No Present Like Time

Something about Steph Swainston's books gives me the urge to make pompous declarations about her talent & compare her to Zelazny in the best possible way. I am really impressed by her writing, and look forward eagerly to her next book. No Present Like Time is a follow up book to the brilliant debut The Year of Our War. Swainston combines science fiction, surrealism, and fantasy to create a really astonishing and unique style. Her main character is still the unreliable junky, the Comet Jant. Through his role as the Emperor's messenger, the reader is given a view of the various verses universes and characters as the book continues to explore the life of the lucky immortals who keep the emperor on his throne. My review title is a paraphrase from an essay on the New Weird that was written by Michael Cisco. Steph Swainston is generally considered to be a member of the genre movement. I'm still not sure that New Weird is anything but Slipstream dressed up in a more fantasy-colored coat-- but there you go. Regardless how you categorize it-- Swainston is one of the finest examples of this new style. Recommended for readers who like intelligent literary fantasy.

I read "The Year of Our War", the first book in this series, and I was fascinated by the imagination of Ms. Swainston. Creating a world with immortals, insects and such a vast history, with parallel but connected universe(s) as well. I was unaware that there would be a second book. I am glad I found it. I understand book 3 is in the works and look forward to it. The second book follows the immortals, specifically Jant Comet the Messenger, to new worlds and old parallel ones. The character development, especially of Jant and Lightning, continue to develop in this installment, as Jant battles doubts about himself and his addiction, doubts about the immortals, and physical enemies both human and non. More of Jant and Lightnings pasts are revealed, as are some of the Emperors past. New areas of the physical world are discovered, and new parts of the parallel worlds with new allies and foes are presented as well. The conclusion leaves open many angles for the third book, including the return of God who created the immortals, more invasions by the insects and other possible parallel world bleed overs. This is not your average fantasy. It reads well and quickly, opens the readers imagination, and challenges them to keep up with the leaps. I eagerly await more.

In the Fourlands several years have passed since THE YEAR OF OUR WAR, but now a rare challenge to a position in Emperor San's Circle of the immortal Eszai occurs. Shockingly the newcomer defeats Gio Ami, and replaces him as the Swordsman, Serein. Feeling humiliated by his defeat, as only the second immortal to lose the vaunted inner circle position in several centuries, Gio vows to regain his place of prominence and more. Meanwhile San sends Eszai members Comet Jant Shira, the new Serein, and the Sailor to negotiate with the natives of a newly discovered island, Tris to obtain their agreement to join the Fourlands. The mission fails as the islanders, knowing they were once the fifth land of the Fourlands, want their paradise to remain out of the empire. However, a deadly Insect, who should never have been on board the Stormy Petrel, is released on Tris at about the same time Gio leads an assault on San's castle. The sequel to THE YEAR OF OUR WAR is a fine fantasy that contains two major well written subplots: the future of Tris and the insurgency led by former Swordsman Gio. There are also several minor threads involving specific relationships between characters, but those weigh down the prime sagas even when Jant uses drugs to visit the intriguing and critical to this tale realm of Shift. Still this is a well written original thriller that fans will enjoy as more people see the "Emperor's New Clothes" while the Insects still cause havoc. Harriet Klausner