Subject: Two Great Fantasists

From: [email-masked] (Alan Wexelblat)
Date: 8 Jul 92 00:37:50 GMT

Great Fantasists: James P. Blaylock and Richard Grant
		Review Copyright (c) 1992 Alan Wexelblat

If you've been reading my reviews lately, you know I've been bemoaning the
fact that an average paperback these days is $5-$6 and most of the time it's
not worth half that.  If you've been following my advice, you've saved
yourself a few bucks.  Well, now it's time to go out and spend those
dollars.  I have here two of the greatest writers ever; both are fantasists
and both are worth every penny their publishers demand.

By fantasist, I don't mean your ordinary fantasy writer.  No goofy elves, no
mighty-thewed barbarians, no Celtic ripoffs.  Instead, these two offer us
real magic embedded in a believable world much like our own (even if it
is... well, _bent_).  And with top-notch writing to back up their
imaginations, these two get better every time.

			The Last Coin

There are only two problems with a Blaylock novel: first, it moves far too
slowly; second, it's over much too soon.  Contradiction?  Yes.  But that's
the magic of Blaylock.  You see, a Blaylock book starts off slow and easy.
He lets you get comfortable inhabiting the skin of his protagonist -- in
this case Andrew Vanbergen -- and his world.  Once you're in, reading is
smooth and east because Blaylock never hurries.  Eventually the story comes
to its climax, keeping you guessing right up to the end, then suddenly it's
over.  And if you're like me, you find yourself thinking "hey, wait, more!"
You don't want the story to be over because you've become so attached to it
and to the characters.

In this case, Blaylock is at his absolute best.  "The Last Coin" is the best
work of his I've read.  It deals with an icon that's been largely ignored
throughout legend: the thirty pieces of silver Judas Iscariot received for
the betrayal of Jesus.  The Grail has gotten more than its share of
treatments, and pieces of the True Cross have been sold for years by
charlatans of all caliber.  But what about those coins?

What if they had magical powers?  And what if you could get more and more
power by gathering more of the coins?  Of course, since the coins were used
for an evil purpose they have evil side effects.  And what if... no, I won't
tell you.  Just go read the book and see how one very ordinary person tries
to stand up to the evil represented by the coins and by the man who is
trying to possess them all.  Blaylock won't disappoint you, I promise.

			Views From The Oldest House

It's rare for me to find a new writer I really like, let alone one with
master-class talent.  Richard Grant is such a writer.  "Views From the
Oldest House" takes us on a journey of magic in a future America.  We follow
one Turner Ashenden as he moves from being just an unhappy student to being
a Man with a Destiny.  Grant captures the feel of Magic as an ineluctable
force of the Universe.  People may call themselves names like Black Malachi
and may gain glimpses of the way things really are, but in Grant's writing,
Magic is the fabric of our being and no one can really escape it.

I should also commend the Foundation/Doubleday people who put the
Escheresque cover on the large softcover printing of this book.  That
painting -- depicting people walking and standing on stairways which connect
at impossible angles in total defiance of gravity -- really expresses the
mood of this novel.  And it reminds readers of the house, owned by Black
Malachi Pantera and inhabited by him, Turner, and assorted others.  That
house, the "oldest" of the title, provides us with a base from which we can
view this story.

Turner's view is one of almost helpless resignation.  For the most part he
doesn't understand what's going on, nor what people want of him.  The people
who do, like Malachi and Madame Gwendola -- the Self-Realized Adept, aren't
explaining things.

Then there are the other views, mostly of Turner.  He is a hero, a leader, a
friend, a lover, an enemy.  People project onto him what they want to see of
him.  And though he protests each transformation of his character, he goes
along to get along, becoming each thing in turn.

Along the way, Grant reveals himself to be a real wizard with the English
language.  I'd rate his wordsmithing skills on a par with John Crowley (high
praise from me).  I was particularly impressed by the way he handled the
narrator's voice in the opening third of the book.  Just when you think
you've got it figured out, he pulls a great surprise.

I realize I have almost totally failed to give you any sense of what this
book is about, or what the plot does or who the main players are.  This is,
I'm afraid, deliberate.  One of the joys of reading Grant is letting him
reveal each of these things in his own way, at his own pace.  The book never
drags, and the number of literary tricks that Grant manages to pull off
amazed me.  I'm afraid you will just have to take my word for the fact that
this is a wonderful book and you should all go out and buy it.

%T The Last Coin
%A James P. Blaylock
%I Ace Fantasy Paperback
%G ISBN 0-441-47075-0
%D 1988
%O $3.95
%P 328 pp

%T Views From the Oldest House
%A Richard Grant
%I Foundation/Doubleday softcover
%O $8.95
%G ISBN 0-385-26428-3
%P 470 pp