Blood and Iron

[hawkwing_lb]

matociquala's Blood and Iron. I have it in my hands right now, and oh my sweet fucking gods and little fishes in the deep blue sea, it is marvellous.

It's a book to sip, slowly. To savour, nuances of language wrapped around a plot that races downhill like a sliding boulder, picking up speed and bouncing sparks as it goes. I'm sixty-six pages in and I'm forcing myself to stop, because this is a book I want to make last.

There is sorrow in it, and sweetness, and I think it will prove a tragedy rather than a comedy, and oh gods and little fishes, I have never yet read a book like this, one that I wanted to treat like fine wine. Or maybe aged whiskey. Sipping a little at a time, because to glug it all down at once would be to do it the greatest of disservices.

Elizabeth Bear's fourth published novel. Sweet fuck, but I can't wait to see what a few more years will bring.