Customer Reviews

The War Of The Flowers

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Tad Williams is turning into a hit or miss for me. I
loved Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. One of the few books/series
to ever make me cry. Otherland just didn't do it for me. Too
much. This, his latest, The War of the Flowers, is somewhere in between.

First we have to take into consideration that it is one book,
not one book in a series. There is one major character,
someone from our own 21st century world-- a down and out singer
with personal issues. He gets transported into the world of
Faerie,an interesting interpretation of Fairyland on Tad
Williams' part. I suppose that fans of Fairy-like things will
find his interpretations and extrapolations interesting. But I
wasn't all that impressed. Compared with the detail and
richness of the worlds in his other books, even Otherland
(Otherland's storyline didn't grab me, but his world and
descriptions were nice, and some of the characters were nice),
this one was a bit-- not shallow, just underexplained.

Sometimes, IMHO, Williams tends to describe so you can picture
something, but there isn't as much soul or substance underneath
as I would like.

The protagonist is pretty straight-forward. He matures,
evolves, and becomes a better person. The issues aren't
complex.

Neither is the plot. The protagonist struggles to survive
through Fairyland, and somehow manages to triumph by a
combination of inspiration and coincidental timing (ie luck)
over impossible odds. There is betrayal, love, and friendship,
but it is all understated. The action is basically running.
Magic doesn't play an overt role, but is more profound than in
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn.

A solid fantasy all in all.

Tad Williams struck a resonant chord with me with "The War of the Flowers". I should state that I read a good bit of Fantasy fiction, including some of Mr. Williams other books, and do generally consider him, Robin Hobb, George RR Martin and Robert Jordan to be the apex of current fantasy writing.

With that being caveat, it should not be surprising that just as that Tad Williams' prior books tended to focus on in depth-characterization and setting, rather than raw action or discordant perspectives (Martin), so too does 'The War of the Flowers'. Moreover, 'The War of the Flowers' utterly succeeds within that caveat.

Set in the land of 'Faerie', a mortal, Theo Vilmus, arrives through suspect means. A 'loser' at ~ age 30 in 'mortalia' prior to his advent, Theo comes of age while unwillingly, and to some degree, unwittingly, assisting in a civil war.

This relatively simple story succeeds in several outstanding ways:
(1) It, like many non-Fantasy fictional brethren, is told in 1 book-- and not scattered over many.
(2) The setting is fabulous: Sprites, Nixies, Doonies, Goblins, Grims, et al. In place, used 'accurately'. The class warfare(neo-marxist???)/condemnation of industralization may, to some, go over the top, but it's appropriate for the Neo-Victorian backdrop of Faeries
(3) The primary Protagonist is fabulous: Theo, as with Simon way back in 'The Memory...' Trilogy, is an angst-ridden, relatively indecisive ne'er-do-well at the beginning, who successfully migrates to adulthood by the end (nevermind that he's 30 to begin with as age doesn't make one an 'adult').
(4) The secondary characters are outstanding, with special kudos to both Hellebore and Applecore.

This book sat on my bookshelf for nearly 5 months before I read it. What a mistake. Being followed closely by only "Golden Fool" by Robin Hobb, this is unquestionably the best Fantasy book of 2003. Finally, while it was self-contained in only 1 volume, I assuredly hope Tad Williams revisits the land and time he created. Wonderful. Magnificient.

If you've read any of Tad William's previous works (Otherland), and you enjoyed them, then this book is just for you.

War of the Flowers is about a regular man, 30 year old Theo Vilmos, whose life is falling apart all around him, losing a gf, going through tough family issues; a lost soul who just doesn't know what to do with his life. Just when he thinks things can't get worse, he stumbles upon a book from his Great Uncle, a book that will definately change his life. Theo finds himself cast into another world of faeries, goblins, ogres, ghosts, pixies, and a billion other things that he thought were not possible.

The story follows Theo as he is thrown into a new place wondering how his life went from just being bad, to being bad but in a world where little pixies mouth off and curse at him.

