I haven't been around this ng for quite some time, just
couldn't keep up with the reading - so I missed a lot.
Google Groups search however seems to draw a blank regarding
this title, so I thought I'd start a thread.
Williams hasn't been on the shelves in New Zealand since Poison
Master and 9 Layers of Sky. With great surprise, when browsing
an online bookstore, I found that she's written quite a few
titles that I wasn't aware of. I ordered a few, but the only
one to have arrived so far is Darkland.
It seems a dark, dystopian world, this planet of Williams'
invention. Some kind of far future, lost colonies with genetic
drift and rediscovery and re-establishment of contact are
mentioned en passant. I get the faux nordic mythologic
nomenclature of the heroine Vali's home planet.
She's not had a good life, it seems. She describes herself as
an assassin, and in the first part of the book we get to follow
her on an assignment, that, to me, feels somehow wanting. It's
thin, like watered milk. By the same token Williams manages
with just a few brushstrokes to conjure up a planet/society
that makes Saudi Arabia look like a feminist haven...
Then the plot thickens, the heroine goes off after her ex-
mentor, ex-lover, ex-user & abuser. And we get introduced to
the Vitki - apparently some unethical dark mad scientists with
a superman/superrace/despoiling-slave-races sort of a mindset.
Possibly practicing some thing like fantasy blood magic, it
doesn't become clear.
I kind of lose the plot here. The Vitki are not really drawn,
are not really pictured or explained, other than that they seem
to be invisible-ish at choice and can take over the heroine's
mind at will. And she becomes utterly inept at her trade (and
just about everything else) in their presence.
It leaves a lot open, and I see there's a sequel. (more than
one to come?) But I feel that I am floundering a bit in this
[universe][world].
Poison Master and 9 Layers made a lot more sense to me as
worldbuilding when I read them (with great enjoyment), and I'd
like to hear if anybody else has a different take (explain
things to me, if you feel you can) and maybe somebody can tell
me if "Bloodmind", the sequel, sheds more light?
Regardless of my feeling somewhat [dissatisfied] with the book,
Williams is a great storyteller i.m.o. Not all that many
writers manage to keep me up reading 'til 6 am to finish one of
their books, these days.
cheers, -Peter
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