Dina Rubina

This one is finally coming off the active reading list: I've read half the book and can't rewarm to it... the beginning was very promising because it focused on only a few characters. But the book quickly degenerated into a mishmash of people, times, places, smells, circus tricks, and through-the-looking-glass stuff. I don't mind the magic (I even like it sometimes!) but I do mind the superfluous details, particularly all the background on the circus that felt like research Rubina didn't have the heart to cut from her final draft. (To me, this is one of the cardinal sins of fiction writing...)

The book looks like Rubina's attempt to pull off magic tricks like one of her magicians, but all her diversionary sleight-of-hand made me impatient. Creating, sustaining, and developing genuine characters from a bunch of words is a far more difficult feat than throwing a lot of obvious episodes and information together and calling it a novel. I seem to have had similar troubles with many of Rubina's books but I'll keep trying... I like a lot of what's at the core of her books.… (more)