Customer Reviews

Dreams of the Compass Rose

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This fantasy novel is a story cycle with a mystery. The action takes place in a world that resembles our own in many ways. Nazarian titles each of her chapters "Dreams" and like dreams, the narrative changes point of view. The narrative involving the central characters changes from first person to third person providing insights into various characters from the various points of view. I was reminded of another recent book, David Brin's "Kiln People" in which Brin's characters can make copies of themselves, so that the reader is provided with different perspectives of the same scene, and, at the same time perspectives of the same time from different places, by the same character.

Nazarian's rich imagery created for me a world of vast beauty, and the disappearance of the beauty of the world; and characters? longing for what was lost. There is a society based on justice, mercy, and compassion, that has become corrupted. I was reminded a bit of Stephan R. Donaldson Thomas Covenant series in which The Land is described as something that once so beautiful, but has been despoiled by Lord Foul, in his first novel of the series Lord Foul's Bane.

There are people possessed with magical abilities, but magic in Nazarian's world is subtle, and unlike in Rowling's world of Harry Potter, tends to be internalized. Nazarian's has a gift for page-turning dialog, and realizes her characters in a way that lets us know these are real people, torn by internal struggle and extraordinary external forces. These are people who react to circumstances in ways we know and ways that are surprising, like we know in life. For example, we get to know Nadir first as a young child who survived the desert. From a peripheral character, we see him again as a young man, touched by magic, and then, grown up intensely loyal, honest, and strong. Can he save the woman he thinks hates him? Should he? So why does he protect her? And yet, this book is not about Nadir.

Nazarian created a world I hope to read more stories from. It is a place of mythology and wonder, struggle and passion. It is a world of lands beyond the oceans, searing deserts, mist-filled mountains to the east, and a 1000-moon night. There are more stories waiting to be told.

By the last chapter, I felt that pang of regret knowing I was at the end. I didn't want it to end already. I look forward to reading more of Nazarian's work.

I found Vera Nazarian's book to be a wonderful journey into foreign lands. It reinvents the old-time fantasy reminisent of a time before Tolkien and Tolkien wannabees. She creates a world rich in myth and culture. The places of the Compass Rose are places I wish to visit again and again. Her stories and characters take the reader by surprise. I highly recommend this book.

I have to say up front that I do not read much fantasy of the classical or "high" sort; and so I wasn't sure I'd like this book. I'm still a little surprised that I liked it as much as I did; it's not the kind of thing I would usually go for.

Perhaps that is the mark of a really good writer, that she can make you enjoy something you usually wouldn't read. Vera Nazarian certainly made it work for me.

This is not exactly a novel, and not exactly a collection; I'm not quite sure what you'd call it - basically a group of stories set in the same fantastic world, and linked together by various associations. Some of the characters appear in more than one story, but the individual stories could stand alone I suppose - but the cumulative effect is very powerful and evocative; the whole definitely is greater than the sum of its parts.

This book can be read as simple fantasy entertainment, and no doubt would be very enjoyable as such; but on a deeper level Vera Nazarian isn't just telling strange and exotic tales; she's saying some things about the human condition, and they are things worth saying.

The writing itself is excellent. That sort of high formal voice is very difficult to bring off - it may be the most demanding of narrative styles - but Vera Nazarian succeeds where more experienced writers have crashed and burned.

It's hard to come up with comparisons. Lord Dunsany comes to mind as perhaps the closest in style, but DREAMS OF THE COMPASS ROSE has flashes of mordant humor that you'd never find in Dunsany. I was also reminded of some of the early work of Vonda MacIntyre, and now and then a line or a scene would make me think of Roger Zelazny.

I knew Roger personally, and I feel certain he would have liked this book. I certainly did.

All over the Internet long-time fantasy readers complain about novels that are cookie-cutter product, each the same as the last, with the same elements, told in the same bland style.

Well, here at last in a new writer who is experimenting with a different style, and with different material. Nazarian describes DREAMS OF THE COMPASS ROSE as a collage novel; what it really is is a series of short stories, with some of the same characters wandering through.

Her style sometimes falters, as if reaching for an effect her skills haven't quite defined, but that's a minor flaw when you compare it to the rich vivid detail of her imagery, the humor, the pathos, the faint trace-elements from mythologies outside the same old Western venue. There is strong potential here; the sequence from the storyteller's point of view shows evidence of brilliance.