The book is a bit long and at times it gets depressing but there are a lot of surprises and if you're a Tad Williams Fan then this book won't let you down. I reccomend it if you enjoyed Otherland and Tailchaser's Song. William's has always been able to describe strange and fantastic worlds in such a way that the reader is very much "there."

My comments will mirror what many others have said.

The author is quite good at describing people, places, and happening. I enjoy how deeply he lets us get into the mind of the main characters.

Before I go further, I want to comment on originality. I really don't get the complaints from some of the other reviews about this not being very original. I'm not an AVID reader of fantasy, but I've read quite a bit of it. While it's true he uses familiar fairy creatures, I feel he does it in a very original way. There was very little stereotype in the depiction of the faery world. And, his premise is that our stories of faery are really distortions of that land, anyway, so it makes perfect sense that there would be familiar creatures.

I found the idea of a faery world that is in most ways as modern and "scientific" as our own to be unique -- it's certainly not something I've read, elsewhere.

And, as for the very general common plot of an ordinary boy who slowly becomes a hero -- that doesn't bother me, as long as it's handled in a unique and enjoyable way.

It's the "enjoyable" part that fails, in my opinion.

I wanted Theo, the protaganist to grow more. To learn. Develop. DO something.

I kept waiting for that. But, instead, I got 600 pages of self-loathing and introspection about WANTING to be better.

He never really did anything, other than run away from his enemies, over and over and over again. He met new people, made new friends, and... well, that's it. He OBSERVED a lot.

Even at the very end, where he overcomes his enemies (that wasn't really a give-away, was it? You KNEW he'd do that, right?) I felt it was more luck and desperation than any kind of growth or experience that prepared him for the showdown.

I found it very frustrating.

At the beginning of the book, we are told that Theo has such great potential. And, we see that he has totally wasted it.

At the end of the book, all we really see is the same Theo with great potential. It is never realized in the book. Frustrating.

I also really disliked the device of the unstoppable creature that slowly plods along, always tracking him down. I found its use to be amazingly inconsistent. One day, Theo travels far across the county by train and/or car, only to be tracked down by the creature who apparently walked the whole way, shortly thereafter. Another day, he narrowly escapes the creature, and then goes to hide just a few minutes away, and the creature doesn't find him for days. Stupid.

I really like the concept, but, like Theo, this was a book full of unrealized potential.

_War of the Flowers_ starts out with a standard device in fantasy literature of the fey variety: Theo Vilmos is a singer in a California rock band. His band-mates are barely out of high school and at the age of thirty, he's beginning to wonder whether he's ever going to grow up and make something of himself. A series of personal crises sends Theo to a cabin in the mountains to sort things out. Soon enough he finds himself drawn into Faerie, where he is a pawn in the power struggles between several noble families.

There is so much to like about this book! First off, Tad Williams is just an incredible writer: his characterizations are deft and realistic, his descriptions of both places and experiences are moving and his vision breathes a needed note of originality into an increasingly over-used theme. WotF uses many of the standards of faery lore to paint a very different picture than one might be used to seeing, and I found it incredibly absorbing.

There's a lot of darkness in this book, but there's humour, too, and a sense of irony that struck me as a very true depiction of the way a mortal mind might work when trying to make sense of things that just don't cop to this-world rules. There is not, however, that overblown sense of magic and mystery to which many writers succumb when trying to tackle the subject. We're shown a Faerie that is a super-real reflection of our own world rather than one that is awe-inspiring on a spiritual level. Probably not all readers will appreciate this take, as it makes for uncomfortable reading at times.

Williams also manages to reconcile different faery mythologies in a way that makes sense, so that there's room in his world for both the more human, Tuatha De Danaan type fairy and the Victorian Flower Fairy. And he gives a reasonable explanation for culturally different kinds of fairy lore while totally dispelling the notion that all mystical beings must live in some idealised 5th century Tuath. I really appreciated this.

As far as plot itself goes, there isn't a whole lot new here. It's what Williams does with it that makes WotF an incredible read.

If you're looking for the same old superficial take on Faerie that some writers dish out this book is probably not for you. If, however, you're looking for an absorbing challenge that will make you think. _War of the Flowers_ is a great choice.

Tad, I love your work... but not this one.

