SF Site: “Read from cover-to-cover in a short amount of time, Anima feels less like a book than an assault, a wound, an onslaught of dream-killing mirrors, a battalion of bloodthirsty words, an epidemic of images that burrow into the readerly brain and claw their way through the murk of accumulated wistfulness and self-delusion until all that’s left is the petrified carcass of desire.”
That’s an apt description of Harrison, although perhaps it’s more suitable to Light. Of the two novels that make up Anima – Signs of Life and The Course of the Heart – I’ve read the first and while it is quite good, it’s not as good as this paragraph makes it sound (although I’ve heard fantastic things about Heart).
If you want a taste of Harrison, check out Isobel Avens Returns to Stepney in the Spring, the novelette on which Signs of Life is based. I found it superior to the book – tighter and more involving.
I’m rather suspicious of anything that reviewer writes, but I do like your headline, Ed.