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Divine Endurance by Gwyneth Jones
28/11/2005 . Source: Phil Jones 
pub: Gollancz. 305 page paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-575-07012-9. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
Cho, a young girl, is left in isolation with only a cat, Divine Endurance, as company. Their only home wrecked by earthquakes, they traverse a empty desert toward life. Neither are quite what they seem. Relics from a technological past most people have forgotten. Their journey is driven by their search for Cho's brother. Travelling across barren post-nuclear landscape they encounter a princess, revolutionaries, bandits clans and gangsters. Only a few know Cho's real potential.
This book was first published in 1984 and I believe was one of Gwyneth Jones' first books to be published. Apart from the prologue, first and last chapters, this book is well basically damn confusing. I don't mind ambiguity as a writer's tool but Gwyneth Jones seems to relish it with abandon. The only driving factor that ironically kept me reading this book was the ambiguity of the main character of Cho and the cat, Divine Endurance. You know from the outset that they are not what you would say, normal. So I found you were just waiting for the reveal about what or who they really are and what impact it would have on the world they inhabit.
It's a strange world that they inhabit, too. A hybrid post-apocalyptic, Indonesian-like shattered world with strange customs and multi-faceted history. The history, political and geographical aspects of this world are not so much shown as told in huge info dumps. One of my pet hates with fantasy is just to dump information on the reader, especially if you are dealing with a complex set-up such as the one presented in this book.
On the whole, the rest of the book seems like a meandering thought-line with little structure. The writing is sometimes hard to follow and incomprehensible at times. The scenes seem to drift from one to another, sometimes with little to link them. You get the feeling that the novel has concentrated on its characters and style and little on plot and storyline. It feels, in a way more, like a rambling travelogue interspersed with politics.
I really wanted to like this. The premise was good and so was the start of the book, but on the whole it left me cold. The major reveals in the storyline failed to excite, as I had pieced together what they were before I got there. It just felt - to me anyway - like the bare bones of a book with a fancy overlay on top. Artistic prose is fine but if the meaning is lost then what is there to gain? I think a lot of readers would be hard pressed to get through the first 50 pages. To some people, they may enjoy the style and characters, but I think I'll be avoiding Gwyneth Jones books in the future.
Phil Jones
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