Customer Reviews

Galveston

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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)

_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.

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.

I like what one of the other reviewers here said when he remarked that this book does not end, it just stops. What occurs to me most, as I sit down to write this review, is that I have a hard time really remembering the ending. I remember parts of it-- I remember how the romantic tension between the two leads worked out. I remember what the characters learned about themselves. Unfortunately, I have to say that I do not really remember what exactly happened once we got past the hurricane. That seems a shame, also, because I remember the opening so vividly.

The book begains with a huge amount of promise. I loved the world and the characters, and the premise. I am not sure what made it so much less captivating as it continued.

Still, a remarkable book all told. I was interested to read that this is the third book that Stewart set in this world. I may well go looking for one of the earlier ones.

What I loved about this book was the fact that even though there's a certain Southern Gothic feel to this fantasy, it still didn't leave me feeling sad & depressed, like some of the other dark fantasy writers I've read. The story-line could use some fleshing out-- I did wonder, as other negative reviewers, what about the other places? What happened, for instance, to New Orleans-- if the magic of Mardis Gras hit Galveston, whoa nelly, New Orleans!!! But at the same time, I was drawn into this incredibly well-drawn, deeply satisfying narrative. I don't think it has anything to do with magic being always "dark" or "evil" as one reviewer seems to imply, but it is always dangeous-- the "be careful what you wish for" sort of warning that some folks forget about in the world of Unicorns and happy little fairies.

Based on this and several others I have read by him, Sean Stewart is one of those authors whose book I will buy just from seeing his name on the cover-- I don't even have to read the plot blurb, I know I will like it. You will too if you enjoy a complex look at magic realism with a Southern twist.

In a not-so-distant future, on the island of Galveston, Texas, civilization is slowly slipping away and decaying, and no amount of plaster can fix the crumbling marble walls. While the rich, high-class citiens enjoy drinking the last dregs of what life was before the Flood, all others are left to suffer, to live as best they can, as the medicine runs out and the civilization runs out and all the miracles, the nightmares, the horrifying shamanistic dreams and realities of magic run in.

I'm a great fan of Stewart and his previous works, having been lured into the fold, as it were, by Nobody's Son, and falling in love with his realistic, yet fantastical style of writing. From pure fantasy in Cloud's End and Nobody's Son, to sci fi futures in Passion Play and The Night Watch, to my favorites, these real worlds sick with magic, he's held my imagination and attention.

Galveston, stylistically, is one of the best he's ever written. I cringe as Josh and Ham are stranded on the peninsula, surviving heat and bugs and snake bites, and can almost feel the decaying artificial cool of Sloane's big mansion. The story, like most of his works, is very dense, and will take you a while to read, but is VERY worth it.

Galveston is my second favorite of Stewart's works, right underneath Ressurection Man, and I advise any fan of fantasy or magic-realism to pick it up. It's worth it.

Sean Stewart's mastery of language is overwhelming - his descriptions bring you right there into the 'changes' that Galveston faced as magic flooded into the city. Galveston is a first and foremost a character novel, however, and despite its fantasy-soaked roots, it remains a character-based novel.

Josh, the herbalist of the bad-side of Galveston, is haunted by his wealthy past and can never quite seem to get away from the distaste of his family's fall from wealth. Ham, his so-called 'best friend', is a black man from the poorer area of town, and secretly harbors an intense dislike for his friend, never quite forgetting that Josh always seemed to want to return to his wealthy roots. Sloane, born to wealth and power, is attempting to find her fate in this crumbling society, but lacks the courage to be a true leader on her own merit. Throughout the novel, Sean Stewart shows the inner complexity of these characters as they grow and evolve through problem after problem.

Even minor characters are detailed with vivid personalities -- at one point in the novel, Josh and Ham find themselves exiled to an area populated by cannibals. They are captured by a cannibal couple who intend to make them a meal. When Josh is alone with the old man, however, the cannibal shows layers of worry for his partner's deteriorating health. (But not to the point that he loses his determination to cook her after her demise- in a gruesomely funny scene, he asks Josh whether TB is contageous if the meat is well-cooked!)

