2011 Reading #s 5 and 6: Shadowbridge and Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost
1. Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution In Music by Marisa Meltzer.
2. The Patriot Witch (Book One of the Traitor to the Crown trilogy) by C.C. Finlay.
3. Power Girl: A New Beginning and Power Girl: Aliens and Apes by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Amanda Conner.
4. Strangers On a Train by Patricia Highsmith.
5 and 6. Shadowbridge and Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost. As soon as I finished Shadowbridge about a week ago I knew I couldn't talk about it until I'd read Lord Tophet; I don't know if the two were originally intended to be one book or not, but to me the story feels like one literary entity. It's an impressive one, too; this is a story about stories and storytellers, and as Frost's characters travel through the world-spanning bridges of the title, they are constantly telling, hearing, stepping into, spilling, and tracking story everywhere. Some of this may seem at first peripheral to the main action, but the profusion of tales point towards an ending--not "the" ending, because Frost wisely leaves some things unresolved. The books that tend to linger with me, I've found, are those that end by satisfying some possibilities while leaving others unexplored. Shadowbridge is that sort of a creation, one that celebrates story by inviting the reader to finish--or better, continue--the story themselves. These books deserve to be classics.
2. The Patriot Witch (Book One of the Traitor to the Crown trilogy) by C.C. Finlay.
3. Power Girl: A New Beginning and Power Girl: Aliens and Apes by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Amanda Conner.
4. Strangers On a Train by Patricia Highsmith.
5 and 6. Shadowbridge and Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost. As soon as I finished Shadowbridge about a week ago I knew I couldn't talk about it until I'd read Lord Tophet; I don't know if the two were originally intended to be one book or not, but to me the story feels like one literary entity. It's an impressive one, too; this is a story about stories and storytellers, and as Frost's characters travel through the world-spanning bridges of the title, they are constantly telling, hearing, stepping into, spilling, and tracking story everywhere. Some of this may seem at first peripheral to the main action, but the profusion of tales point towards an ending--not "the" ending, because Frost wisely leaves some things unresolved. The books that tend to linger with me, I've found, are those that end by satisfying some possibilities while leaving others unexplored. Shadowbridge is that sort of a creation, one that celebrates story by inviting the reader to finish--or better, continue--the story themselves. These books deserve to be classics.