Customer Reviews

Retromancer

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4 star:		(1)
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This is a toughie. I picked it up locally because (a) it was filed after Pratchett, and I'd been mentally moaning how there were no new Discworld books for me to read, and (b), the artwork and title seemed vaguely steampunk. I didn't have my glasses on, but could read enough of the back jacket to see something about Nazis and WWII, which is always interesting in fiction, so I bought it. I'd never read anything of Rankin's before.

Now, the story is quite interesting, as stories go. It does seem a little bit boy-oriented in the manner of George Macdonald Fraser or William Dietrich. As a middle-aged woman there were times when I found it simply too cloak-and-dagger for me. It was a bit worrying to read Rizla's prologue - the name made me think the character was a young girl mentee, and I dislike that older man/young girl mentor relationship - but then I learned Rizla was a teenage boy, so it was all right. The characters of Rizla and Rune are interesting; the evil Count Black is a bit too stereotyped, but it was OK for this boy-tone story.

The problem I have writing the review is Rizla's dialogue. He's supposed to have been a teenager in the UK in 1967, but his jargon sounds excessively forced and twee, a bit like Stephen Fry's characters in "Making History" and "The Liar." Perhaps that's how teenagers spoke in those days, but to me here in the US it's just as jarring as reading 1920s slang like "the bee's knees" or "the berries." He says he doesn't want to "go on the Work" (i.e., get a job), for example. This is why I take off a star, because I spent a lot of time grimacing at the dialogue.

Naturally there are lots of mystical things happening to save the heroes' bacon at various times.

On the whole I prefer Discworld books; Pratchett's characters seem more grounded and real, even if they are trolls and other species. But I might pick up some more Rankin books next time I need something to read.

NB - if you aren't thinking of Rune and Rizla as Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, the only other man who leaps to mind for Rune is George Sanders. Sigh.