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Everybody go order it.
http://www.lcrw.net/seanstewart/index.htm
If you're unfamiliar with the brilliance that is Sean, I hereby cut-and-paste an old google posts of mine that has a brief summary because I'm too full of dim sum and sleepy to compose a new one:
Sean Stewart is one of the most original, interesting, and ambitious contemporary fantasy writers. His latest novel _Galveston_ tied for the World Fantasy Award with Tim Powers' _Declare_. He gets consistently positive reviews, and his books mostly have excellent
covers. He's a deep, literary writer, but his prose style is easy to read, his plots aren't difficult or buried like Gene Wolfe's, though his themes tend to be disturbing he doesn't go in for hard-to-read abuse and suffering, and he's often quite funny.
Why the hell don't his books sell better?
I'm not going to make a lot of critical comments on individual books, because they tend to share the same virtues. His characterization is first-rate, his settings are vivid, his prose varies depending on the novel but is consistently good and appropriate to the narrator, and
his use of magic is stunning. His books also tend to include the sort of fascinating technical detail, on anything from sailing to primitive medicine to blacksmithing, that make Dick Francis' novels so enjoyable.
_Resurrection Man_. Not his first, but a good one to start with. It begins with a young man doing an autopsy on his own corpse, and if that doesn't hook you, you should read the book anyway. It's a family drama set in an eerie alternate America in which magic started seeping
into the world around WWII, when golems appeared in Treblinka. The magic in this book, and indeed all of Sean's, is utterly unlike the magic in most fantasy novels. It doesn't have cut-and-dried rules. It doesn't have a system. It exists, and it's terrifying and, well, magical. This book, like many of Sean's, is about family ties, love, self-awareness, and the literal and metaphoric ghosts of the past. As a bonus, it includes a stand-up comedy routine that is actually funny.
It's my favorite of his, by the way.
_Passion Play_. His first novel. A dark, intense detective novel set in an interestingly dystopic future America. Well-written, depressing, and has an unusually nuanced portrayal of fundamentalist religion.
_Nobody's Son_. A commoner breaks a very scary enchantment and wins the hand of the crown princess... by chapter two. The rest of the book is about what happens after reality sets in. Written in an unusual and convincing semi-archaic voice (not at all hard to read, though).
Inexplicably, this book has been reprinted as a YA novel. It's about marriage, and having to confront the ghost of your father before you can become a father yourself. Those are not teenage issues, or at least they shouldn't be.
_Clouds End_. An imaginary world story about a sea-faring culture. Original and ambitious, but veers between over-explaining what should be subtextual, and burying what should be clear plot points. Lots of lush imagery and a hair-raising final scene, otherwise too diffuse and
surreal to be a really successful novel. The last line _really_ didn't work for me.
_Night Watch_. Loosely related to _Resurrection Man_, set in a future in which high-tech and out-of-control magic uneasily interact. Gods walk the earth and give birth to children, and a man cuts out his rebellious magic with a stanley knife. Has a lot to say about creativity and love, and has a scene involving a man trying to start a fire that will make you turn up the heat. Gets a little out of control near the end, and each individual scene works better than the book as a whole does, but each individual scene is scary and memorable and beautifully detailed. Well, that was incoherent. Don't read this first, but if you like his other books, definitely read this one.
_Mockingbird_. A pregnant Texas actuary inherits her dead mother's trailer park voodoo gods. Extremely funny, especially a scene in which the protagonist attempts to keep her morning sickness under control and the fact that she's pregnant hidden... while she's on a date in a
_revolving_ restaurant, and quite dark under the surface. A good one to start with, if _Resurrection Man_ sounds too creepy.
_Galveston_. Loosely related to _Resurrection Man_, set in a post-holocaust-by-magic world, and takes the piss out of all those novels that make primitive living seem fun. Lots of eerie
magic in this one: prawn men, an altar on a front lawn reading "Beware of God," and an answer to the question, "If ghosts are hanging out, giving advice, and generally interacting with people as if they were alive, shouldn't we go ahead and give them a job?"
