Compared to Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell this is a significantly more streamlined beast that yet still has a unusual world and its history to relate to the reader but this time in a more succinct manner. For much of the story there is only the character of The Other and some animals we see Piranesi encounter. Everything is told through Piranesi’s journal entries recounting their days in the House and what happened. In some ways this story could almost be a one-character play. The Other however warns Piranesi that there is another person now beginning to make their way into the House and that this person if they speak top Piranesi will make them go mad and that will result in their death. This is all there can be but seeking out the mysteries of the House gives Piranesi joy. How they tend the skeletons of the dead and their regular encounters with he only other living person they meet known as the other. For many many years they have explored and documented in their diaries the mysterious way the House operates. Piranesi inhabits an infinitely large House of many halls, statues and even tides that make up the world. I was bewitched by how Susanna Clarke delivered this in the novel Piranesi giving me a very satisfactory tale that while not for everyone will I think still be rewarding for many readers. In thrillers this often works by constant show pieces such as murders fights or explosions so seeing it done in fantasy successfully can work. Moving piece A to B to C can be quite technical and the reader may find they are quickly second guessing the plot. It is very hard to think of Discworld without that’s author’s voice and although sometimes the same themes are being explored the way the story is presented keeps it entertaining and fresh. For me that is how a book’s author keeps me hooked and thr story unwinding. The Beauty of the House is immeasurable its Kindness infinite.Ī lot of the time you may notice I talk about storytelling. The world that Piranesi thought he knew is becoming strange and dangerous. Lost texts must be found secrets must be uncovered. But who are they and what do they want? Are they a friend or do they bring destruction and madness as the Other claims? Messages begin to appear, scratched out in chalk on the pavements. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. For readers of Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane and fans of Madeline Miller's Circe, Piranesi introduces an astonishing new world, an infinite labyrinth, full of startling images and surreal beauty, haunted by the tides and the clouds.Price – £14.99 hardcover £7.13 Kindle eBook But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known. There is one other person in the house-a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But Piranesi is not afraid he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. Piranesi's house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. New York Times Bestseller Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction World Fantasy Awards Finalist From the New York Times bestselling author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an intoxicating, hypnotic new novel set in a dreamlike alternative reality.
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