Fathom by Cherie Priest

[mrissa]

Through the magic of review copies, I can talk about Fathom on its launch date! If I can think what to say that's not too spoilery. Hmm.

Okay, first: you know all those times we've complained about people in urban fantasy novels not having jobs, or always having the same jobs? Cardboard Fantasy Busker #12 and so on? Fathom has an insurance claims adjuster. And he is awesome, and he doesn't happen to be an insurance claims adjuster who's a secret ninja on the side, or an insurance claims adjuster who's the lost heir of whatsit, and he doesn't have special secret abilities. He is honest and diligent and he shows up, and sometimes things are too much for him but he hangs in there the best way he knows how. If there was nothing else in this book--and there are other things in this book--it would be worth the price of admission just for Sam.

Also I want to know some of the other things Poppo has been making all this time.

Also this is a book with taste and smell. It's not my tastes and smells, because it's set in Florida, but I've been to Florida, and I remember how it smells, and this smells the same in your nose and mouth. This is in some ways the polar opposite of how I enjoyed matociquala's All the Windwracked Stars: with AtWS, I knew the material in my bones, and Bear had gotten it right. Fathom is doing something different. Cherie writes the kind of urban fantasy I like, the War for the Oaks and Wizard of the Pigeons kind, not the "insert vampire A into slot B" kind. It's got setting coming out the ears, and the magic is very much itself and not somebody else's. This is a book with roots. And in time for Christmas presents, too! Aren't you lucky!

Comments

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

One thing I find about reviews is that it's not whether the reviewer liked the book that matters - I've read glowing reviews that made me resolve to avoid the book forever. It's more why the reviewer liked the book, and whether the reviewer's likes are based on things I like too.

I'm putting this one straight onto my to-buy list.

[zwol.livejournal.com]

You have now given me a mental image of some sort of mad science apparatus that uses vampires the way ENIAC used vacuum tubes.

[deepstarrysky.livejournal.com]

I read (and enjoyed!) "All the Windwracked Stars" based on your recommendation, and now I'm planning to read "Fathom", too. Thanks! I adored "Wizard of the Pigeons" and haven't seen it mentioned in a long time.

I was amused - someone at the library had entered it into their computer system as "All the Windcracked Stars", so I only found it because I'm stubborn and looked under the author's name as well. I wrote them a note and they did fix it.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Wasn't Franz Kafka an insurance claims adjuster or something like that?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Right, but I don't think he ruined it for the entire rest of the world.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Aaah, silly library! Glad they fixed it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Ooooooh. The eerie vacuum tube glow would probably be redundant at that point.

[tanac.livejournal.com]

Is it part of a series, or a standalone?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Standalone so far as I know. There's room for a sequel but not necessity for one.

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

I love War For the Oaks in that way that makes you long for more while recognizing that more would not be right.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yah...coffeeem could come home for a month or two to do research to write a new urban fantasy set in Mpls-now, though. Not a sequel. Just an additional one. That'd be okay.

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

Yep. Same universe, different main characters. She could easily establish continuity with cameos by NPCs like the queen.

[cmpriest.livejournal.com]

Wow, gosh -- thank you so much!
[:: warmth, fuzzies, spread throughout ::]

I really, really appreciate the kind words :) :) :)

[brooksmoses]

*/me watches his mental world shift over a notch all of a sudden to where it ought to have been all along*

Vacuum tubes glow? In computers?

Of course they do. But I'd never considered that, at all; I'd just envisioned the computers dark and cold and metal-and-wire as they are now. That's completely awesome, and now I'm wondering what a vacuum tube computer looks like when it's up and running and all. Especially in the dark.

Wow.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Glad to be of service.

[deepstarrysky.livejournal.com]

Finally got "Fathom" from the library. Returned it unfinished the same day after getting to the second casual murder. Gratuitous violence is not my thing. Too bad, because I would have liked to know what happened next with the insurance claim adjuster.