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elfsI've just finished reading Justina Robson's Living Next Door to the God of Love, which has probably one of the loveliest, most shelf-ready eye-catching titles I've ever seen in my entire life. Which is a bit of a shame because the text inside is rather weak.
Robson has created a universe in which a local light-cone controlling cosmic intelligence of undefined origin named Unity has apparently created a kind of cosmic crossroads with Earth, creating a whole host of "walking to another world" gates, and there are many different kinds of things walking around. Unity's apparent purpose is to discover the underlying meaning of life, and people run the risk of being "consumed" by Unity willy-nill as it looks for those who might have the answer. Some of the trans-universal stuff leaks into our space: creatures made of Stuff, and the Engines that maintain the portals and the human-friendly space between them.
Unity isn't completely in control of the universe, and sometimes there are storms within Unity itself. One such storm broke off a piece of Unity, which calls itself Jalaeka. Unity wants the fragment known as Jalaeka back.
The story is about a girl named Francine and how Jalaeka comes to understand that Unity can never succeed in its mission: that there are things that are ineffable to everyone, even the gods, and how he is the embodiment of the ineffability. From there, a massive cosmic battle ensues, Jalaeka vs. Unity, and the story... well...
Y'see, that's the problem. Jalaeka is so very human most of the time. His relationship with Francine is told from each's point of view, with neither ever being clear (or convincing to the reader) about why they should fall so completely in love. They just do. She tries to avoid romantic cliches and somehow manages to avoid cueing us into the romance at all.
Every scene in this book is completely gorgeous. Robson is a writer with a deep grasp of human nature and complete control of a lush and lyrical writing style that never gets in the way of her moving the characters from beginning to end. But the scenes never quite add up to a story. They never quite convince you; they never quite show you enough of the picture for you to feel satisfied with the ending.
A lot of people liked this book, reading the reviews. I liked this book. I just wish it had more conviction.
Robson has created a universe in which a local light-cone controlling cosmic intelligence of undefined origin named Unity has apparently created a kind of cosmic crossroads with Earth, creating a whole host of "walking to another world" gates, and there are many different kinds of things walking around. Unity's apparent purpose is to discover the underlying meaning of life, and people run the risk of being "consumed" by Unity willy-nill as it looks for those who might have the answer. Some of the trans-universal stuff leaks into our space: creatures made of Stuff, and the Engines that maintain the portals and the human-friendly space between them.
Unity isn't completely in control of the universe, and sometimes there are storms within Unity itself. One such storm broke off a piece of Unity, which calls itself Jalaeka. Unity wants the fragment known as Jalaeka back.
The story is about a girl named Francine and how Jalaeka comes to understand that Unity can never succeed in its mission: that there are things that are ineffable to everyone, even the gods, and how he is the embodiment of the ineffability. From there, a massive cosmic battle ensues, Jalaeka vs. Unity, and the story... well...
Y'see, that's the problem. Jalaeka is so very human most of the time. His relationship with Francine is told from each's point of view, with neither ever being clear (or convincing to the reader) about why they should fall so completely in love. They just do. She tries to avoid romantic cliches and somehow manages to avoid cueing us into the romance at all.
Every scene in this book is completely gorgeous. Robson is a writer with a deep grasp of human nature and complete control of a lush and lyrical writing style that never gets in the way of her moving the characters from beginning to end. But the scenes never quite add up to a story. They never quite convince you; they never quite show you enough of the picture for you to feel satisfied with the ending.
A lot of people liked this book, reading the reviews. I liked this book. I just wish it had more conviction.
