Rating: 
Summary: Magical SurRealism
Review: Jeffrey Ford is one of the few writers in fantasy-scifi who writes about ideas instead of events. If you like the pity and catharsis of authors like Hawthorne and Melville, the decadent symbolism of Poe, or the logical precision and impassive sadness of Kafka, then I highly recommend Ford as he is their contemporary successor. Those who criticize the plot and characterizations of The Physiognomy and Memoranda do so from misapprehensions regarding the appropriate style and substance of the allegorical genre of fiction which is not to be evaluated by the same criteria as the psychological realist school. Not because it is inferior, but because it is alien and has different goals.
Rating: 
Summary: Striking, original, beautiful fantasy about memory
Review: Jeffrey Ford's previous novel, The Physiognomy, won the 1998 World Fantasy Award. If The Physiognomy is as good as its successor, it's easy to see why it won that award. Memoranda is an extremely impressive novel, at times reminding me of Borges, at other times of John Crowley, and throughout striking and original. The bulk of the novel takes places in the strange memory palace, or memory island, that the villain Drachton Below has constructed. Unlike conventional memory palaces, Below has populated his island with his memories of real people, who have some form of independent life, and who conduct experiments. Thus, in a sense, the memory island is actually thinking for Below. The hero, the former Physiognomist Cley, makes a strange journey into Below's mind, and his memory palace, meeting the four people with whom Below has poulated his memory, and falling in love with the one remembered woman, Anotine. But the memory island is falling apart as disease ravages Below's mind, and Cley must enlist the help of the "residents" to try to save Below, and his memory, long enough at least to find the antidote to the disease. This whole landscape is original, and odd, and often beautiful. The form and setting of the novel provoke thought about the nature of memory. Ford also considers the nature of love, and addiction, and how a wholly evil man can still engender good. The plot is interesting enough, and fairly well resolved, but it's a minor source of pleasure. The prose is very fine, with many excellent images. I found the names of drinks and drugs especially memorable: shudder, sheer beauty, Rose's Old Sweet, Tears in The River, and more. Some of the horrific images, such as the Delicate and the Fetch, creatures Below uses to control his memories, are also very memorable. The characters are nicely realized and affecting, particularly the lost demon Misrix. Even though this is the middle book of a trilogy, it has a self-contained story that is finished in this volume. That said, you will want to read The Physiognomy once you've read this book, and so it would probably be best to read it first, in the order published. And while the central story of this book is concluded, Cley's life story is definitely left hanging at the end, and I for one eagerly anticipate the third volume, The Beyond.
Rating:
Summary: Striking, original, beautiful fantasy about memory
Review: Jeffrey Ford's previous novel, The Physiognomy, won the 1998 World Fantasy Award. If The Physiognomy is as good as its successor, it's easy to see why it won that award. Memoranda is an extremely impressive novel, at times reminding me of Borges, at other times of John Crowley, and throughout striking and original. The bulk of the novel takes places in the strange memory palace, or memory island, that the villain Drachton Below has constructed. Unlike conventional memory palaces, Below has populated his island with his memories of real people, who have some form of independent life, and who conduct experiments. Thus, in a sense, the memory island is actually thinking for Below. The hero, the former Physiognomist Cley, makes a strange journey into Below's mind, and his memory palace, meeting the four people with whom Below has poulated his memory, and falling in love with the one remembered woman, Anotine. But the memory island is falling apart as disease ravages Below's mind, and Cley must enlist the help of the "residents" to try to save Below, and his memory, long enough at least to find the antidote to the disease. This whole landscape is original, and odd, and often beautiful. The form and setting of the novel provoke thought about the nature of memory. Ford also considers the nature of love, and addiction, and how a wholly evil man can still engender good. The plot is interesting enough, and fairly well resolved, but it's a minor source of pleasure. The prose is very fine, with many excellent images. I found the names of drinks and drugs especially memorable: shudder, sheer beauty, Rose's Old Sweet, Tears in The River, and more. Some of the horrific images, such as the Delicate and the Fetch, creatures Below uses to control his memories, are also very memorable. The characters are nicely realized and affecting, particularly the lost demon Misrix. Even though this is the middle book of a trilogy, it has a self-contained story that is finished in this volume. That said, you will want to read The Physiognomy once you've read this book, and so it would probably be best to read it first, in the order published. And while the central story of this book is concluded, Cley's life story is definitely left hanging at the end, and I for one eagerly anticipate the third volume, The Beyond.
Rating:
Summary: Ford hits his stride. Rate:****1/2
Review: Memoranda is the second part of the Well-Buitt-City trilogy
and is a far better book than his predecessor.This time Ford uses the idea of Memory Palace to marvellous effect and the journey of Cley through Dracthton Below's mind is simply breathtaking.
Memoranda is full of original ideas and abounds with invention and the characters are not as shallow as in The Physiognomy.
Memoranda is at turns, humane, profound, weird, bizarre and hilariousy funny, less dark and more romantic than his predecessor and Ford's clear prose flows like a river, a joy to read.
Memoranda is a kepper.
Rating:
Summary: well written and different
Review: this is a great book by a new writer that I think will be going to some bold new places. The book is funny, horrific, exciting, and devilish in its style. The ending is alright, but if you read it you will see that the story is not over. Give it a try,
Rating: 
Summary: Insubstantial.
Review: Wenau, the edenic commune formed by the former citizens of the Well-Built City, has once again fallen under Below's curse. Now it is up to a reformed Cley, who is now a herbalist, to journey into the werewolf-infested ruins in search of the antidote, only to discover that Below himself has succumbed to his engineered plague, and the only antidote is concealed inside Below's mind. "Memoranda", the second in the Cley trilogy, suffers from a tone of absurd pomp, as the previous one suffered from its lugubrious arrogance. The plot is unsatisfying, because there are no undertones, no backstory or foreshadowing, no emotional significance. The narration suffers from sudden bouts of pointless immaturity, instantly preventing any and all suspension of disbelief (like Quismal, the horse that frothes at both ends). The characters are meaningless to the reader, because they are extremely flat, and, in any case, Ford presents them as mere figments of Below's imgination. Ford has perfected the fleeting, episodic feeling of dreams, but it is time to move on, or at least expand the topic. Why use such sophisticated language if it goes to waste? Ford states facts and events, without involving the reader, who ends up being a disinterested, neutral presence: the island is flating in the air ("Is that so?"); the Delicate eats people ("Oh, is that what it does?"). Many readers (myself among them) feel compelled to see this series to the end, but reading "Memoranda" is like reading a napkin.
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