Story continious...Just read, 16 Aug 2008
Oh yeah, totallu worth reading.
Self-defence class chapters will teach you a lot, will make you think of your own safety, even taking self-defence class because you never know.
But you can get a lot of tip
Want to find out more of Aud. We are all can seem strong characters but we are vulnerable even if we don't like this or hate to admit it.
You will see Aud from different prospective, from different angle of view which is perfectly portraid.

Novel that won't disappoint you, as Nicola Griffith wrote it.

It really makes to want more of Aud...what happens next with her in the next book...?
Just need to wait and maybe Nicola will give to us... I sure hope it happens.



Surviving in Seattle, 22 Nov 2007
Aud Torvingen is back for more punishment in the third of Nicola Griffith's wonderful series. She travels from Atlanta to Seattle with her friend Dornan to meet her mother and her mother's new husband. Whilst there she is checking up on some property she owns, currently leased by a film company. Soon Aud is embroiled in movie production, sabotage and a potential romance. At the same time Griffith relates Aud's earlier experience of running a women's self defence class in Atlanta, and the dramatic result of the training and advice she gave.
Aud is a fascinating character, always believing she is in control and totally self contained. But Griffith, over the series, has stricken her with grief, had her shot, cut, beaten and poisoned. This Aud is reeling from her experiences over the last couple of years and is all the more engaging for it. Read and enjoy.

Story continious...Just read, 16 Aug 2008
Oh yeah, totallu worth reading.
Self-defence class chapters will teach you a lot, will make you think of your own safety, even taking self-defence class because you never know.
But you can get a lot of tip
Want to find out more of Aud. We are all can seem strong characters but we are vulnerable even if we don't like this or hate to admit it.
You will see Aud from different prospective, from different angle of view which is perfectly portraid.

Novel that won't disappoint you, as Nicola Griffith wrote it.

It really makes to want more of Aud...what happens next with her in the next book...?
Just need to wait and maybe Nicola will give to us... I sure hope it happens.



Surviving in Seattle, 22 Nov 2007
Aud Torvingen is back for more punishment in the third of Nicola Griffith's wonderful series. She travels from Atlanta to Seattle with her friend Dornan to meet her mother and her mother's new husband. Whilst there she is checking up on some property she owns, currently leased by a film company. Soon Aud is embroiled in movie production, sabotage and a potential romance. At the same time Griffith relates Aud's earlier experience of running a women's self defence class in Atlanta, and the dramatic result of the training and advice she gave.
Aud is a fascinating character, always believing she is in control and totally self contained. But Griffith, over the series, has stricken her with grief, had her shot, cut, beaten and poisoned. This Aud is reeling from her experiences over the last couple of years and is all the more engaging for it. Read and enjoy.

A heart-aching, touhing your very soul, 16 Aug 2008
This novel is more than I expected it to be.
Reading every word, grief, guilt and miss of lover's touch, scent and closeness...
A heart-aching story of Aud after losing her lover...
If you never lost anybody you loved...yet...this novel can really show how it feels not be being able to be close or touch the people we love the most. Its struggle to recover, and strenght to keep to a promise when you have absolutely no will to do as so.

Makes you think...
Just read and find out for yourself - what is this nivel to you...


Better than its predecessor, 14 Apr 2007
OK, I was wrong. This is the sequel to The Blue Place, and on finishing that, I was not expecting its successor to be particular good. In fact, in my opinion anyway, it's a lot better. The stylistic excesses that characterised the previous work are here more subdued, allowing the author's skills to evince themselves much more clearly.

Among these are the abilities to produce an absolutely spine-chilling portrayal of grief; and to produce a villain who is utterly repulsive but still totally convincing. This last-named is a task that even as good a writer as Peter O'Donnell found -- as the Modesty Blaise books progressed -- increasingly hard, and finally impossible.

It seems I guessed wrong, too, about the author's influences (see her introduction to The Blue Place on its Amazon listing); although perhaps I may say that what led me to the Travis McGee books was someone describing them to me (I remember the event clearly) as "just as violent as Mickey Spillane, but more intelligent".

To make your protagonist a homicidal lesbian lunatic*, and further, to write the story in the first person, is something not many authors would attempt; even fewer could bring it off.

I'm now glad I read both these books. I await the next one with interest.

You definitely do need to read the first one first.

*If visual and auditory hallucinations are any indicators.

A novel of explosive, devastating power., 10 Nov 2002
The spectacular imagery of the remote southern Appalachian mountains, with its buckeye, jewelweed, basswood, and pileated woodpeckers, comes sensuously to life as a lone woman hacks out shingles for a roof on her cabin and hides from visitors. Suddenly, the woman reacts to this quiet, pastoral scene: "An owl screamed in the wood and I wanted to ride behind its eyes when it plunged its talons into living flesh, wanted to tear something warm and soft to pieces while it squealed." With this remarkable sentence, I was totally hooked--by the strong visual images, by the frightening responses of this damaged woman to the sights and sounds around her, and by the emotional desolation of her life.

