The Curator

Fantasy books don't always need dragons, swords or halflings to work. Some of the best fantasy tales are those that take the familiar and make them slightly different. A little more gaslight, a little more polite in society settings, a different mode of dress, even the importance of cats. Add in unsettling feelings, political disorder, an a mystery of life beyond death, and again cats, one has a very good setting for a fantasy book. Owen King in The Curator has all this and more and has created a city, a time and people trying desperately to get answers for questions that make others uncomfortable, and over them all are the cats.

The tale takes place in a city with out a name, but called "the Fairest" by those who inhabit the city's environs. The city has its charms, beautiful rivers, and ports, morgue ships and many, many museums, some well known, others forgotten on side streets for reasons. The city has also recently been wracked by revolution, and suddenly those who fought so long against those in power, suddenly have the power, which is causing quite a bit of upset and dissent. Into this comes Dora, a retired domestic from the university who is looking for what happened to her brother after his death. Dora starts looking of answers at the Museum of Psykical Research, but finds that has been the one museum that has been burned to the ground, during the change of government. Soon the more that Dora digs the more people around her try to get in her way or stop her from looking for answers for questions that should just stay dead.

The Curator started as a short story and has been expanded on and added to, making the novel almost 600 pages. I have not read the short story, so I am not sure where the changes come in, but enjoyed the book quite a bit. As in a lot of books this length, some cutting could have been done, some of the side quests were a little long, and some dialogue was a little, rough I guess. However the story, the setting and most of the characters, in fact a few of the characters really stand out and I would like to see more about them, are quite interesting. The world is almost like a Dickens story, with the political influence of Kafka tossed in, especially in the revolutionaries. The museum ideas were quite good, and much can be done with that idea, which I am not sure if that was what King was planning, but one can hope. The cats will please a lot of people, and is something that is pretty pivotal to the plot. Getting into the story does take a bit, but once the writing style and the descriptions that King is giving, plus how certain characters interact with each other, readers get more of a sense of what is going on, and will want to know more. Patience is helpful, and worth the journey.

Recommended for fans of fantasy novels that aren't sword but a little bit of sorcery. Readers of V.E. Schwab works or Adrian Tchaikovsky's City of Lost Chances novel, which has a similar vibe and setting. Also readers of Charles Palliser as both books have that city as the star of the book kind of feel.

Start with a city experiencing a revolution of the common people. Add an officer and a maid. Add a talented thief with unique connections. Add a fantastical Morgue ship. Add sinister cats. Add sinister humans. Add a bit of magic. Glue that together with a whole lot of unusual and you have the premise for an original, disturbingly addictive fantasy with a large dose of horror.

I had some ups and downs with this novel. Be prepared to get a little confused along the way. The story line jumps from various narrators to various locations and can be a bit hard to follow. I personally didn’t get a solid idea of what was going on in the novel until I was close to four fifths of the way through. At that point my enjoyment factor jumped quite a bit. There was still a lot of weird stuff going on but a least I was able to follow the story more clearly. Definitely not what I expected when I picked up the book. A unique read. 3 stars.

Review based on a digital Uncorrected Proof provided by Scribner and NetGalley. Thank you!

The Curator is a fantastical, complex story with an overlay of horror. It is a multiple POV and can be hard to follow at first. I held out hope that all the characters and scenarios would come together and they did. I enjoyed the second half of the book more than the first simply because I was able to understand the connections.

This book is very descriptive and can make you feel like you don’t have the brain capacity to understand it at times. Power through that feeling and you will be thankful you did! The payoff is a story of love, loss, battle and terror. And who doesn’t love a world where cats are beloved and revered?

I love Stephen King and Joe Hill and have read pretty much everything they’ve ever written. I was sure I would like Owen King’s “The Curator” too…..but I just don’t. I’m not sure I will even finish it.

Oh, how the premise of The Curator spoke to me. The reality, however, was a bit of a letdown. I found most of what I read to be disjointed and confusing, and wasn't drawn to the world building enough to persevere. I ended up DNF'ING the book at 14%, without having understood much about what I'd consumed. I really liked Sleeping Beauties, so I was excited to give this a try, but it just didn't work for me. Thank you to Scriber and Netgalley for the chance to review this advance copy. The Curator is available for purchase everywhere you buy books now.

This book will arrive today. I just want to say how excited I am for this new young writer. Sleeping Beauties was written with his father, but I could hear a new voice as I read and it was a gentler voice, a voice I am sure I will enjoy listening to more of. I have read everything his father has written over the last almost 50 years (yes I am old), and I feel like his father is an old friend who has seen me through good times and bad. His voice is so familiar to me. His son will have his own voice, a voice that will see future generations of people through their own life struggles, a companion when they most need it. For those who read, they will understand and will support this new young writer. Buy books folks!!

I am struggling to finish. The story is boring.
Description is excessive. It drones on and on……

I did not finish this title.

In short, it was cumbersome and the characters were not developed enough to be likeable (halfway in to the book). Characters were dumped in, given a lenghty back story, and then disappeared in favor of someone else.

The concept, the premise attracted me. Odd mix of fantasy and government coup, in what felt vaguely Victorian. It should've worked. And for some readers, it certainly will.

The "romance" bothered me greatly. Clearly, sex was a means to an end. Dora was uninterested and uninvolved--just "lay there and took it" in a way that is demeaning for even an underdeveloped female character. Every sexual encounter felt like amateur porn.

I know this will be a 5-star read for someone, but it's definltely not for me.

I did not finish this title.

In short, it was cumbersome and the characters were not developed enough to be likeable (halfway in to the book). Characters were dumped in, given a lenghty back story, and then disappeared in favor of someone else.

The concept, the premise attracted me. Odd mix of fantasy and government coup, in what felt vaguely Victorian. It should've worked. And for some readers, it certainly will.

The "romance" bothered me greatly. Clearly, sex was a means to an end. Dora was uninterested and uninvolved--just "lay there and took it" in a way that is demeaning for even an underdeveloped female character. Every sexual encounter felt like amateur porn.

I know this will be a 5-star read for someone, but it's definltely not for me.

This book caught my interest immediately; curious though it was. Is it a fairytale, a sci-fi novel, a dystopian look into the future, or just a what if that addresses what could happen if a civil war broke out? There aren't any heroes in this story; only survivors or victims or perpetrators. And I found this off putting. I didn't exactly dislike this book, but neither did I love it. I just found it much too confusing. And because of that I can't really recommend it.