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Veronica
On a snowy night in February--at the improbable corner in lower Manhattan where Waverly Place intersects itself--a photographer named Leo meets Veronica, the beautiful, enigmatic daughter of an illusionist who has been swallowed up in time. Veronica is looking for an appetite, a savior. And she is soon leading Leo into a dangerous labyrinth of delights that winds beneath and beyond a luminously transformed city of underground streams, dragonpoints, and mystically altered time. At the frozen apex of an extraordinary winter, Veronica has enticed Leo into a wonderful, terrible world...and away from his ordinary life forever.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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717 people want to read
About the author
Nicholas Christopher
36 books177 followersNicholas Christopher was born and raised in New York City. He was educated at Harvard College, where he studied with Robert Lowell and Anthony Hecht. Afterward, he traveled and lived in Europe. He became a regular contributor to the New Yorker in his early twenties, and began publishing his work in other leading magazines, both in the United States and abroad, including Esquire, the New Republic, the New York Review of Books, the Nation, and the Paris Review. He has appeared in numerous anthologies, including the Norton Anthology of Poetry, the Paris Review 50th Anniversary Anthology, the Best American Poetry, Poet's Choice, the Everyman's Library Poems of New York and Conversation Pieces, the Norton Anthology of Love, the Faber Book of Movie Verse, and the Grand Street Reader. He has edited two major anthologies himself, Under 35: The New Generation of American Poets (Anchor, 1989) and Walk on the Wild Side: Urban American Poetry Since 1975 (Scribner, 1994) and has translated Martial and Catullus and several modern Greek poets, including George Seferis and Yannis Ritsos. His books have been translated and published many other countries, and he is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships from various institutions, including the Guggenheim Foundation, the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Society of America, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has taught at Yale, Barnard College, and New York University, and is now a Professor on the permanent faculty of the Writing Division of the School of the Arts at Columbia University. He lives in New York City with his wife, Constance Christopher, and continues to travel widely, most frequently to Venice, the Hawaiian island of Kauai, and the Grenadines.
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March 14, 2012
This book is a lot like most things in life, a giant fucking disappointment.
It's been years since I read it.
When I first met Karen, even more years ago, she gave me a copy of Trip to the Stars (by the same author) to read.
Trip to the Stars is one of those books that is magical and pretty near perfect. It's an amazing wondrous book.
It's the kind of book that makes you want to go out and read everything else an author has written, just so you can try to capture even some of that feeling again.
Years ago Karen warned me against reading this book. At time it was the only other Nicholas Christopher novel available.
I didn't listen to her.
I listened to her, but more correctly I thought, ok it's not going to be as good, but there will be something good in it.
The book was a major disappointment.
Like most things that you get really excited about before they happen this book didn't live up to the expectations. It was actually similar to my feelings of seeing Star Wars: Episode One. But it was better than the first Star Wars prequel because there wasn't any pod-racing or Jar Jar Binks.
I don't know why I rated this two stars, for my feelings of disappointment it should have rated one star. But at least there was no pod racing, or Jar Jar Binks. It didn't take a great big shit on something I loved as a child, so I guess it deserves an extra star for that.
I think this book might be out of print now. That's ok. It deserves to sail silently into oblivion. I think Trip to the Stars is still available, but only as a slightly hideous print on demand version with those awful covers that look like they were done on a color photocopier. A shitty color photocopier, run by some moron who doesn't now how to correct the settings before running a job. That's not ok. In a perfect world, Trip to the Stars should be one of those perennial best-sellers, like Confederacy of Dunces.
Well not like Confederacy of Dunces.
It should sell like Confederacy of Dunces does, but not suck.
Confederacy of Dunces sucks. Why people keep reading it is beyond me. Seriously people give it up, there are better books out there. If you are looking for something literary and humorous, let me point you towards undeservedly underselling Stanley Elkin. Now there is a funny and good writer.
Stanley Elkin died in a non-romantic fashion though. His mom was probably already dead by the time he succumbed to disease so she didn't get to push his books on Walker Percy and make him a 'star'. I don't know if Walker Percy ever read Stanley Elkin. He probably did. Or maybe not. I have no idea.
So in conclusion. Veronica, bad, but not as bad as any of the Star Wars prequels. Trip to the Stars, amazing! Go read it right now. Seriously, all you with your fancy devices download it right now. Confederacy of Dunces? Mediocre at best, not deserving of it's perennial sales. Stanley Elkin? Semi-forgotten master of the darkly comedic novel, heroically kept in print by the fine folks at Dalkey. Read him, too.
It's been years since I read it.
When I first met Karen, even more years ago, she gave me a copy of Trip to the Stars (by the same author) to read.
Trip to the Stars is one of those books that is magical and pretty near perfect. It's an amazing wondrous book.
It's the kind of book that makes you want to go out and read everything else an author has written, just so you can try to capture even some of that feeling again.
Years ago Karen warned me against reading this book. At time it was the only other Nicholas Christopher novel available.
I didn't listen to her.
I listened to her, but more correctly I thought, ok it's not going to be as good, but there will be something good in it.
The book was a major disappointment.