Aud Torvingen, a former police officer who has killed more than once in the line of duty, has withdrawn from the world to her isolated cabin, grieving and guilt-ridden about the loss of her lover in a shooting she believes to be her fault. When an old friend asks her to find his missing fiancee, Aud journeys to Greenwich Village and a scene of such brutality the reader will not soon forget it. Devastated by the events, Aud understands that she must rebuild her shattered self from the ground up if she ever hopes to recover her life.

Griffith's imagery and psychological acuity are overwhelming. She sets up vivid, sensual contrasts between the pastoral life of Appalachia and the urban life of New York, provides total access to Aud's ravaged psyche, makes the reader truly care for this woman who has killed more than once, and encourages us to hope for her emotional rebirth. The book is stunning, and the writing is truly extraordinary! One caveat, however. While most of us willingly suspend disbelief when faced with excellent, compulsively readable fiction, this book, like some other recent books and films, also encourages us to suspend some of our long held values. Some readers may have trouble accepting the premise here that some people are above the law and that ad hoc, vigilante action is sometimes excusable. Mary Whipple

Absolutely Wonderful, 09 May 2002
Nicola Griffith keeps up the high quality of intelligent thriller begun in "The Blue Place", already I am waiting for the next installment. I really care about waht is going to happen to Aud next.

Story continious...Just read, 16 Aug 2008
Oh yeah, totallu worth reading.
Self-defence class chapters will teach you a lot, will make you think of your own safety, even taking self-defence class because you never know.
But you can get a lot of tip
Want to find out more of Aud. We are all can seem strong characters but we are vulnerable even if we don't like this or hate to admit it.
You will see Aud from different prospective, from different angle of view which is perfectly portraid.

Novel that won't disappoint you, as Nicola Griffith wrote it.

It really makes to want more of Aud...what happens next with her in the next book...?
Just need to wait and maybe Nicola will give to us... I sure hope it happens.



Surviving in Seattle, 22 Nov 2007
Aud Torvingen is back for more punishment in the third of Nicola Griffith's wonderful series. She travels from Atlanta to Seattle with her friend Dornan to meet her mother and her mother's new husband. Whilst there she is checking up on some property she owns, currently leased by a film company. Soon Aud is embroiled in movie production, sabotage and a potential romance. At the same time Griffith relates Aud's earlier experience of running a women's self defence class in Atlanta, and the dramatic result of the training and advice she gave.
Aud is a fascinating character, always believing she is in control and totally self contained. But Griffith, over the series, has stricken her with grief, had her shot, cut, beaten and poisoned. This Aud is reeling from her experiences over the last couple of years and is all the more engaging for it. Read and enjoy.

A heart-aching, touhing your very soul, 16 Aug 2008
This novel is more than I expected it to be.
Reading every word, grief, guilt and miss of lover's touch, scent and closeness...
A heart-aching story of Aud after losing her lover...
If you never lost anybody you loved...yet...this novel can really show how it feels not be being able to be close or touch the people we love the most. Its struggle to recover, and strenght to keep to a promise when you have absolutely no will to do as so.

Makes you think...
Just read and find out for yourself - what is this nivel to you...


Better than its predecessor, 14 Apr 2007
OK, I was wrong. This is the sequel to The Blue Place, and on finishing that, I was not expecting its successor to be particular good. In fact, in my opinion anyway, it's a lot better. The stylistic excesses that characterised the previous work are here more subdued, allowing the author's skills to evince themselves much more clearly.

Among these are the abilities to produce an absolutely spine-chilling portrayal of grief; and to produce a villain who is utterly repulsive but still totally convincing. This last-named is a task that even as good a writer as Peter O'Donnell found -- as the Modesty Blaise books progressed -- increasingly hard, and finally impossible.

It seems I guessed wrong, too, about the author's influences (see her introduction to The Blue Place on its Amazon listing); although perhaps I may say that what led me to the Travis McGee books was someone describing them to me (I remember the event clearly) as "just as violent as Mickey Spillane, but more intelligent".

To make your protagonist a homicidal lesbian lunatic*, and further, to write the story in the first person, is something not many authors would attempt; even fewer could bring it off.

I'm now glad I read both these books. I await the next one with interest.

You definitely do need to read the first one first.

*If visual and auditory hallucinations are any indicators.

A novel of explosive, devastating power., 10 Nov 2002
The spectacular imagery of the remote southern Appalachian mountains, with its buckeye, jewelweed, basswood, and pileated woodpeckers, comes sensuously to life as a lone woman hacks out shingles for a roof on her cabin and hides from visitors. Suddenly, the woman reacts to this quiet, pastoral scene: "An owl screamed in the wood and I wanted to ride behind its eyes when it plunged its talons into living flesh, wanted to tear something warm and soft to pieces while it squealed." With this remarkable sentence, I was totally hooked--by the strong visual images, by the frightening responses of this damaged woman to the sights and sounds around her, and by the emotional desolation of her life.

