Book Review

I finished reading Elizabeth Bear's Blood and Iron last night.  I read Bear's Dust last summer based on some Amazon browsing I did to try to find some new stuff.  I was initially attracted to Bear's fantasy, but decided to buy Dust as it was not part of a series (though this was not true).  I enjoyed Dust but it wasn't exactly my passion.  

A couple of month's later, I found the author's blog and it re-ignited my interest in her writing.  I am very glad I gave her another chance, because Blood and Iron is exactly to my tastes.  The writing is snappy dense but doesn't overwhelm the plot.  That plot is complex, nuanced, and doesn't coddle the reader.  In fact, in some places, I had trouble sorting out exactly what was happening.  This is mostly due to the fact that the book was chok-full of literary and mythological references, particularly when it came to explaining motivations and emotions.  In some cases, the references were obscure enough that I, an Arthurian buff, didn't manage to make the connections, but surprisingly, instead of turning me off the book it drove me through the book and has piqued my interest in exploring more mythology.  

I am a fantasy enthusiast, through and through, and this hit almost all of my personal quirks.  The only aspect that might have put me off, is the melding of Faerie and the Modern world.  Too often, stories based on this type of world-building turn into a kid-in-king-Arthur's-court story, which puts me off.  I'm very glad I gave this a chance despite my misgivings because the relationships between humanity and Faerie were much more intricate and thought-out than I expected.

On the downside, while I initially loved the character of Carel, I found her transition into the Merlin and her choice to support Faerie to be too opaque for me to follow.  A second reading after more exploration of mythology might elucidate her character, but it right now I don't see it.  

I will be searching out more of Bear's Promethean Age books to follow this storyline further as I really enjoyed this book and it has piqued my interest in subsidiary topics!