Review: Unexpected, unconventional, delightful
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 14, 2011
Prue Batten's A Thousand Glass Flowers is an unusual fantasy novel and an unconventional romance novel.  She spends half the book developing the hero and heroine before they finally meet.Their universe is a fascinating, detailed, three-way mashup between Renaissance Arabic, Italian, and Irish worlds without the churchy aspects of religion, but heavily larded with the presence of magic.This way of simply ignoring religion in worlds that you might expect to be sodden with it is becoming typical of fantasy, from the hottest vampire-slash-werewolf-slash-girl-with-tattoos paranormal to Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. There are angels in the architecture, as Paul Simon sings, and beings like godlings and mini-goddesses, yet no priests, no bibles, no minarets, no omnipotent intruder.  There's plenty of magic, though.  Everyone practices it a little bit, and magical creatures and personalities permeate the lives of ordinary men.Batten breathes lush life into her richly textured world.  She's also doing something I can't put my finger on.  It's simply... unexpected.  That's the word I would apply to this book, if I had to choose one.  I've read a lot of fantasy and romance.  This is simply unpredictable.If you're a romance reader, be patient.  These two oddball characters will come together.  You'll be glad they did.