Page "Michael Bishop (author)" Paragraph 21

In Stolen Faces ( published by Harper & Row in 1977 ), a recently demoted commissioner has been reassigned to a colony planet to govern a compound which isolates the sufferers of a leprosy-like disease.

Ian Watson writes that the novel is " about deceit, maskedness and discovery of self-truth … a harsh, arctic tale by contrast with Strange At Ecbatan The Trees where the terrain may be stark but there is a mannered elegance in the tone of voice ; it is a tale executed in an argot-ritualistic style.

" Critic Richard Delap writes " There is an abundance of exploitable elements in Bishop's story, so it is astonishing to see how the author keeps them under strict rein, always with a highly keyed visual sense but also with a literary flair that says more by implication than by direct description.

The writing itself is crafted with a precision that becomes obvious only as the novel progresses.