Welcome to Litsy!

Right in the middle of this book set in an England where the islands of tiny people, giants, and talking horses from Jonathan Swift‘s Gulliver‘s Travels were discovered and colonized, we get a lengthy look into the sexual kinks of our three pretty despicable protagonists, which veer to the scatalogical.

This is a fascinating, thoughtful, and exceptionally well-crafted novel but I just can‘t give it a Pick because of all the, quite literal, shit.

“He was on the verge of obtaining his heart‘s dream, perhaps; a more alarming prospect than the verge of one‘s own death. For after all death, whatever else it may be when it comes to us, is not going to be a disappointment.”

My favorite thing in fiction is when an author takes a fantastic idea and then digs in, examining the cultural, economic, and psychological effects of said fantastic idea.

Swiftly does just that, describing a world where Jonathan Swift‘s Gulliver‘s Travels really happened and the British Empire promptly assaulted, colonized and/or enslaved the magical islands of little people, giants, and talking horses that Gulliver described.

Great so far!