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The War of the Flowers - Tad Williams


Galactic Space Hamster

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I picked up "The War of the Flowers" by Tad Williams for two reasons. The first reason was that it is one of those all too rare things; it's a stand alone fantasy novel. The second reason was that it was by the author Tad Williams. Many years ago I read the "Memory, Sorrow, Thorn" trilogy that he penned and loved it. I think, to this day, it's still the best fantasy that I have ever read. It's places are so rich and real. The cultures, peoples, and histories of the imagined places as real as any that I know in this world.

 

"The War of the Flowers" is also great in this respect. This is a contemporary fantasy novel set ( mostly ) in faerie I picked up War of the Flowers by Tad Williams for two reasons. The first reason was that it was on of those all too rare things; it was a stand alone fantasy novel. The second reason was that it was by the author Tad Williams. Many years ago I read the "Memory, Sorrow, Thorn trilogy" that he has penned and loved it. I think, to this day, it's still the best fantasy that I have ever read. It's places are so rich and real. The cultures, peoples, and histories of the imagined places as real as any that I know in this world.

 

The faerie of this novel is very different. If you held a distorted star encrusted magic mirror to our world then you would probably get the faerie of this novel. There have been quite a few depictions of this mythical place, but this isn't my favourite one. The best, for me, have been in Gaiman's "Stardust" and in "Jonathon Strange & Mr Norrell" by Susanna Clark. This isn't because of any fault with the writing or the conception of this faerie, simply that the others were more to my tastes.

 

If you think you would really enjoy a twisted faerie that in a lot of ways mirrors our world then it's certainly something you will enjoy a lot. As I said, Tad Williams is wonderful at creating places, peoples, and cultures. The

faerie setting in this novel is so real, rich, and deep and something I really enjoyed traveling through.

 

The book is well written. To me, it was a little slow to start and I didn't really click with the protagonist, Theo Vilmos. As the pages turn by the book becomes more and more interesting and by half way you probably will find it hard to put down because you want to know what the hell is going to happen next! The main character, Theo, grew on me. He was joined by an interesting cast of characters. My favourite character was the feisty foul mouthed sprite Applecore.

 

All in all - I really enjoyed this novel. I don't think it's the best thing ever written in fantasy, but it has a lot to recommend it. It's original, it's stand alone, and it's a fantastic and exciting page turner! It's certainly one of the better books I have read this year and would recommend it!

 

I give it a 4 out of 5 on the hamster rating!

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