Customer Reviews

Winter Tides

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

 

 

James Blaylock really is a great writer of fantasy, but it's a peculiarly realistic sort of fantasy. Not for him the realms of wizards and elves of traditional "fantasy." Instead, he's writing a sort of contemporary fantasy wherein elements of ghost stories and suchlike enter into the everyday lives of his characters.

_Winter Tides_ is something of a change for Blaylock, at least in my reading of him. Most of his books that I've read have been peopled by quirky, gently humorous characters, generally allied against some sort of dark force which is ultimately clueless. In this novel, the villain is a very frightening person who graduates from mild pranks to outright murder in a realistic fashion. It's difficult to point out exactly when he goes over the edge. The effect is to make the outcome of events much less predictable and thus much more serious for the ragtag bunch of characters who represent the "good."

Very highly recommended.

Blaylock has improved his storytelling skills over the years in leaps and bounds, making subtle changes to his style in nearly every novel. Not every thing he does succeeds absolutely but you have to give credit to the guy for trying. Here he attempts a spooky ghost story of revenge but as it turns out the ghost is hardly necessary at all . . . which maybe was the point. Fifteen years ago, Dave Quinn attempted to save twin girls from drowning . . . one didn't make it and he still feels guilty about it. Working for an eccentric old man (the closest Blaylock comes to one of his classic character stereotypes) and being constantly creeped out by the boss' son Edmund he eventually runs into Anne, who turns out to be the girl he managed to save, it was her sister Elinor who died that night. From there the tale becomes a story of gradually escalating obsessing, told mostly from the POV of Edmund, who is truly probably the sickest character Blaylock has ever written, I had to wonder about the author's mental state since he seemed to so perfectly capture the effortless madness of Edmund, how even the most depraved act makes perfect sense to his twisted mind. The kicker is that the ghost of Elinor is supposed to be pushing Edmund to do the things he does, inspiring him and whatnot but Elinor really never develops anything resembling a presence, besides moving stuff around and causing ghostly footsteps and appearing as misty human shapes in the air . . . there's not much else she does . . . fortunately when Blaylock keeps the focus on Edmund and his rather strange passions, life stays interesting and the suspense is nicely done even if toward the end it tends to dissolve into standard "We must stop the villain" stuff complete with cliched, "Let me explain my plan so that you have a chance to stop me" . . . fortunately Dave and Anne are fun characters and you do root for them to get together (even if little is done with it) . . . Dave Quinn is one of the more rounded characters to come down the Blaylock pipeline in a while and remains interesting on his own, especially since he does actively forward the plot, often times Blaylock protagonist let stuff happen to them for a while before they start reacting. All of these are minor flaws, while reading this pages literally flew and I finished this way faster than I thought I would . . . as a psychological study on sickness it's great, as a ghost story, well it's no Night Relics but you can't knock every one completely out of the park, can you? Any Blaylock fan can't go wrong here though.

Winter Tides is another very, very good book by one of the best authors of this genre. The only real complaints I have about Blaylock are 1) I wish he wrote books faster so I could read more!, and 2) This particular book had a villain that was just totally unredeemable. I have always liked, in the past, that there was often an understandable side to the villains (The Last Coin, of course, is an exception). Even his very worse were at least mildly amusing. But this book is a lot darker than his others. I would not recommend it to my preteen, for sure. All of that aside, once again, we have a fine book with protagonists that are admirable. Blaylock seems to have a fundamental optimism that shines through his stories. We like that. The character Anne could be better drawn, but I liked Dave. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy, or ghost stories. Still, though, our favorite Blaylock novels are Paper Grail, Magic Spectacles, the Disappearing Dwarf (and sequels). And, of course, The Digging Laviathan cannot be equalled. Still, read this new book! And Mr. Blaylock, please write more!

Other reviewers have noted that with this book Blaylock puts his trademark whimsy in the background and replaces it in the foreground with a really creepy villain. Perhaps the book's greatest flaw is that the nastiness of the human villain, towards the end, eclipses the eeriness of the deceased villain -- the ghost whose pervasive presence gives the book so much of its tense atmosphere. Although the ghost is responsible for the chills in the first half or three quarters of the book, by the end it seems practically benign in comparison to the vile Edmund, and one begins to wonder whether the book could have been written without the supernatural component and had equal impact.

Still, a suspenseful and interesting read.

This is a kind of tricky one - there were some great elements but some loss-of-nerve as well - it could have been better. I really loved "The Paper Grail" which is evidentally more the classic Blaylock - fantasy in a contemporary setting with engaging characters. This is a supernatural horror story with one of the greatest occult villains I've run across, but somehow Blaylock wimps out before delivering the level of terror the character calls for. The romance between the hero and heroine never develops the necessary depth either, though the characters are, as always, well drawn. 4 stars for characterization, 3 for atmosphere, 2 for story.

James Blaylock is becoming one of the premier authors of our time. He definitely will be put in the class of Michener, Clancy, Tolken and Brooks, only with much better artistry in his writing. Winter Tides may be his best work, although many of his others are very highly recommended (Paper Grail, The Last Coin, etc.). This is a great book that you are truly sorry to finish because it means leaving Blaylock's wonderfully woven world.

_Winter Tides_ disappointed me, but I suppose I must put the blame on the publisher rather than the author. Mainly I was miffed because the blurb on the back promised something totally different from what was actually in the book. The blurb spoke of a man named Dave, and his relationship with the girl he had saved from drowning years before, and with the ghost of her sister whom he failed to save. What I got was a novel about a psychopath named Edmund, who wasn't even mentioned on the cover.

Dave and the sisters were there, all right, but they were dealt with shallowly. Even when the story was being told from Dave or Anne's point of view, the author never really went deeply into what they were thinking or feeling, just their physical actions. Elinor, the ghost sister, gets even shorter shrift, and mainly seems to be a plot device. The romance between Dave and Anne is skimmed over, and both of their feelings for Elinor are summed up in a few sentences here and there. The only intricate characterization in the book is that of Edmund, a true loony who thinks torturing people is a fine art form. Blaylock does a good job of depicting him, but I wasn't expecting a psychopath story, I don't really like psychopath stories, they're just not my thing. I was led to expect a ghost story and a love story.

If you like novels about psychopaths and serial killers, go ahead and buy this--it's well done if you like that sort of thing. Blaylock's subtlety and restraint leave the worst bits to the imagination, thereby creating a more palpable terror. Just don't buy this if you're looking for a dark fantasy or a romance.

James P Blaylock's books are always worth reading. More than that, they are worth buying. In hardcover. Winter Tides is no exception. A Blaylockian blend of fantasy and horror, destruction and redemption, Winter Tides invites the reader to join Dave Quinn as he tries to make sense out of the increasingly weird and creepy things that come home to roost at the theatrical warehouse where he works. And, in Edmund Dalton, a pure capitalist if ever there was one, Blaylock has created his most nasty bad guy yet. But this is no routine fantasy, no tossed-off suspense thriller. It is a welcome return to the skewed perspective of James P Blaylock. He is one of the very few writers who can make his characters seem familiar, not because we've met them before, but because we recognize their humanity as our own. We may never experience their adventures, but we get a glimpse of how we might act if we started seeing ghosts in the ocean mist. Buy this book. Read this book. Tell your friends about this book. Buy it for your friends. You will not be disappointed. Neither will your friends.

Don't be mislead by the cover of this book or its synopsis. This book isn't a creepy ghost story. It's a boring romance with a pathetic villan. The characters are flat and unrealistic (not to mention the plot). The best thing about this book was the first chapter. Too bad Blaylock couldn't keep the rest of the story up to that par.