I posted on Illyria not too long ago, but had to add a little bit more from Elizabeth Hand's newest, Radiant Days. Her language is a joy to read, tantalizing senses, imagination and that romanticism that stirs inside us when we read Shakespeare. Each word accompanies the others on the page in a dance that takes several reads to fully appreciate. Here are just a few of those moments:
"As if someone else, something else, moved there unseen"
"In love as in theatre, I had never had any magic"
"True, I never flamed out, and I never shone the way my cousin had, not even for a moment"
"Carpets in their muted colors, unfurling across wooden floors, white lace curtains in the windows, wisteria blooming on the porch outside and the echo of footsteps on the stairs above"
"when the entire house seemed knit around me"
"Stars seemed to stir in the wind"
"I didn't want to touch that painting, I wanted to be in it"
"Dieu me conduisse"
Her character may not have had any magic, but Ms. Hand's words are soaked in that stuff that turns zephyrs of wind and clouds into ancient creatures that gave birth to our legends and stories of times long gone and places we may never find.
A sincere thanks! That was an amazing read!
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