Aud Torvingen, a former police officer who has killed more than once in the line of duty, has withdrawn from the world to her isolated cabin, grieving and guilt-ridden about the loss of her lover in a shooting she believes to be her fault. When an old friend asks her to find his missing fiancee, Aud journeys to Greenwich Village and a scene of such brutality the reader will not soon forget it. Devastated by the events, Aud understands that she must rebuild her shattered self from the ground up if she ever hopes to recover her life.

Griffith's imagery and psychological acuity are overwhelming. She sets up vivid, sensual contrasts between the pastoral life of Appalachia and the urban life of New York, provides total access to Aud's ravaged psyche, makes the reader truly care for this woman who has killed more than once, and encourages us to hope for her emotional rebirth. The book is stunning, and the writing is truly extraordinary! One caveat, however. While most of us willingly suspend disbelief when faced with excellent, compulsively readable fiction, this book, like some other recent books and films, also encourages us to suspend some of our long held values. Some readers may have trouble accepting the premise here that some people are above the law and that ad hoc, vigilante action is sometimes excusable. Mary Whipple

Absolutely Wonderful, 09 May 2002
Nicola Griffith keeps up the high quality of intelligent thriller begun in "The Blue Place", already I am waiting for the next installment. I really care about waht is going to happen to Aud next.

Echoes of Enochian myths, 14 Jul 2007
As an adventure yarn this exquisite novelette is very original. The old clichè from Ashton smith and Howard of the robberof an ancient tomb with treasures, traps and monsters has an unexpected denouement, as the "trap" will plunge the protagonist, Carse, in the far past, where Mars was green. As for Rhiannon, he appears to be a cousin of Prometheus, Shemyaza the fallen angel of Enoch's book: he gave forbidden, superior knowledge to the unworthy and was damned for this. Carse, finding himself holding his sword, will be force to play a part in his destiny-and in the destiny of ancient Mars. Fascinating tale, with the unique Leigh Brackett touch. A female Clark Ashton Smith withouth the gloom and with much zest and joy of living.

post-burroughs fantasy, 30 Mar 2003
This short but enjoyable novel is heavily influenced by Burroughs. I suspect that even the name of the hero, Carse, is a tribute to Burroughs, since heroes on Mars and Venus respectively were Carter and Carson
In an undetermined future. Matt Carse is a resident of Mars, living in a settlement based around the ruins of the ancient city of Jekkara.
One night he is followed by an unscrupulous contact bearing an ancient sword, who claims to have found the tomb of Rhiannon, the Accursed One. He leads Carse to the tomb and after an argument about how to divide the spoils, Carse is pushed into a strange sphere of darkness within the tomb and emerges on the Mars of a million years earlier, with oceans and lush green vegetation.
Brackett was a Hollywood screenwriter as well as a novelist and most famous for collaborating on 'The Big Sleep'. 'The Sword of Rhiannon', particularly the cleverly plotted denouement, is structured very much like a movie in the Joseph Campbell 'Mythic Structure' sense.
The hero, seen at first in his own environment is forced (willingly or not) on to a quest, where he encounters allies, makes enemies, is tested and finally has to face and defeat his enemy before returning home.
The characterisation is one-dimensional, but this is a work which never pretends to be anything other than it is.

Slow River won both the Nebula Award and the Lambda Literary Award for author Nicola Griffith. The book's near-future setting and devices place it firmly on the science fiction shelves, and the characters' matter-of-fact sexuality further label it as lesbian SF. But make no mistake, Slow River is no subgenre throwaway. Griffith's skill at weaving temporal threads through the plot bring protagonist Lore van de Oest tragically to life, and you will genuinely care about her in the end. Born into a bioengineering family made wealthy by cleaning up after humanity, Lore leads a life of privilege and power. Riches don't bring happiness, though, and the van de Oest family hides its share of dark secrets. Lore is kidnapped, but escapes from her captors when she realizes her family isn't going to pay the ransom. Naked, alone, and wounded, she is saved by the brutally street-smart Spanner, who teaches Lore to survive by exploiting the Net's (and human beings') weaknesses. To learn to trust, though, Lore must face her demons, one by one, until she can begin again.

