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Dan Schwent's Reviews > The Etched City
The Etched City
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Etched City is the story of gunslinger Gwynn and doctor Raule. Together, they flee the wasteland of the Copper Country and make their way to the city of Ashamoil. Raule starts treating the poor of Ashamoil, occasionally delivering crocodilian babies, while Gwynn gets a job as a guard for a slave trader and has a heated affair with an artist.
The Etched City is definitely atmosphere over action but when the action comes, it's hard and fast. Bishop knows how to build tension as well as create a realized fantasy city. While Ashamoil isn't as detailed as New Crobuzon or Ambergris, it's still great. The style is a mannerly kind of new weird.
Amazon recommended this one, based on my ratings for The Dark Tower series and Perdido Street Station. It did not disappoint. My only complaint was that it could have been much longer.
Observations from the July 2012 re-read:
1. Bishop makes the desert of the Copper Country interesting, giving it aspects of Australian and Middle Eastern desert culture while still making it feel like a Western.
2. Gwynn has a lot more dimension than I remember. He's a deadly mercenary of dubious morality but also kind of a dandy. I'd forgotten he played the piano.
3. Raule is tough!
4. BIshop's writing has a kind of poetry to it in places. Her use of similes and metaphors was something I'd totally forgotten about since my initial read.
5. Yeah, Beth's a little batshit
6. Deformed reptilian babies are creepy
7. Gwynn doing some huffing and then riding around looking for Beth while having a conversation with his horse reminds me of the shroom scene from Young Guns.
8. The gunfight on Memorial Bridge between the Society of the Horn Fan and the tax collectors is right up there with the OK Corral scene in Tombstone.
9. Gwynn having to kill Marriot was a powerful scene.
10. The man with a lotus flower growing out of his navel
11. Hart and his magical axe are pretty impressive.
12. While it looks simply like an odd fantasy story, it's really a story of love and obsession.
13. The twists at the end were well done and not expected.
In conclusion, this book is just as good the second time. I'm ready for K.J. Bishop to write another novel.
The Etched City is definitely atmosphere over action but when the action comes, it's hard and fast. Bishop knows how to build tension as well as create a realized fantasy city. While Ashamoil isn't as detailed as New Crobuzon or Ambergris, it's still great. The style is a mannerly kind of new weird.
Amazon recommended this one, based on my ratings for The Dark Tower series and Perdido Street Station. It did not disappoint. My only complaint was that it could have been much longer.
Observations from the July 2012 re-read:
1. Bishop makes the desert of the Copper Country interesting, giving it aspects of Australian and Middle Eastern desert culture while still making it feel like a Western.
2. Gwynn has a lot more dimension than I remember. He's a deadly mercenary of dubious morality but also kind of a dandy. I'd forgotten he played the piano.
3. Raule is tough!
4. BIshop's writing has a kind of poetry to it in places. Her use of similes and metaphors was something I'd totally forgotten about since my initial read.
5. Yeah, Beth's a little batshit
6. Deformed reptilian babies are creepy
7. Gwynn doing some huffing and then riding around looking for Beth while having a conversation with his horse reminds me of the shroom scene from Young Guns.
8. The gunfight on Memorial Bridge between the Society of the Horn Fan and the tax collectors is right up there with the OK Corral scene in Tombstone.
9. Gwynn having to kill Marriot was a powerful scene.
10. The man with a lotus flower growing out of his navel
11. Hart and his magical axe are pretty impressive.
12. While it looks simply like an odd fantasy story, it's really a story of love and obsession.
13. The twists at the end were well done and not expected.
In conclusion, this book is just as good the second time. I'm ready for K.J. Bishop to write another novel.
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Quotes Dan Liked
“Somewhere there are gardens where peacocks sing like nightingales, somewhere there are caravans of separated lovers traveling to meet each other; there are ruby fires on distant mountains, and blue comets that come in spring like sapphires in the black sky. If this is not so, meet me in the shameful yard, and we will plant a gallows tree, and swing like sad pendulums, never once touching.”
― The Etched City
― The Etched City
Reading Progress
February 4, 2008
– Shelved
April 28, 2009
– Shelved as:
new-weird
July 17, 2012
–
Started Reading
July 24, 2012
– Shelved as:
2012
July 24, 2012
–
Finished Reading
August 2, 2012
– Shelved as:
cool-covers
Comments Showing 1-12 of 12 (12 new)
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Dan
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rated it 4 stars
May 23, 2009 06:02AM
Forgot to mention how much the cover resembles something by Aubrey Beardsley.
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Oh, you have a completely different cover than I do. Mine is black with an irrelevant pomegranate.
K.J. Bishop did the cover herself. I keep waiting for her to put out another book.
Oh, she's pretty good! I guess I shouldn't be surprised given how much she talked about art in the novel.
Glad you floated this one -- in the intervening couple of years I somehow conflated Bishop with the more prolific K.J. Parker, whom you might also enjoy.
Just finished the re-read. I got a lot more out of it the second time.
The opening sequence made me think of Sergio Leone and his spaghetti westerns. The Ashamoil river journey had a Heart of Darkness flavour.I've read the author's blog about how hard it was to separate fiction from reality, and I'm wishing real hard for her to get well and go back to writing.
Great review Dan, very helpful and, another gunslinger :-) add the quote from the book and I'm already ordering it. Sounds amazing!"Somewhere there are gardens where peacocks sing like nightingales, somewhere there are caravans of separated lovers traveling to meet each other; there are ruby fires on distant mountains, and blue comets that come in spring like sapphires in the black sky. If this is not so, meet me in the shameful yard, and we will plant a gallows tree, and swing like sad pendulums, never once touching." — K.J. Bishop
Gwynn is a lot more cultured than Roland but almost as deadly.
Another great strange and wonderful read Dan. I love Bishops's style; amazing vivid and bizarre imagery, wonderfully poetic and contemplative; dark and powerful - my only gripe, I wanted more. I agree, it had the potential and could have been a much longer book - hence 4 instead of 5 stars. Will certainly keep watching for her next book.
Sandy wrote: "Another great strange and wonderful read Dan. I love Bishops's style; amazing vivid and bizarre imagery, wonderfully poetic and contemplative; dark and powerful - my only gripe, I wanted more. I ag..."Glad you liked it.