The Salla game. Not a novel. Type "Jeanine Salla" or "Martin Swinton" into a search engine, and off you go, down the rabbit hole.
http://www.lcrw.net/seanstewart/index.htm
If you're unfamiliar with the brilliance that is Sean, I hereby cut-and-paste an old google posts of mine that has a brief summary because I'm too full of dim sum and sleepy to compose a new one:
Sean Stewart is one of the most original, interesting, and ambitious contemporary fantasy writers. His latest novel _Galveston_ tied for the World Fantasy Award with Tim Powers' _Declare_. He gets consistently positive reviews, and his books mostly have excellent
covers. He's a deep, literary writer, but his prose style is easy to read, his plots aren't difficult or buried like Gene Wolfe's, though his themes tend to be disturbing he doesn't go in for hard-to-read abuse and suffering, and he's often quite funny.
Why the hell don't his books sell better?
I'm not going to make a lot of critical comments on individual books, because they tend to share the same virtues. His characterization is first-rate, his settings are vivid, his prose varies depending on the novel but is consistently good and appropriate to the narrator, and
his use of magic is stunning. His books also tend to include the sort of fascinating technical detail, on anything from sailing to primitive medicine to blacksmithing, that make Dick Francis' novels so enjoyable.
_Resurrection Man_. Not his first, but a good one to start with. It begins with a young man doing an autopsy on his own corpse, and if that doesn't hook you, you should read the book anyway. It's a family drama set in an eerie alternate America in which magic started seeping
into the world around WWII, when golems appeared in Treblinka. The magic in this book, and indeed all of Sean's, is utterly unlike the magic in most fantasy novels. It doesn't have cut-and-dried rules. It doesn't have a system. It exists, and it's terrifying and, well, magical. This book, like many of Sean's, is about family ties, love, self-awareness, and the literal and metaphoric ghosts of the past. As a bonus, it includes a stand-up comedy routine that is actually funny.
It's my favorite of his, by the way.
_Passion Play_. His first novel. A dark, intense detective novel set in an interestingly dystopic future America. Well-written, depressing, and has an unusually nuanced portrayal of fundamentalist religion.
_Nobody's Son_. A commoner breaks a very scary enchantment and wins the hand of the crown princess... by chapter two. The rest of the book is about what happens after reality sets in. Written in an unusual and convincing semi-archaic voice (not at all hard to read, though).
Inexplicably, this book has been reprinted as a YA novel. It's about marriage, and having to confront the ghost of your father before you can become a father yourself. Those are not teenage issues, or at least they shouldn't be.
_Clouds End_. An imaginary world story about a sea-faring culture. Original and ambitious, but veers between over-explaining what should be subtextual, and burying what should be clear plot points. Lots of lush imagery and a hair-raising final scene, otherwise too diffuse and
surreal to be a really successful novel. The last line _really_ didn't work for me.
_Night Watch_. Loosely related to _Resurrection Man_, set in a future in which high-tech and out-of-control magic uneasily interact. Gods walk the earth and give birth to children, and a man cuts out his rebellious magic with a stanley knife. Has a lot to say about creativity and love, and has a scene involving a man trying to start a fire that will make you turn up the heat. Gets a little out of control near the end, and each individual scene works better than the book as a whole does, but each individual scene is scary and memorable and beautifully detailed. Well, that was incoherent. Don't read this first, but if you like his other books, definitely read this one.
_Mockingbird_. A pregnant Texas actuary inherits her dead mother's trailer park voodoo gods. Extremely funny, especially a scene in which the protagonist attempts to keep her morning sickness under control and the fact that she's pregnant hidden... while she's on a date in a
_revolving_ restaurant, and quite dark under the surface. A good one to start with, if _Resurrection Man_ sounds too creepy.
_Galveston_. Loosely related to _Resurrection Man_, set in a post-holocaust-by-magic world, and takes the piss out of all those novels that make primitive living seem fun. Lots of eerie
magic in this one: prawn men, an altar on a front lawn reading "Beware of God," and an answer to the question, "If ghosts are hanging out, giving advice, and generally interacting with people as if they were alive, shouldn't we go ahead and give them a job?"
The Salla game. Not a novel. Type "Jeanine Salla" or "Martin Swinton" into a search engine, and off you go, down the rabbit hole.