A review by jonwesleyhuff
A Vision of Fire by Gillian Anderson
3.0
I found this book, quite at random, through Audible and decided to give it a go since I was intrigued by Anderson writing a book. Now, as one might suspect when there's a tiny little name of another author in the corner, there are always questions about who did what. Anderson's been pretty open about it, and it sounds like she left most of the sci-fi stuff to Rovin and mostly contributed character stuff along with plot. At least, that's the impression created.
After finishing the book, I looked around at various critic reviews and most have been pretty harsh against the book. I think part of that is simply them sharpening their knives, ready to carve up an actor who is putting their name on a book. I get the cynicism, in a way. Through interviews, it seems like Anderson would like to make a movie based on the books and wants to play the character. So, you could see this as her creating a part for herself, and the whole project is part of that. But... I don't see anything necessarily damning about that. What writer doesn't, to an extent, write books for themselves to be a part of? Even if it's just in the act of writing it?
So, all that being said, I really enjoyed the book. Now, it has issues. It's not rocketing to my "best of" list. But I found it an enjoyable mystery. I know some reviewers are down on the fact that there's no antagonist here. A shadowy group of also exploring the central mystery of the book (though from a different angle) has the chance of producing an antagonist or two in future books. But, here, it's mostly Caitlyn against the mystery itself.
I think Anderson's reading of the book added a lot to it. She has a very relaxing voice, in some ways, but she's also very good at different accents and giving characters their own feel. For a book that does consist of a lot of talking between characters, that's a plus. I thought the role of the characters, and the global backdrop against which the story takes place, was really interesting and different. The story does do that thing wherein Western writers accept Eastern spiritual philosophy as totally true in a way you suspect they'd never just fully accept, say, Christianity. As an atheist, I have no "dog in the fight" either way. Just something I noted. In any case, I think it's fun to explore the metaphysical aspects of the mystery and it didn't bother me or annoy me or anything.
I will say, by the book's end it became hard imagining how it'd work on the screen. But I would go see the movie, just to see how someone could tackle it! Caitlyn feels very much like a role that Gillian Anderson could do wonders with. Though, I will say I did find the journey the character takes from skeptic to believer a bit abrupt. It's kind of the equivalent of Scully going from no believing in aliens to piloting an alien aircraft to rescue Mulder in the span of one episode in the X-files. Caitlyn does take some awfully big leaps here in logic, but to be fair it actually does make sense of the context of the story.
I'll definitely be checking out the second book.
After finishing the book, I looked around at various critic reviews and most have been pretty harsh against the book. I think part of that is simply them sharpening their knives, ready to carve up an actor who is putting their name on a book. I get the cynicism, in a way. Through interviews, it seems like Anderson would like to make a movie based on the books and wants to play the character. So, you could see this as her creating a part for herself, and the whole project is part of that. But... I don't see anything necessarily damning about that. What writer doesn't, to an extent, write books for themselves to be a part of? Even if it's just in the act of writing it?
So, all that being said, I really enjoyed the book. Now, it has issues. It's not rocketing to my "best of" list. But I found it an enjoyable mystery. I know some reviewers are down on the fact that there's no antagonist here. A shadowy group of also exploring the central mystery of the book (though from a different angle) has the chance of producing an antagonist or two in future books. But, here, it's mostly Caitlyn against the mystery itself.
I think Anderson's reading of the book added a lot to it. She has a very relaxing voice, in some ways, but she's also very good at different accents and giving characters their own feel. For a book that does consist of a lot of talking between characters, that's a plus. I thought the role of the characters, and the global backdrop against which the story takes place, was really interesting and different. The story does do that thing wherein Western writers accept Eastern spiritual philosophy as totally true in a way you suspect they'd never just fully accept, say, Christianity. As an atheist, I have no "dog in the fight" either way. Just something I noted. In any case, I think it's fun to explore the metaphysical aspects of the mystery and it didn't bother me or annoy me or anything.
I will say, by the book's end it became hard imagining how it'd work on the screen. But I would go see the movie, just to see how someone could tackle it! Caitlyn feels very much like a role that Gillian Anderson could do wonders with. Though, I will say I did find the journey the character takes from skeptic to believer a bit abrupt. It's kind of the equivalent of Scully going from no believing in aliens to piloting an alien aircraft to rescue Mulder in the span of one episode in the X-files. Caitlyn does take some awfully big leaps here in logic, but to be fair it actually does make sense of the context of the story.
I'll definitely be checking out the second book.