![]() ![]() Vans drive around belting out jolly tunes only to stop and snatch people from the streets. This is what the President wants you to think anyway. It is the country of Liberty that is so confusing. However, how much of this is just Stan? From what Eleanor can tell he has always been a selfish idiot, hence him being turned into a cat in the first place. He has the stereotypical personality of a cat a little indifferent to the feelings of others, a tendency to just drift off. Heuler does take things further as Stan is borderline useless in helping Eleanor. The odd couple being forced to work together. The characters of Eleanor and Stan may be odd, but it is a perfectly normal dysfunctional relationship. This is certainly true of Splendid as the opening act has a lot to take in. Jumping into any science fiction or fantasy novel can be deep water and a reader may find themselves floundering for a few pages as they get their bearings. That is easier said than done – they hate one another. The pair of them must learn to work together if Eleanor is ever to going get back to New York and Stan to get apposable thumbs again. Her only ally is Stan, who happens to be the person she just turned feline. Her punishment is to move to the new country of Liberty, a former US State, and find a witch that has gone missing. ![]() It is all this combined with a surrealist humour.Įleanor has only recently discovered that she is a witch and already she has managed to turn her annoying work colleague into a giant talking cat and got them both banished. ![]() It is not the working witch coven or even the talking cat that makes it different. I thought I had seen it all teddy bear detectives included, but none have been quite like Karen Heuler’s The Splendid City. Urban Fantasy has become a staple of the Fantasy genre in recent years, and you are as likely to find a book about a necromancer librarian or zombie private detective walking around a modern city as you are elves and dwarves in a version of the past. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |