30
Dec
10

Clemens J. Setz: Söhne und Planeten

By shigekuni 3 Comments
Categories: Clemens J. Setz

you can find the revised review here.

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3 Responses to “Clemens J. Setz: Söhne und Planeten”

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  1. 1 Ronak M Soni
    December 30, 2010 at 8:58 pm

    If you’ll forgive the comparison, this reminds me of an Indian writer (English) called Vikram Chandra (I really don’t know if he can be called great but I’ve read little of IWE as good). His first book Red Earth and Pouring Rain is an absolutely dazzling piece of fantasy combining and generally fucking around with various elements of Indian fiction. His next two books, however…

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  2. 2 shigekuni
    January 3, 2011 at 1:22 am

    Really? I still haven’t finished Sacred Games which I found a bit dull, but I always thought that was me? But from what I hear of these two books, they appear to have taken different trajectories, from Setz’ first, clean novel to a messier second one, and VC’s first messy-but-great debut to what I read as a very clean, very ordered, very dull second (third?) novel….

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  3. 3 Ronak M Soni
    January 3, 2011 at 4:42 am

    The differences you perceive are true. What I took my cue from was your characterisation of the first novel as “announcing the presence of a writer whom we will not hesitate to call ‘great’ one day” and that of the second as “flashier.”
    While I don’t know if Red Earth and Pouring Rain is great (some books just strike me as deserving of the word, but this didn’t quite), it sure is in the vicinity. And unlike Sacred Games, its story is a complex maze that makes you work to be able to look at the book with a clear eye, despite the energy in the book. Sacred Games is biiig (and therefore complex and deep), and it’s about Mumbai, a popular subject these days, and it’s, as you say, pretty dull. I didn’t find it as dull as you did, but dull nevertheless.

    If you don’t want to finish it, just read the insets. They are the best things in the book anyway.

    Reply

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