Galveston [Paperback]

Sean Stewart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 6, 2001

Sean Stewart's previous novel, Mockingbird, was selected as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle, and one of the Best Fantasy Novels of the Year by Locus. Now in his most stunning novel yet, one of the most critically acclaimed fantasy writers of our time takes readers to Galveston-an island uprooted, and uplifted, by magic...

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Novels from fantasist Sean Stewart resemble icebergs: four-fifths of their content is hidden, adding psychological mass that is felt, even if not seen. His seventh novel is his best yet.

Galveston, Texas, is an island already rich in history and eccentric characters when, during Mardi Gras in the year 2004, sudden magic floods the streets. The world is changed--divided between the real city, where technology and its products become unreliable and scarce, and the city doomed to endless carnival, where it is always 2004 and there are still such wonders as cigarettes, cold beer, and aspirin. Twenty years later, three major figures hold the city in precarious balance: Momus, the king of carnival and god of magic; Jane Gardner, ex-lawyer and unofficial mayor, fighting to maintain essential services in the real city; and Odessa, angel and arbiter. When Gardner develops Lou Gehrig's disease, her daughter, Sloane, strikes a desperate bargain with Momus, and the delicate balance is destroyed; cataclysmic change ensues.

Stewart is at his considerable best when he focuses on character. He is able to make metaphor concrete using symbols that, in lesser hands, might be considered simplistic and clichéd. The author is less sure, however, when he attempts to paint a grander canvas: the hurricane towards the end of the book is not strictly necessary, and it flings the novel around a curve that it was perhaps not meant to follow. Despite this, the book has much to offer, with tips on poker, herbal medicine, and island survival to augment the powerful themes of loyalty and luck gliding beneath the surface. --Luc Duplessis --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The return of magic to the world at the dawn of the 21st century split the city of Galveston into two parallel worlds--a "normal" city of survivors and a perpetual Carnival town of magic-touched creatures. When Sloane Gardner discovers how to cross between the two Galvestons, she becomes a link between a father and son whose destinies hold the key to the survival of both worlds. Stewart's (Mockingbird) brand of magical realism combines psychological drama with otherworldly images to create a rich tapestry that lingers long after the end of the tale. For most fantasy or modern fiction collections.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Ace Trade (February 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441008003
• ISBN-13: 978-0441008001
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,858,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sean Stewart is the author of the innovative I Love Bees and Beast search operas, two short stories, and seven previous novels: Galveston, Mockingbird, The Night Watch, Clouds End, Resurrection Man, Nobody's Son, and Passion Play. His novels have received the Aurora, Arthur Ellis, Sunburst, Canadian Library, and World Fantasy awards. He presently writes lots of things that have Non Disclosure Agreements attached so he cannot talk about them. Stewart is tall, energetic, uses big words easily, coaches his daughter's soccer team, is a great reader, has taught writing, and lives in Davis, CA, with his wife and two daughters.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Uh...WHOA, May 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Galveston: A Novel (Hardcover)

I have just this past moment finished this book, so you'll have to forgive me for being a little overwhelmed here. I won't be very intelligibile, so newly released from a book that has held me so emotionally tight, and so am, quite frankly, reeling. Hmm...do I reccommend it? That's a tricky question. Rating it five stars for 1)vivid prose, 2)living characters, 3)gripping emotion, 4)effective storyline and 5)excellent execution, is one thing but...dare I thrust this shocking, draining book upon an unsuspecting amazon customer? Can't say I'm sure. In my humble opinion Sean Stewart is a mixed blessing. You have to admire/respect his imagination and skill but personally I quail before his ability to hold me fast in sympathy with characters I don't even identify with, and that knack he has sometimes of stripping them bare until YOU are feeling exposed and almost sick with empathy. (Er, sorry, make the emphatic 'you' read 'me') His is a harsh treatment. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes twisted, it has this stamp of being so brutally real that one feels it is the truth and the life you lead is the fantasy. I don't know how he manages it! It may be due to the way its a contemporary novel (though strictly speaking it's futuristic). An added discomfort for me is that he has a few characters who swear a good deal, but I'm sure this won't bother anyone else. That ruthless (or maybe wholly compassionate?) unveiling of an infirm character, that robbing of someone's pride, well, that's very effective and shocking too. I spent the whole day reading this book completely enthralled - not always pleasantly. I believe it is brilliant. Creative, bold, real, tightly wrought, thoughtful...you name it. I also think that you have to be really brave to read it. 'Course that could just be because I'm a young and naive coward. Told you I wouldn't make much sense. Nevertheless, I hope I have imparted to you the fact that I was moved in a million painful ways by this exciting book. (Somehow I cared so much for those lousy people!) So, if you are willing to give it a try and start an unique experience, I say pick up the darned book! After all: "it just doesn't get better than this!" Hee, hee, hee...(those who have read Galveston will appreciate my evil chuckle and quote)

