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extemporallyThe Fairy Godmother, by Mercedes Lackey.
I liked bits of this - the Tradition is a brilliant metaphor for social determinism/kyriarchy - but mostly this book came up kind of lacking. I think it was an execution thing - normally I like 'asshole rake who reforms' as a trope in fic, but here Alexander came up kind of meh, and Elena... was cool, but what the hell were all the loving descriptions of 'her creamy skin and icy blue eyes' about? The sex scenes, too, were pretty execrable. Also, I think I just... have a problem with medieval-ish universes in which the entire setting gets romanticised and no one cares about the history/politics/culture of the universe and all the place names sound funny and made-up and don't really fit with the other aspects of it, and by problem I mean 'find fake and unconvincing as hell'.
There. I said it.
Let The Circle Be Unbroken, by Mildred D. Taylor.
Fucking fantastic - actually, no, there were a lot of different plot strands all over the place, but who cares because they were just all amazing. FARM UNIONS YOU GUYS. That being said - it was so hard to read, but I really... appreciated? that Mildred D. Taylor never goes in for the 'easy' endings; Roll of Thunder ended with a hella bittersweet ending and so did this; I thought it was realistic that the union fell apart before it even began and, just, sharecropping and disenfranchisement and the racist legal system jesus christ how do you even deal.
Mildred D. Taylor is really dark, too, dark in a way I couldn't begin to grasp when I was eleven. Uncle Hammer's rage when it came to finding Jeremy's picture was especially awful because in Roll of Thunder he was an all-out hero. Also I loved Suzella's arc and appreciated the hell out of Cassie disliking her, it was just so beautifully done and also I loved that it was a Tragic Mulatto narrative - not subverted, per se, and you get the feeling that that choice lies some way off ultimately - enriched by the fact that she was hella unlikeable through a lot of it and that she had a lot of privilege and also agency.
Then I proceeded to reread The Ladies of Grace Adieu but I'm not counting that; except to say that it's even more amazing than I remember and also Susanna Clarke is probably the standard by which I measure all fantasy* ever (unless it's Diana Wynne Jones). Mr Strange & Doctor Norrell shoutout!!!
* what I really want more and more is fantasy that acknowledges its cultural roots in some way, hence I think why I love Mr Strange & Doctor Norrell for refusing to elide THE KYRIARCHY while not making it the main point (though that is also great! she does that quite subtly in The Ladies of Grace Adieu, I think) of her narrative. Also I would like fantasy about ~~the frontier~~, basically like Cathy Park Hong except in prose (tho even that's optional) and with added magic.
Dealing With Dragons, by Patricia Wrede.
I tried to be kind with this because it was probably written a bit younger than I was expecting, but it turns out that I have, against all expectation, quite recently become the kind of reader who has Strong Opinions about fantasy universes, so all through this I was like yelling NO BUT DRAGONS DON'T EAT COOKED MEALS!!! (dragons may be kind but biology, obviously they still have to eat raw meat) and WIZARDS AREN'T EVIL!!! (maybe so individually but.... not as a class) and stuff.
Also I really appreciate the message that princesses are boring and girls don't necessarily have to be princesses, because like... really, I am all behind that, but also it was so unsubtle I just got bored with it. See also: me reading books meant for 8 y.o.s and being a jerk, etc etc.
Julie & Romeo, by Jeanne Ray.
Jeanne Ray basically writes the same protagonist over and over again, doesn't she? She's lucky that her characters (and her writing) are just so goddamn likeable. I loved Eat Cake and I really enjoyed this - basically Julie & Romeo are proprietors of two feuding family flower firms (say that three times, real quick) and meet in late middle age and fall in love, against the wishes of their family. So yeah, this was pretty great in that it was all about older people having a meet-cute and actual sexuality and ~~engaging in narratives of empowerment~~, and also career fulfillment. Such a breath of fresh air, and also has that vaguely kind, drily comic narrative voice that is so - watch my huge arsenal of vocabulary here, ladies and gents - likeable. Awesome! ♥
I also read Calling Invisible Women and the remaining Chrestomanci novels but I'll review them later yis
I liked bits of this - the Tradition is a brilliant metaphor for social determinism/kyriarchy - but mostly this book came up kind of lacking. I think it was an execution thing - normally I like 'asshole rake who reforms' as a trope in fic, but here Alexander came up kind of meh, and Elena... was cool, but what the hell were all the loving descriptions of 'her creamy skin and icy blue eyes' about? The sex scenes, too, were pretty execrable. Also, I think I just... have a problem with medieval-ish universes in which the entire setting gets romanticised and no one cares about the history/politics/culture of the universe and all the place names sound funny and made-up and don't really fit with the other aspects of it, and by problem I mean 'find fake and unconvincing as hell'.
There. I said it.
Let The Circle Be Unbroken, by Mildred D. Taylor.
Fucking fantastic - actually, no, there were a lot of different plot strands all over the place, but who cares because they were just all amazing. FARM UNIONS YOU GUYS. That being said - it was so hard to read, but I really... appreciated? that Mildred D. Taylor never goes in for the 'easy' endings; Roll of Thunder ended with a hella bittersweet ending and so did this; I thought it was realistic that the union fell apart before it even began and, just, sharecropping and disenfranchisement and the racist legal system jesus christ how do you even deal.