Like most things that you get really excited about before they happen this book didn't live up to the expectations. It was actually similar to my feelings of seeing Star Wars: Episode One. But it was better than the first Star Wars prequel because there wasn't any pod-racing or Jar Jar Binks.
I don't know why I rated this two stars, for my feelings of disappointment it should have rated one star. But at least there was no pod racing, or Jar Jar Binks. It didn't take a great big shit on something I loved as a child, so I guess it deserves an extra star for that.
I think this book might be out of print now. That's ok. It deserves to sail silently into oblivion. I think Trip to the Stars is still available, but only as a slightly hideous print on demand version with those awful covers that look like they were done on a color photocopier. A shitty color photocopier, run by some moron who doesn't now how to correct the settings before running a job. That's not ok. In a perfect world, Trip to the Stars should be one of those perennial best-sellers, like Confederacy of Dunces.
Well not like Confederacy of Dunces.
It should sell like Confederacy of Dunces does, but not suck.
Confederacy of Dunces sucks. Why people keep reading it is beyond me. Seriously people give it up, there are better books out there. If you are looking for something literary and humorous, let me point you towards undeservedly underselling Stanley Elkin. Now there is a funny and good writer.
Stanley Elkin died in a non-romantic fashion though. His mom was probably already dead by the time he succumbed to disease so she didn't get to push his books on Walker Percy and make him a 'star'. I don't know if Walker Percy ever read Stanley Elkin. He probably did. Or maybe not. I have no idea.
So in conclusion. Veronica, bad, but not as bad as any of the Star Wars prequels. Trip to the Stars, amazing! Go read it right now. Seriously, all you with your fancy devices download it right now. Confederacy of Dunces? Mediocre at best, not deserving of it's perennial sales. Stanley Elkin? Semi-forgotten master of the darkly comedic novel, heroically kept in print by the fine folks at Dalkey. Read him, too.
January 26, 2013
I found this an alluring dreamlike trip with love and suspense. But like The Night Circus it left me feeling I had taken a thrilling, spooky fairground ride followed by a binge on cotton candy. If you are satisfied by such an excursion, this could be a good book for you.
Freelance photographer Leo meets Veronica one evening in Manhattan and starts falling for her beauty and mysterious, exotic ways. Veronica draws him into her circle of strange friends and takes him to Tibetan restaurants and one of her musical performances with a jazz group. She and her blind friend Keko make him aware of dangers from their long term nemesis, Starwood, a stage magician who was once a pupil of Veronica’s magician father and known to be responsible for the disappearance of her father during a performance 10 years before. Soon things begin getting strange for Leo, as mirrors start becoming windows to other realities, his senses can no longer be trusted, and his disturbing dreams are hard to distinguish from reality. He gets involved in helping Veronica to evade and deter dangerous threats from Starwood and to further her scheme to bring her father back from some odd limbo. That they share the loss of their mothers when they were young contributes to their strange bond. Can Leo trust Veronica? Somehow he can’t resist her charms.
The tale definitely had a magnetic and darkly beautiful pull on me as a reader. As one reviewer pointed out, the events unfold like old text-based video games, in which each scene includes objects and clues to guide one’s progress to the next step. Mystical symbols (e.g. owls, interlocked triangles, figures from the Zodiac) abound in a recurring background to the human actions in the narrative. New York City comes alive in a very atmospheric way. Rivers of chi energy flowing underground can be tapped by those in the know. Special places can serve as doorways in time. Certain objects confer invisibility. The Empire State Building figures largely in the plot throughout and in a big showdown at the end.
Whether one is captivated by this tale or finds it silly will depend on the reader. Personally, I have a bit of trouble letting loose of reality when magical realism is at play. I gather that other readers tended to find Christopher’s A Trip to the Stars (2001) an even more weird and wonderful trip.
Freelance photographer Leo meets Veronica one evening in Manhattan and starts falling for her beauty and mysterious, exotic ways. Veronica draws him into her circle of strange friends and takes him to Tibetan restaurants and one of her musical performances with a jazz group. She and her blind friend Keko make him aware of dangers from their long term nemesis, Starwood, a stage magician who was once a pupil of Veronica’s magician father and known to be responsible for the disappearance of her father during a performance 10 years before. Soon things begin getting strange for Leo, as mirrors start becoming windows to other realities, his senses can no longer be trusted, and his disturbing dreams are hard to distinguish from reality. He gets involved in helping Veronica to evade and deter dangerous threats from Starwood and to further her scheme to bring her father back from some odd limbo. That they share the loss of their mothers when they were young contributes to their strange bond. Can Leo trust Veronica? Somehow he can’t resist her charms.
The tale definitely had a magnetic and darkly beautiful pull on me as a reader. As one reviewer pointed out, the events unfold like old text-based video games, in which each scene includes objects and clues to guide one’s progress to the next step. Mystical symbols (e.g. owls, interlocked triangles, figures from the Zodiac) abound in a recurring background to the human actions in the narrative. New York City comes alive in a very atmospheric way. Rivers of chi energy flowing underground can be tapped by those in the know. Special places can serve as doorways in time. Certain objects confer invisibility. The Empire State Building figures largely in the plot throughout and in a big showdown at the end.
