Book Reviews
All of these reviews relate to Jaarfindor stories or characters. In other words, all of books that form the body of my work. The UK's National newspaper the Guardian ran an article about "Building a Children's Library" for people new to book collecting. My book - "The Twisted Root of Jaarfindor" was featured in the article, alongside JK Rowling, Madonna, and The Beatles! Read here.
"Sean Wright accomplishes something in his maddened prose that few fantasists have ever managed. Like Robert E. Howard, Wright plays with the raw stuff of fantasy, the malleable and mutable protoplasm of genre. Jaarfindor is a dreamland made real, rooted in the concrete of the here-and-now but utterly foreign at the same time. This is powerful, mythic stuff. This is reaching into the sky and pulling down fire. Sometimes unharnessed, always bright and hot, often dangerous. But it works." gabe chouinard, US critic, writer, founder of Fantastic Metropolis, cover art designer, excerpt from the introduction to Jaarfindor Remade, July 2006
"I like a book that tries to do something a bit different. The Twisted Root Of Jaarfindor doesn't so much do something different as systematically demolish most of the conventions of the fantasy genre and storytelling in general... This is the only work of Sean Wright's that I've read to date, but it has placed him on my list of essential writers." David Hebblethwaite, The Zone SF Review 2005
"JAARFINDOR REMADE is written in a stunningly visual manner, the words flowing off the page with images made real by imagination, full of color and life. Almost poetic in the way this tale is told, Wright has found a way to continue his story of Jaarfindor while doing it in an entirely different manner." Eternal Night e-zine, November 2006
"Take a dash of Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, a sprinkling of China Miéville's Perdido Street Station, and a bit of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, and you will have an idea of what Sean Wright is doing in his highly imaginative novel, The Twisted Root of Jaarfindor. Wright takes a storyline familiar to many readers, that of the youth maturing and questing, and dresses it in the clothes of perhaps the bitchiest heroine this side of Narnia or any swiftly tilting planet... As the novel continues, so does Wright’s tearing down of the cliché’s of the typical princess character... This is a bold, raw uncompromising fantasy novel blending blends elements from all branches of the speculative fiction genre, and left me wanting to discover more of Wright’s imagined world." Rob Bedford, SFF World 2005
"This reader was left wanting for more (Jaarfindor) and I suspect that many other readers of this book were left feeling the same exact way. Get back to writing, Mr. Wright. Your fans will be demanding more and you'll most likely be hard-pressed to fulfill that bursting need." Shawn P Madison, Eternal Night ezine 2005
"Sean Wright's The Twisted Root of Jaarfindor is one to watch out for...along with Michelle Paver's Wolf Brother, PB Kerr's Children of the Lamp, Madonna's The Adventures of Abdi, Julia Donaldson's Gruffalo's Child, Charmian Hussey's Valley of Secrets, and Philip Pullman's Scarecrow and the Servant." Jill Insley, The Observer December 2004
"I get a sort of Jack Vance vibe from this one (Twisted Root of Jaarfindor) …the type of book that you might successfully hand off to the video-game-addict in your house when they plead for a book to read for English class. And if you've already run through it yourself, you'll be able to spot-check 'em -- and have enjoyed a nice tight tale of fantasy adventure in the process.' Rick Kleffel, The Agony Book Review 2005
"The Twisted Root of Jaarfindor...looks set to gather a cult following. Turning on its head stereotypes of race, colour and creed, the Twisted Root re-writes the borders of myth, fantasy and science-fiction." Foyle's bookstore in Charing Cross, London 2005
"Between the writing of Twisted Root and Remade, Sean Wright has become a stronger writer. One thing he hasn’t done, thankfully, is to rein in his imagination. Despite being set in the same world as the Twisted Root of Jaarindor, Remade stands on its own, although reading the previous novel will deepen the experience..." SFF World, November 2006
