What do You think about Otherwise: Three Novels By John Crowley (2002)?
Three early short novels by John Crowley. I loved all three novels, but I have to say the last one, Engine Summer, blew my socks off. Such originality...it's just stunning. Crowley is hard to describe to the uninitiated. He seems to be a sci-fi/fantasy writer, but he's so much more than that. Of course, all sci-fi/fantasy fans want to trumpet their favorite sci-fi/fantasy writer as "transcending the genre", but in this case - it's well, sort of true. I say sort of because I don't really think that he even belongs in that category at all. I think it's just kind of coincidental that the subject matter he tends to dwell on has some similarities with genre fiction. To save myself from babbling further and confusing you even more, I'll just point to this article: [http://www.bostonreview.net/BR25.6/hy...]. As a final note , I will say this - Crowley's novels read slowly. They are dense with detail and subtlety. He can be ponderous and challenging, and requires a bit of patience from the reader. Not exactly "beach reading".
—Bobby