Readers who like something strange and new should take a risk on this book, and support an emerging writer who is trying to break the mold. Go on, take a chance, I dare you to foretell just where this tale is going. If you shrug and pass, you cannot blame publishers for squashing new voices and putting out yet more bland by-the-numbers product: vote with your wallet.

This book is different than a lot of fantasy I've read. Some of the stories read like folk tales with the author's grand, old world style. I loved the imagery and vastness of the world of the Compass Rose. I was a little overwhelmed at times, but the author's choice to tell the story through separate yet intertwined tales made the book very accessible for me. Like buying a very rich, giant-size chocolate bar and being able to breaking off tiny scored bites or a huge section. Very enjoyable book! I'm glad I bought it.

This is a good book. How good, you ask? After reading the first few chapters, I set the book aside and e-mailed Vera, asking if she would consider writing a Compass Rose story for an anthology I was editing for DAW.

This isn't a traditionally structured novel which moves from A to B to C. Rather, it moves from Z to G to 16, then comes back to B and C. All of the stories are set in the richly developed world of the Compass Rose, and all of the stories do interweave to tell a larger story, though you don't see the fullness of the story until the very last page.

When you finish reading, you want to flip back to the first page and start over again. This is not only a book that can be read twice; it demands it, and it rewards you for doing so.

Vera's worldbuilding and description are like a really good chocolate mousse: so rich it's almost too sweet, but so good you want more. And the mythological feel of the world feels real and true. Here's a quick example:

A spurting fountain of hueless water began to pulse from her vein, and she offered it to the queen.

"Take my Water and drink, for even Ris drank once from my wrist. For that act of quenching, Ris has given me Water in exchange for my mortal blood."

Maybe it's just me, but the depth of those two little paragraphs blew me away. And the whole book is like that, building a mythology, an entire world with a deep, genuine sense of history.

Because it took me a while to read this one, I sometimes lost track of characters as they disappeared and reappeared in the narrative. If you're into plot-heavy, fast-paced books, this may not be the one for you.

Bottom line: Vera's a good writer. I've read her book Lords of Rainbow, and it was good. Dreams of the Compass Rose is great. Go buy them.

I've had a terrible run of luck picking books. Vera Nazarian's confused opus is only one in a long string of bad books that I've had the misfortune of purchasing. I fell prey to the author's "Help Us Struggling Writers" speel and felt a bit of pity due to the dozens and dozens of lists the author wrote linking her book to every known book and writer under the sun. But in the end the poorly written prose and bad structure won over and my pity went away. The book is hugely overpriced and so overwritten that I found nothing to like. Vera tries so hard at every page that you can't get away from the author's meddling hands and enjoy anything. I don't recommend this to anyone. Even the most diehard fans of fantasy will find little if anything to like.

A word of warning before we get to this review. I'm what you'd call a linear reader; also: a profoundly shallow person. I like my plot points to come in bulleted Powerpoint presentations, and my mysterious, meaning-of-life riddles to come with those little upside-down answers at the bottom of the page.

Dreams of the Compass Rose was not what you'd call an easy read for me. I prefer my Point A to go through the alphabet before reaching Point Z. But that doesn't happen here. Instead, we get a luxuriously wild garden of words, where leaves and flowers tumble over each other willy-nilly, and paths crisscross and sometimes loop back into themselves in elegant knots. There were times when I felt more than a little lost. Lots of times, actually.

That's not to say that I didn't love it.

First of all, I have to say that I adored the rythym of the prose. There's some seriously beautiful music going on in the author's mind and I can spend all day listening to it. The best thing is how it's not afraid to poke a little fun at itself. Listen:

"Behold a form more radiant than the desert sun at high noon!" said Annaelit at last.

Lord Ostavi blinked, then squinted, saying, "I see it. . . ."

"Yes!" exclaimed Lord Dava. "Go on. . . ."

"Behold gleaming satin hair like a waterfall, a deep sienna color that pours like liquid bronze and yet is wafted by the perfumed wind of your gardens!"

"Oh, yes!"

"Behold skin soft to the touch and delicate as the ripest peach, and great slobbering lips tender like the succulent cherry fruit, dripping liquid juices . . ."