Griffith's biotech-science details are accurate, and she fits them smoothly into the story in the manner of a cyberpunk master. This novel's real strength is its characters, though. The van de Oest family, Spanner, even characters who appear only briefly, are all distinct and consistent--not to mention very human. Lore herself seems so personal that Griffith's note about the story's disturbing aspects not being autobiographical was probably wise. Slow River is more than good enough to transcend genre and appeal to both science fiction fans and a broader audience looking for an excellent, character-driven sci-fi story. -- Therese Littleton

Story continious...Just read, 16 Aug 2008
Oh yeah, totallu worth reading.
Self-defence class chapters will teach you a lot, will make you think of your own safety, even taking self-defence class because you never know.
But you can get a lot of tip
Want to find out more of Aud. We are all can seem strong characters but we are vulnerable even if we don't like this or hate to admit it.
You will see Aud from different prospective, from different angle of view which is perfectly portraid.

Novel that won't disappoint you, as Nicola Griffith wrote it.

It really makes to want more of Aud...what happens next with her in the next book...?
Just need to wait and maybe Nicola will give to us... I sure hope it happens.



Surviving in Seattle, 22 Nov 2007
Aud Torvingen is back for more punishment in the third of Nicola Griffith's wonderful series. She travels from Atlanta to Seattle with her friend Dornan to meet her mother and her mother's new husband. Whilst there she is checking up on some property she owns, currently leased by a film company. Soon Aud is embroiled in movie production, sabotage and a potential romance. At the same time Griffith relates Aud's earlier experience of running a women's self defence class in Atlanta, and the dramatic result of the training and advice she gave.
Aud is a fascinating character, always believing she is in control and totally self contained. But Griffith, over the series, has stricken her with grief, had her shot, cut, beaten and poisoned. This Aud is reeling from her experiences over the last couple of years and is all the more engaging for it. Read and enjoy.

A heart-aching, touhing your very soul, 16 Aug 2008
This novel is more than I expected it to be.
Reading every word, grief, guilt and miss of lover's touch, scent and closeness...
A heart-aching story of Aud after losing her lover...
If you never lost anybody you loved...yet...this novel can really show how it feels not be being able to be close or touch the people we love the most. Its struggle to recover, and strenght to keep to a promise when you have absolutely no will to do as so.

Makes you think...
Just read and find out for yourself - what is this nivel to you...


Better than its predecessor, 14 Apr 2007
OK, I was wrong. This is the sequel to The Blue Place, and on finishing that, I was not expecting its successor to be particular good. In fact, in my opinion anyway, it's a lot better. The stylistic excesses that characterised the previous work are here more subdued, allowing the author's skills to evince themselves much more clearly.

Among these are the abilities to produce an absolutely spine-chilling portrayal of grief; and to produce a villain who is utterly repulsive but still totally convincing. This last-named is a task that even as good a writer as Peter O'Donnell found -- as the Modesty Blaise books progressed -- increasingly hard, and finally impossible.

It seems I guessed wrong, too, about the author's influences (see her introduction to The Blue Place on its Amazon listing); although perhaps I may say that what led me to the Travis McGee books was someone describing them to me (I remember the event clearly) as "just as violent as Mickey Spillane, but more intelligent".

To make your protagonist a homicidal lesbian lunatic*, and further, to write the story in the first person, is something not many authors would attempt; even fewer could bring it off.

I'm now glad I read both these books. I await the next one with interest.

You definitely do need to read the first one first.

*If visual and auditory hallucinations are any indicators.

A novel of explosive, devastating power., 10 Nov 2002
The spectacular imagery of the remote southern Appalachian mountains, with its buckeye, jewelweed, basswood, and pileated woodpeckers, comes sensuously to life as a lone woman hacks out shingles for a roof on her cabin and hides from visitors. Suddenly, the woman reacts to this quiet, pastoral scene: "An owl screamed in the wood and I wanted to ride behind its eyes when it plunged its talons into living flesh, wanted to tear something warm and soft to pieces while it squealed." With this remarkable sentence, I was totally hooked--by the strong visual images, by the frightening responses of this damaged woman to the sights and sounds around her, and by the emotional desolation of her life.

Aud Torvingen, a former police officer who has killed more than once in the line of duty, has withdrawn from the world to her isolated cabin, grieving and guilt-ridden about the loss of her lover in a shooting she believes to be her fault. When an old friend asks her to find his missing fiancee, Aud journeys to Greenwich Village and a scene of such brutality the reader will not soon forget it. Devastated by the events, Aud understands that she must rebuild her shattered self from the ground up if she ever hopes to recover her life.

Griffith's imagery and psychological acuity are overwhelming. She sets up vivid, sensual contrasts between the pastoral life of Appalachia and the urban life of New York, provides total access to Aud's ravaged psyche, makes the reader truly care for this woman who has killed more than once, and encourages us to hope for her emotional rebirth. The book is stunning, and the writing is truly extraordinary! One caveat, however. While most of us willingly suspend disbelief when faced with excellent, compulsively readable fiction, this book, like some other recent books and films, also encourages us to suspend some of our long held values. Some readers may have trouble accepting the premise here that some people are above the law and that ad hoc, vigilante action is sometimes excusable. Mary Whipple

Absolutely Wonderful, 09 May 2002
Nicola Griffith keeps up the high quality of intelligent thriller begun in "The Blue Place", already I am waiting for the next installment. I really care about waht is going to happen to Aud next.

