Felix Gilman, Thunderer

Thunderer

Felix Gilman

Bantam, Jan 2008, $24.00

ISBN 9780553806762

Arjun the composer leaves his home city Gad on a quest to find the intangible Voice. His journey takes him to the strange city of Ararat where streets change location and direction seemingly on a whim. He finds the place loaded with Gods, who enjoy making the city in their image. Then there is the enigmatic Bird who apparently has powerful influence on the townsfolk and Arjun wonders if the Gods do too.

As Arjun struggles to adjust to the ever changing environs, he continues his search for the Voice. He also ponders why so many Gods reside here and whether they compete to shape the landscape and the people in their image of the moment.

Readers who appreciate something radically different will want to peruse this complex horror fantasy as we accompany Arjun on his quest inside a city in which the visit yesterday to a locale might have been Renaissance Italy but today is late nineteenth century San Francisco and tomorrow only the Gods know. Try being Mapquest providing direction under those ever changing conditions. The convoluted story line never explains why the Gods constantly perform urban renewal; still Arjun and the audience get a first hand look at a theological system in which apparently the Gods Must be Crazy.

Harriet Klausner