PositiveThe Times Literary Supplement (UK)James is more subtle and substantive than he is sometimes given credit for, and the trolls, vampires and magic of this series are far more than mere genre furniture. They’re best read as part of the occultist tradition that defines magic as a technology of will—in this case, the malignant will to power ... while the long, sonorous paragraphs of description and exposition will not be to every reader’s taste, their sensationalism speaks seriously to our present condition. The prose itself is remarkably consistent and controlled. James never forgets in either book that his protagonists are speaking out, under interrogation, pleading in defence of their lives. Both books in this series share the same characteristic of impassioned rhetoric. There is no simple allegory here, but rather a general sense of nightmarish decay that makes these books seem very modern and persuasive. The series is also an attempt from the diaspora to give the Matter of Africa the same weight as other legendariums, drawing eclectically from many different storytelling traditions all over the continent. The third panel of the triptych will decide whether we regard Dark Star as something more than a weighty entertainment. On the basis of this second volume, the omens are good.
Kim Stanley Robinson
PositiveThe Independent (UK)Kim Stanley Robinson has a view of historical process that is refreshingly other to that of much science fiction. Even his Great Men (and Women) live in a social context and are bearers, rather than creators, of historical significance ... If there is a weakness in Robinson\'s work, it is perhaps this; his characters are so intelligent that they never shut up and often have fascinating conversations for page after page about the engineering of fortifications or the reconciliation of Sufism and Confucianism or, most extendedly, the ways that history works. It is always good talk, in which everyone speaks in character. For Robinson, science fiction is not only a literature of ideas, but a literature whose characters have lots of them ... Robinson can write action and adventure as well as anyone, but in the end this is an ethical fiction about the true purpose of humanity. His supple, thoughtful prose is always up to the challenge, whether exciting us with ideas, thrilling us with spectacle or presenting us with moments of elegy or quiet passion.
Richard Powers
PositiveThe Independent (UK)What Powers does, constantly, is embody technique in the events of the novel and the characters\' endlessly fascinating talk. This is a book about smart people arguing about what it means to be that smart, and that gifted ... Sometimes, important plot strands – like Joseph\'s affair with a Jersey Girl jazz singer – are left hanging, without resolution ... This is a novel about tricks and turns; about the importance both of knowing who you are, and accepting that the knowledge involves you in complicity and complexity.
Sarah McBride
PositiveThe Observer\"Much of the core of the book is a detailed account of how Delaware passed a trans anti-discrimination bill in the face of hostile lobbying by the misleadingly named Family Research Council and the occasional obtuseness of local politicians. For anyone who has ever been involved in politics, this is genuinely thrilling ... She manages to talk about love and death without being mawkish, partly because she is aware of how like the Hollywood version of her life her account inevitably has to be. It’s a salutary reminder of how much sentimental cliches overlap with everyday experiences. Her utter lack of cynicism serves her well ... This is a good book in all sort of ways but it is clearly a campaign biography aimed at whatever her next step turns out to be, as well as promoting an embattled community’s rights.\
