|
The Court of the Air | 
| Author: Stephen Hunt
Publisher: Voyager
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £5.99
You Save: £2.00 (25%)
New (25) Used (21) from £0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 6620
Media: Paperback
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.7
ISBN: 0007232187
EAN: 9780007232185
ASIN: 0007232187
Publication Date: September 3, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 Strange, rich, and very full September 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Court of the Air seems at first to be set in a largely Victorian-type world; the Kingdom of Jackels, the main stage for the story, is a very English place. A nation of shop-keepers, their country is lovingly described as having the power to over-run the entire continent, but instead prefers to cut their hedges and dissolve disputes in parliament by having the contesters beat each other unconscious with wooden rods. (Though England did actually do a lot of invading at the time, as most poor undefended countries realised, so perhaps this comparison fails there slightly!). Several characters are -- literally -- straight out of Dickens, and there are many other references to our world.
The politics, for example, bear elements of communism, and even of the the Terror of the French Revolution, and the Russian Revolution, with the Commonshare being one of the many threats to Jackals. Said Kingdom has not so long emerged from a Civil War of sorts -- the Kings are kept alive, but have their arms chopped off, so as to never raise them against the people again.
Strangely, the two main characters, Oliver and Molly, were the least easy to identify with -- I enjoyed reading them, but I didn't care for them too much. I expect this is because, in their course through the novel, they both develop almost god-like powers very quickly. Most people who go into the feymist for even a moment either develop powers of a sort, or die. Many are crippled and twisted and sent mad. Oliver, though, lived inside the feymist for most of his childhood. And is displaying no effects... Yet...
Had his powers been shown, he would have either been locked away, or the worldsingers (essentially wizards) would have put a hexed torc around his neck and Oliver would have been forced to join the Special Guard, who serve the people, and make sure the King doesn't harm them...
There are so many characters in The Court of the Air, though, that while I wasn't always sympathetic to Molly and Oliver, I found the steammen -- fully autonomous, sentient robots (for lack of a better term) with their own society, Kings, and active gods -- fascinating, and while other races where shown or hinted at, the steammen culture was by far the most developed. Hunt's novel obviously has a strong steampunk setting and I enjoyed the mish-mashing of science (often really quite advanced -- as with the blood-code machines) with, especially in the last third of the book, large quantities of magic and epic battles.
The Court of the Air has flaws, though. Although I hugely enjoyed the hodge-podge nature of the book, I do think it might have benefitted had Hunt kept a few ideas back and allowed the ones he'd put in to shine. I found the book quite difficult to get into on first read -- no time is wasted on back-history at the very beginning and we are thrown straight into the action, and nuances of Molly and Oliver's world -- and whilst The Court of the Air is an extremely entertaining, fast-paced journey, I couldn't help noticing that the fast speed covered over a few plot flaws and resulting deus ex machina, and could have devoted more time to some of the many interesting ideas Hunt included.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed The Court of the Air rather a lot :) Fast paced, endlessly packed with ideas, wit and, aside from anything else, what I'm sure is a Darth Vader quoted slipped into ordinary dialogue! While I'll admit it has flaws, I'll also say The Court of the Air was one of the most fun reads I've had this year.
I should probably declare that Stephen, in his function as SF Crowsnest grand master, does put my interviews on his site. That has no effect on the review, though, as I'd have enjoyed The Court of the Air no matter who wrote it. [For Amazon readers, I run a website called The Book Swede].
 loved it June 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
inventive, action packed, moving and poignant. I found this a real page turner - once you have dug in to the first third of the book it really picks up pace, and it is great to find an author who knows how to end a book without you feeling a little let down or it going flat! It is a heavy read in the sense that Hunt gives no explanation as to where you are, who the creatures are (or why) and why the world you are in is like it is - so at worst you could claim it is a bit confusing, however it is never dull and perfect for those who like to fall into a story and escape from the real world! let it wash over you without "over thinking" it all (like Shakespeare) and you will fall in love with the characters and feel a huge sense of adventure as you tumble through the story. great for cold winter Sundays!
A swift romp of the fantastic January 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Things happen rapidly in this sword and sorcery tale, but it is a measure of the Court of the Air's sureness that the action keeps you wrapped up and moving along through an imagined world of a depth that I have read in few works (and they are the greats too). Full of tense confrontations, the author resists the standard cliches and balances several themes with a touch of dark wit. A very skillful novel which only falters slightly in the number of rich characters that the plot tries to juggle at the same time. Let's hope that S Hunt manages to bring us many more works fixed in his remarkable fantasy settings.
An awe inspiring fantasy adventure January 22, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Court of the Air is incredibly fanciful and entertaining with enough meat, ideas and concepts poured up to the brim to challenge the brain as you are carried along on its rapid ride through the Kingdom of Jackals.
A clear play on the England of the 19th/18th century, the novel scores a lot of points for adults on the nature of war, politics and power while serving up multi-faceted real characters.
The adventure-dripping plot will also keep the teenagers and the kids among you happy too. It's like an industrialized Middle-Earth written without the poe-faced seriousness of Tolkien. Yes, this book is a work of brilliance.
An entertaining read January 17, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Just finished with the Court of the Air and I have to say, it was a very fun (and quick read), the fast-pacing of the prose making it a real page turner for me.
There's an incredible lot of imagination gone into this novel and it lends the work a depth of world-building which only a few books in the fantasy genre can manage.
This is also the novel's slight weakness (hence the five rather than six stars), in that the richness of the world has a way of spilling over into the character development - but the rapid snap snap snap of the plot's excitement is enough to overcome this and made it one of the highlights of my reading year for me.
|
|
|
| |