Whether one is captivated by this tale or finds it silly will depend on the reader. Personally, I have a bit of trouble letting loose of reality when magical realism is at play. I gather that other readers tended to find Christopher’s A Trip to the Stars (2001) an even more weird and wonderful trip.
December 8, 2012
This was one of those random finds while browsing the shelves at the library, and an example of why it’s worth doing so I suppose. I’m not sure what it was about the spine which made me pull it off the shelf, but the cover is interesting, and the blurb met the “well, this seems so strange I kind of have to give it a go” criteria for coming home with me.
When I first started reading, admittedly, I had some doubts. The story seemed a little too jumpy, a little too coy and elliptical, while the scene descriptions often seemed weirdly over-detailed. And to some extent, these and other criticisms can really be applied to the entire book, but Veronica ends up making up for it and, in some ways, even making a virtue of these qualities.
For an absolute executive summary evaluation, I can only describe Veronica as a kind of hallucinatory fever dream. Trying to explain it beyond that is possibly a waste of time, though I’ll try: it’s set mostly in New York, though it’s a kind of magic-underground New York. The plot, if it’s possible to summarize, is the story of a photographer on a quest for a mysterious woman named Veronica, who is meanwhile on a quest for her vanished magician father. There’s magic, time travel, fluid identity, sex, Tibetan mythology, and lots of vodka and black tea. (As I say, daunting to describe beyond “fever dream.”)
The whole thing really walks a line between fascinating mystery and overly-cryptic indulgent sketch, but manages to avoid falling onto the wrong side of that division. At least, I thought so. Though I suspect that opinions of the book would vary widely depending on what the reader brings to it.
For my part, as I got into the story, I not only settled into its rhythms and oddness, but began to find associations with other ideas and experiences which might only work for a relatively small number of potential readers. For example, I’ve read a lot of weird stuff, including comic books, “magic realism” and in particular the work of Alan Moore, in which context the magic forces, spacetime-distortion and elliptically-narrated events of Veronica aren’t actually that outlandish. The BBC program Neverwhere was also a good conceptual lead-in (though the two works were created at pretty much the same time, in another of those weird examples of synchronicity.) All in all, I was relatively comfortable filling in the story’s gaps on my own, or else living with some things being left open to interpretation.
Another surprising association was the narrative’s odd evocation--presumably wholly unintentional--of old-school text-based adventure games. It’s difficult to even explain unless you’ve spent some time playing these, but after a few chapters it was striking, for me. The story moves pretty fast, throughout most of the book, frequently leading the protagonist from one curious interior space to another. And these spaces are almost invariably introduced with a careful description of the furniture, objects, and people (if any) in view. Again, this probably wouldn’t mean anything to someone unfamiliar with 1990s adventure games, but at times it felt almost like someone had simply drawn long excerpts from one of them.
The adventure game feeling was also prompted by the relatively anonymous nature of the protagonist. He has a name, Leo, though frankly I have difficulty remembering it; while bits about his personal life and past are worked into the story here and there, on the whole he’s a cipher. And thus, while Veronica is related in first-person, the protagonist seems much like the largely anonymous “you” of so many old-school adventure games.
Indeed, this is probably the closest I can come to identifying one unequivocal weakness in Veronica, as opposed to all the facets which might be flaws, and then again might just be weird. The main character is not only a blank, but is mostly pulled along through events like a puppet; his few significant decisions and actions are almost entirely reactive, and the story never really establishes any clear sense of Leo as a real individual with his own free will and motivations.
And even this, arguably, is neither accident nor flaw, depending on how one chooses to view it. The blank nature of Leo arguably makes him, as in those old video games, more of an avatar for the reader. While, on the other hand, as the whole story has a fever-dream quality, anyway, a dreamlike sense of detachment from one’s own experiences and actions can be seen as entirely fitting. Indeed some of Leo’s disorientation and “stranger in his own life” impressions seemed very familiar to me; I think any sensitive and imaginative person who has ever experienced upheaval or turmoil would probably know these feelings.
Beyond this, venturing into the kind of multilayered speculation which Veronica invites, the story seems to contain repeated hints that, sort of like Deckard in Blade Runner, Leo may be something other than an ordinary human being pulled into weird circumstances simply by chance. I don’t think these add up to anything conclusive, but they add yet another wrinkle to the whole kaballistic structure. Which considered as a whole does make it difficult to really evaluate Veronica, because there are so many open questions about the “real” significance of what one has actually read.
When I first started reading, admittedly, I had some doubts. The story seemed a little too jumpy, a little too coy and elliptical, while the scene descriptions often seemed weirdly over-detailed. And to some extent, these and other criticisms can really be applied to the entire book, but Veronica ends up making up for it and, in some ways, even making a virtue of these qualities.
For an absolute executive summary evaluation, I can only describe Veronica as a kind of hallucinatory fever dream. Trying to explain it beyond that is possibly a waste of time, though I’ll try: it’s set mostly in New York, though it’s a kind of magic-underground New York. The plot, if it’s possible to summarize, is the story of a photographer on a quest for a mysterious woman named Veronica, who is meanwhile on a quest for her vanished magician father. There’s magic, time travel, fluid identity, sex, Tibetan mythology, and lots of vodka and black tea. (As I say, daunting to describe beyond “fever dream.”)
