Steph Swainston anyone?

**flurgledurfel** · February 10th, 2010, 08:23 PM

Hey everyone, first post... Love the site, been lurking at work for about 2 weeks and compiled a very nice "to read" list thanks to you guys... I figured I'd throw out a more obscure author for my first post.

Any Steph Swainston fans out there? My reading tastes normally gravitate towards male authors, but a couple years ago a Neil Gaiman blurb on the cover of Steph Swainston's "The Year of Our War" grabbed my eye, so I decided to give it a shot. Very, very original, gritty fantasy. I loved it. About to pick up the 3rd novel "Dangerous Offspring", but wish I'd waited b/c they've released "The Castle Omnibus". Anyways, just wondering if anyone else had read her work and what your impressions were...

**suciul** · February 10th, 2010, 09:23 PM

I have no idea if there are other similar threads and we will get merged from here but I am a big time fan and hew new novel due at the end of the month Above the Snowline is an asap that i will get on publication

The main reason is Jant Shira's voice which I find very appealing and very entertaining, while her world-building has some great, great stuff (check The Hunt chapter in Dangerous Offspring that was reprinted in the New Weird anthology too for pure imagination)

Overall though I think that her trilogy which has a sort of ending though I would love more (Snowline is a prequel) is strongly voice-dependent

**flurgledurfel** · February 10th, 2010, 09:37 PM

I agree that Jant's character, with his shady background and surly, irreverent attitude, really adds so much to the series. I loved how she described his drug addiction. The alternate world (The Shift) he was transported to when he got high was mind-bendingly creative. I can't remember the last fantasy novel I read where the main character was a hardcore (yet functional) junkie. Her writing has a definite Mieville flavor to it, but she definitely has her own style. But based upon all of the reviews I've read, you either love it or hate it. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone.

**Werthead** · February 11th, 2010, 10:31 AM

I enjoyed the first book and have the second. Cheers for reminding me about it, I might bump it up the review queue

**MattNY** · February 11th, 2010, 01:30 PM

I wasn't even familiar with her work previous to the post.

Her work sounds interesting and I have added it to my list of books to read. This site has tripled my list in the few months I have been here.

**Psylent** · February 11th, 2010, 02:28 PM

She's always disappointed me. Her writing, characters, and settings are original and interesting, but she never quite pulls her story off. Its good enough that I keep expecting her to blow my socks off but her books never quite manage to. I'll keep reading her because one of these days I expect she'll manage to hit a homerun.