Genevieve Book Review

 

Author: Jack Yeovil (Kim Newman)
Pages: 2,289
Hard Core Scale: 3/4
Normal Scale: 7.5/10
Publish Date:1989
About: Genevieve is a vampire who joins Prince Oswald on a quest to kill the vile sorcerer Drachenfels. In a desperate fight, the fiend in slain. The past though catches up as a play write is asked to write a play of the even years later and seeks to interview her and changing her life forever. One of the oldest written Warhammer fantasy novels.

Review:  This is an odd book. Difficult to review. What is on the back of the book summary is correct and not correct. A maddened writer which I dig. Style is mostly solid. Though gets stuck in world tell blocks of people and place or reflective tangents. Also sometimes inverts tags, but does not do this later on. I loved a lot of this work and was confused about some of it, and despised the largest section of it “Beasts in Velvet.”

I guess I will treat it in parts and let the strongest parts hold the torch.

The first part excellent. It shows though an oddity. The titular Genevieve is not the main character of most of this work until the final part. A lot of the stories are not about here and her place in them is nonexistent, no agency and tacked on.    

The first part though she plays a major roll and this is where Kim does his best. Its an excellent frame tale with lots of exciting layers. The play write Detlef is the main character, building that frame and propelling everything.

Newman does great in building the world and making it a living thing. He understands his symbolism and makes it come to life. The first part my favorite part in the work. It wraps up very neatly and you look at 250 pages in that fat thing and wonder how can there be more.

The second half is less grand in design. However, an excellent look at monster’s vs the human condition. It’s a great feel-good tale.

The third though is where things get odd. A very interesting take on haunted houses. Genevieve does not need to be in it at all. Very little connection with the rest of the work.

The four part: Again, very excellent, Genevieve is there, but stripped of her agency, but has fall out catharsis for that agency. The plot though is tacked onto the rest of it.  

Beasts in velvet- I hated this part. Making up a bulk of the work. Little to do with anything. The charter only briefly mentioned. This 600-page murder mystery goes on and on. This makes up the biggest chunk of the thing. It ends in a stupid manner far out of mind and sight with a giant scape goat. It does carry that theme of monster vs human in a dark world. However, the world is filled with monsters and it is an odd aspect of the work that for most of it the monsters are human repeat again in again. The resolution of conflict, made this thing feel like a time waste and not what you want the story to be. If it was separated as its own thing, may function better.  All the time wasted on character that have nothing on the larger plot not a good thing to be.  It had two major plots, one of which short fuses itself and becomes why did we waste our time.

Then we get to the shorts. Outside the last part these seem like short plot threads he wanted to have in the main work, but had to take out and added them to this omnibus.

Red Thirst:
Along with the haunted house this is the closest he gets to writing horror. A fun romp that seems barley connected to the rest of it, but does have weight for introducing a character in the final part.

No Gold in the Grey Mountains: Genevieve is a main character with agency. Connecting to parts in beasts in velvet, but beasts in velvet does not need to exist at all for things to function. A quick action and I will get you next time villain with a case of probably not is done and done.

 

The Ignorant armies: Another beast in Velvet pull, showing two character’s past. Would be fun as its own thing, has no place being here.

The Warhawk: An odd plot point from part 2, seeming forgotten. A better murder mystery, then beast in velvet. Has the detective from that story on the case. However, yeah bad story.

Ibby the fish factor: The end to these stories. Could only leave the first two parts and this and things would be fine and perhaps more palatable. A story though that divides the world. Something like that would not exist in this story world proper. Its cute and fun though. Albeit a twist villain that is so very bizarre.

So, as I said, a very odd work. The Warhammer fantasy world is a dark one. Again, the themes always prep the powers that be instead of the classic monsters that inhabit it.

Several major plot points circle on the undead inn existing in Aldertof. The setting makes well known vampires living under people’s noses a eye raise point, this is a serious situation in Ibby the fish factor and its ending.  Part 1 has its plot excuses that become a debated sue point, but plot of convince for Genevive make it function in that beautiful frame and gives leeway for part 2.

The question of what do you do with a hero that saves our leader and your city and nation when they are a monster?

I like how Newman writes his vampires, the concept of truly dead versus human dead, we don’t really get that dichotomy in the work. We are just told and reflect on things. This lessens its power.

Arguments if Genevieve is a Mary Sue seem invalid. The plot of convivence and frame make it work. She scored low on a sue test. But, the final part makes the least sense in agency in the world as written. All her sue points are explained with time and reason. Hwoever, she is a sixteen-year-old body and her progenitor is 12. This is a creepy point In the work.

If anything, just find Drachenfels and enjoy it.  Avoid Beasts in velvet. If you want some unique ideas with good tales with dangling parts you can read the rest of the volume.

Bad tag line: As she does not really face Warhammer's typical evil and its mostly insane and petty men she must contend with if anything at all.


                                                        Book cover, Black Library, 2005

Popular posts from this blog

The Rats of Acomar: Book Review

Book Diary Entry: Whispering Woods Review

Writing Treatie IX. Defending Purple Prose and Writing with a capitol W: