Whiskey and Water

Whiskey and Water is the second book in Elizabeth Bear's Promethean Age novels about a resurgence of Faerie and their conflicts with Mages in modern day NYC.

I loved Blood and Iron, the first book in this series, which was set around a fateful Halloween Night when the power of Faerie was unleashed in a visible and risble way, as conflicts between Faerie and the Promethean Mages, as well as riven divisions within Faerie led to the inescapable revelation to the modern world that Faerie was real, after all.

Of course this conflict has been at great cost for all of its participants, even the winners, and it is seven years later that we take up their stories again. Matthew Szczegielniak still teaches classes and has turned his back on his show more power. Jane Andraste, Maga, is about the only other Mage in NY of note that's left. Her half-fae daughter Elaine sits on the painful throne of the Seelie. Whiskey, the water elemental who holds Elaine's soul is still abroad...

And a series of murders by a Fae introduce us to new characters. Don, the cop who finds a connection with these sorcerous characters. Jewels and Geoff, young kids who quickly get in over their head.

Oh, and Kitten, aka Kit, aka Christopher Marlowe, ready to be released from Hell and walk abroad in Faerie and the world. Oh, and of course, the Devil. More than one, in fact.

And so with the players named, the tale is told and told well. The consequences of conflicts from the first book play out, and in addition to Faerie and the mundane world, Bear introduces us to a third realm in this book--Hell.

The book shouldn't be read by anyone who hasn't read B&I (and why haven't you read that,hmmm?). If anything, the writing of W&W is better, a more mature Bear's pen's words here flow like wine. Marlowe is one of Bear's favorite historical characters, and to see him brought to life in the modern world is a delight, but not the only one to be found in these pages.

After all, having been born and raised there, I was tickled pink that part of the climax, a wizard's duel, takes place on Staten Island.

I enjoyed Whiskey and Water highly. The 3rd novel in the Promethean Age, Ink and Steel, takes place 400 years earlier, during the rule of Elizabeth I. Will I read it? I already bought it, you betcha. show less

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 show more 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 show less

I found this hard to get into, with a detail-rich style, teetering omniscience and oblique approach to actual plot that made the story skitter out from under my grasp. Familiarity with it made things easier (i.e. it got easier as I read) but to be honest, I could've still used a little more direct, explicit punch on the finale notes. I was never, throughout the book, sure how much of what seemed obvious to me should seem obvious, how much was my knowledge that the characters didn't have and how much I was just misremembering from thirty pages ago because in between I'd be intimately introduced to the wardrobe style of three new characters. But by the end, I am generally satisfied with the overall piece, and I think I'll read on in the show more series, because I think this style might be more suited to an Elizabethan narrative. show less

Seven years after the events of Blood and Iron, the intrigue in the supernatural world is heating up. Dead bodies killed by Fae are turning up in New York, an Elizabethan poet has left Hell to challenge an archmage to a duel, and angels and devils are pursuing their own machinations.

The delight for me in this series is how the main characters know perfectly well that they're caught up in a web of fate, and are doing their level best to defy it. The cast of characters in this book gets large enough that I was wanting to take notes so I could flip back along each thread of plot. I know what I'm doing when I eventually get a hypertext edition of this one...

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.

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 show more 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). show less

This series is so messed up. The first two books published were the last two books written and take place in modern day. The last two books published take place in Elizabethan times. The Elizabethan books are really good. The modern-day books are kind of eh, although there are a couple of characters who have a lot of potential, given some age and experience.