5 January 2009
K.J. Bishop – The Etched City
Posted by Dirk under: books .
This is a strange book. It starts off almost like a Western, with a pistolman shooting three others over a game of cards, but then he pulls out a sword and cuts off their heads.
The two main protagonists are the shootist and a doctor, both fugitives who were on the wrong side of a war. They end up in a city where the doctor works at a clinic for the poor and the shootist becomes a ‘cavalier’ for a local criminal organization.
Most of the book is from the pov of the shootist character. About two thirds of the way into the book there is an extra-odd section, sort of like an extended magic mushroom fugue, that almost put me off the book but it clears up and gets a little more traditional and finishes up.
I liked it. I wasn’t as overwhelmed by it as some reviewers seem to have been, but I’m sure that’s my fault and not the book’s.