The whole thing really walks a line between fascinating mystery and overly-cryptic indulgent sketch, but manages to avoid falling onto the wrong side of that division. At least, I thought so. Though I suspect that opinions of the book would vary widely depending on what the reader brings to it.
For my part, as I got into the story, I not only settled into its rhythms and oddness, but began to find associations with other ideas and experiences which might only work for a relatively small number of potential readers. For example, I’ve read a lot of weird stuff, including comic books, “magic realism” and in particular the work of Alan Moore, in which context the magic forces, spacetime-distortion and elliptically-narrated events of Veronica aren’t actually that outlandish. The BBC program Neverwhere was also a good conceptual lead-in (though the two works were created at pretty much the same time, in another of those weird examples of synchronicity.) All in all, I was relatively comfortable filling in the story’s gaps on my own, or else living with some things being left open to interpretation.
Another surprising association was the narrative’s odd evocation--presumably wholly unintentional--of old-school text-based adventure games. It’s difficult to even explain unless you’ve spent some time playing these, but after a few chapters it was striking, for me. The story moves pretty fast, throughout most of the book, frequently leading the protagonist from one curious interior space to another. And these spaces are almost invariably introduced with a careful description of the furniture, objects, and people (if any) in view. Again, this probably wouldn’t mean anything to someone unfamiliar with 1990s adventure games, but at times it felt almost like someone had simply drawn long excerpts from one of them.
The adventure game feeling was also prompted by the relatively anonymous nature of the protagonist. He has a name, Leo, though frankly I have difficulty remembering it; while bits about his personal life and past are worked into the story here and there, on the whole he’s a cipher. And thus, while Veronica is related in first-person, the protagonist seems much like the largely anonymous “you” of so many old-school adventure games.
Indeed, this is probably the closest I can come to identifying one unequivocal weakness in Veronica, as opposed to all the facets which might be flaws, and then again might just be weird. The main character is not only a blank, but is mostly pulled along through events like a puppet; his few significant decisions and actions are almost entirely reactive, and the story never really establishes any clear sense of Leo as a real individual with his own free will and motivations.
And even this, arguably, is neither accident nor flaw, depending on how one chooses to view it. The blank nature of Leo arguably makes him, as in those old video games, more of an avatar for the reader. While, on the other hand, as the whole story has a fever-dream quality, anyway, a dreamlike sense of detachment from one’s own experiences and actions can be seen as entirely fitting. Indeed some of Leo’s disorientation and “stranger in his own life” impressions seemed very familiar to me; I think any sensitive and imaginative person who has ever experienced upheaval or turmoil would probably know these feelings.
Beyond this, venturing into the kind of multilayered speculation which Veronica invites, the story seems to contain repeated hints that, sort of like Deckard in Blade Runner, Leo may be something other than an ordinary human being pulled into weird circumstances simply by chance. I don’t think these add up to anything conclusive, but they add yet another wrinkle to the whole kaballistic structure. Which considered as a whole does make it difficult to really evaluate Veronica, because there are so many open questions about the “real” significance of what one has actually read.
October 25, 2011
Held Captive
It's a long time since I read this novel.
I remember being captivated by it and not wanting it to stop.
I couldn't work out whether it was basically fantasy trash, but ultimately it didn't matter, I loved it anyway.
It's a long time since I read this novel.
I remember being captivated by it and not wanting it to stop.
I couldn't work out whether it was basically fantasy trash, but ultimately it didn't matter, I loved it anyway.
November 4, 2009
This book came into my life at a fairly chaotic, emotionally tumultuous and generally difficult time, and for many years I wondered if that was why it became so important to me, but the truth is that I have read it several times since then and it is still the magical, insightful, exciting experience that it ever was, pretty much regardless of what is going on in my life at the time.
I don't want to say too much about the story or the characters - I think that I could easily colour a new reader's perceptions of the book too much - but what I will say is that when I visited the spot where the novel opens this October I experienced real excitement, and a book that can do that is worth reading...
I don't want to say too much about the story or the characters - I think that I could easily colour a new reader's perceptions of the book too much - but what I will say is that when I visited the spot where the novel opens this October I experienced real excitement, and a book that can do that is worth reading...
June 13, 2017
Did I just read a novel or the plot of the Disney Channel Original Movie "Halloweentown"?
December 3, 2010
If you liked "The Celestine Prophecy," you'll love this book. I didn't. How did I not like it? Let me count the ways:
*Veronica is verrrrrry magical
*New York city is apparently verrrrry magical
*Leo is the ultimate in passive observers or maybe he just likes taking orders
*Magic happens a lot
*Detailed to the extreme (want to know how many steps there are in the Empire State Building?)
*Even though Veronica is magical, she can't stop her friends from dying or being killed
*There are magical animals
*There are lots of Tibetans
Stupid, stupid, stupid. Don't even bother.
*Veronica is verrrrrry magical
*New York city is apparently verrrrry magical
*Leo is the ultimate in passive observers or maybe he just likes taking orders
*Magic happens a lot
*Detailed to the extreme (want to know how many steps there are in the Empire State Building?)
*Even though Veronica is magical, she can't stop her friends from dying or being killed
*There are magical animals
*There are lots of Tibetans
Stupid, stupid, stupid. Don't even bother.
