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Preternatural #2
Preternatural Too: Gyre
This novel asks whether the intergalactic jellyfish created by the author actually exist, or did they create and do they control her.
- GenresScience Fiction
320 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2000
11 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Wander Bonanno
35 books46 followersMargaret Wander Bonanno was an American science fiction writer, ghost writer and small press publisher. She was born in New York City. She wrote seven Star Trek novels, several science fiction novels set in her own worlds, including The Others, a collaborative novel with Nichelle Nichols, a biography, and other works.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 31, 2019
Karen Rohmer Guerreri, a lower-midlist SF writer, is having trouble selling a new book. "Maybe you need to write a sequel," her agent advises. "This time, don't make it so autobiographical." Arch meta-fictional milling-about ensues, but don't be put off by the slow start -- soon, Karen has been snatched from her bed at the Days Inn, and dumped onto a straw pallet in Eleanor of Aquitane's Brittany -- the start of a long, strange trip through Julius Ceasar's Gaul, the fall of Berlin in 1945, and several alternate Nows. Preternatural Too: Gyre's unhinging of time reminds me of Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, and Karen's working-out of her predicament is as intricate and recursive as the best of Philip K. Dick.
Readers of Preternatural won't be surprised to learn that it's Fuschia, that naughty S. oteri, one of the telepathic ET jellyfish who inspired and bedeviled Karen in the first book, up to hir old tricks -- the S. oteri live in the Long Now, and have trouble with the idea of sequential time. You don't need to have read the first book to enjoy the second, but if you liked the first, you're probably already headed for the bookstore and I'm preaching to the choir... Anyway, if you're new to Margaret Wander Bonanno, it would make sense to start with Preternatural. They're both pretty amazing books. Sui generis, as Mrs. Becker taught us in HS Latin. . . 😎
In both books, you need to pay close attention to all the balls in the air, but when Margaret Wander Bonanno's running a hot hand, like Joe Slattermill in Fritz Leiber's wonderful "Gonna Roll the Bones," her aim is true and her eye (and pen) unerring. She can be trusted to bring matters to a satisfying conclusion, with tantalizing hints of more to come: "She turned and headed straight for home, but she took the long way, around the world." (With apologies to Mr. Leiber's shade.)
And while you're keeping your eye on the ball, you'll enjoy watching Margaret Wander Bonanno's characters come to life, notably her multiple alterselves and their friends, while she ignores her agent's no-autobiography advice -- or is she just counterfeiting Real Life exceptionally well? It is fiction, after all, isn't it? -- and it's enormously entertaining reading, which is what I look for, and, I'm sure, so do you.
My 2000 review, with notes and links:
https://www.sfsite.com/06b/gy83.htm
Readers of Preternatural won't be surprised to learn that it's Fuschia, that naughty S. oteri, one of the telepathic ET jellyfish who inspired and bedeviled Karen in the first book, up to hir old tricks -- the S. oteri live in the Long Now, and have trouble with the idea of sequential time. You don't need to have read the first book to enjoy the second, but if you liked the first, you're probably already headed for the bookstore and I'm preaching to the choir... Anyway, if you're new to Margaret Wander Bonanno, it would make sense to start with Preternatural. They're both pretty amazing books. Sui generis, as Mrs. Becker taught us in HS Latin. . . 😎
In both books, you need to pay close attention to all the balls in the air, but when Margaret Wander Bonanno's running a hot hand, like Joe Slattermill in Fritz Leiber's wonderful "Gonna Roll the Bones," her aim is true and her eye (and pen) unerring. She can be trusted to bring matters to a satisfying conclusion, with tantalizing hints of more to come: "She turned and headed straight for home, but she took the long way, around the world." (With apologies to Mr. Leiber's shade.)
And while you're keeping your eye on the ball, you'll enjoy watching Margaret Wander Bonanno's characters come to life, notably her multiple alterselves and their friends, while she ignores her agent's no-autobiography advice -- or is she just counterfeiting Real Life exceptionally well? It is fiction, after all, isn't it? -- and it's enormously entertaining reading, which is what I look for, and, I'm sure, so do you.
My 2000 review, with notes and links:
https://www.sfsite.com/06b/gy83.htm
Displaying 1 of 1 review