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Magical, absorbing, honest, October 26, 2000

By 

Richard R. Horton (Webster Groves, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Galveston: A Novel (Hardcover)

_Galveston_ is set in the same world as two of Sean Stewart's earlier novels, _Resurrection Man_ and _The Night Watch_, though all three books are set at different times, and feature different characters, and are basically completely independent books. It's an alternate history of sorts: sometime around World War II, fantasy started to leak into our world, at first slowly, such that at moments of great emotional stress, "minotaurs", dangerous magical creatures would be created. Then, in 2004, some years before the action of _Galveston_, came the Flood, where the world was apparently inundated with magic. In the island city of Galveston, a semblance of order has been maintained, mainly by the agency of two women: Jane Gardner, the secular leader of the city, and Odessa Gibbons, the Recluse, who polices the border between the magical part of Galveston, and the ordinary city. Anyone who shows traces of succumbing to magical influence is sent by Odessa to the magical part, where it is always Carnival, always 2004, always a party; and where over time people undergo strange alterations: some become part shrimp (the Prawn Men), or part cat, or heron, etc.

_Galveston_ is mainly the story of two people, Jane's daughter Sloane Gardner; and Josh Cane, who was sweet on Sloane when he was a boy. But Josh's father lost their house in a poker game, and Josh's mother kicked him out and ended up becoming an apothecary in the poorest part of Galveston. Josh learned from his mother the bitter art of trying to make medicines in a mostly post-technological world, taking over the business when she died of diabetes after her insulin stock ran out. Josh is forever bitter at his exile from the high society of Galveston, at his mother's death and father's abandonment, and at the way most of his new neighbourhood is slow to accept him.

Josh and Sloane are about 23 when the main action occurs. Sloane is watching her mother die, fearing the time when she will be expected to take over running the town, a job for which she feels inadequate. A desperate trip to the magical part of Galveston leads to a disastrous bargain with Momus, the god who rules that part of town, a bargain intended to save her mother, but which of course goes wrong.

From there the action intensifies. Odessa helps Sloane make additional trips to the magical side, this time appropriately masked, while Josh and his friend Ham end up framed for a crime that didn't even occur, and exiled to the barbaric Texas coast. Just at this time, the disaster which has been foreshadowed throughout the book happens: a hurricane, and some deaths, which finally loose the tide of magic onto the long protected city of Galveston. Sloane is forced to learn more about herself, and to try to find a way to lead the newly changed city, while Josh is forced to even more bitter self-confrontation.

This is really an absorbing book, a wonderful read. The magical elements are very well described, as is the decaying "real world" landscape of post-Flood Galveston. The characters are bitterly and honestly portrayed, and despite manifold weaknesses, they are very sympathetic. My only disappointment was that the book doesn't really end so much as stop. I think this is a result of Stewart's refusal to "lie": he doesn't want any easy solutions, either easy happy endings, or easy tragedies. The book's theme could be described as "life isn't fair", or perhaps "it doesn't get any better than this". To some extent, this means reader expectations are frustrated: I sense because of a feeling that to satisfy conventional expectations would be cheating. At any rate, I felt the ending of the book read a bit flat, though the theme is driven home excellently, and the characters are treated honestly and their changes are real. In sum, a very good book.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A promising author delivers his best yet, March 29, 2000

By 

Andrew P. Lawler (Charlotte, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Galveston: A Novel (Hardcover)

Stewart delivers a vivid tapestry of a city assaulted by the release of magic into the world. Continuing on themes he's developed in previous books, Stewart turns his attention towards the fascinating island city of Galveston, a city with two sides.

The first side is that of an almost post-apocalyptic city. One in which civilisation has started to collapse and the surviviors struggle to make do with the remains of technology and rapidly dwindling 'comforts.' The other side is of a Carnival that never ends, where the magic lives, ruled by a god named Momus. In between are a handful of women and men who try to keep the two sides as apart as they can.

The clash of magic and modenr society has always been one of Stewart's main themes, but here, for the first time. he's created a story and characters which are fully as interesting as his themes. This brings to mind the best of Charles De Lint's books.