Review: Aspects

Aspects by John M. Ford
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

A lot of authors are more intelligent and erudite than me. Elizabeth Bear, for example. Jo Walton, sometimes too much so for my enjoyment of her books. Neil Gaiman, who provides the introduction to this book, and was the author's friend. And, clearly, John M. Ford.

An author being more intelligent than me is not a problem if they write in such a way that I can follow what's going on. Unfortunately, in this book, Ford does not. The conversations are full of subtext that the characters clearly understand, but which went completely over my head, and I'm not sure if that's my fault or the author's.

The big problem, though, was the lack of a plot. I know the book was unfinished, and maybe at the point where I stopped reading (nearly halfway) we're still in Act 1, but... events occur, conversations occur, people and their clothing and surroundings are described in detail, but there's little sign of anyone driving towards any goal. The enormous chapters just wander on and on. Some of the characters do want things, but rather than them pursuing those in any meaningful way, we're stuck at a country house where they're all spending their holidays playing games and having meals and conversations that do a lot of worldbuilding and character exposition but never cohere into any kind of story.

My frustrations with the book caused me, at one point, to compare it to Gene Wolfe, which coming from me is not in any way a compliment; I can't stand Wolfe's inscrutable and often morally repugnant characters. To be fair, it's not nearly so far in those directions as the typical Wolfe novel, though I didn't follow many of the conversations, and a couple of the characters have done some vile things, which don't seem to count against them significantly in the author's mind.

John M. Ford is clearly a great author. I recall reading a short story of his ("Green is the Color") in an anthology and being inspired by its imagery to write a story of my own. He's a capable poet, and he describes things beautifully and delivers lovely epigrams. But in this book, anyway, he doesn't tell a story, and half the time I don't know what he is telling me, and that's a dealbreaker.

I received a pre-publication copy from Netgalley for review.

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