July 25, 2009
Very disappointed. This book violates one of my cardinal rules of storytelling: plot comes from character, not the other way around. Leo, the main character in Veronica does nothing - the plot happens to him. He is just along for the ride, not really even questioning the odd things that happen to him. There is a good story here, but it's not the one Nicholas Christopher tells. I would have like to have seen some exploration as to why Leo goes along with Veronica and her plan. The few times Christopher shows us some background on Leo are the best parts of the novel. These sections showed me an interesting character, much more interesting than the guy who blindly goes along with a fantastical plan with nary a pause to ask why. In the end I am not left with any reason to sympathize with Leo. He is manipulated and abused for no real reason. I was much more impressed with Christopher's A Trip to the Stars.
July 12, 2011
This book took me a year to read. No kidding. I kept picking it up. Stopping. Starting. Picking it up. And the rest is history. It wasn't a slow start, no that wasn't the problem. It was just bizarre. More bizzare than scary and that's my own downfall for thinking one meant the other. But that's OK. It is. Because it paid off. And I can't say too much for fear of spoiling it - even though in hindsight it wouldn't make a lick of sense anyway - but it's worth a read if you can stick with it. Veronica certainly is mysterious and Leo has a personable sort of charm that makes him easily identifiable. At times it was a bit too David Lynch or David Cronenburg for me, weird for weird sake, but Christopher pulls it off and creates something that is just...different. Certainly back when the book was published.
October 1, 2019
I’m not sorry I read this but I wouldn’t recommend it. Much of the writing was beautiful and full of vivid imagery but the plot line was way too convoluted and bizarre for my liking.
November 9, 2021
super trippy
January 11, 2014
In comparison to A TRIP TO THE STARS, this novel is woeful. But then, STARS is a masterpiece. Unfortunately, even by most standards of books I'd invest time in reading (compelling characters, considered, worked plot, at a minimum.. something engaging about the narrative..) this also falls short. Nothing about it is engaging. The characters are awful, indulgent, unlikeable and waft along their completely chaotic and unbelievable trajectory without even beginning to connect with me or strike any chord of sympathy. They don't even seem to connect with each other. We have to take their relationships and loyalties on trust. Too many magical fantasy asides, they might move the story forward but what a cheap and easy way to do so. I wonder how this same writer could have penned STARS and THE BESTIARY- so accomplished, assured, mature.. Whilst VERONICA feels so juvenile, misjudged and malfunctioning. It really disappoints me to be so blunt and negative with a review- but this novel I've attempted to read twice- once, two years ago and only made it to page 30 it pissed me off so much, this time I almost abandoned it again in frustration at page 150 or so (about halfway) but persevered, if only to get the entire picture, and in part owing Christopher a complete read for the joy of his other works- but in the end, lackluster.
March 31, 2016
3.5 stars. I probably would've given it four, but I was confused for a chunk of the middle of it. I like the way Christopher writes, even though it did kind of bother me at first (soooo descriptive). The characters are built well, and the story itself is interesting. Glad I read it.
UPDATE from the week after reading: I've pinpointed how I feel about this book, or at least how I see Christopher going about writing it. He had so many great ideas (for characters, for themes, for events), but he put them all in one book when there's enough great ideas for four or five. All the little sub-plots, different character stories, weird situational things.. All could be great as standalones, yet often they felt rushed. Sometimes it felt like he felt the need to cram into 300 pages. They could be developed awesomely and beautifully in his style (which I think I love). He paints visuals beautifully, and I dunno.. Maybe I just wanted more out of the little things like the supporting characters and sub-plots.
UPDATE from the week after reading: I've pinpointed how I feel about this book, or at least how I see Christopher going about writing it. He had so many great ideas (for characters, for themes, for events), but he put them all in one book when there's enough great ideas for four or five. All the little sub-plots, different character stories, weird situational things.. All could be great as standalones, yet often they felt rushed. Sometimes it felt like he felt the need to cram into 300 pages. They could be developed awesomely and beautifully in his style (which I think I love). He paints visuals beautifully, and I dunno.. Maybe I just wanted more out of the little things like the supporting characters and sub-plots.
August 12, 2016
I picked up a used copy of Veronica based solely on the praise found on its cover, knowing nothing about the novel or the author. I was pleasantly surprised by the book, and can honestly say that it was like nothing I've ever read before. I do read a bit of fantasy, but Veronica is different in that the plot is grounded very firmly in New York City. It's what happens in the city to Leo, an innocent bystander who gets caught up in a whirlwind of magic and time-travel, that's the fantastic part. Though I found the novel to be innovative and the plot intriguing, I found Mr. Cristopher's writing style a bit repetitive and forced. I don't want to spoil the book for anyone who might be wanting to read it, but the ending leaves one wondering what exactly happened to Veronica and Leo -- it's one of those endings I'm dying to discuss with someone else who's read the book. A fun, yet thoughtful, escape from reality.
