A Red Heart of Memories | ||||||||
Nina Kiriki Hoffman | ||||||||
Ace Books, 329 pages | ||||||||
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A review by Donna McMahon
The man is Edmund. Edmund wanders the world, going where the spirit moves him, and the spirit has told him to follow
Matt. Thus begins a most extraordinary fantasy adventure set in the contemporary U.S.A., slightly to the left of reality.
I'm not going to say much else about the plot of A Red Heart of Memories because I don't want to spoil it or prejudice
readers. Not being a big fan of fantasy or some of the book's themes (or California, for that matter), I would likely have
avoided it based on a plot synopsis. However, Nina Kiriki Hoffman's terrific writing made it a novel that I'm glad to have read.
The characters in A Red Heart of Memories are well drawn and compelling, but what impressed me most was the amazing
sense of wonder Nina Kikiri Hoffman brought to her magic scenes, and her whimsical humour. Hoffman uses magic to
transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. For example:
Matt kneeled and placed her hand on them. Gold bared her palm --Hello?-- she thought.
''Greetings, man-thing. Thing like those that chopped us and split us and carried us and buried us, looking
for seams and nuggets and ore. Greetings, thing that stripped us from our parent and brought us to a new place.
Greetings, thing that left us shattered here an age ago.--
--Uh, greetings,-- Matt thought. None of these events sounded very positive, but the rocks didn't seem too angry
about them. On the other hand, all the rocks had sharp edges.
The disappointing end of A Red Heart of Memories reminded me a great deal of The Healer's War, a fantasy
novel by Elizabeth Anne Scarborough, based on her experiences as a nurse in Viet Nam. Because Scarborough hadn't resolved
her feelings about Viet Nam, she wasn't able to resolve her protagonist's problems either, consequently this otherwise
excellent book drizzled to an uncertain stop.
Hoffman has done a better job, nonetheless she tackled an ambitious, thorny theme and it's little wonder she had
difficulties. I still recommend this book strongly, and will be watching for more of Hoffman's work.
Donna McMahon discovered science fiction in high school and fandom in 1977, and never recovered. Dance of Knives, her first novel, was published by Tor in May, 2001, and her book reviews won an Aurora Award the same month. She likes to review books first as a reader (Was this a Good Read? Did I get my money's worth?) and second as a writer (What makes this book succeed/fail as a genre novel?). You can visit her website at http://www.donna-mcmahon.com/. |
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