- Paperback: 528 pages
- Publisher: RIVERHEAD; Reprint edition (8 May 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1594482942
- ISBN-13: 978-1594482946
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 14 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 691,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Always
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Lesbian self-defence expert and freelance crime fighter Aud Torvingen has trained herself to achieve a fierce, machine-like precision, in hand-to-hand combat as well as life. But in Always she is abruptly confronted with the limits of her own power. Her self-defence classes spin violently out of her grasp and, still reeling from the consequences, she embarks on a seemingly simple investigation of Seattle real estate fraud that pulls her into something far more complicated and dangerous than she had imagined.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
IF YOU WALK INTO A BAR AND THERE'S A MAN WITH A KNIFE, WHAT DO YOU DO? Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
IF YOU WALK INTO A BAR AND THERE'S A MAN WITH A KNIFE, WHAT DO YOU DO? Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Aud Torvingen is back for more punishment in the third of Nicola Griffith's wonderful series. She travels from Atlanta to Seattle with her friend Dornan to meet her mother and her mother's new husband. Whilst there she is checking up on some property she owns, currently leased by a film company. Soon Aud is embroiled in movie production, sabotage and a potential romance. At the same time Griffith relates Aud's earlier experience of running a women's self defence class in Atlanta, and the dramatic result of the training and advice she gave.
Aud is a fascinating character, always believing she is in control and totally self contained. But Griffith, over the series, has stricken her with grief, had her shot, cut, beaten and poisoned. This Aud is reeling from her experiences over the last couple of years and is all the more engaging for it. Read and enjoy.
Aud is a fascinating character, always believing she is in control and totally self contained. But Griffith, over the series, has stricken her with grief, had her shot, cut, beaten and poisoned. This Aud is reeling from her experiences over the last couple of years and is all the more engaging for it. Read and enjoy.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Oh yeah, totallu worth reading.
Self-defence class chapters will teach you a lot, will make you think of your own safety, even taking self-defence class because you never know.
But you can get a lot of tip
Want to find out more of Aud. We are all can seem strong characters but we are vulnerable even if we don't like this or hate to admit it.
You will see Aud from different prospective, from different angle of view which is perfectly portraid.
Novel that won't disappoint you, as Nicola Griffith wrote it.
It really makes to want more of Aud...what happens next with her in the next book...?
Just need to wait and maybe Nicola will give to us... I sure hope it happens.
Self-defence class chapters will teach you a lot, will make you think of your own safety, even taking self-defence class because you never know.
But you can get a lot of tip
Want to find out more of Aud. We are all can seem strong characters but we are vulnerable even if we don't like this or hate to admit it.
You will see Aud from different prospective, from different angle of view which is perfectly portraid.
Novel that won't disappoint you, as Nicola Griffith wrote it.
It really makes to want more of Aud...what happens next with her in the next book...?
Just need to wait and maybe Nicola will give to us... I sure hope it happens.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
14 reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
After the stinging "Stay," where do we go from here?
4 Jun 2007
Format:Hardcover
Nicola Griffith's latest foray into the adventures of Aud Torvingen, independently wealthy ex-cop, is a tightly paced yet contemplative thriller. To call this novel a "thriller" is actually a misnomer, I would more class it as a character study in crime fiction clothing.
Following the events of STAY, where Aud grieved for her lover Julia, Aud returns to readers about seven months later less emotionally paralyzed and ready for business. In this novel, the business is to leave Atlanta for Seattle and meet her new stepfather and mother for the first time as a couple, while investigating the real-estate fraud of a warehouse turned movie studio she owns. She also falls in love with the enigmatic caterer Kick.
Griffith's writing is as crisp and sharp as ever. She has relaxed into Aud's character and the result is comfortable and familiar. The novel alternates between present day Seattle and past Atlanta, where Aud taught self-defense lessons. The two timelines merge seamlessly, and the self-defense chapters are extremely vivid and compelling. I found myself trying out a proper fist as I read them. At times, I enjoyed the self-defense chapters more than the present day storyline. Griffith's descriptions were so detailed and comprehensive that I had no trouble visualizing the women in their lessons.
I was delighted to spend more time with Aud, but I have a few quibbles. Personally, I loved STAY deeply and grew used to, even attached to, Aud's intense and explosive grief. In this novel, we find her emotional state much closer to "normal," ala the icy superhero we first met in THE BLUE PLACE, but Julia's death has caused her to be more open to love and more vulnerable.
