- Mass Market Paperback
- Publisher: Spectra (Sep 1 1990)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0553287729
- ISBN-13: 978-0553287721
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 10.9 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 249 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,389,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
This first novel is a richly imagined work set in a Washington, D.C., devastated by nuclear and biological warfare. Society is rigidly stratified: the Ascendants, absentee rulers who were responsible for the devastation; the Curators, who tend the city's nearly destroyed museums and libraries; the Paphians, who barter sexual favors for goods; and the Lazars, wretched survivors of periodic germ warfare who subsist by cannibalism. The plot revolves around the reunification of twins separated in childhood: one, a male, is now a Paphian; the female is a "neurologically augmented empath specializing in emotive engram therapy." Hand's world is nuanced and believable and her characters, especially the female twin, come convincingly alive. Her attempts to imbue the plot with mythic sensibility, however, do not succeed, resulting in a good science fiction framework burdened with badly grafted elements of fantasy and the occult. The final scene, in which the incestuous reunion between the twins heralds the onset of a cataclysmic "Final Ascension," is disappointing in its murkiness.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In a far-future world where a post-holocaust civilization has created its own myths from the remnants of the past, a young woman genetically altered to feel others' emotions and a young man trained from birth as a sacred prostitute find themselves inexplicably drawn to each other as a mad dictator schemes to bring about the "Final Ascension." Sensuous and evocative, this first novel combines dreamlike images with powerful characters to produce a visionary masterpiece. Highly recommended.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping yet ultimately unfulfilling,
By Dyanne (Grahamstown, South Africa) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Winterlong (Paperback)
I truly enjoy Hand's writing - lyrical, expressive and detailed. As an example of her early work, this novel is a phenomenal piece of writing. Her characters are magnificent and she breaks just about every taboo you can think of without losing her sense of style. However, I found the ending to drag slightly, as she had left a great many loose ends to tie up. At this point I often found myself loosing sight of the plot. Certainly worth a read, but I would recommend Aestival Tide and Glimmering over it.
5.0 out of 5 stars
WINTERLONG,
By Raymond J. Wright (HOLLISTON, MA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Winterlong (Paperback)
Winterlong is a stunning, artfull, full throtle novel of unbelievable depth and style. Written with more imagination than most writers can muster in a lifetime, this is a novel that will leave you completely fulfilled and aching for more. Hand has created a civilization struggling to find it's place in a broken world that cuts so close to truth as to be disturbing. READ THIS BOOK!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rich, deep and satisfying.,
By Gabe Randolph (A state of exalted intoxication) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Winterlong (Paperback)
This is the kind of science fiction novel you do not see very often any more. Elizabeth Hand has managed to combine elements of mythology and weird fiction with cybernetic SF and spiced the brew with luxuriant blossoms from the garden of the Decadents. I say it this way because people have misunderstood so much. You cannot think Anne Rice when you read Elizabeth Hand. Yes, one can identify scraps of H.P. Lovecraft, Christina Rossetti and especially Tanith Lee, but Hand is not trying to write like anyone but herself. And I'm only midway through the first chapter.
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