Three Novellas
Back from crashing at fairestcat's and studying oncampus. Studying went reasonably well; I now have a much better idea what I need to bug my organic TA about. Crashing at Cat's was just dangerous, because she had books I don't: Legends II and Irresistible Forces. Cat generously let me hijack both for late evening/bedtime reading, so I got to inhale Neil Gaiman's Shadow novella, "The Monarch of the Glen", "Winterfair Gifts" by Lois Bujold, and Catherine Asaro's "Stained Glass Heart."
"The Monarch of the Glen" is typical Gaiman. Shadow deals with oddness and makes a decision. I am not one of the die-hard Gaimanites of the world, but I do like reading about Shadow. He meets the most interesting people in some odd places.
I am, however, a relatively hard core Bujold fangirl. "Winterfair Gifts" was really good. I don't think there's much more to say about the story, except perhaps to wish to be a fly on the wall when Arde and Cordelia first ran into each other in Vorkosigan House. And what's up with Baz's "deserter" status these days? I guess it's cleared, but it's not specifically mentioned.
"Stained Glass Heart" was... okay. I like the concepts Asaro plays with in her fiction, but I'm usually underwhelmed by the actual product. In SGH, this dissatisfaction is probably best manifested in my reaction to how Vyrl's love of dance is handled. Dancing is a female only activity in his culture, and the concept of men dancing is somewhere between unthinkable and scandalous. But Vyrl's revelation to his One True Love is handled in only one page. This annoys me. It's highlighted as Kind of a Big Deal, but is also brushed off. And there's all the social implications. Why aren't men allowed to dance? Also, why used the kind of forced "stained glass" metaphor when dancing could have been used instead? Concern about indulging cliches? Some of them are there for a reason. And in this story, a dance metaphor might've been in greater harmony with the characters and worldbuilding.
(As usual, Asaro's worldbuilding interests me much more than her actual writing. Someday she'll write something as good as The Radiant Seas again and I'll be very happy.)
On the other hand, look at how Asaro handled the villians! There weren't really any. Which meant a total lack of horrible cardboard Aristos twiddling their mustaches. She let the social structure and the needs of the House of Madja do all the work for her in setting up the story's conflict-to-be-resolved! A nice bit of plotting, IMO.
fairestcat also let me borrow Contact Imminent, which I've been meaning to read for months. So my study schedule today may be kind of doomed. Whoops.
"The Monarch of the Glen" is typical Gaiman. Shadow deals with oddness and makes a decision. I am not one of the die-hard Gaimanites of the world, but I do like reading about Shadow. He meets the most interesting people in some odd places.
I am, however, a relatively hard core Bujold fangirl. "Winterfair Gifts" was really good. I don't think there's much more to say about the story, except perhaps to wish to be a fly on the wall when Arde and Cordelia first ran into each other in Vorkosigan House. And what's up with Baz's "deserter" status these days? I guess it's cleared, but it's not specifically mentioned.
"Stained Glass Heart" was... okay. I like the concepts Asaro plays with in her fiction, but I'm usually underwhelmed by the actual product. In SGH, this dissatisfaction is probably best manifested in my reaction to how Vyrl's love of dance is handled. Dancing is a female only activity in his culture, and the concept of men dancing is somewhere between unthinkable and scandalous. But Vyrl's revelation to his One True Love is handled in only one page. This annoys me. It's highlighted as Kind of a Big Deal, but is also brushed off. And there's all the social implications. Why aren't men allowed to dance? Also, why used the kind of forced "stained glass" metaphor when dancing could have been used instead? Concern about indulging cliches? Some of them are there for a reason. And in this story, a dance metaphor might've been in greater harmony with the characters and worldbuilding.
(As usual, Asaro's worldbuilding interests me much more than her actual writing. Someday she'll write something as good as The Radiant Seas again and I'll be very happy.)
On the other hand, look at how Asaro handled the villians! There weren't really any. Which meant a total lack of horrible cardboard Aristos twiddling their mustaches. She let the social structure and the needs of the House of Madja do all the work for her in setting up the story's conflict-to-be-resolved! A nice bit of plotting, IMO.
fairestcat also let me borrow Contact Imminent, which I've been meaning to read for months. So my study schedule today may be kind of doomed. Whoops.