"This is a high-paced adventure with plenty of twists and turns. It rarely eases up, and despite its occasional flaws it's hard to put down. Wright is no prose stylist, but the pace of storytelling and the vivid and dark vision are striking. He's like a remix artist -- The Twisted Root of Jaarfindor is a mix'n'match of standard genre furniture given a few dark and innovative twists. There's a lightness of touch, too, with some lovely moments of wry humour: 'Rule the court with a mighty blade of steel and tax the peasants for all you can get' are Lia-Va's father's dying words of advice." Nick Gifford, bestselling author of Piggies, Incubus, and Flesh & Blood (Puffin). November 2005
"Reminiscent in style to Mervyn Peak and Michael Moorcock," Hilary Williamson, Bookloons.com 2004
"So do I recommend this book? If you like your fantasy cut and dried with easy answers and the loose ends all neatly tied away, then, no; Wicked Or What? will confuse and annoy you. If however you don't mind a story that crosses genres and explains nothing, leaving the reader to decide what really happened, then, yes; you'll enjoy a fresh, different fantasy that will linger in your mind long after you've closed the book. I didn't think I'd enjoy Wicked Or What? at first, but I was pleasantly surprised. This book is definitely going on my 'books to be treasured' shelf and I shall look out for more of Sean Wright's confusing fiction in the future." (Karen Stevens, Dark Horizons Issue 49, Summer 2006)
"In New Wave of Speculative Fiction, some of the stories are like fine art. Michael Mirolla's Inside/Out and Sean Wright's The Numberist come to mind. To me, they were like paintings you have to stare at for awhile to start to grasp their depth. Wright's story presents an unpredictably strange future in which God, in his anger, reveals the bizarre nature of the universe." Jonathan Fesmire, SF Site 2006
"The Twisted Root of Jaarfindor is another entry in the growing list of slipstream fantasy/SF novels, and, while flawed, among the most enjoyable ones... the novel is a highly entertaining and intelligent fantasy adventure." Jakob Schmidt, SF Site
“Sean Wright has talent and creativity, there's no question about that. The world he describes is bizarre and alien, corrupt and unique. It resonates with the "weird fantasy" crossgenre retro-sci fi atmosphere of M. John Harrison's and China Mieville's works. But Wright's vision of society, politics, religion and human nature is unrelievedly dark and depressing, with the hope of redemption offered only at terrible and destructive cost. Love, one feels, simply doesn't exist in the world of Jaarfindor.” Dru Pagliassotti, The Harrow Literary Magazine
"Outstanding fiction of the highest calibre (Jaarfindor)," Lucy Masters, children's buyer, Hatchard's Piccadilly, London 2004
“The China Mieville influence is unmistakable (Twisted Root of Jaarfindor) and I think cannot be overstated, regarding both in application and intended effect of the depiction of landscapes and the gallery of characters describable as both eldritch and fantastic. The novella both achieves and sustains a brisk pace; it is not bogged down by the surplus of whimsical ideas, and I think achieves an entertainment value...” Jay Tomio, 2005
"(Twisted Root of Jaarfindor) ...furious pace, ample imagination, and audacious twists..." Paula Guran, (Fantasy #2, Spring 2006)
"Blue (a short story featured in Love Under Jaarfindor Spires) is a well-written subtle dream-quest," Nick Mamatas, author of Northern Gothic
"Twisted Root of Jaarfindor is big, bold, brassy, a mixture of styles, has meaty dialogue with sex bubbling under the storyline and violence splashed all over the pages. Wright produces something satisfyingly different." Dark Horizons, Spring 2006, British Fantasy Society magazine
"There is plenty that's intriguing about Wicked or What? The setting, Jaarfindor, appears to be a nexus of different realities: Jamey's and Layla's school is a futuristic space venue intertwined with elements of present-day Earth; and the fantasy world which the Third stumbles through is yet another region of Jaarfindor. This structure is not explored as much as it could (or perhaps should) be, but it's an interesting set-up...Sean Wright is clearly keen to map his own way through the genre (if only more writers would!)." David Hebblethwaite, SF Site 2006
"Other good ones (in the When Graveyards Yawn anthology) are Sean Wright’s own Journey’s End, a surreal piece where the fortunes of a couple of lovers keep going full circle." Mario Guslandi, Ookami.co.uk reviews
"Love Under Jaarfindor Spires is an excellent story," E. Sedia, author of According to Crow
Allen Ashley was the first person to review Jaarfindor Remade, April 2006. Author, editor, and a writer for London's Time Out magazine, Allen Ashley has offered up some insights into Jaarfindor Remade 3 months ahead of publication (8th August 2006).
