Customer Reviews

Living Next Door to the God of Love

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The title is great, unfortunately, as it happens, the title is the best thing about this novel. The plot meanders along and touches upon one sub-story after another. There's ample supply of sex and violence. Then, suddenly, everything is over--it must be as there are no more pages in the book. Otherwise, I wouldn't have noticed.

One of the minor problems is that Robson appears to be determined to tell too many stories at once and doesn't get around to do any of them justice. A deadly problem is that these stories are mostly bad fantasy clich?s.

What kills the whole thing for me is lack of understandability. Why are the characters acting in the way they do? What are their motivations? What are their ranges of possible behavior? What are the laws of nature in the narrative universe they inhabit? To the reader these are mostly unfathomable. Don't even try to speculate about what one or another of the characters does next. No chance. As there are no constraints on what can and cannot happen you have to wait until the author comes around and tells you. The effect is not very exciting. Bare facts and wonders are boring.

If anything, read Robson's Natural History before this book. Then, at least you get a glimpse of what Stuff and Engines are about. Alas, it doesn't help much.

I agree with the publishers weekly review. I am usually not one to write reviews, but this book compelled me to, because of it's odd nature.

It starts off well, simialar to any "post-human" / "avant garde" sci-fi. Then it just goes on and on without being clear to with what is actually going on. I got about 2/3 of the way through this book before i actually had to put it down and say, this is "well written", but not good. Nothing is explained, i was still unclear about many details in the universe, and i could barely follow what was happening. Very dissapointed.

Like many other reviewers, I felt that this book ultimately didn't reward the effort required to figure it out; although it started out in an intriguing way, the plot meanders more and more as the book passes the halfway point, and it becomes ever more difficult to identify with the characters. Also worth mentioning are two quite graphic rape scenes, neither of which seems vital to the plot in any way, and which represent a departure for Robson, who has avoided explicit sexual violence in her books to this point.

In Metropolis on Sankhara what existed yesterday does not exist today as every night the world is remade based on the dreams of those who reside there. For instance in a short period of time, Jalaeka has lived several lives from a prostitute, to a pilgrim, a pirate, a princess and a physics student. Through all his nightly transformations, he believes he deserves better though his dreams speak otherwise. Still he is determined to find a mage or God or something stronger to help him because his creator is coming for him.

Teenage runaway Francine removes her identity chip and flees the emptiness of her AI sub world for Sankhara. Instead she finds a bone castle containing a scientist searching for the seemingly vanished light of the universe by mapping the human mind. Francine and Jalaeka meet are attracted to one another. However, instead of him having been chased by the minion of Unity, she serves as the focus of a war between the Gods that only she can prevent from destroying all who live in Sanhara by displaying love to others especially Jalaeka.

LIVING NEXT DOOR TO THE GOD OF LOVE is not an easy book to read. The changing perspectives mostly between Jalaeka and Francine, but also including others like an intriguing female warrior is difficult to follow and the subject is complex. However, those who prefer a deep science fiction cerebral yet action-packed tale will want to journey to this odd world where change is more than the norm, it is life. With NATURAL HISTORY and now this thrilling tale, Justine Robson has carved out a niche starring her creative realms. Readers will want more works set in the Robson universe where physics does not necessarily repeat each time the experiment is run.

Harriet Klausner

I'm a huge sci-fi fan -- and strict too, no horror except lovecraft, and no fantasy except in weak moments -- and I loved this book.

Ms Robson's previous novel, Natural History, was one of the most haunting science fiction I have read in years. I just couldn't get the creepy techno-erotic story of longing, loneliness and difficult choices out of my mind for months. This novel takes those themes and expands on them in a most interesting, engaging, and intelligent manner.

If you like reading completely original visions of the future -- you know, the kind where your mind is racing most of the time to try and figure out what's going on, because the backstory is only given in small organic pieces of the story -- you should pick up this and other books by this author.

I have not read Natural Science, the book some reviewers claim is a prequel to this book. I was lost a lot of the time, but I loved Robson's writing and was enchanted by the world she created. I did not appreciate the unnecessary and graphic depictions of two rapes, which seemed incongruous with the very vague descriptions, more spiritual than physical, of sex generally in the book. I found the characters interesting and strange, but there was a missing element and the ending was unsatisfying and confusing. I want to read more of her work, to see if I can gain a better understanding of her concept and because I enjoyed her writing.

I'm about 90 pages into the book and haven't run into any of the problems mentioned in the other reviews. The book is interesting, gripping even, but not confusing. Nor do the motivations of any of the characters seem mysterious to me.

But it has become clear to me that this book is a sequel to Natural History (a detail oddly missing from the amazon.com description). It's not a sequel in the sense of a direct continuation of the earlier plot, but it is concerned with the consequences of the actions of the characters of the earlier novel. So I am putting it aside until I have a chance to look at Robson's previous book.

Tough book to read, but full of interesting ideas, and performed with an overload of style. Falls apart a bit towards the end, but overall a complex, challenging and entertaining piece of writing. We want more like it!

Scintillating writing, but multiple POV story makes little sense.

Your call.