September 12, 2012
Veronica is a magic realism novel about a New Yorker who meets a magician's daughter. The book was worth reading because of the quality of the author's imagination and descriptive prowess. Christopher's poetry background seeps into every page and left with me with a few quite memorable images. If I were editing the book, I would have suggested that he increase the pace as the narrative was a bit slow for my tastes. His modernist tone was also cooler and more distant than I would have preferred. However, Veronica avoided cliches and was able to surprise me.
September 7, 2010
I had no idea I was picking up an "urban fantasy" book, but I'm glad I did. It was fascinating. But about the first half of it was a little confusing—but once it all starts to make sense, you can see why it would HAVE to be confusing. If it wasn't for the incredible writing and vivid imagery in the first part of the book, I probably would have given up on it. But the words and images worked on me and put my reader's mind in a place where almost anything was possible.
July 23, 2014
Probably more like 4.5 stars, this was a magical book with a beautiful love story that totally snuck up on me!! I literally gasped at the end though, I really needed/wanted more!! And I do feel like more of a connection or back story between them would have been cool too. Either way, once I hit page ~300, and I realized where the story was going, I held my breath and couldn't put it down. On to the rest of Nicholas Christopher's books for me!! I feel like I found a gem with him
November 11, 2008
I found it really beautifully written and full of intriguing suspense, but I didn't love it. The narrator had absolute zero personality, and while the magic and mysticism were for the most part extremely cool, I felt as if there were no ingrained rules to the magic of this universe and magical occurrences were invented haphazardly just because they were needed for the story to progress.
February 1, 2008
What in the hell was this? It was the literary equivalent of a TV episode of Xena, Warrior Princess.
November 21, 2012
My new favourite book.
January 27, 2023
Leo, Manhattan’da, Waverly Place sokağının yine Waverly Place sokağıyla kesiştiği olasılık dışı bir noktada karlı ve rüzgarlı bir gecede onunla karşılaştı. Kadının kıyafetleri simsiyahtı, başındaki şapkanın altından uzun siyah saçları sırtına doğru dökülüyordu ve yere düşürdüğü anahtarlarını arıyordu. Leo karların arasında bulduğu anahtarları kıza verirken, bu anahtarlarla kendisi için tarifsiz bir maceranın kapısını açtığından habersizdi. Bu Leo’nun Veronica’yı ilk görüşüydü. İkinci kez gördüğünde, kendisine bakan gözlerin birinin mavi birinin yeşil olduğunu fark etti.
Veronica’nın hayatına girmesiyle birlikte, Leo kendini açıklanamaz bir dizi olayın içerisinde buldu. Veronica’nın karşısına nerede ve ne zaman çıkacağını bilmeyen Leo, her buluşmanın ardından gözlerini karmakarışık rüyalar gördüğü gecelerin sabahına açıyordu. Sonra bu gördüklerinin rüya değil de bilinmeyen zamanlara sihirbazın dönüşü hakkında bilgi toplamak için yapılan yolculuklar olduğunu anlayacaktı.
Veronica’nın babası Albin White göz boyama sanatıyla Tibet rahiplerinden öğrendiği gizli bilgileri harmanlayarak gerçekle düş arasında gösteriler düzenleyen bir sihirbazdı. Gösterilerinde sihir nerde bitiyor, mucize nerede başlıyor anlamak imkansızdı. 10 yıl önce yaptığı ortadan kaybolma numarası sırasında her nereye gittiyse bir daha asla geri dönmemişti. Kayıtlarda kayıp olarak gözüküyordu ama gerçek tam olarak öyle değildi. Yanında yetiştirdiği çırağı Starwood, Albin White’a ihanet etmiş ve kaybolma gösterisi sırasında, Albin’in seyahatinin seyrini değiştirerek onu zamanın içinde hapsetmeyi başarmıştı. O günden beri Veronica ve kardeşi Clament babalarını ait olduğu zamana geri getirmek için uğraşıyorlardı. Babaları onlara çeşitli yöntemlerle geri dönüşüne dair ip uçları yolluyor ve Leo da bu mesajların yerine ulaştırılmasını sağlıyordu. Leo ve Veronica Albin White’ı geri getirmeye çalışırken, ünlü sihirbazı zamanda hapseden Starwood da buna engel olmak için onların peşine düşmüştü.
Veronica, Nicholas Christopher’in Türkçede basılan ilk kitabı olmasına rağmen benim okuduğum son kitabı. Yazarın diğer kitapları Yıldızlara Yolculuk ve Franklin Flayır’ı da okumuş biri olarak, bir şeyi itiraf etmem gerekir: Okumaya bu kitaptan başlasaydım yazarın diğer kitaplarını okumazdım. Kitap beni hayal kırıklığına uğrattı. Aslında çok ilginç olabilecek bir konu seçilmiş, anlatılan fantastik olaylar gözünüzde çok görsel imgeler yaratıyor ama kitabın kurgusu olmamış. Hem kahramanlarının kişilikleri hem de olay kurgusu havada asılı kalmış. Kahramanların geçmişleri yok ya da çok belirsiz. Olaylar arasındaki neden sonuç ilişkisi tam olarak kurulamamış. Kim neyi neden yapmış anlayamadım. Sonuç olarak, bu kitap maalesef gönül rahatlığıyla tavsiye edebileceğim bir kitap değil.