"Ah!" moaned Lord Dava. "Yes, go on, for that is she!"

"Actually," said Annaelit, bringing her voice down to a normal volume and smoothly covering the fact that only moments ago she had had no idea what she was saying and why she was saying it, "I am describing her mare--definitely slobbering after it had been watered from a pail..."

Also, the imagery? Just delicious. There's a mask made of wax which becomes the moon, and a scythe-thief who leads Death in a neverending chase for the sake of his beloved. There's a girl who turns into a cup of endless water, and a king who rearranges his city every night when he sleeps. Dreams is a trove of the most unlikely and unexpected kind of beautiful.

The characters do grow on the reader too. Some of them are outright lovable, like the gentle and honorable Nadir "the lowest of the low" who gives his whole life in service to a woman so spiteful she could turn water into sand. In contrast, there's the despicable and ridiculous tyrant Cireive, who's so obsessed with the idea of ends and edges and the definition of his own power, that he denies that the world is round, even with the frank testimony of three of his best men. In the end, though, even the most unlikable of characters are given a kind of tragic dignity.

And there're plenty of strong, honorable, resourceful women too (not the least of whom is the tavern-keeper who offers Death itself a shoulder to lean on, or at least, a barstool to sit on). The book deserves all stars just for that.

I admit that I stumbled a little on those scenes where there was just so much explanation going on, but for the most part, I found myself engaged by the novel and its themes. (I even had a very uncomfortable moment during Cireive's quest for the Edge of the World, when I realized: Hey, I'm the exact same way! I want there to be a clear and definite End to things! I need things to make Sense!) Dreams deals in illusion and self-delusion, in truth and the power of choosing truth, and naturally, it has the air of a nebulous, evanescent, and yet startlingly revelatory dream.

A slightly difficult book -- your mileage may vary -- but very much worth the serious fantasy reader's while.

I recently finished reading Vera Nazarian's novel, and I found that I enjoyed it more than I expected I would. While I am a fan of the fantasy genre in general, I generally am put off by some of the "high fantasy" or classical fantasy simply because I don't enjoy the writing style. Yet this novel kept me coming back. I enjoyed the rich world she created, as well as the mythology and history the characters found themselves bound in. The story felt a little disconnected as I followed the first few chapters, but the characters kept me coming back. For some reason it reminded me of some of Ursula LeGuin's writing and worlds. By the end, I was wanting more. More stories from the land she created and more characters woven into being by the vein of magic running through the land.

Dreams of the Compass Rose is old fashioned storytelling in the grand style of Arabian Nights or Catherynne M. Valente's "Orphan's Tales". There are tales within tales that overlap and create a rich tapestry defining not just the story, but the history of a world. Each "dream" is told as a separate story, and can stand alone, but they are much richer when taken into consideration with the surrounding stories. The overarching tale is that of the creation of the goddess known as "Risei" and her subsequent dealings with humanity, but there are also the stories of the king who took an eyeless woman to be his queen; of an unsinkable ship and its peerless captain; of the thief of Death's scythe; of a city of no sleep, where dreams of a mad king alter reality; of desert and sea journeys; and of a young man's life as it is intertwined with the strange nobles, a goddess, Illusion and the lessons of servitude, truth and blindness.

The storytelling is a bit like a spirograph - you think you've seen the last of a character and they pop up again, and you learn more each time as the circles twine and build. There are lessons in each, like fables, and the lessons instruct morally, but also add a layer to the view of their world. The language is slightly stilted, and occasionally a bit too flowery for my tastes, but this is in keeping with the narrative form the author chose, and doesn't obscure the tales. If anything, it may lend them a cadence that mimics that of a spoken story. Characters are illuminated, and explored, but kept in a manner of legends - intimate thoughts are only exposed where necessary to propel the story and its lesson, leaving space for the reader's imagination.

I really loved this. I'd recommend it for readers who enjoy storytelling in layers and told with the feel of those normally given in an oral tradition. The price for this is a little steep for an e-book, but the author delivers a whole world, complete with peoples, legends, history and oral traditions.

Overall: 4.5 or 5 stars

Review copy supplied by the author as part of LibraryThing's Member Giveaway program.