Mildred D. Taylor is really dark, too, dark in a way I couldn't begin to grasp when I was eleven. Uncle Hammer's rage when it came to finding Jeremy's picture was especially awful because in Roll of Thunder he was an all-out hero. Also I loved Suzella's arc and appreciated the hell out of Cassie disliking her, it was just so beautifully done and also I loved that it was a Tragic Mulatto narrative - not subverted, per se, and you get the feeling that that choice lies some way off ultimately - enriched by the fact that she was hella unlikeable through a lot of it and that she had a lot of privilege and also agency.
Then I proceeded to reread The Ladies of Grace Adieu but I'm not counting that; except to say that it's even more amazing than I remember and also Susanna Clarke is probably the standard by which I measure all fantasy* ever (unless it's Diana Wynne Jones). Mr Strange & Doctor Norrell shoutout!!!
* what I really want more and more is fantasy that acknowledges its cultural roots in some way, hence I think why I love Mr Strange & Doctor Norrell for refusing to elide THE KYRIARCHY while not making it the main point (though that is also great! she does that quite subtly in The Ladies of Grace Adieu, I think) of her narrative. Also I would like fantasy about ~~the frontier~~, basically like Cathy Park Hong except in prose (tho even that's optional) and with added magic.
Dealing With Dragons, by Patricia Wrede.
I tried to be kind with this because it was probably written a bit younger than I was expecting, but it turns out that I have, against all expectation, quite recently become the kind of reader who has Strong Opinions about fantasy universes, so all through this I was like yelling NO BUT DRAGONS DON'T EAT COOKED MEALS!!! (dragons may be kind but biology, obviously they still have to eat raw meat) and WIZARDS AREN'T EVIL!!! (maybe so individually but.... not as a class) and stuff.
Also I really appreciate the message that princesses are boring and girls don't necessarily have to be princesses, because like... really, I am all behind that, but also it was so unsubtle I just got bored with it. See also: me reading books meant for 8 y.o.s and being a jerk, etc etc.
Julie & Romeo, by Jeanne Ray.
Jeanne Ray basically writes the same protagonist over and over again, doesn't she? She's lucky that her characters (and her writing) are just so goddamn likeable. I loved Eat Cake and I really enjoyed this - basically Julie & Romeo are proprietors of two feuding family flower firms (say that three times, real quick) and meet in late middle age and fall in love, against the wishes of their family. So yeah, this was pretty great in that it was all about older people having a meet-cute and actual sexuality and ~~engaging in narratives of empowerment~~, and also career fulfillment. Such a breath of fresh air, and also has that vaguely kind, drily comic narrative voice that is so - watch my huge arsenal of vocabulary here, ladies and gents - likeable. Awesome! ♥
I also read Calling Invisible Women and the remaining Chrestomanci novels but I'll review them later yis
no subject
Date: Thursday, 9 August 2012 01:45 (UTC)(I haven't read any of the others in this set!)
no subject
Date: Thursday, 9 August 2012 14:09 (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, 15 August 2012 04:25 (UTC)(if only b/c you were like 'susanna clarke is the measure by which I judge all fantasy' and I was like, well obviously i should read susanna clarke then. and since tolkien is my measure, we should do an exchange.)
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 15 August 2012 06:02 (UTC)Susanna Clarke is so great though. Get thee to the public library system!
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 15 August 2012 06:06 (UTC)- LOTR is super dated in terms of, like, there's no way you're going to find Clarke's kyriarchy-dealing stuff in it.
- when I think about the post-modern critiques of LOTR (like, the feminist, racism stuff) I see it! but the fact remains that I read it first when I was eleven and very ignorant of all these things so I'm still really deeply in love with the world Tolkien created.
I LOOK FORWARD TO READING STRANGE AND NORRELL THOUGH!!
and also yes please to Renaissance Sg
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 15 August 2012 06:09 (UTC)Cool cool, cool cool cool. I'll bring those books tomorrow!
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 15 August 2012 06:21 (UTC)Okay, one thing to point out is that Tolkien did consciously write his entire Middle Earth oeuvre as 'a setting down of a history' (not a precise quote, but definitely he did say 'setting down' somewhere).
intentionally constructed piece of political propaganda disguised as a heroic history.
I don't think Tolkien was quite so politically sophisticated in his construction of the history of Middle Earth. But The Lord of the Rings (and The Hobbit) are canonically part of The Red Book of Westmarch, which Bilbo and Frodo wrote. So it was, like, Tolkien writing what they wrote. If that makes sense?
A lot of the themes/plot in The Lord of the Rings, like Aragorn's story, drew largely on a lot of Norse and Celtic mythology. So the provable right to the crown of Gondor -- that kind of modern justification needed -- it wasn't the point.
he is clearly very aware of construction-of-story and construction-of-history
I agree with this! If only because he was a Professor of Philology (at Oxford, wink wink nudge nudge) and lectured in Old English and he would've had to deal with these things, I think. And like I said earlier, he didn't write LOTR as a story. He wrote it as PART of constructing this entire mythos for England (he's said, somewhere, I can't be bothered to dig that book out, that he wanted to created a full mythic cosmology for England because England was lacking in one, versus the Norse mythology &c). He didn't even really feel like writing LOTR; he'd finished The Hobbit, was working on what became post-humously The Silmarillion, then at some point I think he went back to LOTR because readers were like "AND THEN WHAT HAPPENED???" also he sent bits of it to his son who was at war during WWII. /tangent