Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting concept, worth reading, 2 Oct 2004
The Etched City is difficult to categorise. One first gets the impression of reading a heroic fantasy a la Robert E Howard after which one thinks Mad Max. Think swords, guns and a smattering of sorcery in a brutal, filthy city of corsets and carts.
The book is about Gwynn and Raule, a killer and a doctor unfortunate enough to have been involved in a failed revolution. Now fugitives from the victors, they escape to the city of Ashamoil where they merge with society.
Gwynn is a paradoxical thug at home both cutting throats and in the theatre, with an unusual amount of good luck. Raule is more like an excavated husk, a good phycisian without a soul. They both decant to opposite ends of the social scale and their acquaintance is uneasy, and often hostile.
The central idea is really interesting, but I can't go into that without spoilers.
The book starts a bit slow, and while it is well worth finishing there are some definite preachy bits I could have done without.
It also delves into the Victorian Era level of technology and sensibilities which has become fashonable these days. At least there are no dirigibles!
I bought this book because of comparisons with the excellent Perdido Street Station by China Mieville but to be honest there is really no comparison.
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8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dark Fantasy? Bizzare Fantasy Morelike!, 3 Mar 2004
Well, 'Etched City'. Telling the tale of two good friends, Raule, a doctor/healer, and Gwynn, a bounty hunter/criminal, as they escape from their homeland of Copper Country, and the Army Of Heroes hunting them down, attempting to seek out new lives and fortunes in the city of Ashamoil, but even stranger things are happening in the city, and the two of them, with their new lives, are going to have to work out what is happening, before it claims them as well.
So, that's the basic story. K.J. Bishop begins with an excellent start, a good introduction to the land it is set in and the main characters; who are themselves well created. The settings; Copper Country, and/or more importantly Ashamoil have a distinct Wild West feel to them, despite the fact it is set in modern times. The locations are well designed, and the reader gets a good idea of the place.
Raule's place of work; Ashamoil's Hospital resembles some sort of early 19th-20th Century building rather than a modern hospital, this influenced by the use of nuns rather than doctors and nurses. Raule is plagued by several strange occurences; a girl gives birth to a baby-headed crocodile is the first of these, a you'll never forget the desciptions of Raule's lab, or Chamber Of Horrors.
Meanwhile, Gwynn joins a very 1960's style mafia family, run by a man named Elm. Gwynn seems a very civil man, until you learn of his past.
The story is one biaazre mix of several themes; characters speak in poetic phrases, animal-human hybrids are born from women, and cults walk the streets while apothcaries sell their poisons. Add to that a alcoholic vicor, strange murders and artwort which comes alive, and you just begin to scratch the surface of
'The Etched City'.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More people need to write fantasy like this lady!, 10 Oct 2006
"Have you seen a split cranium, growing flowers like a window box? I saw that, a mere hour ago."
The promise of this little quote atop the blurb was delivered within the pages of KJ Bishop's excellent novel.
It's not a perfect book. I spent the first few chapters wondering where the plot was going - but I was so engrossed in the superbly-drawn world and characters that I didn't really care.
When the plot did emerge, it did so with a dangerous smirk. It begins with Raule, in the desert. She bumps into an old associate, Gwynn, and together they flee the desert and their enemies to the city of Ashamoil. There things get weird. Gywnn is the main character there, though Raule's story continues to be told in the sidelines and intertwines with Gwynn's at times. A gunslinger currently employed as the henchman of a slave trader, Gwynn is surprised to find himself depicted in an etching. He becomes determined to track down the etching's artist and, with the aid of a delightfully trippy scene where he gets high, he finds her. While he becomes closer to the strange artist Beth, his 'career' runs into trouble. It is with Beth, though, that the weirdness happens. It's hard to describe. Think of warped, chimeran dreams brushing against reality, and you're close to the focus of this book.
This is a book I heartily recommend to anyone who is sick of the Tolkien-esque clichés still bouncing around, and who wants to read something dark and weird and wonderful. KJ Bishop is an example of what fantasy writers are capable of when they're not afraid to do something new.
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