SEARCH

Subscribe

RSS Feed

Sub by Email

Twitter Me

INTERVIEWS

Peter Higgins, author of Wolfhound Century

Myke Cole, author of Shadow Ops Series

John Brown John, translator of the Zamonia Novels

Jim C. Hines author of Libriomancer

Nick Harkaway author of Angelmaker (review here)

Martha Wells author of The Cloud Roads

David Tallerman author of Giant Thief

Mazarkis Williams author of The Emperor's Knife

Rob Ziegler author of Seed

Steven Gould author of 7th Sigma

Douglas Hulick author of Among Thieves (review here)

Mark Charan Newton author of Nights of Villjamur (review here)

Kameron Hurley author of God's War (review here)

Brent Weeks author of The Black Prism (review here)

Anthony Huso author of The Last Page (review here)

Brandon Sanderson author of The Way of Kings (review here)

Lou Anders Editor of Pyr Books

Ian Tregillis author of Bitter Seeds (review here)

Sam Sykes author of Tome of the Undergates (review here)

Benjamin Parzybok author of Couch (review here)

Kristine Kathryn Rusch author of Diving Into the Wreck (review here)

Ken Scholes author of Lamentation

Cherie Priest author of Boneshaker (review here)

Lev Grossman author of The Magicians (review here)

Character Interviews

Alexia and Lord Maccon from Gail Carriger's Soulless

Lord Akeldama from Gail Carriger's Soulless

Eva Forge from Tim Akers's The Horns of Ruin

Atticus from Kevin Hearne's Hounded

RECENT REVIEWS

The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett

A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn

Cold Days by Jim Butcher

Year Zero by Rob Reid

Alif: The Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

Scourge of the Betrayer by Jeff Salyards

Redshirts by John Scalzi

Control Point by Myke Cole

Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway
My BlogCatalog BlogRank Wikio - Top Blogs - Literature

REVIEW | The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Doubleday)

Ever since the moment I first finished Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind I was left wanting for more of his beautiful Barcelona and never have I wanted to visit a time and place as much. Now with The Angel's Game we finally get another look. The translation is impeccable and beautiful while never feeling overly verbose as some translations are wont to do. The Angel's Game is one to savour. I found myself re-reading whole chapters again and again as I was entranced by not only the story but the sumptuous language. Zafon has once again proven he is one of if not the brightest voices in literature today. The Angel's Game has easily become my favorite book of the year and it will be tough to knock it from that perch. However, do not expect Angel and Shadow to be similar. The Angel's Game is a much darker and much more melancholy Faustian tale with stronger supernatural themes running throughout. The themes of love taken away, unreciprocated love, and filling of voids are still are here along with memorable characters, dialogue, and love of the written word. Quite a few characters from TSOTW show up in younger forms, but I won't ruin it by telling who. The Cemetery of Forgotten Books plays a central and even more important role as well. We are also gifted with a little more history of the Cemetery, which I have been salivating for since the opening pages of TSOTW.

Zafon has truly conceived a rich mosaic city where every character and the city itself has a heart and lost soul all its own. With the main character, David Martin, he managed to create someone with a deep sardonic humor and no matter their foibles you want to see him somehow best his creepy publisher Andreas. The discussions between Andreas and David are something out of a good philosophy debate. Zafon takes the no happy ends to an entirely different realm with this as he twists and turns the written word to his incredible will. The biggest let down was the character of Cristina who needed a few more scenes earlier on to grab me a bit more, maybe even in their childhood. In the end I felt she was very short shifted. There are also a few plot lines that aren't answered very well or at all that may nag some, but it was done with the intent of perpetuating the mysterious and any explanation may have ruined the narrative.

The ending was quite unexpected as it leaves you more perplexed than anything else, which will probably turn a few readers off, but you are left with a sense of wonder that will stay with you. I give The Angel's Game 9.75 out of 10 Hats. This is a book no one should miss. The Angel's Game can be thoroughly enjoyed without have read The Shadow of the Wind, but I highly recommend you read Shadow first.

Book Link: US Canada Europe

1 comments:

Ben said...

Fantastic review! I can't wait to read this one!