SF Site: “Read from cover-to-cover in a short amount of time, Anima feels less like a book than an assault, a wound, an onslaught of dream-killing mirrors, a battalion of bloodthirsty words, an epidemic of images that burrow into the readerly brain and claw their way through the murk of accumulated wistfulness and self-delusion until all that’s left is the petrified carcass of desire.”
© 2005, Edward Champion. All rights reserved.
That’s an apt description of Harrison, although perhaps it’s more suitable to Light. Of the two novels that make up Anima – Signs of Life and The Course of the Heart – I’ve read the first and while it is quite good, it’s not as good as this paragraph makes it sound (although I’ve heard fantastic things about Heart).
If you want a taste of Harrison, check out Isobel Avens Returns to Stepney in the Spring, the novelette on which Signs of Life is based. I found it superior to the book – tighter and more involving.
I’m rather suspicious of anything that reviewer writes, but I do like your headline, Ed.