The Etched City by KJ Bishop

Sprawling, amazing, fantastic...

The lands created by KJ Bishop are at once familiar (sometimes a bit too much), yet also extremely strange and fresh. The story of The Etched City begins in the desert, where Raule and Gwynn, two outlaws, meet up on the run from government forces. This windswept hardpan has been seen before in Stephen King's Dark Tower series and countless others. The pair's final destination, the city of Ashamoil, also feels like a bit of a retrofitted New Orleans a la Anne Rice. But something happens in the in-between. Reality is twisted, conventions are abandoned or distorted, and a story of sorts emerges.

It's a bit difficult to describe The Etched City, primarily because it is, as the cover suggests, "Fantasy as High Literature". This means less of the pulse-pounding sword and gunplay and more of the introspective Absinthe-Dream-quality, at which Bishop excels. The novel tends to bog down in spots, becoming lost in reverie, thought, and emotion, while the plot inches towards its pyrrhic ending.

This is not to say that the book isn't enjoyable, I liked it quite a bit. From the drunken Rev who battles to save Gwynn's soul to the circus strongman with the enchanted Axe made from the ashes of his murdered wife (the book could have used many more twists like this), The Etched City will keep you hooked, frustrated, spellbound, awestruck, and at times, sighing for the next plot point.