A WINTER HAUNTING - Dan Simmons
Dan Simmons' work has so far been a mixed bag to me. I loved the first book of his that I read, 'Song of Kali', which could be described as a Western tourist's nghtmare in a Calcutta of zombie poets and occult thuggeries. His 'Hollow Man', atleast what I read of it, left me rather bored and this is the third book of his that I've read.
For a very long period of its length, AWH gave me the sinking feeling that it was going to be a very disappointing experience. Nearly up to halfways it wallows in explicit details of the doomed affair of the middle-aged white man protagonist writer/professor Dale Stewart with his young half-Injun student. Apart from this there are a few out-takes to the aspect of Dale driving out to the house of his long-dead childhood friend as a getaway sabbatical and some of the disjointed and derivative ghost sightings he has there.
At this point I was nearly ready to drop the book, but persistance paid off and the narrative took on a more interesting route with the connections being drawn between the events that took place. Among the points of interest there are explorations of the association of the canine (dog/wolf) species with death rituals across various myhtologies. Also at this point Simmons more skilfully guides us through a seamless route of past and present events in Dale's life and hints slyly that his sense of time and place may not be in sync with the rest of the world.
Nothing especially ambitious comes off but the rest of the book is atleast well-paced and on the whole a pretty decent read. Simmons could have done much better, because there is a good story at the core that someone like Stephen King (on a good day) would have taken to a significantly higher level. Besides the loose rambling of the first half, Simmons' talent for writing empathizable characters is far outstripped by his enthusiasm for the same. In that way Song of Kali probably succeeds the most because he doesn't feed us huge tasteless gobs of his lead characters' individual make-up. Also what rings false here is how Simmons expects us to ultimately sympathize with his lead character despite the latter coming off as a self-obsessed asshole with few redeeming characteristics.
Dan Simmons' work has so far been a mixed bag to me. I loved the first book of his that I read, 'Song of Kali', which could be described as a Western tourist's nghtmare in a Calcutta of zombie poets and occult thuggeries. His 'Hollow Man', atleast what I read of it, left me rather bored and this is the third book of his that I've read.
For a very long period of its length, AWH gave me the sinking feeling that it was going to be a very disappointing experience. Nearly up to halfways it wallows in explicit details of the doomed affair of the middle-aged white man protagonist writer/professor Dale Stewart with his young half-Injun student. Apart from this there are a few out-takes to the aspect of Dale driving out to the house of his long-dead childhood friend as a getaway sabbatical and some of the disjointed and derivative ghost sightings he has there.
At this point I was nearly ready to drop the book, but persistance paid off and the narrative took on a more interesting route with the connections being drawn between the events that took place. Among the points of interest there are explorations of the association of the canine (dog/wolf) species with death rituals across various myhtologies. Also at this point Simmons more skilfully guides us through a seamless route of past and present events in Dale's life and hints slyly that his sense of time and place may not be in sync with the rest of the world.
Nothing especially ambitious comes off but the rest of the book is atleast well-paced and on the whole a pretty decent read. Simmons could have done much better, because there is a good story at the core that someone like Stephen King (on a good day) would have taken to a significantly higher level. Besides the loose rambling of the first half, Simmons' talent for writing empathizable characters is far outstripped by his enthusiasm for the same. In that way Song of Kali probably succeeds the most because he doesn't feed us huge tasteless gobs of his lead characters' individual make-up. Also what rings false here is how Simmons expects us to ultimately sympathize with his lead character despite the latter coming off as a self-obsessed asshole with few redeeming characteristics.
