Lifelode - Jo Walton
Jo Walton's new novel is available from NESFA Press, which is volunteer-run & apparently hasn't been able to get them to amazon at the time of this reading. I had to order mine directly from the publisher, & I'm very thankful I did. Sharyn November's introduction compares it to The Dubious Hills by Pamela Dean & Deerskin by Robin McKinley, which are two of my favourite books. I'm not put in mind of Deerskin that much, but the feeling does resemble The Dubious Hills, in the sense of a familiar-yet-strange village sitting in the middle of a great deal of magic & being the site of an important choice. Taveth, one of the mainest main characters, is housewife/chatelaine of the local castle, & in a poly arrangement with her husband, the lord of the manor, & a potter who is the lord of the manor's wife. Taveth can see through time to people's past or future selves, & see some of the memories of Applekirk village. Two strangers, Jankin the scholar & Hanethe the wizard, come to Applekirk, & set off a chain of events which leave the village...the same & not the same.
The people who read Jacqueline Carey & have been clamouring for another sex-positive novel will be pleased, although there is no explicit sex. But poly relationships are the norm (the occasional dyad is looked on as strange & charming) & both male & female priests go around naked, which is accepted as the norm, although I think a horny youth looks at Ghislain's breasts once.
There's also people of varying colours represented in the characters, although I think the main characters are light-skinned. People are described as varying colours of wood rather than white or black, & there isn't an assumption that people are one colour or another, or at least not one that I picked up on. Maybe that's something you bring with you to the books you read.
There's also neat unfamiliar words stuck in with the often-familiar pattern of a medieval village - like yeyana, rendsome, frubbed, raensome, & carmody. Jo Walton always thinks up pretty & unusual names (I particularly liked the name of the goddess Agdisdis) & apparently thinks up nice words as well.
The narrative is kind of interesting, because the first half of the book is told back & forth in time, as the characters reminisce & Taveth sees futures & pasts, & then the 2nd half is told in chronological order, as large & exciting events happen with increasing frequency. It wasn't confusing to me; I think it works. I just think it was interesting (outside the book) that the storytelling strategy changed in the middle.
The intersection of people's love lives, war, legal disputes, divine vengeance, & wizardry is very engrossing, & I finished reading it tonight instead of typing up my homework on the computer.
The people who read Jacqueline Carey & have been clamouring for another sex-positive novel will be pleased, although there is no explicit sex. But poly relationships are the norm (the occasional dyad is looked on as strange & charming) & both male & female priests go around naked, which is accepted as the norm, although I think a horny youth looks at Ghislain's breasts once.
There's also people of varying colours represented in the characters, although I think the main characters are light-skinned. People are described as varying colours of wood rather than white or black, & there isn't an assumption that people are one colour or another, or at least not one that I picked up on. Maybe that's something you bring with you to the books you read.
There's also neat unfamiliar words stuck in with the often-familiar pattern of a medieval village - like yeyana, rendsome, frubbed, raensome, & carmody. Jo Walton always thinks up pretty & unusual names (I particularly liked the name of the goddess Agdisdis) & apparently thinks up nice words as well.
The narrative is kind of interesting, because the first half of the book is told back & forth in time, as the characters reminisce & Taveth sees futures & pasts, & then the 2nd half is told in chronological order, as large & exciting events happen with increasing frequency. It wasn't confusing to me; I think it works. I just think it was interesting (outside the book) that the storytelling strategy changed in the middle.
The intersection of people's love lives, war, legal disputes, divine vengeance, & wizardry is very engrossing, & I finished reading it tonight instead of typing up my homework on the computer.