Galveston by Sean
Stewart
Published: Ace Books,
2000
Awards Won: World
Fantasy Award
The Book:
“During Mardi
Gras of 2004, Galveston was inundated by a Flood… not of water, but of deadly and
dangerous magic. When the disaster
began to settle, the city was split into two halves. In normal Galveston, people lived in the ruins of the old
technological civilization. Their
fragile community was held together through the efforts of the secular leader, Jane
Gardner. Magical Galveston
remained in Mardi Gras forever, reigned over by a god of magic, Momus. The two halves were held separate by
the power of the witch Odessa Gibbons, who exiled anyone contaminated by magic
to the Carnival.
Jane Gardner’s
daughter Sloane is still trying to find her place in this new society. As her mother’s health fails, she knows that she doesn’t have what it takes to live up to Jane’s
legacy. At the same time, a boy
she once knew, Josh Cane, struggles with his lot in life. Though his family was once somewhat
wealthy, he now lives alone as an herbal doctor, treating poor folk that he
despises. Like a game of poker,
their futures will be determined both by chance and by their skill at playing
the hands they’re dealt.” ~Allie
This is the first book I’ve read by Sean Stewart, and while
I appreciated the creativity of the story, it didn’t really work for me. I
already have a copy of Mockingbird on
my bookshelf, though, so I am going to try reading at least one more book by
Stewart at some point.
My Thoughts:
The thing I most enjoyed about Galveston was the setting.
The survivor community of Galveston and the chaotic, time-stopped Mardi
Gras area both had a distinct flair and ambience. Normal Galveston was a drab, desperate place that relied on
its past as it searched for a future. The details about the foundations of
their everyday lives, such as how they generated power or made clothing, made
the setting feel immediate and grounded.
However, as they began to run out of their carefully hoarded pre-Flood
goods—from soda to penicillin—there was a creeping sense of dread and
uncertainty about the future. Mardi Gras, on the other hand, was mysterious,
wild, and confusing. It held all
the allure of a wild night of drinking and carousing, but with a level of
danger exaggerated by magic. For
one thing, the revelers tended to slowly transform into creatures, and for
another, the party never ended. There weren’t many details about the larger
concerns of the world—how other areas were faring, what caused the magic in the
first place, or what rules it followed—but real and magical Galveston were
beautifully imagined in all their grimy, sleazy glory.
In this troubled world, I think the main characters, Josh
and Sloane, were intended to be pretty unlikeable characters. I think that the
fairly sympathetic secondary character, Josh’s only friend Ham (named after
Noah’s son), was supposed to win over the audience and connect them to the
protagonists. While Ham’s
compassion and good cheer did win me over, I was never able to bring myself to
care the slightest bit about the fate of Josh and Sloane. Josh was creepily
obsessed with Sloane based on a childhood crush, and he was extremely bitter about
having to associate with poor people.
He was almost universally nasty to anyone who had the misfortune of
interacting with him. Sloane, on the other hand, didn’t really seem to have a
strong identity at all. Her
personality changed a lot throughout the book, but it was mostly a result of
external magical meddling. Since
her character seemed to lack integrity, any personal growth seemed more like
something that was done to her than something she achieved. I know all readers have different
tolerances for unsympathetic characters, but these two were well past mine.
In addition to lacking a connection with the protagonists, I
was frustrated by a plot that often seemed directionless, and occasionally even
clumsy. One example of this
clumsiness was the plot device used to force the male and female protagonists
to meet. In short, Sloane
encountered Josh as a result of her rescue from a gang of generic rapist thugs
that set upon her as she was walking home. This event was largely irrelevant to the rest of the story,
but I was also frustrated by the unexamined victim blaming in the later
reference to the event as “her stupidity afterward in nearly getting herself
raped” (p.75). Overall, the story
seemed to move from event to event in a rather unfocused way, and often plot
points that I expected would be important were just solved by chance or
dismissed.
I think part of the reason for this structure was to make
the story a reflection of the mechanics of the game of poker (specifically
Texas hold’em), which was heavily featured in the story. Poker was common in both real and
magical Galveston, and there were many discussions of strategies, bluffing
techniques, and detailed accounts of games. As in poker, the story was strongly influenced by chance
events, and the importance of various plot points shifted as more of the story
was revealed. While I appreciated
the idea, it didn’t work for me as a narrative structure. The end was also a
little bit of a letdown, as the story didn’t resolve so much as it just stopped,
leaving a number of threads hanging. Though I was a bit unsatisfied by the ending, I did appreciate the realistic treatment of
some of the remaining problems, which were of the sort that can’t be solved quickly.
My Rating: 2.5/5
The setting of Galveston
was fascinating, though I was less intrigued by the characters and the
story. I loved the different
atmosphere and rich description of the post-technological real Galveston and
the time-stopped, sometimes nightmarish, Carnival. The main characters, Sloane and Josh, were too unsympathetic
for me, and I had a hard time caring about what would eventually happen to
them. The story, which seemed to
parallel aspects of the game of poker, was just too random and unfocused for my
taste, and the ending also seemed very abrupt. I did really enjoy the world, though the story didn’t really
work for me, so I will probably try another of Stewart’s novels in the future.