Echoes of Enochian myths, 14 Jul 2007
As an adventure yarn this exquisite novelette is very original. The old clichè from Ashton smith and Howard of the robberof an ancient tomb with treasures, traps and monsters has an unexpected denouement, as the "trap" will plunge the protagonist, Carse, in the far past, where Mars was green. As for Rhiannon, he appears to be a cousin of Prometheus, Shemyaza the fallen angel of Enoch's book: he gave forbidden, superior knowledge to the unworthy and was damned for this. Carse, finding himself holding his sword, will be force to play a part in his destiny-and in the destiny of ancient Mars. Fascinating tale, with the unique Leigh Brackett touch. A female Clark Ashton Smith withouth the gloom and with much zest and joy of living.

post-burroughs fantasy, 30 Mar 2003
This short but enjoyable novel is heavily influenced by Burroughs. I suspect that even the name of the hero, Carse, is a tribute to Burroughs, since heroes on Mars and Venus respectively were Carter and Carson
In an undetermined future. Matt Carse is a resident of Mars, living in a settlement based around the ruins of the ancient city of Jekkara.
One night he is followed by an unscrupulous contact bearing an ancient sword, who claims to have found the tomb of Rhiannon, the Accursed One. He leads Carse to the tomb and after an argument about how to divide the spoils, Carse is pushed into a strange sphere of darkness within the tomb and emerges on the Mars of a million years earlier, with oceans and lush green vegetation.
Brackett was a Hollywood screenwriter as well as a novelist and most famous for collaborating on 'The Big Sleep'. 'The Sword of Rhiannon', particularly the cleverly plotted denouement, is structured very much like a movie in the Joseph Campbell 'Mythic Structure' sense.
The hero, seen at first in his own environment is forced (willingly or not) on to a quest, where he encounters allies, makes enemies, is tested and finally has to face and defeat his enemy before returning home.
The characterisation is one-dimensional, but this is a work which never pretends to be anything other than it is.

Brilliant, 27 May 2001
This was a brilliant read. By the end of the book I was wishing that there was a sequel.

The book is great because of the characters and their interactions rather than the amazing sci-fi, although there are some exceptionally cool bits of technology uses in there that would definately be on my list of 'toys I would like to have'.

Story continious...Just read, 16 Aug 2008
Oh yeah, totallu worth reading.
Self-defence class chapters will teach you a lot, will make you think of your own safety, even taking self-defence class because you never know.
But you can get a lot of tip
Want to find out more of Aud. We are all can seem strong characters but we are vulnerable even if we don't like this or hate to admit it.
You will see Aud from different prospective, from different angle of view which is perfectly portraid.

Novel that won't disappoint you, as Nicola Griffith wrote it.

It really makes to want more of Aud...what happens next with her in the next book...?
Just need to wait and maybe Nicola will give to us... I sure hope it happens.



Surviving in Seattle, 22 Nov 2007
Aud Torvingen is back for more punishment in the third of Nicola Griffith's wonderful series. She travels from Atlanta to Seattle with her friend Dornan to meet her mother and her mother's new husband. Whilst there she is checking up on some property she owns, currently leased by a film company. Soon Aud is embroiled in movie production, sabotage and a potential romance. At the same time Griffith relates Aud's earlier experience of running a women's self defence class in Atlanta, and the dramatic result of the training and advice she gave.
Aud is a fascinating character, always believing she is in control and totally self contained. But Griffith, over the series, has stricken her with grief, had her shot, cut, beaten and poisoned. This Aud is reeling from her experiences over the last couple of years and is all the more engaging for it. Read and enjoy.

A heart-aching, touhing your very soul, 16 Aug 2008
This novel is more than I expected it to be.
Reading every word, grief, guilt and miss of lover's touch, scent and closeness...
A heart-aching story of Aud after losing her lover...
If you never lost anybody you loved...yet...this novel can really show how it feels not be being able to be close or touch the people we love the most. Its struggle to recover, and strenght to keep to a promise when you have absolutely no will to do as so.

Makes you think...
Just read and find out for yourself - what is this nivel to you...


Better than its predecessor, 14 Apr 2007
OK, I was wrong. This is the sequel to The Blue Place, and on finishing that, I was not expecting its successor to be particular good. In fact, in my opinion anyway, it's a lot better. The stylistic excesses that characterised the previous work are here more subdued, allowing the author's skills to evince themselves much more clearly.

Among these are the abilities to produce an absolutely spine-chilling portrayal of grief; and to produce a villain who is utterly repulsive but still totally convincing. This last-named is a task that even as good a writer as Peter O'Donnell found -- as the Modesty Blaise books progressed -- increasingly hard, and finally impossible.

