This last Tuesday, I actually met Rawn for the first time. She came to Seattle as part of her book tour (when I found out about this by the way, I literally put my laptop down and stood up so I could jump up and down in excitement). Rawn signed 25 books for me, including "Touchstone" and did a reading from the book (some of her comments, I'll quote during the review). Backtrack about 5 hours. I was in class, my senior project class at my college. I'm getting a Bachelor's in English Writing with an emphasis in Fiction so my teacher is a published author and she recently returned to us from a writer's conference and she told the following story:
She got into a crowded elevator and pushes her floor button and Margaret Atwood gets in the elevator with her. If you don't know Margaret Atwood, she is a well known novelist and poet whom my professor greatly admires. The elevator is so crowded she is literally "sniffing Margaret Atwood's hair." Not in a creepy way, but more of an "I can't really avoid it" way. And my professor is thinking to herself, "Ohmygosh, what do I say? 'I really admire your works!' I don't want to be too dorky." And sure enough, some dorky guy gets in the elevator and just gushes to Margaret Atwood about how much he loves her. My professor thinks to herself, "Thank GOD I am not that guy, I so could've been that guy!" But her floor is coming up and she wants to say something, so when the doors open on her floor, she moves past Atwood and says, "Excuse me Margaret Atwood" and walks away.
So I'm in this class, about to meet Melanie Rawn and I'm thinking: "I need to have a Margaret Atwood elevator experience with Melanie Rawn. I don't want to be the dorky guy; I'm dorky enough bringing 25 books for her to sign for me." The encounter that night was fantastic (thank goodness) and my roommate and I agreed that it was indeed a "Margaret Atwood elevator experience." I was proud of myself.
But I digress...
"Touchstone" is about a theater group trying to make its way to fame. The story is told mainly through the prospective of Cayden Silversun a "tregetour" aka the playright/director of the troop. The group meets Mieka Windthistle, a talented "glisker" and it is his presence that makes their rise to fame possible. Cayden also has "elsewhens" aka visions of possible futures, usually gruesome ones, that he spends a good deal of the novel trying to avoid.
I liked this book in an okay way. It was enjoyable, for sure. I liked the sexual tension between Cayden and Mieka, I found the dynamics between the different races (aka Elf, Troll, Gnome, etc.) to be interesting. The culture was definitely there--you have sexism (something Rawn plays with in a few of her novels), racism, and power struggles between the various theater groups.
The biggest concern people have brought up about this books is the terminology. I read complaints in other reviews that the terms Rawn uses (for example, "tregetour", "glisker") were too hard to understand and really slowed down the novel. Rawn addressed this during her reading (I am paraphrasing here): "I had a fun time looking through a book of old English terms and adapting them for the book." She then spoke to people's confusion about what the words meant: "I included a glossary in the back of the book...people were upset that they had to look up the terms. So, you learned something? How shocking!" A touch, a touch, I do confess. I didn't have any problems with the terminology. If you continue to read, even without looking the terms up, she gives you an understanding of what they mean in the narrative. It's not that bloody hard people.
Problems I had with the book:
The secondary characters: Jeska and Rafe were both interesting people to me and they stood in the background a little too much for my personal liking. I wanted to know a lot more about them and the information just wasn't there. I'm hoping for more information in the upcoming book (which Rawn mentioned was tentatively set for release sometime in December--at least that was her hope, as they pushed "Touchstone"'s release from December to February).
There was a perspective change about 2/3rds of the way through the book from Cade's perspective to Mieka's. It came with little warning, and while I have no problem with a perspective change, because the entire book previously had been from Cade's perspective, the change surprised me and took me awhile to get used to. I was annoyed that I no longer could see what was going on inside Cade's head, which is an important part of the book--so I felt like I was being robbed of something. And just when I was getting used to Mieka's POV, it switched back to Cade. And because of the events going on in the book at that time, I wanted more to be in Mieka's POV to see what was going on. I'm sure we were supposed to not know each character's mindset and that was the reason for the change in perspective both times, but I was a tad thrown.
My biggest problem with this novel: lack of forward progression. Honestly, not as much happens as I would've liked. In fact, there is a part of the novel that feels like a series of vignettes about the characters and doesn't have that much to do with plot. I have to say, I was surprised to get this novel and find that it was only 350-something pages. Not because she can't write shorter fiction, but because she just hasn't done it that much in the past. I think the novel should have been longer. I don't know if this is Tor encouraging her to write shorter fiction or what, but I think more needed to happen in the second half of the novel. I was surprised at the lack of momentum because one of my favorite features of Melanie Rawn's writing is that total whammy she tosses in 2/3rds of the way through that TOTALLY throws you for a loop and has you rapidly reading through pages till the end. This book lacked that surprise for me. You can see that Rawn is setting up the events for the next book, but there is no follow through--too much set-up, not enough action. The book, simply put, needed to be longer, needed to have more events. My guess is when I read "Elsewhens" the sequel to "Touchstone" I will wish that they had been combined to make one longer book. We'll see.
Overall rating: 3/5. The lack of momentum was my biggest problem with the book. It's an interesting read for sure, and I will most definitely read the sequels to it, but this particular volume needed a little more going on in it. Too much foreshadowing and not enough plot. I do recommend this book. I think the sequel will make reading the book worth it. It's rather unlike Rawn to write a book so lacking her special oomph 2/3rds of the way through--I've literally come to expect it from her.
On another note, Rawn fans may be interested to hear this bit of news from when I met here. Again, this is a rough paraphrase of the conversation.
Rawn: Somebody ask the question, I know somebody will.
Somebody: When?
Rawn: I don't know. Someday. I will write the book.
This is a reference to the third, elusive book in the "Exiles" series, a big fan- favorite of hers and a cause of internet rioting at the lack of its existence. But the woman looked us all in the eye and told us she would write it. So I believe her. I look forward to the day when I can get a hard copy of that book signed in my collection.
Happy reading everyone, I hope you enjoyed this review!
Coming up is "A Storm of Swords"
AJ
Ps. PHEW! Long post!
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