I found the ending to not be truly satisfying - there were so many strong points to the book that the sudden ending felt hurried. However, I would still unhesitatingly recommend this book on its character sketches alone.

After all, "It doesn't get any better than this!"

[If you would like to see a great review for this novel, do a search on Salon.com's books website for Sean Stewart.]

"Galveston" is a beautifully written portrait of a post-apocalyptic world taken over by magic and cut adrift from the modern world. The characters are finely drawn, complex, and extremely likeable, and Stewart's ability to write women who ring true is a joy. The tone of this book reminds me a bit of Jonathan Carroll's work, with perhaps some Sturgeon thrown in. I have liked other of Stewart's books very well, but this one I absolutely loved. Highly recommended to people who like their science fiction with real characters with whom one becomes emotionally involved.

"Galveston" is that rare treat, an alternate universe fantasy that feels grittily real, yet devoid of tiresome exposition or bizarre flights of fancy that exist only to show off the author's imagination. Sean Stewart is one of the funniest, sharpest, smartest, and most readable authors I've stumbled across recently. There are similarities to China Mieville (without the creepy, nightmarish horror) and Rupert Thomsen's "Divided Kingdom" here, but "Galveston" is refreshingly original.

Two floods have shaped the history of the island of Galveston, TX: a flood of water in 1900, and a flood of magic in 2004. This second flood was turned back mainly by the efforts of two extraordinary women, Jane Gardner and Odessa Gibbons, who organized the citizenry (mainly around Mardi Gras Krewes) and drew a harsh dividing line between the "real" Galveston and the endless Carnivale where magic (and the moon god Momus) hold sway. But now Jane and Odessa are growing older, and with no one to take up their duties, the future of Galveston is threatened.

The story of Sloane, Jane's daughter (and reluctant prospective heir) is contrasted with that of Josh, her childhood friend who has drifted from her glittering social circle into the slums of lower Galveston. While Sloane flirts dangerously with the power of Mardi Gras, Josh is accused of her murder and, along with his friend Ham, is exiled out of the charmed circle of safety that is Galveston and into the terrifying outside world. The journey of these three characters into their respective destinies forms the backbone of the story, with plenty of pleasing diversions and extraordinary secondary characters to flesh things out.

Some people apparently found the ending abrupt and unsatisfying, but I think it was absolutely perfect. One of the most pleasing aspects of Stewart's writing is that he never drifts into cliché, stock characters, or predictable plot development. Neither Sloane, Josh, or Ham end up the way that traditional literary convention would seem to demand they must. To say more would spoil some of the delightful surprises Stewart has to offer, but let's just say that if you don't know the characters well enough by the end of the story to fill in what Stewart is smart enough to leave unsaid, you haven't been paying attention.

It's a shame that so few of Sean Stewart's books remain in print, but it's well worth the effort to track them down. The world of fantasy needs more original voices like his.

A fantasy vision of a not-so-future apocalypse with a cast I really cared about. Magic clings to everything in Galveston, almost like the humidity in the air. A Mardis Gras celebration opens the fooldgates of magic, both good and bad, and Galveston never recovered. For years the residents have held the line against these forces, occassionally losing one of their brethren to the allure of magic.

This is a story of class distinctions as much as a compelling fantasy. The main charaters Ham, Josh, Sloane and Ace - among others - are people you really want to see surmount the problems they face. It's not just the magic they must deal with. Perhaps the most malevelant forces at play are the old money Galveston residents, members of the Krews (Mardis Gras societies). Many of these folks want to keep things, and people just the way they are and will play dirty, very dirty, to keep the status quo.

This book has it all. Weird creatures, humor, heroes who get banished from Galveston Island only to be confronted with cannibals, and plot twists. The writing gives you a flavor of the land, the sky, the sea. You can almost smell it and taste it.

Other than some information which would have helped "flesh" this out . . . such as what happened to the rest of the world . . . this is quite fanatastic an imaginative. Sean Stewart has done a wonderful job.

Buy this book and enjoy it.