"Welcome to the fog-bound, noxious, unsafe future where the few surviving humans compete with insectiants, shamutants and duplicitous Jaarfindorians. In this, his first adult novel, ace fantasist Sean Wright envisages a literal collision of worlds and cultures which leaves Jaarfindor princess Lia-Va in charge of the Highfeld Corporation and, by extension, Earth as well.
Wright adds detail and definition to the realm he first envisaged in 'The Twisted Root of Jaarfindor', a world thrillingly and scarily different in its social customs and inhabitants and yet recognisably tied to our modern day by the ever-present threat of casual violence and a catastrophically deteriorating biosphere. Then there's Lia-Va - 'the product of her generation' - with a 'propensity to rationalising the most grotesque imagery without any emotional connection whatsoever.'
Put down that PSP, turn off the DVD, and bin those blades before it's too late, kids…"With the bustling city of Queen's Lynn and its gas mask toting human and mutated or genetically modified citizens, Sean Wright has set his stall out in a clearly defined pitch alongside the creations of Jeff Vandermeer and China Mieville. With the characters of assassin artist Domino Fortune and Lia-Va herself, the author calls forth echoes of Michael Moorcock's equally amoral and self-serving Jerry Cornelius and Miss Brunner partnership.
This is a book about temporary alliances, double crosses, and the blurred lines between truth, lies and illusions. The reader will side with Fortune and his expelled from paradise back story and yet… this guy's a hired killer, an anti-hero if ever there was or will be one. So should we empathise instead with the patrician, casually cool murderess Lia-Va?
One thing is for certain: you may be momentarily thrown by some of the plot twists but you'll want to hold on tight in this rollercoaster ride through a futuristic, frightening yet fantastical dystopia. "-- Allen Ashley, author of "The Planet Suite" and "Somnambulists", April 2006
"Charles Stross remarked at a recent convention on a newfound confidence in British SF, which he ascribed to writers having seen that there was "life after the end of empire." Whether or not that is the reason, there does seem to be such a mood. Sean Wright is only one of the many new names following in the wake of the first wave of Interzone- and Asimov’s-groomed neocelebrities such as Stephen Baxter, Paul McAuley, and Stross himself (who, after debuting in Interzone in the same year as Baxter exactly twenty years ago, sold only sporadically until suddenly taking off at the start of the decade).
For years after New Worlds imploded in 1970, it seemed that the legacy of Michael Moorcock and company’s obsessive brooding about inner landscapes was casting a shadow like a nuclear winter over the British SF landscape. At its best, New Worlds had encouraged its readers and contributors to look beyond the narrow influences of the (American) magazine-dominated early 1960s and revitalized the whole field. But its demise created shock waves that were exacerbated by the economic downturn, and for nearly two decades British SF struggled with a malaise as much directional as economic.
Only with the economic upturn of the 1980s, the launch of Interzone in 1982, and the 1987 WorldCon did British SF start to rediscover its voice. Initially this was expressed in the space opera renaissance of the early 1990s—headlined by McAuley, Baxter’s Xeelee series, Iain M. Banks's Culture novels, and Peter F. Hamilton’s monumental trilogies—but now it’s fragmenting in the same way that American speculative fiction has.
Wright is part of that fragmentation, refusing to be confined by any single movement, instead developing his own style—a cross of Jack Vance and Philip José Farmer on speed." Strange Horizons, March 2007