Galveston (2000)

This may be Sean Stewart's best novel, though it is not my favourite. Here we see Stewart displaying full mastery of his prose, his characterization, and his depiction of a fully realized magical world. Be warned though, neither the characters, nor the world presented, are always pleasant to behold.

We follow the story of Josh Cane, a young man with a chip on his shoulder due to the constrained circumstances of his life that are the result of his father's loss of a pivotal game of poker. Add to this the fact that Josh lives in a world after the occurence of a magical apocalypse wherein everyone has to work hard to survive, not only due to their physical circumstances, but also due to the perilous proximity of the magical Otherworld, and you have the makings of a pretty downbeat story. Stewart himself has described this book as: "...your Basic "Boy Meets Girl, Boy Loses Everything, Girl becomes her Own Evil Twin, Boy Is Framed For Murder and Sent Along With Sidekick To Be Eaten By Cannibals, and Things Get Worse When The Weather Turns Bad" story." That about sums it up.

Of course there's more to the novel than a simple encapsulation, even one given by the author, can provide. First of all we have, once again, Stewart's excellent characters: Our main character Josh is by turns repulsive and worthy of pity; a man who had expected a life of much greater comfort than the one he ended up with and who is unable to let go of the bitterness he feels as a result of his circumstances. The only person who seems able to stand Josh is his best friend Ham Mather, the gentle giant who loyally accompanies Josh in his exile that is brought about by Josh's infatuation with the third of our heroes: Sloane Gardner, the heir-apparent to both the political and magical leaders of Galveston whose desire to escape from her responsibilities leads to disaster. Standing in the background of the story like a looming spectre is the distorted and eternal carnival otherworld presided over by Momus, a godlike trickster who will give blessings to mortals courageous, or foolhardy, enough to pay the price. As always, be careful what you wish for.

As noted, Josh's story goes from bad to worse and his circumstances, both physical and personal, can become hard to stomach. You think George R. R. Martin can put his characters through the ringer? He could pick up a few tips from Sean Stewart here. There are also no easy resolutions. Stewart always avoids the easy answer or pat conclusion. Our characters do get resolutions of sorts, and they certainly grow and change as people, but nothing is exactly as one might have expected and nothing follows the standard Hollywood paradigm for such things. This is all to the good I say and for all its difficulty, you'd be hard pressed to find a better told story than the one you'll find in _Galveston_.

I wouldn't recommend this as a starting point for Stewart: go to _Resurrection Man_, or _The Night Watch_ for that. Both take place in the same world deluged by magic, though at different points in its history. They are a bit more friendly to their protagonists, though they never quite let them off the hook either. No matter where you start though, you're in for a real treat with Sean Stewart. He's truly an excellent writer of great talent. ( )

This is such a wonderful book.

Part of me saying this is that the book is local. That's unusual for Houston. While some novels may be set in Houston, it's a nebulous Houston that can be substituted for any moderately large city out there, except that they have people wearing cowboy hats and boots, so it's obvious the authors have never been here for any length of time.

This book, though, is absolutely anchored here. It mentions local landmarks often. And while the book is understandable without them, just saying the name invokes instant images for me.

To me, Bolivar Island invokes images of hurricane Ike, Gilchrist and that lone yellow house left in a swath of rubble. Appropriate.

Mention the Balinese Room, I get images of its storied history, police raids, remodeled nightclubs and finally the broken pier that is all that Ike left behind. And Odessa used this for her house?! An entire, huge nightclub? I know the Balinese Room was under renovation/reconstruction when Stewart lived in Houston. I wonder how much had been rebuilt when he saw it.

Gouts of flame coming from Texas City refineries? I used to drive 225 all the time, passing through Pasadena and Deer Park. A bit north of Galveston, but I know exactly the image he's trying to invoke.

Turning from Seawall Blvd to Broadway? Been there!

There's more to it than just enjoying something local, though. You have complex, wonderfully flawed characters. Though those characters come to realize their flaws by the end, and are working on them, the flaws are too deep be fixed in the span of a few short weeks.

Then you have the magic: lovely chaotic Mardi Gras, cities and gods coming to life and walking their streets, bizarre, wonderful, strange occurrences seen as commonplace in the darkness. But contrasted to that, you have a post-industrial society: no medicine, no cars, no factories, shoes made from old car tires - just people living off of whatever they can scavenge from artifacts made before the magic came, and no real hope of any change for the better while they cling to the past.

It's an interesting contrast between the absolute solidity of the "real" Galveston, and the shifting, nebulous Galveston of Mardi Gras.

I'm definitely going to hunt down the other two books set in this world and read them as well.
( )

The basic premise of the story is interesting, particularly if read as an allegorical tale: the attempts to suppress the magic of Mardi Gras are the attempts made by society and individuals to repress what we don't understand and what we see as primitive, and therefore negative, cultural and social urges in our collective subconsciousness. The use of magic is seen as ambivalent: both useful and dangerous, and its possibilities are explored in detail here. The twisting of the world we know into an alternate magical reality with its dark forces and bright exterior is well portrayed.

Excellent novel, I liked it much more than the Night Watch. Play the hand you're dealt. The poker bits reminded me a bit like that Tim Powers. Is poker inherently fantastical?There's something very great and disturbing in the way that magic is presented as wonderful, strange and bizarrely beautiful, everything magic was ever meant or thought to be, and yet, and because of that, horrifying and completely inimical to the modern human. ( )

Given that I've been reading nothing but crap D&D novels recently, I'm probably not prepared to review something like this. I'll try and stay within the boundaries of my authority and not wax too philosophical:

* Pageturner! I found this book was harder to put down than anything in recent memory.
* Characters! They're excellent!
* Plot! Interesting, and also tightly knit--you'll see the strings pulled together very tight towards the end.
* Setting! I love Texas (sorry everyone else, I know how that sounds) and I love reading about it.
* Stuff I didn't understand! This happens a lot with books and me :)