Shelf Indulgence

I'll admit, I didn't give this book a lot of time to impress me. I made it fifty pages before bailing. But it's written by a poet, who also does performance art, so you can rest assured that the prose is lofty, prevailing, and dense. Plus, when you're writing a fantasy book where almost anything is possible, and then refer to someone turning inside out instead of just being shocked, you're going to give the impression that someone actually turned inside out. You have to rein in your language in these circumstances.

There seem to be hints of really good ideas buried beneath the prose, but I'm not willing to put in the level of work required to dig them out. I don't consider myself an anti-intellectual, but the book strikes me as being self-indulgent and overwrought.