Bu arada kitabın kapak düzenlemesini de çok sevimsiz buldum. İnternette dolanırken bulduğum kapaklar çok daha güzel. İlk izlenim gerçekten önemli. Ben yıldızlara yolculuk kitabını okuduğum ve etkisinde kaldığım yazarın diğer kitapların almak istediğim için bu kitabı aldım. yoksa asla bu kapak beni raftan çağırıp, kendisini aldırmazdı.
Veronica’nın hayatına girmesiyle birlikte, Leo kendini açıklanamaz bir dizi olayın içerisinde buldu. Veronica’nın karşısına nerede ve ne zaman çıkacağını bilmeyen Leo, her buluşmanın ardından gözlerini karmakarışık rüyalar gördüğü gecelerin sabahına açıyordu. Sonra bu gördüklerinin rüya değil de bilinmeyen zamanlara sihirbazın dönüşü hakkında bilgi toplamak için yapılan yolculuklar olduğunu anlayacaktı.
Veronica’nın babası Albin White göz boyama sanatıyla Tibet rahiplerinden öğrendiği gizli bilgileri harmanlayarak gerçekle düş arasında gösteriler düzenleyen bir sihirbazdı. Gösterilerinde sihir nerde bitiyor, mucize nerede başlıyor anlamak imkansızdı. 10 yıl önce yaptığı ortadan kaybolma numarası sırasında her nereye gittiyse bir daha asla geri dönmemişti. Kayıtlarda kayıp olarak gözüküyordu ama gerçek tam olarak öyle değildi. Yanında yetiştirdiği çırağı Starwood, Albin White’a ihanet etmiş ve kaybolma gösterisi sırasında, Albin’in seyahatinin seyrini değiştirerek onu zamanın içinde hapsetmeyi başarmıştı. O günden beri Veronica ve kardeşi Clament babalarını ait olduğu zamana geri getirmek için uğraşıyorlardı. Babaları onlara çeşitli yöntemlerle geri dönüşüne dair ip uçları yolluyor ve Leo da bu mesajların yerine ulaştırılmasını sağlıyordu. Leo ve Veronica Albin White’ı geri getirmeye çalışırken, ünlü sihirbazı zamanda hapseden Starwood da buna engel olmak için onların peşine düşmüştü.
Veronica, Nicholas Christopher’in Türkçede basılan ilk kitabı olmasına rağmen benim okuduğum son kitabı. Yazarın diğer kitapları Yıldızlara Yolculuk ve Franklin Flayır’ı da okumuş biri olarak, bir şeyi itiraf etmem gerekir: Okumaya bu kitaptan başlasaydım yazarın diğer kitaplarını okumazdım. Kitap beni hayal kırıklığına uğrattı. Aslında çok ilginç olabilecek bir konu seçilmiş, anlatılan fantastik olaylar gözünüzde çok görsel imgeler yaratıyor ama kitabın kurgusu olmamış. Hem kahramanlarının kişilikleri hem de olay kurgusu havada asılı kalmış. Kahramanların geçmişleri yok ya da çok belirsiz. Olaylar arasındaki neden sonuç ilişkisi tam olarak kurulamamış. Kim neyi neden yapmış anlayamadım. Sonuç olarak, bu kitap maalesef gönül rahatlığıyla tavsiye edebileceğim bir kitap değil.
Bu arada kitabın kapak düzenlemesini de çok sevimsiz buldum. İnternette dolanırken bulduğum kapaklar çok daha güzel. İlk izlenim gerçekten önemli. Ben yıldızlara yolculuk kitabını okuduğum ve etkisinde kaldığım yazarın diğer kitapların almak istediğim için bu kitabı aldım. yoksa asla bu kapak beni raftan çağırıp, kendisini aldırmazdı.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 2, 2023
Rounding up from 3.5 stars. I was curious about Nicholas Christopher’s other books after reading A Trip to the Stars, which was just amazing! This book shares some elements with that one, BUT it seems very much like a precursor, the writing of which perhaps enabled him to write the former later. This book has merits and flaws. Imbued with magic above all, and snippets and symbols of Tibetan Buddhism, tarot, and astronomy, it is fully about an imaginary, magical reality, so if you don’t like that, don’t open the cover. It took me about 50 pages to start to get more into it, before which I was getting irritated with all the random magical happenings (not sure what to call them) that seemed nonsensical. I read it in fits and starts and that may not have served it well, but I felt there were issues with pacing that interfered with the tension of the story for me. The overabundance of descriptive detail also got a bit in the way and the characters could have been better fleshed out. It is highly imaginative, and I think the author’s attempt to put his imagined world on the page may have taken precedence over character development and even the story to some extent. Even though I struggled with it some, it was an interesting and unusual read. However, it seems A Trip to the Stars is his crowning achievement, and I would recommend that book over this one a million times over, because it is just SO good.
January 3, 2020
AUTHOR Christopher, Nicholas
TITLE Veronica
DATE READ 01/03/19
RATING 4/B
FIRST SENTENCE In Lower Manhattan there is an improbable point where Waverly Place intersects Waverly Place.
