I want to like it. Really, I do. I love Elizabeth Hand's two books Black Light and Waking the Moon (especially the latter). Winterlong is a different sort of book.This is the type of sci-fi where you're dropped into a world you know nothing about and immediately expected to hit the ground running. I like some of those types of books if things are gradually explained. Nothing is explained about this world; it's written as though you already know everything. This is frustrating as hell, because I'm constantly going "What? Wtf is that? Why are they doing that thing? Huh? What's going on?!?" To add to that, Hand decided to use a ton of obscure slang and literary words that I'm wholly unfamiliar with. I'm a pretty widely read person, and I'm still having to look up at least one word every other page.There's also a lot of fucked up shit going on. Necrophilia, incest, pedophilia (with VERY young children)...you name it, I'm sure it's in here (I expect scat to show up in the sex play at some point or another). This means that this book wears on you emotionally, if you're the type to imagine too vividly the action on the page. It's also a creepy book, not only for the reasons listed immediately prior to this sentence. It's creepy in a way that I can no longer read it before going to bed (I started Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone just so I'd have something to read before going to sleep again).This reminds me of her other book I read (Generation Loss), which I hated. Disappointing. Then again, there have definitely been interesting parts, and something other than sheer stubbornness is making me keep reading, so we'll see.I found this book revolting, and then I got a little over halfway done with it and all of a sudden she leaves off most of the disgusting shit that didn't need to be in there at all and starts to actually focus on the plot. It's like she remembered "Oh wait, Chuck Palahniuk has the monopoly on the Nasty Shit Book market. I can pay attention to my storyline and stop trying to compete with that hack." (Yeah, I said it. Wanna fight about it?) And so she did, and the book improved dramatically.And all that buildup for nothing! The ending is supremely frustrating. I shan't give it away, but trust me - skip this one. Read her other two I mentioned earlier. This one has the same themes, but here they seem tired and annoying.
I love Gene Wolfe and hate Anne Rice, which makes this Gene Wolfe-by-way-of-Anne Rice pastiche so hard to get into. It's the postapocalypse, but so far past the nuclear fire that the new civilization inhabiting the City of Trees (Washington, DC) barely recalls anything of the 20th century -- they refer to the Washington Monument as "the Obelisk," for instance, and think that the Pilgrims who built it were Egyptians. All of which would be fine and good, if 85% of the plot didn't center on androgynous, bisexual goth kids going to parties. I wish I was kidding.Hand's been praised for her "lyrical" prose, and there's a very vociferous subset of feminist sci-fi critics who love them some polyamory, so if that's your thing Winterlong is for you. Personally, I'm willing to put up with a lot for a good "post-future" (or whatever you call it when we're so far in the future that the main characters are only tenuously human), so I found I couldn't put this one down even though I really wanted to. It's nothing against Elizabeth Hand that she's not Gene Wolfe -- The Book of the New Sun is one of my all-time favorite fictional universes -- but it says something that Winterlong is widely compared not to Wolfe, but to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.*All in all, it's an ok read if you know what you're getting into.....*mostly what it says, of course, is that critics love to shoehorn grrrrl power manifestos in where they don't belong -- Winterlong is nowhere near as preachy as The Handmaid's Tale.**** but then again, the Sermon on the Mount wasn't nearly as preachy as The Handmaid's Tale, so I guess there's that.
What do You think about Winterlong (1997)?
dense, poetic, sensual, at times almost dizzyingly arty in its depiction of a post-apocalyptic washington dc. i much prefer elizabeth hand's trippy trilogy (of which Winterlong is the first, and the best) to her later attempts at stylish modern gothic, which came across as half-baked to me. written at the dawn of her career, her voice reminded me of tanith lee's, except she ups the sadean stakes quite a few notches. the novel is fascinating - mutated plague children, vicious dog-creatures (aardmen!), a god of blood & evil taking residence in a little girl's mind, antiquated scientists continuing their morbid experiments...it had everything i never knew i wanted in a far-flung science fantasy. best of all: doomed Aviator Margalis Tast'annin, a monster, a madman, dying only to be reborn as a terrifying leader of men and dogs alike.
—mark monday
If only the author explained things in more detail! But there was no information about what happened, what is the setting, who those people are... But the writing was beautiful, the atmosphere gothic and dark. I wanted to give it five stars in the beginning, but then... well, it is Hand´s first book, so considering that, it´s good, but more details could be spent on explanations.
—Barbora
So much potential. Here's my thoughts on pages 1-240: WTF NO, why so many gross, disturbing scenes and perversions? Where's the plot? Is this scifi or creepy porn? Also, THREE rape scenes (one with a CORPSE??)? Thanks for the nightmares, Ms. Hand.Pages 248-300: oo, maybe..? There's a dreamy, chill quality as the twins' voices get stronger and the story develops--OH COME ON. more grossness? A talking skeleton? Sure, why not. Thanks for the nightmare, Ms. Hand.301-346: LOL WUT. This ending makes no sense. with a bonus rape scene. I'm not smart or refined enough to enjoy this. I loved her short stories, and this was her first novel, so I may give Hand one more try before banishing her to the Hated Author Island.
—Eli