Perhaps hampered by the one-volume format, Williams does not come through as well in this novel as he has in other books (although _Tailchaser's Song_ was tighter than this was). The characters are just not as rich, and the plot seemed somehow rushed, especially as we near the end. Theo's "state-the-obvious" inner monologue throughout the book was a tedious condescension to thinking readers who already know that such stories hinge on the education and development of the naive main character, and don't need to be led through it by the hand. I would have preferred more show, less tell.

That said, I loved Williams' conception of Faerie, and gave him a bonus star just for that. He has a talent for creating interesting world-concepts that build on a strong sense of internal logic (the "news bulletin" chapter headings in _Otherland_ are, for me, the most evocative parts of the series). If we could have spent more time with Theo discovering Faerie and developing his relationship with it (and less time having others knock a perceptually-challenged Theo over the head with important details) we might have required less straight exposition that made for more expedient but definitely lacklustre storytelling.

Much less absorbing or convincing than the _Memory, Sorry and Thorn_ series.

I picked this book up along with Watt-Evans's _Dragon Weather_ for a recent vacation. The other book was captivating, this one wasn't.

For starters, this book felt a lot like a retread of other, better, novels. Another reviewer mentioned _War for the Oaks_, which is the one I immediately thought of as well. That's a much better book. But the parallels aren't that exact. Williams has done a couple of semi-original things here and I did end up reading the whole thing after reaching a point early on where I didn't want to read it. The sense of wonder about traveling to a sort of modernized fairyland is sorely missing, but the story does move right along. The ending is terrible--Williams gets his hero out of a difficult jam while he (and we the readers) are unconcious. Arg!

One last note: the hero in this book is a numbskull, which I find rather tedious.

This is an okay read, but not Williams's best work.

Recently I've gotten back into reading fantasy and science fiction novels. After completing the Song of Fire and Ice Series by George R.R. Martin (which by the way I thought was amazing), I began and finished Salvatore's Dark Elf Trilogy and Icewind Dale Trilogy (loved these fast paced well crafted reads). Still hungry for more I read the Riftwar Saga by Feist which I really enjoyed. Although I'd purchased a copy of Otherland for future reading, I'd never read a book by Tad Williams, and so when the bookstore clerk recommended this book I decided what the heck I'd give it a try. I'm so glad I did. Easily the best of all the recent fantasy (as well as past) reads I've ever had. I loved this novel. Theo is a fascinating character. Williams does an amazing job descirbing him and sharing this character with the audience. Unlike the previous reviewer, I thought the novel picked up incredible amounts of steam once Theo traveled to Fairie. I loved the characterizations, and Williams ability to make a ready feel like he's right in the middle of a scen is down right amazing. I could not stop turning the pages or racing home to read more of the novel. I've now raced out and purchased the Dragbone Chair so that I can begin to experience more of the imaginiation of this most incredible author. I loved this novel, and you will too...I'm just sorry this is a one parter and I'd love to continue reading about this fascinating world of Fairie which Williams has created. Buy this book, you will not be disappointed.

I'm a longtime fan of Williams and enjoyed this novel, but it's not his best (see 'The Dragonbone Chair'). I found Theo's character to be very passive; things just happen to him while he's led or wanders cluelessly from place to place. I also couldn't get a very clear sense of the 'rules' for the realm of faerie until about halfway through the book, and there was too long a delay in revealing Theo's importance to the story.

That said, there were some good plot twists that caught me by surprise, and everything wraps up fairly well at the end (although room has clearly been provided for one or more sequels). It's nice to read a stand-alone novel for a change, too much in the genre is trilogies and series. Looking forward to the author's work ('Shadowmarch').

This being the first Tad Williams novel I've ever read, I was very excited to delve in! "War of the Flowers" is epic fantasy, spanning multi-dimensional worlds. Intricately plotted and exceptionally well-written, the only quibble (which is NOT one of those furry things from "Star Trek"...) I have with this book is that the plot was predictable. In spite of that, the story was adventuresome, exciting, and held my interest throughout the nearly 700 pages. I have heartily recommended this to my friends and co-workers...and now you!