GENRE/ PUB DATE/PUBLISHER / # OF Fiction/1996/Dial Press/304 pgs
SERIES/STAND-ALONE SA
CHALLENGE Good Reads 2020 Reading Goal 3/120;
Random Travel to 9 Countries (Columbia, Guatemala, Japan, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, Kiribati, Kuwait, Eritrea, Lesotho)
3 Nature/Adventure Books
3 Self-Help/Inspirational Books
3 Edgar Winner Books
Around the World in 80 Countries 2019-2020 30/80 for 2019;
GROUP READ BeeKeepers
TIME/PLACE 1990's/NY
CHARACTERS Veronica and Leo
COMMENTS Knew nothing about this book so had no pre-conceived notions. I am usually not a fantasy reader, but there are exceptions. I just loved the writing … all the colorful imagery; the magical, mystical, mysterious; psychedelic tones; alternate time perspectives. Just a delight. So much information was a bit overwhelming at times. Reading Veroica reminded of ZBS Productions -- in the 80's and 90's so many cassettes and cd's with stories that flowed with "comic and cosmic adventures/spiritual wisdoms".
TITLE Veronica
DATE READ 01/03/19
RATING 4/B
FIRST SENTENCE In Lower Manhattan there is an improbable point where Waverly Place intersects Waverly Place.
GENRE/ PUB DATE/PUBLISHER / # OF Fiction/1996/Dial Press/304 pgs
SERIES/STAND-ALONE SA
CHALLENGE Good Reads 2020 Reading Goal 3/120;
Random Travel to 9 Countries (Columbia, Guatemala, Japan, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, Kiribati, Kuwait, Eritrea, Lesotho)
3 Nature/Adventure Books
3 Self-Help/Inspirational Books
3 Edgar Winner Books
Around the World in 80 Countries 2019-2020 30/80 for 2019;
GROUP READ BeeKeepers
TIME/PLACE 1990's/NY
CHARACTERS Veronica and Leo
COMMENTS Knew nothing about this book so had no pre-conceived notions. I am usually not a fantasy reader, but there are exceptions. I just loved the writing … all the colorful imagery; the magical, mystical, mysterious; psychedelic tones; alternate time perspectives. Just a delight. So much information was a bit overwhelming at times. Reading Veroica reminded of ZBS Productions -- in the 80's and 90's so many cassettes and cd's with stories that flowed with "comic and cosmic adventures/spiritual wisdoms".
February 12, 2017
What an amazing imagination Nicholas Christopher has.
I first read a story of his in the collection of stories inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper - called "In Sunlight or in Shadow". I was so blown away by that story I sought out some of his other fiction. I was certainly not disappointed.
Veronica is quite simply a triumph of the imagination. It is full of magic and the impossible all woven together in a story that sounds quite plausible if you are only willing to believe in everyday magic.
Christopher creates a magical realm that sits just out of sight in modern day New York. He creates characters that you cannot help but fall in love with and he makes fiction that brims over with magic. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for people who want to be transported to magical places that swirl around our everyday lives.
I have two more of his books to read, and I can't wait.
I first read a story of his in the collection of stories inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper - called "In Sunlight or in Shadow". I was so blown away by that story I sought out some of his other fiction. I was certainly not disappointed.
Veronica is quite simply a triumph of the imagination. It is full of magic and the impossible all woven together in a story that sounds quite plausible if you are only willing to believe in everyday magic.
Christopher creates a magical realm that sits just out of sight in modern day New York. He creates characters that you cannot help but fall in love with and he makes fiction that brims over with magic. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for people who want to be transported to magical places that swirl around our everyday lives.
I have two more of his books to read, and I can't wait.
July 3, 2022
Cool imagery, very detailed, and interesting premise. Unfortunately that’s where the pros list ends. I found this book to be very pretentious and masturbatory. There’s an incessant amount of references to Tibetan culture for absolutely no reason. I get the feeling this author took a trip to Tibet and just HAD to let everyone know about. Some sexual scenes that are just entirely too graphic and frankly uncomfortable. I’ve never wished to have unread a book until I read this.
January 21, 2019
I read it first when first released and absolutely adored it. 20 years later, I reread it and noted all the problems - those of a poet writing his first novel. Too wordy, too much description, really takes the "show, don't tell" thing to the other extreme. Anyway, the story is generally fun, it seems decently researched, but I won't reread it again.
February 14, 2023
Reminded me of Ninth House, or should I say the other way around, since Veronica was written first ... dueling magicians striving to cast their enemies into the non-physical realm.
March 16, 2024
A Trip to the Stars has been and remains one of my all-time favorite books ever. Perhaps this one, Veronica , helped to get to that one; for that, I’ll be grateful. But this one is weird, with way too much occult/magic/witchcraft things and a lackluster main character. As a novel it is well-crafted, but the content is disturbing.
December 27, 2018
I'm not sure what I just read, but I think I enjoyed it. This book is a crazy mix of The Night Circus, The Prestige, maybe Twin Peaks and a dash or text-based adventure? It is hard to describe. It is intriguing, fast-faced paced, baffling and a tad pretentious. Excited to read his other books.
June 20, 2019
Interesting and magical journey as a Magician’s Daughter tries to enable her Dad to return from a trick gone wrong. This was a fun book and very different from what I normally read.
Definitely worth a try for people who like fantasy.
Definitely worth a try for people who like fantasy.
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