Review - Caliban's Hour
Mar. 18th, 2010 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wilderthanCaliban's Hour (Tad Williams)
It's a long time since I read The Tempest, which didn't help my reading of this -- in the end, I quickly looked it up on wikipedia, which helps. It's a story best understood as a companion to the play, I think. It's well-written -- the descriptions are lovely -- but you have to know what Tad Williams was responding to, to really understand what he was trying to do. I think he succeeds in questioning the actions and attitudes of Miranda and her father, and in making Caliban an interesting, sympathetic character. The most implausible thing about it is how articulate Caliban is, all things considered.
I really love the ending, actually, that offers both hope to Caliban and Miranda's daughter, while leaving Miranda despairing -- and the way she does repent of what she did/how she acted.
It's a long time since I read The Tempest, which didn't help my reading of this -- in the end, I quickly looked it up on wikipedia, which helps. It's a story best understood as a companion to the play, I think. It's well-written -- the descriptions are lovely -- but you have to know what Tad Williams was responding to, to really understand what he was trying to do. I think he succeeds in questioning the actions and attitudes of Miranda and her father, and in making Caliban an interesting, sympathetic character. The most implausible thing about it is how articulate Caliban is, all things considered.
I really love the ending, actually, that offers both hope to Caliban and Miranda's daughter, while leaving Miranda despairing -- and the way she does repent of what she did/how she acted.
