Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club

PALIMPSEST
by
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE
Palimpsest cover Palimpsest (2009)
 2010 Hugo Award nominee

Bantam trade paperback
cover art by Carlos Beltran
367 pages (left)		  
From the trade paperback back cover:
       Between life and death, dreaming and waking, at the train stop beyond the end of the world is the city of Palimpsest.  To get there is a miracle, a mystery, a gift, and a curse -- a voyage permitted only to those who've always believed there's another world than the one that meets the eye.  Those fated to make the passage are marked forever by a map of that wondrous city tattooed on their flesh after a single orgasmic night.
       To this kingdom of ghost trains, lion-priests, living kanji, and cream-filled canals come four travelers: Oleg, a New York locksmith; the beekeeper November; Ludovico, a binder of rare books; and a young Japanese woman named Sei.  They've each lost something important -- a wife, a lover, a sister, a direction in life -- and what they will find in Palimpsest is more than they could ever imagine.

Read for group discussion on March 25, 2009
RATINGS:
How we each rated this book
Dan - Amy 6 stack of books 10   Wow! Don't miss it
8-9  Highly recommended
7    Recommended
5-6  Mild recommendation
3-4  Take your chances
1-2  Below average; skip it
0    Get out the flamethrower!
U    Unfinishable or unreadable
-    Skipped or no rating given
Cheri - Barb -
Aaron 9 Cynthia -
Jackie - Ron 7
Jennifer 8    
Bibliography:
Catherynne M. Valente (1979-    ) is a US fantasy writer and poet.

Awards:
2006 James Tiptree, Jr. Award for The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden
2008 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature for The Orphan's Tales series

Orphan's Tales series books, original fairy tales
-- In the Night Garden (2006)
-- In the Cities of Coin and Spice (2007)

Other novels
-- The Labyrinth (2004)
-- Yume no Hon: The Book of Dreams (2005)
-- The Grass-Cutting Sword (2006)
-- Palimpsest (2009)

Poetry books
-- Music of a Proto-Suicide (2004), chapbook -- Apocrypha (2005)
-- Oracles: A Pilgrimage (2006)
-- The Descent of Inanna (2006)
-- A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects (2008), poetry and tales

Links:
Catherynne M. Valente - Home Page
Catherynne M. Valente - Wikipedia
The Orphan's Tales website
Clarkesworld Magazine - An Interview with Catherynne M. Valente

Return to Home Page - Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club

E-mail: SFandFBookclub@aol.com
 This page was last updated April 29, 2010