Book Review: "Living With Ghosts" by Kari Sperring

[jpskewedthrone]

I finished this late last night. This is the debut novel of Kari Sperring and so I picked it up because of that. I try to help support new authors as much as possible by buying their books and trying them out. And with this one, I was not disappointed.





The atmosphere is the best part of this book, combined with the characters. The entire novel is set in the city of Merafi which has been free of ghosts and other magical aspects for generations due to a pact made in blood ages past and also by the fact that magic users are essentially illegal in the city. However, something has begun unraveling that ancient pact and now ghosts are appearing on the streets, along with strange mists and other fell creatures within them, and even nature itself seems to be against the city. It rains constantly, there are mists nearly every night, and the river water is rising, bringing with it plague and death. All of this is the atmospheric backdrop of the novel.

What draws you into the story is the style and the characters set against this backdrop. The main character is Gracielis, a courtesan and spy, who becomes unwillingly entwined with the lives of Thierry, the ghost Valdarrien, Iareth, Joyain, and a few others. I like how the individual lives of these characters--all seemingly separate--begin to slowly come together and cross, so that the actions of one affects them all. I also like that the lives of the characters do not necessarily end where a fantasy novel would typically have them end. So if you read the book, don't expect the usual outcomes for all of the characters. You'll be surprised.

I did have one problem with the novel, nothing that detracts from it to the point where I wouldn't recommend it to others though. I did not feel that I had a good idea or handle on how the magic in the world worked, even by the end of the novel, when all of the power comes to a head. I spent a good amount of time on some of the more heavily descriptive scenes involving magic and while I have a sense of what the magic is like and how it behaves, I couldn't explain it. It isn't as concrete or solid as I'd like as a reader. That said, it's certainly intriguing, which is probably why I'd like to understand it better.

In the end though, it was the lives of the characters that I was mainly interested in, not the magic, so I had not problem shrugging the magical system's inner workings aside and focusing on the characters instead. Great setting, great atmosphere, a style of writing that was reminiscent of old England and France, and interesting characters with lives and feelings and desires of their own. The vagueness of the magical system did not detract much from all of this at all. I'd definitely recommend the book to others. It's a strong debut novel and I'll be picking up Kari Sperring's next book when it comes out.

Comments

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

It isn't as concrete or solid as I'd like as a reader.

You're a gamer, aren't you. :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

It was the phrase 'magic user' that gave it away ;-)
My beloved, who was forced to read every page of every draft of Living With Ghosts as I wrote it, made very similar comments very often. I wasn't obscure in purpose, though: what I know is in there (it works by who or what you're descended from. Other than that, I know what can't be done with the magic, but that's it).
Edited to add: the beloved is also a long time gamer.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

For me it's more the desire for hard and fast explained rules than the phrase 'magic user' that's the give-away. A friend of mine argues that if there are in fact hard and fast rules it's a science, not magic at all. It may not be a science that we on this planet know about, but if it obeys laws that rigorously, what the hell's the point in being *magical*? :)

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm not a gamer. I got the idea that they were "grounded" somehow by their ancestors, and the Lunedithins obviously have the clan totems as their power source . . . I just wanted the descriptions of the magic when it was being used to be more detailed and more concrete. I wasn't certain if there were ANY rules based on what I read, which is what I felt was missing.

[shannachie.livejournal.com]

I really loved that book - also because of the characters and the atmosphere. It's so well written. I personally am quite prepared to accept magic as an enigma that will only become clearer over time - i.e. further books. (Kari is busy writing "The Grass Prince", but I do not know whether that is an actual sequel.)
I like secrets. But I realise, of course, that more analytically inclined readers might possibly want more explanations. Particularly RPG gamers might well want a cause and effect introduction, whereas I am perfectly happy to accept magic as an art rather than a science. But then even back in my RPG days I NEVER once read more of a rulebook than the first two pages.
(In my own books one will have to wait for vol. 3 to get a little more background on the actual workings of magic. Until then the reader has to be content with the insight that magic is art to (super)natural forces, and science to a group of erudite gentlemen - an inexact science that both overlaps and clashes with formal science as taught at the universities.)

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I'm not a gamer and I'm willing accept that sometimes the rules aren't always clear, but this was a little to vague for me. I couldn't tell what could and could not be done, which takes away from the tension because literally anything could happen. I think you need the boundaries in order to create tension (without the boundaries, you can always solve the problem with the magic).

[jeanhuets.livejournal.com]

I'm not a gamer at all at all, but I find an overly complicated and/or obscure magic system a real speed bump in a book. I might plow on if the rest compels, but end up feeling like I missed something cool. Which means if it's a series I might not pick up the next book, or I'll just look at the end of the last book in the bookstore to find out what happened.

I'm not sure why an author would let such an important element in fantasy be half-drawn. It's not necessary to have a rule book or elaborate descriptions intruding. The characters and plot can demonstrate the system in an interesting story-telling way, with bits of exposition as necessary. If reveals happen later, that's different, but secrets should make the reader wonder what will happen in the story, not dismiss a chunk of the book as too confusing or obscure or *shudder* boring.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

This is essentially what I was trying to get at here. I felt I was missing something and in the end sort of "skipped" some of the descriptions of the magic in the book simply because I couldn't follow what was happening with the magic.