Share for friends:

Otherwise: Three Novels By John Crowley (2002)

Otherwise: Three Novels by John Crowley (2002)

Book Info

Author
Genre
Rating
3.97 of 5 Votes: 2
Your rating
ISBN
0060937920 (ISBN13: 9780060937928)
Language
English
Publisher
harper perennial

About book Otherwise: Three Novels By John Crowley (2002)

Its says a lot that I read straight through this omnibus and began on Crowley's fourth novel Little, Big immediately afterwards. Of the three I would pick the wistful and evocative Engine Summer as my favorite - a dreamy, post apocalyptic story about, well, stories, or a myth about myths if you like. It is a deeply human, sad and wonderful tale with a metaphysical turn that could be obvious but ends up not being so.While Engine Summer garners the 5 star for this omnibus The Deep and Beasts are well worth a read too. The premiss of The Deep is something like the war of the roses blended with mid-seventies weird Sci Fi, which sounds kinda naff but really isn't. At less than 200 pages it should feel brief but ends up feeling epic. I'm no fan of the swords and sandals side of the fantasy genre, which some might slot this into, but The Deep has all the qualities, lyric and full of strangeness, of an ancient epic poem. Beasts is a different kettle of fish altogether - nearly said different beast there but that would be one beast too many. Again the premiss sounds kind of ridiculous but ends up being really quite enthralling, throwing together various political themes with the nature/psychology of man and other animals - I'm guessing that Crowley is a cat lover because there is a preoccupation with the feline mind that runs through from Beasts into Engine Summer.

Do You like book Otherwise: Three Novels By John Crowley (2002)?

Three early short novels by John Crowley. I loved all three novels, but I have to say the last one, Engine Summer, blew my socks off. Such originality...it's just stunning. Crowley is hard to describe to the uninitiated. He seems to be a sci-fi/fantasy writer, but he's so much more than that. Of course, all sci-fi/fantasy fans want to trumpet their favorite sci-fi/fantasy writer as "transcending the genre", but in this case - it's well, sort of true. I say sort of because I don't really think that he even belongs in that category at all. I think it's just kind of coincidental that the subject matter he tends to dwell on has some similarities with genre fiction. To save myself from babbling further and confusing you even more, I'll just point to this article: [http://www.bostonreview.net/BR25.6/hy...]. As a final note , I will say this - Crowley's novels read slowly. They are dense with detail and subtlety. He can be ponderous and challenging, and requires a bit of patience from the reader. Not exactly "beach reading".
—Bobby

download or read online

Read Online

Write Review

(Review will shown on site after approval)

Other books by author John Crowley

Other books in category Humor