Scan barcode
sorinahiggins's review against another edition
5.0
Here is a summary and review of this novel on my Charles Williams website: https://theoddestinkling.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/mysticism-magic-and-marriage-the-greater-trumps/.
leesmyth's review against another edition
2.0
On re-reading it, I lost patience partway through. The beginning is promising, but the mist/mystical stuff leaves me cold. I didn't care about the hands, or the lovers, or Love, or the commentary on the characters, or the run-on sentences, etc., etc.
glendonrfrank's review against another edition
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Williams' writing is filled with ecstatic wonder. The world we see is not the totality of the world, rather, there exist potent and tangible forces of Love at work. While I can't help but imagine Ted Dekker and Frank E. Peretti were inspired by Williams, he outdoes both simply by consistently portraying this more real reality with wonder rather than fear. It's telling that Williams' avenue to the divine in this novel is a pack of Tarot cards. He has no typical evangelical fears of "dark evil forces," rather, if there is a transcendent Good in the world, it is forcefully behind everything. More than any theologian or apologetic, Williams' fiction manages to convince me that genuine Christ-like love is not only possible but accessible, and that simply loving our neighbours and sharing their burdens may be the most cosmically important thing a person can do. I didn't understand half of the themes and symbols Williams is working with, but I understand how it made me feel, and sometimes that's just as important.
dakrone's review against another edition
4.0
It's definitely Charles Williams. Something to wrap your mind in tangles with unique and vivid imagery. Possibly my favorite of his books that I've read so far, though I need to think about it longer.
paulcowdell's review against another edition
2.0
Curiously unengaging, given the subject matter. The story and characters never rise above their laboured symbolic intentions, which are rather tiresomely skewed by Williams's visionary High Anglicanism. Unsatisfying.
rachellinnmartin's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
Super confusing, interesting sprinkles of feminism, might be the inspiration for Sybil Trelawney
yaburrow's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not sure if I didn't finish this because it was the third Williams book I was reading in a row, or because I didn't really warm to any of the characters, or because I couldn't visualize what the moving Tarot figures were supposed to be. Were they tiny people with a will of their own? How big were they?
I liked the characters of Aunt Sibyl and the Romani sister they meet on the road. They were interesting. The other characters were either ruthless or conventional, and therefore not sympatico.
recorderkfk's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
4.0
kurtspark's review against another edition
4.0
Really unique story. What if tarot and witchcraft really worked? Great imagination.