Call number
Genres
Publication
Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 1992.
Pages
390
Description
In an America where the miraculous is par for the course, where magic and myths are as real as shopping malls and television game shows, Jennifer Mazdan listens to the modern storytellers recite the tales of the Founders. But when strange things start to happen and Jennie becomes pregnant - from a dream - she enters a struggle which threatens her own life and causes her to question everything she has ever learned. Unquenchable Fire won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1989.
Awards
Arthur C. Clarke Award (Winner — 1989)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1988-03-09
Physical description
390 p.; 8.3 inches
ISBN
0879514477 / 9780879514471
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User reviews
LibraryThing member aulsmith
I agree with lquilter that the worldbuilding is wonderful. It's one of the most detailed fantasy worlds I have ever encountered. And, boy, is it weird.
However, I really hated the story. The woman in the book is taken over by a magical power pretty early in the tale who directs her every move from
If you like weird fantasy settings, don't mind that the main character is powerless, and enjoy discourses on religious questions, you'll love this book. If you can ignore the parts that you're not enjoying and just read for the setting, you will be in awe. If you can't, you might find it worth skimming.
However, I really hated the story. The woman in the book is taken over by a magical power pretty early in the tale who directs her every move from
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then on. The "protagonist" spends the rest of the book kvetching about her fate and not being able to do anything about it. I'm sure it's supposed to be a meditation on free will and the problem of evil, but these are no longer meaningful problems in my life. I was left staring at the beautiful scenery and screaming because nothing was happening in it.If you like weird fantasy settings, don't mind that the main character is powerless, and enjoy discourses on religious questions, you'll love this book. If you can ignore the parts that you're not enjoying and just read for the setting, you will be in awe. If you can't, you might find it worth skimming.
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LibraryThing member lquilter
Set in the same world as [Temporary Agency], this story tells an inter-related set of stories about a woman chosen to give birth to something.
Pollack's world is an amazing creation: A modern world in which the forces of magic have won out over the forces of logic. Miracles, magic, and spiritual
Pollack's world is an amazing creation: A modern world in which the forces of magic have won out over the forces of logic. Miracles, magic, and spiritual
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(and demonic) interventions are every day occurrences. Show Less
LibraryThing member LisaMorr
This book won the Arthur C. Clarke award, but it didn't work for me. I was contemplating using the Pearl rule because it just started out so blech for me - and I rarely don't finish a book (well, I might set it down, but I usually always return and finish them). It takes place in Poughkeepsie NY,
One little interesting point I picked up on was that people who follow the old religions, worship God for example, were called 'secs' or seculars and were looked down upon.
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in a post-revolutionary America that is hard to describe. There is a whole new religion with a very bizarre set of creation myths and everyone is always performing various rituals. The new religion is also very commercialized - you can buy all kinds of kitschy junk to support all the rituals that people are performing. The book would alternate telling the new mythology and progressing the protagonist's story. The protagonist is a very ordinary divorced woman who isn't very happy and just goes from day-to-day. She falls asleep after completing her work rounds one day and has a bizarre dream and ends up pregnant. This is at about page 50. She has the baby on p.385 and the book ends on p. 390, when her 17-old daughter goes off to College.One little interesting point I picked up on was that people who follow the old religions, worship God for example, were called 'secs' or seculars and were looked down upon.
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LibraryThing member justifiedsinner
What would you do if you had a visitation and unwillingly found yourself pregnant with the Saviour of the World?
Pollack's setting - a modern day America with an animist religion reminds one of Ted Chiang's story 'Hell is the Abscence of God' and T. F. Powys earthy, almost pagan Christianity.
Pollack's setting - a modern day America with an animist religion reminds one of Ted Chiang's story 'Hell is the Abscence of God' and T. F. Powys earthy, almost pagan Christianity.
LibraryThing member SChant
DNF on page 273. I really can't fathom this one - it makes no sense to me. The setting is suburban Poughkeepsie some time after various gods/prophets/supernatural beings have manifested in the US and everyone there has become a fervent religious nut, performing incessant rituals to appease the
I can't tell if it's meant to be a satire on religion (in which case it's not satirical enough); a commentary on the position of women locked into suburban conformity (if so, not barbed enough); or just a mish-mash of random thoughts thrown together after a night smoking too much weed (seems much more likely to me).
Anyway, I kept reading up until the protagonist started begging her estranged husband to return, then my stomach revolted and I DNF it.
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spirits, and seeing miracles everywhere.I can't tell if it's meant to be a satire on religion (in which case it's not satirical enough); a commentary on the position of women locked into suburban conformity (if so, not barbed enough); or just a mish-mash of random thoughts thrown together after a night smoking too much weed (seems much more likely to me).
Anyway, I kept reading up until the protagonist started begging her estranged husband to return, then my stomach revolted and I DNF it.
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