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17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The chewy intersetion of literature, love, and theology, August 17, 2008
This review is from: Hell and Earth: A Novel of the Promethean Age (Paperback)
Oh. My. God. These are not the books for you if you are intolerant of literary wankery. I would also like to point out that I suspect they will make more sense if you have a grounding in the changing nature of God. If you do love literary fiction, this is an excellent example of the genre.
Oh, the heartbreaking beauty of this book. I devoured it in a day. Which, given that it's a 400-pg book and it was a work day, you can see that I did pretty much nothing else. And political intrigue! And delicious foreshadowing! And the lovely conceit that all stories are true, somewhere, and that they affect the reality of Fairie. I mean, that's been touched on before, but this one is deliciously effectively used.
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"No," Kit answered. "He could have been forgiven. Anyone can be forgiven, who repents. Faustus had opportunity, time, and chance to repent, again and again and again. But he never meant to. Never meant to repent, my lord [spoiler]."
:Then what was his fatal flaw, Sir Poet?: Lucifer's eyes sparkled. He tilted his head aside, lovelocks drifting against the exquisite curve of his neck. Enjoying the game.
" 'But Faustus' offence can ne'er be pardoned,' " Kit quoted. "The serpent that tempted Eve may be saved, but not Faustus.' Faustus' flaw was the sin of Judas, who deemed his transgression too great to repent of, and thereby diminished the love of God, who can forgive any offense, so long as the sinner wishes forgiveness. Faustus sinned by hubris."
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That! That right there! That's what made me twitter that I was crying, because it is so perfectly correct, so true, so chewy in the intersection of theology and literature. Believing you are unforgiveable is to diminish God's love. :waves arms madly.
Um, yeah. Start with Ink & Steel. Don't blame me if you have to take a day off.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best books I've read this year!, August 19, 2008
This review is from: Hell and Earth: A Novel of the Promethean Age (Paperback)
Elizabeth Bear's duology featuring an alternative version of the Shakespeare and Marlowe we know from history definitely one the best books I've read this year.
Imagine Will Shakespeare and Kit Marlowe in an Elizabethan setting paired with fairies and then add to that the appearance of Morgan Le Fey and her son as well as recurring references to both Shakespeare's and Marlowe's plays. Honestly this made me do two things: a) want to re-read my favorite Shakespeare works (mostly the tragedies) and b) switch classes for the coming semester from British Modern Literature to Renaissance. That really doesn't happen all too often, but those books totally motivated me to study the Elizabethan era closer.
In her extended author's note at the end of Hell and Earth, Elizabeth Bear calls this duology a 'disservice to history', but honestly I couldn't imagine re-vamping Shakespeare and Marlowe in any better way. She works with some popular theories concerning the two poets' lives and portrays her characters in a way that make them very realistic and complex. She states that the Marlowe-Shakespeare relationship she creates in The Stratford Man is almost entirely fictional, but then again it really does make you wonder "What if?" and I think that's been the intention of the book.
The other thing that really intrigued me about those books what its realism and how accurately Bear worked with the historical context such as society and political background. Of course the work is fictional in the end, but she manages to have to write about homosexuality, politics and the entire concept of the Prometheus Club very 'in context', which makes the story rounder and the fantasy elements fit into the concept without jarring.
These two books are definitely not quick reads for entertainment only. It took me about two to three days to get through each, not because of the size, but because of the content that's very heavy on history and politics and last but not least on the language. Bear doesn't use 100% accurate Elizabethan language in her dialogue (no 'here sitteth' etc. no worries), but it's more or less the speech characters would have used at that time.
Ink and Steel and Hell and Earth are chronologically set before the other two Promethean Age books Blood and Iron and Whiskey and Water. I'm just starting Blood and Iron, but had no problems getting into the story and the whole concept of the Prometheus Club, even though the Stratford Man duology came out after the two aforementioned books. It's definitely a good starting point if you haven't read any of Bear's books yet. Definitely go for it :D
P.S.: This so made Kit Marlowe my favorite hystorical fantasy crossover character of all time :D I can't wait to read more!
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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing, August 17, 2008
This review is from: Hell and Earth: A Novel of the Promethean Age (Paperback)
This book will break your heart, over and over, and then put it back with superglue. It's a book about intrigue, doing the right thing, the wrong thing, the morally ambiguous thing. It's about caring for another person and trying to find a way to care about yourself. It is an amazing, amazing, novel.
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