That character shift, from sharply realized grief to growing acceptance, is a little jarring. I would have appreciated a little more acknowledgment of Julia as Aud encounters her new love interest, a few lines to show that Aud still carries Julia with her even as she moves on. But that's a fault of picking up seven months after STAY's close. Grief, and time, changes everything.
Following the events of STAY, where Aud grieved for her lover Julia, Aud returns to readers about seven months later less emotionally paralyzed and ready for business. In this novel, the business is to leave Atlanta for Seattle and meet her new stepfather and mother for the first time as a couple, while investigating the real-estate fraud of a warehouse turned movie studio she owns. She also falls in love with the enigmatic caterer Kick.
Griffith's writing is as crisp and sharp as ever. She has relaxed into Aud's character and the result is comfortable and familiar. The novel alternates between present day Seattle and past Atlanta, where Aud taught self-defense lessons. The two timelines merge seamlessly, and the self-defense chapters are extremely vivid and compelling. I found myself trying out a proper fist as I read them. At times, I enjoyed the self-defense chapters more than the present day storyline. Griffith's descriptions were so detailed and comprehensive that I had no trouble visualizing the women in their lessons.
I was delighted to spend more time with Aud, but I have a few quibbles. Personally, I loved STAY deeply and grew used to, even attached to, Aud's intense and explosive grief. In this novel, we find her emotional state much closer to "normal," ala the icy superhero we first met in THE BLUE PLACE, but Julia's death has caused her to be more open to love and more vulnerable.
That character shift, from sharply realized grief to growing acceptance, is a little jarring. I would have appreciated a little more acknowledgment of Julia as Aud encounters her new love interest, a few lines to show that Aud still carries Julia with her even as she moves on. But that's a fault of picking up seven months after STAY's close. Grief, and time, changes everything.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Precisely crafted language
7 Aug 2007
Format:Hardcover
Nicola Griffith is an author whom I read, not because her characters are layered and fascinating (though they are,) nor because the pacing and plotting are tight and well muscled (though of course they are,) but simply because there is a beauty, an elegant simplicity to her words as they flow together on the page.
Aud does with body and motion what Griffith does with phrasing and timing: strike precisely, cleanly, with just the correct amount of force to achieve the desired result. Whatever that result might be.
"Always" does not disappoint in this regard. As lean and lithe as a predator, it gives the impression of being simple stream of consciousness narrative. You live in Aud's thoughts as she does what she does, without apology, without explanation (unless she is explaining it to herself.)
What is completely hidden is Griffith's hand, invisible in the face of the work itself. The underlying structure, the bones of the work, endless hours of exertion... of putting your soul on the page for anyone to see, to touch.
This is a masterwork, well worth the price of admission.
Aud does with body and motion what Griffith does with phrasing and timing: strike precisely, cleanly, with just the correct amount of force to achieve the desired result. Whatever that result might be.
"Always" does not disappoint in this regard. As lean and lithe as a predator, it gives the impression of being simple stream of consciousness narrative. You live in Aud's thoughts as she does what she does, without apology, without explanation (unless she is explaining it to herself.)
What is completely hidden is Griffith's hand, invisible in the face of the work itself. The underlying structure, the bones of the work, endless hours of exertion... of putting your soul on the page for anyone to see, to touch.
This is a masterwork, well worth the price of admission.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Always
19 May 2007
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
As ever, I adore Nicola Griffith's work.
I won't spoil the plot, but one of the best things about this set of books is watching Aud change and grow over time. She's had an eventful few years, and several things begin to move into position so that she can begin a new phase of life - I love that the author left things as beginnings instead of making them endings. This book is quite obviously a chapter in Aud's life instead of a close-ended tv episode - things continue to influence her in this book that began before, and things that begin here will continue or resolve later.
I won't spoil the plot, but one of the best things about this set of books is watching Aud change and grow over time. She's had an eventful few years, and several things begin to move into position so that she can begin a new phase of life - I love that the author left things as beginnings instead of making them endings. This book is quite obviously a chapter in Aud's life instead of a close-ended tv episode - things continue to influence her in this book that began before, and things that begin here will continue or resolve later.
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