Seven years after the events of BLOOD AND IRON, the survivors from the first book find themselves drawn into yet another epic battle.

I wish I could tell you that I loved this. I did like it a great deal more than BLOOD AND IRON, but it still didn't quite jive for me. It's big and complex and very, very plotty, but once again I just couldn't connect with any of the characters. I reacted to the story on an intellectual level, not an emotional one. I loved the way Bear blended together so many different bits and pieces of mythology, folklore, religion, and everything in between. I enjoyed the way she commented on story itself and the ways it shapes our lives. I appreciated the themes of redemption and growth. But in the end, I remained distanced from the action. I couldn't commit to it. I found it entertaining and thought-provoking, but not mind blowing.

There's a part of me that wonders if the Promethean books just have too many characters for my tastes. So far as Bear is concerned, I've loved every non-Promethean book I've read - and each and every one of them had no more than three major characters. In each case, I felt that I really came to know these people. Their struggles became my own. I empathized with them in a way that I just couldn't seem to empathize with the characters in these books. I don't normally have problems with character-rich novels, but it feels like everyone herein is stretched just a little too thin. They just don't get enough screen time. There are some nice little moments between them, but that's all they are: moments. I could never quite drum up the enthusiasm I needed to piece those moments together into a coherent arc.

This was interesting, I don't want you to think that it wasn't, but I'm not sure I can wholeheartedly recommend it. It's very plotty, as I said, and I'm not so much into the plot-based books. I prefer stories that allow me to make some sort of a connection with their characters. The writing is beautiful, though, and the story-based stuff is handled very nicely. I'll certainly be reading the rest of the series, but I think I'll take a longish break before I do so.

(This review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina). ( )

Satisfying like a warm cup of stiff black tea. Bear doesn't flinch from making her characters suffer, and her fairies aren't necessarily kind. I loved Kit and Whiskey, but all of her characters sang here, and the complex plot wrapped up nicely in the end. Great stuff. ( )

I might sound from this review that I didn't like Whiskey and Water. That's not true. I loved this book; maybe not quite as much as the preceding volume, Blood and Iron, but still lots.

But here's the thing. Elizabeth Bear doesn't write a simple, straightforward tale where event A leads to event B which leads to event C and so on. Instead, she takes you on a magical, lyrical, strange and fantastic trip into a complicated and convoluted world where nothing is ever exactly as it seems and the author rarely lets you have anything for free.

The writing is beautiful - I think of it as poetry in prose - but I found myself never 100% sure what was going on. All the same, I didn't particularly care. These books are about the journey more than they are about the destination. It may also be that since I have never really "got" poetry (I have come to suspect my brain doesn't work that way), I have the same problem here. Or is poetry also about the words and the journey rather than A goes to B goes to C? It's not something I have a lot of experience with.

The words Bear uses and the ways she puts them together are beautiful. In the end I only wrote down one quote from the book, but she weaves words into beautiful images. I am not a visual reader, I gather the feeling of a book from the words themselves and these words are beautiful. As an example, this is a sentence that really spoke to me. The imagery and the way the words are put together are lovely.

The loneliness was an ache in her breast, a hollowness like a scooped-out heart, a gasping stillness that echoed when she listened into it.
So while I have to admit that I didn't understand everything in this book and I'm `kind of vague on a lot of character motivation or the exact progression of the plot, I found reading it a delight. I know where the characters are at the end of the book compared to where they were at the beginning and I want to read more about them. You kind of pick up the story by osmosis rather than following a clear plotline.

Maybe the bottom line is that Bear is very smart and I'm kind of dumb. I don't care. These books are beautiful and I'm going to keep reading them. (Although, if anyone wants to send me a quick synopsis to help me with the plotline, I wouldn't complain. I'm also very interested to read some of Bear's science fiction, to see how she writes that and if it is similar or different to her so lyrical fantasy.

I've already pre-ordered the next two Promethean Age books, these two set back in the sixteenth century, and I'm looking forward to getting to read them.

Whiskey and Water
Novels of the Promethean Age, Book 2
Elizabeth Bear
9/10 ( )

Whiskey and Water continues the story begun with Blood and Iron, picking up seven years after the events of the first book, reacquainting us with the same major characters--Matthew the mage, Carel the Merlin, and Elaine, a Queen in Fae--while also introducing a whole slew of great new major and minor characters, including among them Christopher (Kit) Marlowe, lately of Hell, where the beautiful (and actually quite entertaining) Lucifer Morningstar reigns as lord. As in the first book, the relationships between and motives of the characters are complex and subtle, and while the build-up to the eventual showdowns between various factions seemed to move in that direction rather slowly, concentrating more on the characters than events, they each arrived at their destination almost before I realized we had actually gotten to what would be the endgames. Another great read, and more to recommend the rest of the series. ( )

Review:
http://fantasycafe.blogspot.com/2008/... ( )