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A review by lbarsk
The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox
3.0
Y'all I don't know how to properly react to this book. Overall I'm just a little confused -- a lot of folks, including ones whose book recommendations I trust, hold this book up as like A Gold Standard Of Books, and it just didn't have that emotional resonance for me. I liked some things about the book, which I'm about to explain, but overall I just felt like the book kind of existed and I was able to appreciate certain aspects of it from arms' length.
Here's what I liked:
a) Aurora. Loved her. Could've used an entire book about her. What a FASCINATING character to examine? I'm glad she got more "screen time" as the book went on and that we got glimpses inside her head.
b) The concept of Xas as this embodiment of an agreement between God and Lucifer, and the wholly new view of God, Lucifer, Heaven, and Hell that Knox introduces. I'll always have an unfortunate soft spot for depictions of Lucifer because of Sandman, and this Lucifer didn't disappoint. Also, having a God that (to the reader) seems almost human is actually really interesting to read.
c) Xas! I would actually read more things in this ~*~universe*~* if they existed because I want to read more about Xas and better understand him. He's this combination of extremely tender and extremely caring and then WILDLY DEVASTATING AND CRUEL, which we all know is something that I love to see developed and explored in characterization.
And in terms of what I can distantly appreciate, it's the writing and the fact that the book is told year-by-year. At times I was like "Okay, we get it, this is POETIC," but also you don't see a lot of books written so... deliberately? Is that how to put it? It's kind of nice to have a book where the prose is treated like poetry because it means that every single word has its right place and every image is specifically invoking something else. It just got to be a little too much for me at times. The year-by-year construction got more bearable and interesting as the book went on; in the beginning I could not for the life of me string any events together or see where tiny details would add up to some bigger story (or some bigger arc of Sobran's life), which meant that getting tiny yearly glimpses really bothered me. I can also "distantly appreciate" Sobran as a main character -- he is the SO DECIDEDLY HUMAN contrast to Otherworldly Xas, and I think that in him Knox really nailed "the human condition," i.e., something unpredictable and always-changing and stubborn and impassioned.
So my issue is... taking everything I've written here, why am I not more fired up about this book? Why am I not like, GOING ALL IN for it the way I have with other books I've read this year? Or why am I not at least more like COOL GOOD LOOK AT THESE GOOD QUALITIES, READ THIS BOOK? And I guess that's why I can only give it 3 stars -- I liked it, but it just didn't Hook Me the way other books have. Which I almost feel bad about? Given that I did like parts of it? Oy. I guess I'd say... read it if you're curious to get a Very Different View of the traditional Heaven-and-Hell narrative that you find in books that toy with religious themes. And/or read it if you're into romances that span lifetimes and are Fated, etc. etc., because that's definitely here too.
Here's what I liked:
a) Aurora. Loved her. Could've used an entire book about her. What a FASCINATING character to examine? I'm glad she got more "screen time" as the book went on and that we got glimpses inside her head.
b) The concept of Xas as this embodiment of an agreement between God and Lucifer, and the wholly new view of God, Lucifer, Heaven, and Hell that Knox introduces. I'll always have an unfortunate soft spot for depictions of Lucifer because of Sandman, and this Lucifer didn't disappoint. Also, having a God that (to the reader) seems almost human is actually really interesting to read.
c) Xas! I would actually read more things in this ~*~universe*~* if they existed because I want to read more about Xas and better understand him. He's this combination of extremely tender and extremely caring and then WILDLY DEVASTATING AND CRUEL, which we all know is something that I love to see developed and explored in characterization.
And in terms of what I can distantly appreciate, it's the writing and the fact that the book is told year-by-year. At times I was like "Okay, we get it, this is POETIC," but also you don't see a lot of books written so... deliberately? Is that how to put it? It's kind of nice to have a book where the prose is treated like poetry because it means that every single word has its right place and every image is specifically invoking something else. It just got to be a little too much for me at times. The year-by-year construction got more bearable and interesting as the book went on; in the beginning I could not for the life of me string any events together or see where tiny details would add up to some bigger story (or some bigger arc of Sobran's life), which meant that getting tiny yearly glimpses really bothered me. I can also "distantly appreciate" Sobran as a main character -- he is the SO DECIDEDLY HUMAN contrast to Otherworldly Xas, and I think that in him Knox really nailed "the human condition," i.e., something unpredictable and always-changing and stubborn and impassioned.
So my issue is... taking everything I've written here, why am I not more fired up about this book? Why am I not like, GOING ALL IN for it the way I have with other books I've read this year? Or why am I not at least more like COOL GOOD LOOK AT THESE GOOD QUALITIES, READ THIS BOOK? And I guess that's why I can only give it 3 stars -- I liked it, but it just didn't Hook Me the way other books have. Which I almost feel bad about? Given that I did like parts of it? Oy. I guess I'd say... read it if you're curious to get a Very Different View of the traditional Heaven-and-Hell narrative that you find in books that toy with religious themes. And/or read it if you're into romances that span lifetimes and are Fated, etc. etc., because that's definitely here too.