It seems I guessed wrong, too, about the author's influences (see her introduction to The Blue Place on its Amazon listing); although perhaps I may say that what led me to the Travis McGee books was someone describing them to me (I remember the event clearly) as "just as violent as Mickey Spillane, but more intelligent".

To make your protagonist a homicidal lesbian lunatic*, and further, to write the story in the first person, is something not many authors would attempt; even fewer could bring it off.

I'm now glad I read both these books. I await the next one with interest.

You definitely do need to read the first one first.

*If visual and auditory hallucinations are any indicators.

A novel of explosive, devastating power., 10 Nov 2002
The spectacular imagery of the remote southern Appalachian mountains, with its buckeye, jewelweed, basswood, and pileated woodpeckers, comes sensuously to life as a lone woman hacks out shingles for a roof on her cabin and hides from visitors. Suddenly, the woman reacts to this quiet, pastoral scene: "An owl screamed in the wood and I wanted to ride behind its eyes when it plunged its talons into living flesh, wanted to tear something warm and soft to pieces while it squealed." With this remarkable sentence, I was totally hooked--by the strong visual images, by the frightening responses of this damaged woman to the sights and sounds around her, and by the emotional desolation of her life.

Aud Torvingen, a former police officer who has killed more than once in the line of duty, has withdrawn from the world to her isolated cabin, grieving and guilt-ridden about the loss of her lover in a shooting she believes to be her fault. When an old friend asks her to find his missing fiancee, Aud journeys to Greenwich Village and a scene of such brutality the reader will not soon forget it. Devastated by the events, Aud understands that she must rebuild her shattered self from the ground up if she ever hopes to recover her life.

Griffith's imagery and psychological acuity are overwhelming. She sets up vivid, sensual contrasts between the pastoral life of Appalachia and the urban life of New York, provides total access to Aud's ravaged psyche, makes the reader truly care for this woman who has killed more than once, and encourages us to hope for her emotional rebirth. The book is stunning, and the writing is truly extraordinary! One caveat, however. While most of us willingly suspend disbelief when faced with excellent, compulsively readable fiction, this book, like some other recent books and films, also encourages us to suspend some of our long held values. Some readers may have trouble accepting the premise here that some people are above the law and that ad hoc, vigilante action is sometimes excusable. Mary Whipple

Absolutely Wonderful, 09 May 2002
Nicola Griffith keeps up the high quality of intelligent thriller begun in "The Blue Place", already I am waiting for the next installment. I really care about waht is going to happen to Aud next.

Echoes of Enochian myths, 14 Jul 2007
As an adventure yarn this exquisite novelette is very original. The old clichè from Ashton smith and Howard of the robberof an ancient tomb with treasures, traps and monsters has an unexpected denouement, as the "trap" will plunge the protagonist, Carse, in the far past, where Mars was green. As for Rhiannon, he appears to be a cousin of Prometheus, Shemyaza the fallen angel of Enoch's book: he gave forbidden, superior knowledge to the unworthy and was damned for this. Carse, finding himself holding his sword, will be force to play a part in his destiny-and in the destiny of ancient Mars. Fascinating tale, with the unique Leigh Brackett touch. A female Clark Ashton Smith withouth the gloom and with much zest and joy of living.

post-burroughs fantasy, 30 Mar 2003
This short but enjoyable novel is heavily influenced by Burroughs. I suspect that even the name of the hero, Carse, is a tribute to Burroughs, since heroes on Mars and Venus respectively were Carter and Carson
In an undetermined future. Matt Carse is a resident of Mars, living in a settlement based around the ruins of the ancient city of Jekkara.
One night he is followed by an unscrupulous contact bearing an ancient sword, who claims to have found the tomb of Rhiannon, the Accursed One. He leads Carse to the tomb and after an argument about how to divide the spoils, Carse is pushed into a strange sphere of darkness within the tomb and emerges on the Mars of a million years earlier, with oceans and lush green vegetation.
Brackett was a Hollywood screenwriter as well as a novelist and most famous for collaborating on 'The Big Sleep'. 'The Sword of Rhiannon', particularly the cleverly plotted denouement, is structured very much like a movie in the Joseph Campbell 'Mythic Structure' sense.
The hero, seen at first in his own environment is forced (willingly or not) on to a quest, where he encounters allies, makes enemies, is tested and finally has to face and defeat his enemy before returning home.
The characterisation is one-dimensional, but this is a work which never pretends to be anything other than it is.

Brilliant, 27 May 2001
This was a brilliant read. By the end of the book I was wishing that there was a sequel.

The book is great because of the characters and their interactions rather than the amazing sci-fi, although there are some exceptionally cool bits of technology uses in there that would definately be on my list of 'toys I would like to have'.

