Piranese (2020)
272pp, Fiction
Notes
2021-01-28
Whereas Norell and Strange was an exhuberant maximalist cakeshop of a book Piranese strikes a more restrained and melancoly tone, it’s modest length belies the way it exapnds in your brain.
Before starting I was worried that it was going to be a bit magic realism but it’s not. The genre is similar to the author’s fairie-land stories though the aesthetics are very different, in spite of its many differences does explore ideas and there are familioar character tropes. Piranese’s world is properly real not just a series of alegorical images.
I really enjoyed it. I really hope Clarke is able to put out more books but if all she releases is this and Norell and Strange she’ll still be up there with the very best fantasy writers of the last century.