Resurrection Man

I can't predict if anyone else will feel the same way I did about this novel. I certainly liked it, and will read a dozen or so other books before tackling another one by the same author, just to let things sink in some more.I was drawn to the book by this quote of the author, from a LOCUST interview. Stewart here speaks of magic, but to me it is the magic of fiction to enchant, the magic of insight to enlighten, the ah ha! experience. If you like this quote, you may enjoy this book as much as I did:"There are several different kinds of truth in the world: truths of one, truths of two, and truths of three or more.'"Truths of three or more are what science is concerned about. They're external, and they're about the manipulation of the world that is shared by everyone.'"Truths of two would be things like the love you have for someone else - very difficult to measure or quantify, but clear to that individual.'"Truths of one are those things that seem intensely true and meaningful to you but are impossible to communicate, to measure and give to someone else in quite the same way you can give someone else a wave length or a hundred kilos of mass, or whatever.' "And when you get magic like you have in a role-playing game, that is profoundly concerned with using theoretically magical things to manipulate the external world - like, 'With this spell, you can generate a fireball that will do this much damage to a physical structure' - that's like a truth of three or more. It seems to me, magic in its most important sense is about those truths of two and one. It has to have some transformative, powerful relationship to the people doing it. Science does not. The whole point about science or technology is that once it's engineered out, it doesn't matter if you turn on the light switch or I turn on the light switch. Magic shouldn't be like that. It isn't reproducible, isn't the same for everyone. It's intensely personal, and speaks to those more personal and subjective truths."

The first chapter of this book has to be one of the most incredible I've ever read anywhere. There's a lot that will shock and intrigue readers in this book, even with its modest number of pages; I thought the story was wonderfully packed and layered. The downside is that this is going to be a tougher book to read and understand than most sf/fantasy/urban fantasy books--Sean Stewart has got a very different Earth here, and only reveals it piece by little piece. A lot is unexplained (this book is almost absent of all "info dumps" so conspicuous in sf/fantasy); most information about the world must be inferred, at the same time Dante is trying to understand the mysteries happening inside him and within his family. The patient reader will be rewarded--this book is emotionally gripping, imaginative, funny and intelligent, and the quality and intensity never lets up. Once I reached the middle of the book, I lost hours of sleep trying to finish the rest of it in one night because I couldn't put it down. The puzzle pieces do fall into place in the last chapter. The whole book was a unique and incredible experience, unorthodox in a lot of places, which was really part of its strength.This was the first book I've read by Mr. Stewart, and I'm looking forward to reading his other books.

I picked up this book on a reccomendation, and read it in one night, literally unable to put it down. The book is marvelous - full of unusual and vivid imagery and well drawn out characters that draw you into this alternate Earth. The author has a knack for tiny touches that add huge amounts of detail to the overall story. A fantastic book, in every sense of the word.

I was seduced into buying this book at a time when I was feeling particulary hungry for a good read. Resurrection Man did not disappoint. Sean Stewart has written a genre-bending tale about three siblings' reluctant journey towards self-knowledge that skillfully combines elements of fantasy, sci-fi, and horror with downright lyric prose. The language of this book is easily one of its greatest strengths. Stewart's style is at once fluid and precise, impressionistic and razor-fine. The characters are deftly drawn, with Dante and Jet, the two brothers at the story's center, standing out as particularly rich and true. Readers looking for a moving and original fantasy from a skilled storyteller will be well-served by Resurrection Man