The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina’

There are subgenres known not only for their tropes, but for their style too. When 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' became the most famous novel of magical realism, certain expectations appeared as well. A magical realism novel was to have a rich, clear style that still gave the reader a space to judge the characters … Continue reading When Magical Realism Doesn’t Work: ‘The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina’ →

Why I Stopped Reading the ‘Dune’ Series

So, the 'Dune' series is one of the most famous sequences in science fiction: a family saga, a space opera, an epic vision of distant future. The original six books by Frank Herbert were published from the sixties to the eighties, then to be continued by his son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Well, … Continue reading Why I Stopped Reading the ‘Dune’ Series →

‘The Book of the New Sun’: Last Two Novels

In my review of the first two books in the 'Book of the New Sun' tetralogy by Gene Wolfe I wrote that they were books written beautifully but without much substance. Overall, I can tell the same about, like, three-fourth of the cycle? Because in the third book, almost nothing happens, except that Severian, our … Continue reading ‘The Book of the New Sun’: Last Two Novels →