The Paper Grail [Import] [Paperback]

James Blaylock (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Collins (February 22, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0586212175
• ISBN-13: 978-0586212172
• Shipping Weight: 7.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,677,683 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderfully Offbeat Grail Quest, October 21, 2001

By 

Pauline J. Alama "Fantasy author" (Rutherford, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Paper Grail (Hardcover)

The quiet curator of a small museum in California has no idea what he's getting into when he begins a trip to claim a rare Japanese sketch for his museum. He finds himself in the middle of a life-and-death struggle for the Paper Grail, an origami cup with mystical powers over land and water. Blaylock slips adeptly from the everyday to the sublime, pitting unlikely heroes -- failed small businessmen and eccentrics -- against some pretty likely villains of our time: greedy real estate tycoons and cynics who would use the Grail's powers for their own aggrandizement rather than the good of the land. You're more likely to enjoy this beautifully written, highly literate book if you have read a good deal of Arthurian literature and if you're familiar with the Pre-Raphaelite artists of the late Victorian period. Fans of Tim Powers' _Last Call_ should definitely read _Paper Grail_: to judge by the dedications, the two authors were probably trading ideas the whole time they were writing.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite books, July 13, 2005

By 

Colin P. Lindsey (Manchester, NH) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paper Grail (Paperback)

I love James Blaylock and his quirky, fun, bizarre, mysterious and hilarious novels and this one has to be my favorite. In point of fact, I gave this to my wife to read and it instantly became her favorite book as well. Now how often do married people ever agree? That's how good this book is.

Blaylock weaves an enthralling and soothing world that you love to enter and populates it with not-your-normal people; off-kilter and unlikely, yet intensely lovable heroes and comic-opera, bumbling yet really aggravating villains. Nothing quite like him anywhere, although Tim Powers (who is a friend and collaborator in novels sometimes) has a similar voice.

So go get youself this book, give yourself a night off, and have yourself a heck of good time. You'll never regret reading this one!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful contemporary-fantasy quest, May 13, 1999

By 

rampageous_cuss (Under Billy Penn's Hat) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Paper Grail (Paperback)

This is the 2nd best Blaylock I've read (best: The Last Coin) and has all the classic Blaylock plot elements: an assortment of quirky characters in a northern California backwater, and a mystic treasure with its aging guardians pitted against the bizarre machinations of a grotesque, eccentric villian. Nothing like fast-paced action but a marvellous unfolding of plots and characters.