Sugar Rain

Second volume of Park's Starbridge Chronicles (Soldiers of Paradise, not reviewed), fantasy of the decidedly peculiar, rootless, and largely unfathomable school. Park's alternate Earth is a strange place indeed, where alchemy and ballpoint pens exist side by side, and rain tastes sugary, smells of gasoline, and sometimes catches fire. Various religions and beliefs - such as the transmigration of souls and the literal existence of heaven and hell - flourish and are taken very seriously; their premises, after all, might well be true. The swarming, overripe city of Charn is dominated by the Starbridge clan. Young, beautiful princess Charity Starbridge - born to a life of subjugation, self-effacement, and servitude - has been disgraced, apparently by association with her politically undesirable, older warrior-husband and her freethinking, freetalking, dangerously unorthodox cousin Thanakar, who is, was, or will be also her lover. Thus Charity is condemned to death by the priesthood, but instead switches identities with the similarly condemned and dying waif Rosa; she takes to the perilous streets of Charn in the company of Raksha, an outcast parson. Elsewhere, the city council busies itself passing out death sentences upon Charity's powerful brother prince Abu, who despises the system and disdainfully refuses to save himself. And so forth. After many such cryptic interludes and incidents, Charity and Thanakar will be (re?) united. With no discernible plot or even direction, Park's novel simply unfolds: richly detailed yet darkly heavy, curious in a reptilian sort of way, and always elusive. Some readers, perhaps, will be mesmerized; others will just be repelled. (Kirkus Reviews)