Reviews

The Etched City

The following are extracts from reviews the book has received so far (note that the links to full reviews online lead to some minor spoilers):

…an ambitious and casually brilliant debut, erudite, lavishly written. Its unique blend of multiculturalism, political savvy, and hardnosed realism tempered by rebounding dreams and the possibility of redemptive art cries out for a new nomenclature. Though it borrows from both, this is neither heroic fantasy nor romance-fantasy chockfull of magic swords, witches, and wizards unaware. It's fantasy as high literature, our world skewed to a hard right angle … Like all great novels, hers holds up a mirror to the world, a mirror by turns reflecting true and distorting, scooping up the world's grace along with its garbage, tripping the light fantastic over tightropes and slack wires, courting dailyness and the wonders ever beneath.

An Hieronymous Bosch painting in novel form, The Etched City is a very rare beast indeed; a fantasy novel that's refreshingly new and different …

In New Worlds (1964) Ballard said that speculative fiction would never achieve maturity until it possessed the moral authority of a literature won from experience. His observation was the nearest thing we had to a policy or a movement. Without doubt, Bishop's fiction has earned that authority.

…a dark fantasy debut of rare quality. Her gift for startling metaphor, the bizarre moral dimension to her narrative and the assurance of her imagination make The Etched City a compelling read, reminiscent of the baroque fantasias of Michael Moorcock … Bishop's talent as a writer vastly exceeds what is required for superior genre fiction.

… There is so much to revel in here, both the imagery and the philosophy, that the reader inhabits the dark fantasy world as wholly as the characters. Speculative fiction at its very best.

This is a challenging novel, both in the themes and questions it subtly poses, and the metaphors it disguises indivisibly amidst beauty and monstrosity … An amazing first novel, not only for the skill of writing, complexity and richness of invention it displays, but also for the themes it is willing to confront.

The plot, with its stories-within-stories and its offhand descriptions of wonders and prodigies, brings to mind the works of Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges, and Bishop's prose, at its best, justifies those comparisons as well.

Like a novelist of old, Bishop deals with the vagaries of cities, the church, men and women-in short, the human condition – while as a fantasist she pays equal attention to the inhuman, or the pull of the fantastic on our minds: dreams of heaven, lost powers and faith regained, a perfect society, amoral metamorphosis. Worldly, magical, and slyly subversive with regard to transcendence, The Etched City is a remarkably sophisticated debut by a writer of great promise.

…easily the best debut novel of the new millennium. I could gush praise here all over the page, and it still wouldn't do justice to the utter astounding brilliance of this book. It's moody and atmospheric, evocative and magical. It's amazingly cool. … Call it fantasy, call it literature. Whatever it is, it doesn't get much better than this.

With its balance of gritty realism, sly humor, gruesomely violent action, and philosophical inquiry into the soul of humankind, The Etched City lands itself solidly in the realm of top speculative fiction. To call it a promising debut would be an understatement.

The Etched City … is a very pleasantly contradictory novel in a wide variety of ways. It is thoroughly unpretentious but unafraid to delve deeply into all manner of mysteries. It features a cast of hard-bitten loners who, for all their bitterness and fatigue, are still passionately full of life.

This one works on multiple levels – the story can be read as a straightforward adventure, or as a genuine literary treat.

This is an extraordinary book, and so much more than just a well-written tale. With her first novel, K.J. Bishop exhibits a deftness of pen sadly lacking from most new fantasy fiction. Her prose is absorbing, beautiful and, above all, intelligent … 9/10.

A vivid, elegant, disturbing and challenging work, it represents the latest from the stable of writers who have come to be referred to as the New Weird. Bishop joins authors such as China Miéville and Jeff Vandermeer, whose writing has transcended conventional genre labels and carried Fantasy and Science Fiction into the realms of “respectable” literature. And Bishop's novel is very respectable indeed. … K.J. Bishop is an important addition to the New Weird movement and The Etched City catapults her deservedly on to its A list.

Combine equal parts of Stephen King's Dark Tower series and China Miéville's Perdido Street Station, throw in a dash of Aubrey Beardsley and J.K. Huysmans, and you'll get some idea of this disturbing, decadent first novel from Australian author Bishop … this grim tale should strongly appeal to aficionados of literate dark fantasy.

Bishop's first novel, The Etched City, carries with it the confidence of years of writing. Her authority is unshakeable, her prose offers the proper mix of lyricism and cynicism, and her vision of a mundane but very different reality is enchanting.

Bishop develops her characters from cyphers into stones dropped into the centre of a pond. As the concentric ripples spread, so does the chaos. Once the meniscus of supposed order has moved, it releases a flurry of life and energy, allowing Bishop to draw out larger themes and develop them with a rarely matched panache. Influences range from Baudelaire to Oscar Wilde and the modern fantasists, with shades of Hieronymous Bosch. … 8/10.

It is a rare occasion when a debut novel is this mature. The writing is on par with established authors like Jeffrey Ford and Tim Powers. From its opening pages, I was completely entranced by the world Bishop created for her characters Gwynn and Raule … Time and again I found myself staying up late because I couldn't stop reading. Perfect for readers of Jeffrey Ford, Jeff VanderMeer, and China Miéville. This is the most stunning debut I've read since A Scattering Of Jades by Alexander Irvine. Bishop is a writer to watch.

Bishop's prose is elegant, wonderfully stylish, and capable of carrying abrupt pace-changes; from fast and bloody gunplay to pages-long philosophical conversations on the nature of religious belief and the function of Art. This one will haunt you.

If K.J. Bishop asks you to come and see her etchings, beware, for she is an alchemist and transformation is on her mind.

… memorable imagery, voluptuous language, rich characters, and phantasmagoric vision reveal a new star among writers of the ‘new weird’ … definitely a must-read for lovers of literate dark fantasy.

… the whole power of the tale keeps the reader gripped and makes this a debut that I believe you just can't miss. If you've loved works by authors such as Miéville, Irvine, Erikson and even VanderMeer then this is a book that will have pride and place on your shelf and one that will be read a large number of times.

The Etched City takes place in a vivid world, one described in prose that often soars and reminds you of what the English language is capable of accomplishing … There is much I love about this novel, but perhaps what I found most remarkable is something I find many of even the best novels lack: a profound, transcendental empathy.

Bishop has written an accomplished and brave first novel that doesn't pull punches. The novel gets stranger — and more strangely beautiful — as it progresses, until the reader is completely trapped by it (in a blissful way). The praise on the back of the book from Jeffrey Ford, Liz Williams, and others is well-deserved.