Anthropological science fiction, 05 Aug 2007
Ammonite reminds me a lot of Sheri Tepper and Ursula K. Le Guin. It's a tale of Marghe, an anthropologist sent to work on the Company-owned planet Jeep. Jeep is inhabited by group of Company forces, the original colonists and a deadly virus that kills all men and quite a few women as well. There's no proven vaccine, either.

Marghe sets out to understand the world and the people who live in it. The mysteries of the virus and the colonists (if they're all women, where do the babies come from?) offer a tempting challenge to an anthropologist, despite the resistance from the Company commander.

It's a good story. It's well written, beautiful as the planet it describes. Marghe's journey is packed with action, adventure, romance and exploration. For those seeking lesbian themes or strong female characters in science fiction, this is a must-read book, and I'd recommend Ammonite to anybody who likes science fiction with sociological or anthropological leanings.

Interesting SF, 15 Jul 2001
This was quite an interesting book set on an alien world. In many ways it is a standard mystery thriller. Can Marghe solve the mystery and find a cure to the virus that may imprison her on the planet for the rest of her life.

Story continious...Just read, 16 Aug 2008
Oh yeah, totallu worth reading.
Self-defence class chapters will teach you a lot, will make you think of your own safety, even taking self-defence class because you never know.
But you can get a lot of tip
Want to find out more of Aud. We are all can seem strong characters but we are vulnerable even if we don't like this or hate to admit it.
You will see Aud from different prospective, from different angle of view which is perfectly portraid.

Novel that won't disappoint you, as Nicola Griffith wrote it.

It really makes to want more of Aud...what happens next with her in the next book...?
Just need to wait and maybe Nicola will give to us... I sure hope it happens.



Surviving in Seattle, 22 Nov 2007
Aud Torvingen is back for more punishment in the third of Nicola Griffith's wonderful series. She travels from Atlanta to Seattle with her friend Dornan to meet her mother and her mother's new husband. Whilst there she is checking up on some property she owns, currently leased by a film company. Soon Aud is embroiled in movie production, sabotage and a potential romance. At the same time Griffith relates Aud's earlier experience of running a women's self defence class in Atlanta, and the dramatic result of the training and advice she gave.
Aud is a fascinating character, always believing she is in control and totally self contained. But Griffith, over the series, has stricken her with grief, had her shot, cut, beaten and poisoned. This Aud is reeling from her experiences over the last couple of years and is all the more engaging for it. Read and enjoy.

A heart-aching, touhing your very soul, 16 Aug 2008
This novel is more than I expected it to be.
Reading every word, grief, guilt and miss of lover's touch, scent and closeness...
A heart-aching story of Aud after losing her lover...
If you never lost anybody you loved...yet...this novel can really show how it feels not be being able to be close or touch the people we love the most. Its struggle to recover, and strenght to keep to a promise when you have absolutely no will to do as so.

Makes you think...
Just read and find out for yourself - what is this nivel to you...


Better than its predecessor, 14 Apr 2007
OK, I was wrong. This is the sequel to The Blue Place, and on finishing that, I was not expecting its successor to be particular good. In fact, in my opinion anyway, it's a lot better. The stylistic excesses that characterised the previous work are here more subdued, allowing the author's skills to evince themselves much more clearly.

Among these are the abilities to produce an absolutely spine-chilling portrayal of grief; and to produce a villain who is utterly repulsive but still totally convincing. This last-named is a task that even as good a writer as Peter O'Donnell found -- as the Modesty Blaise books progressed -- increasingly hard, and finally impossible.

It seems I guessed wrong, too, about the author's influences (see her introduction to The Blue Place on its Amazon listing); although perhaps I may say that what led me to the Travis McGee books was someone describing them to me (I remember the event clearly) as "just as violent as Mickey Spillane, but more intelligent".

To make your protagonist a homicidal lesbian lunatic*, and further, to write the story in the first person, is something not many authors would attempt; even fewer could bring it off.

I'm now glad I read both these books. I await the next one with interest.

You definitely do need to read the first one first.

*If visual and auditory hallucinations are any indicators.

A novel of explosive, devastating power., 10 Nov 2002
The spectacular imagery of the remote southern Appalachian mountains, with its buckeye, jewelweed, basswood, and pileated woodpeckers, comes sensuously to life as a lone woman hacks out shingles for a roof on her cabin and hides from visitors. Suddenly, the woman reacts to this quiet, pastoral scene: "An owl screamed in the wood and I wanted to ride behind its eyes when it plunged its talons into living flesh, wanted to tear something warm and soft to pieces while it squealed." With this remarkable sentence, I was totally hooked--by the strong visual images, by the frightening responses of this damaged woman to the sights and sounds around her, and by the emotional desolation of her life.

