Customer Reviews

Sign for the Sacred

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If you thought Calenthe was a fascinating character, wait till you meet Resenence Jeopardy! A mad charismatic prophet, heretic wanted by the church, leader of a new cult sweeping the land, seemingly able to make anyone love him. The story follows 3 people, all obsessed with him for different reasons and their quests to find him. (They do!) It takes about 100 pages to get to the point - when Lucien meets Resenence where you say, "I am not putting this book down today."

This is a subtle, rich, rewarding book. So much to think about here, especially on the power of the cult of personality, the elusiveness of obsession. This is exactly the kind of a book I want to read when I reach for the bookshelf. Storm Constantine had such fun with names here. Aside from Resenence Jeopardy, we have Cleo Sinister (one of the main storylines, a child-bride of a poisoner), Delilah (2nd storyline, a young girl who tames a cursed, plague-carrying, murderous madman), and more.

This is my favorite Storm's novel (along with "Calenture" and "Wraeththu", though). The novel is truly multidimensional: it is left at the discretion of the reader to decide whether this is just an entertaining read with some allegory in it, or a wise allegoric "nutshell" of the major religions' development and influence on the "sheep" of humanity (I feel Christianity and Islam being the most relevant ones).

Unfortunately, Storm herself appears to hint that this novel belongs to the "early" stages of her literary career. Storm's introduction to "Calenture" (2001) reads: ""Calenture" is part of what I call my "Headline" [a publishing house] period, the other three novels being "Hermetech", "Burying the Shadow" and "Sign for the Sacred".... I have a special fondness for these novels, as they remind me of a time when I was stretching my creative wings...Calenture, being the last of the Headline books, exemplifies both the end of an era in my writing, and also the culmination of all I'd assimilated and experimented with along the way..It was followed by a complete change of direction on my part, with the "Grigori" trilogy, in which I adopted a more streamlined style and also wrote, for the first time, in the "real world"...". Nevertheless, after reading this, I still hope I am just too pessimistic, and Storm eventually meant a recess rather than the "end of an era". Though "more streamlined" "Grigori" books are quite entertaining at times, but,in my opinion, the earlier novels - such as "Sign for the Sacred" - are much more superior. Storm may be a decent writer of such "real world" stories as "Grigori" (and I'm sure there are enough fans of those), but her "fantasy world" novels (such as "Sign for the Sacred") is the realm where her true Genius lies. I strongly hope that Storm comes back and finishes the sequel to "Sign for the Sacred" -"Death By Sweetness" - three first chapters of which are included in this "Stark House" edition. It promises to be a masterpiece.

To conclude, I'd like to bring up a quote from "Storm Constantine: The Profession of Lying", SC's biography included in "Stalking Tender Prey" Meisha Merlin's US edition (1998/2001), which is very descriptive of "Sign for the Sacred":

"There is a game starting to be played here between Storm and her readers, a growing confidence that runs throughout her novels for Headline, where the books can be read and enjoyed on a number of levels: of story, allegory and in the pleasure of uncovering the more esoteric reference and allusions".

I almost passed this book by due to the cover- but it was a enjoyable read and more the wonderfully creafted tale the author, and now others, are unfolding. Read it by all means - do not let the cover scare you away. Complex, engaging, well crafted and unexpected would describe Sign for the Sacred.

This very weird book is really a philosophical parable on the value of religion. But Storm's not your ordinary anticlericalist, religion is people's drug and all that. There's something in religion that attains at the very center of human nature,and this book, apparently cutting religion to pieces,recognizes it. The strange metamorphosis of Resenance Jeopardy is very intriguing. The vibrancers are an eerie fantasy indeed, but think of the castrati in Eighteenth Century popish courts and you can find the possible source of the idea. What is most notable is the ability of Storm Constantine to devise unacanny yet convincing universes.This one is pervaded by a subtle perversion, by a purple feeling of Borgian decadence, blended whit a strange spiritual mix-up...or mishap. Was Resenance a real mystic or a charlatan? Storm Constantine lets her readers decide.