Aud Torvingen, a former police officer who has killed more than once in the line of duty, has withdrawn from the world to her isolated cabin, grieving and guilt-ridden about the loss of her lover in a shooting she believes to be her fault. When an old friend asks her to find his missing fiancee, Aud journeys to Greenwich Village and a scene of such brutality the reader will not soon forget it. Devastated by the events, Aud understands that she must rebuild her shattered self from the ground up if she ever hopes to recover her life.

Griffith's imagery and psychological acuity are overwhelming. She sets up vivid, sensual contrasts between the pastoral life of Appalachia and the urban life of New York, provides total access to Aud's ravaged psyche, makes the reader truly care for this woman who has killed more than once, and encourages us to hope for her emotional rebirth. The book is stunning, and the writing is truly extraordinary! One caveat, however. While most of us willingly suspend disbelief when faced with excellent, compulsively readable fiction, this book, like some other recent books and films, also encourages us to suspend some of our long held values. Some readers may have trouble accepting the premise here that some people are above the law and that ad hoc, vigilante action is sometimes excusable. Mary Whipple

Absolutely Wonderful, 09 May 2002
Nicola Griffith keeps up the high quality of intelligent thriller begun in "The Blue Place", already I am waiting for the next installment. I really care about waht is going to happen to Aud next.

Echoes of Enochian myths, 14 Jul 2007
As an adventure yarn this exquisite novelette is very original. The old clichè from Ashton smith and Howard of the robberof an ancient tomb with treasures, traps and monsters has an unexpected denouement, as the "trap" will plunge the protagonist, Carse, in the far past, where Mars was green. As for Rhiannon, he appears to be a cousin of Prometheus, Shemyaza the fallen angel of Enoch's book: he gave forbidden, superior knowledge to the unworthy and was damned for this. Carse, finding himself holding his sword, will be force to play a part in his destiny-and in the destiny of ancient Mars. Fascinating tale, with the unique Leigh Brackett touch. A female Clark Ashton Smith withouth the gloom and with much zest and joy of living.

post-burroughs fantasy, 30 Mar 2003
This short but enjoyable novel is heavily influenced by Burroughs. I suspect that even the name of the hero, Carse, is a tribute to Burroughs, since heroes on Mars and Venus respectively were Carter and Carson
In an undetermined future. Matt Carse is a resident of Mars, living in a settlement based around the ruins of the ancient city of Jekkara.
One night he is followed by an unscrupulous contact bearing an ancient sword, who claims to have found the tomb of Rhiannon, the Accursed One. He leads Carse to the tomb and after an argument about how to divide the spoils, Carse is pushed into a strange sphere of darkness within the tomb and emerges on the Mars of a million years earlier, with oceans and lush green vegetation.
Brackett was a Hollywood screenwriter as well as a novelist and most famous for collaborating on 'The Big Sleep'. 'The Sword of Rhiannon', particularly the cleverly plotted denouement, is structured very much like a movie in the Joseph Campbell 'Mythic Structure' sense.
The hero, seen at first in his own environment is forced (willingly or not) on to a quest, where he encounters allies, makes enemies, is tested and finally has to face and defeat his enemy before returning home.
The characterisation is one-dimensional, but this is a work which never pretends to be anything other than it is.

Brilliant, 27 May 2001
This was a brilliant read. By the end of the book I was wishing that there was a sequel.

The book is great because of the characters and their interactions rather than the amazing sci-fi, although there are some exceptionally cool bits of technology uses in there that would definately be on my list of 'toys I would like to have'.

Anthropological science fiction, 05 Aug 2007
Ammonite reminds me a lot of Sheri Tepper and Ursula K. Le Guin. It's a tale of Marghe, an anthropologist sent to work on the Company-owned planet Jeep. Jeep is inhabited by group of Company forces, the original colonists and a deadly virus that kills all men and quite a few women as well. There's no proven vaccine, either.

Marghe sets out to understand the world and the people who live in it. The mysteries of the virus and the colonists (if they're all women, where do the babies come from?) offer a tempting challenge to an anthropologist, despite the resistance from the Company commander.

It's a good story. It's well written, beautiful as the planet it describes. Marghe's journey is packed with action, adventure, romance and exploration. For those seeking lesbian themes or strong female characters in science fiction, this is a must-read book, and I'd recommend Ammonite to anybody who likes science fiction with sociological or anthropological leanings.

Interesting SF, 15 Jul 2001
This was quite an interesting book set on an alien world. In many ways it is a standard mystery thriller. Can Marghe solve the mystery and find a cure to the virus that may imprison her on the planet for the rest of her life.

Collection's range wider than one might expect, 30 Jan 1997
This book is the first in a series of collections of genre fiction featuring gay and lesbian characters. Although some might pass it by assuming that the contents are either pornographic or pulp, this is a serious mistake. The stories are overall of high quality, and the subject matter is quite wide-ranging. Many of the authors will be familiar to readers of fantasy literature, and Thieves World fans will be pleased to hear that one of the stories takes place in that universe.