The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines
Series: Princess #1
Publisher: Daw 2009
Genre: Fantasy
Sub-genre: Swords & Scorcery
Rating: 3 1/2 pints of blood
Here's a great example of the cover letting us know before we've even picked the book up, what kind of story this is. It's slightly cartoony, very colourful, a bit exaggerated (guess that comes under "cartoony" which, I know, isn't actually a word), and clearly fun. There's the silhouette of a fabulous palace behind them, then three clearly spicy and dangerous but sexy women in the foreground. I love the detail in their clothes, they're very well drawn; though Danielle, in the middle, looks a bit too pink in the face. Also, there's a pink swirly thing coming out from between Talia's legs that could have been better placed.
Since she escaped her drudgery to go to the ball where she caught the eye of Prince Armand and danced with him, leaving behind one of her glass slippers which he used to find her, Danielle has known happiness. Her new life as Princess has had its moments, and she keeps trying to befriend the palace servants, but she loves her prince and she's escaped her hellish life as servant to her stepmother and stepsisters.
Until, a few short months after the wedding, her stepsister Charlotte turns up, determined to kill her. Not only that, but she seems to have magical help. With the help of the Queen's maidservant, Talia, who proves that she's not just a pretty face, Charlotte is driven off, but not before baiting Danielle with the knowledge that Armand won't be coming home, ever.
Drawn into the Queen's inner circle, Danielle learns a few more interesting things. Like that Talia is better known as Sleeping Beauty and is quite the martial arts and weapons expert. And that the Queen's other protector is none other than Snow White, a talented sorcerer with a penchant for flirting.
Together the three women must travel to inhospitable Fairy Town to find and rescue Armand from Danielle's stepsisters, but Fairy Town is a duplicitous place, the kind of place where there's a price to pay for everything and gifts can become curses.
I admit it, I am not the right audience for this book. That is to say, I want to read these kinds of stories, but when I do they're just not satisfying enough. It's why I can't get into Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman, and why I have to take even Douglas Adams, whom I love, in piecemeal. The issue isn't prose or plotting or humour, it's character depth. Funny books tend to be light on their characters. I'm not sure why, they just are.
Granted, there was a lot more depth to the Danielle, Talia and Snow than I would get from Pratchett, who, if memory serves me well, presented fairly superficial characters who operated on a basis of stereotypes and a tick here and there. Maybe this is necessary for comedy's sake, and I'm too serious a person. But I don't think so. I need to really know a character in order to sympathise with them. Towards the end, when things really started to go to the shitter for the three would-be rescuers, I did really feel for them. But it took a while.
Prose-wise, it's very readable, if a little slow in a few patches. The humour is mostly in the dialogue and situations, and it has plenty of darkness to help the comedy stand out - but it's not a laugh-out-loud kind of story. At times I had trouble keeping up with the connections the characters made, and I didn't always understand their actions. They seemed to operate on greater knowledge than I, as if during an ad break I got up for the loo and missed the first few minutes of the show on returning.
The dialogue can be quite clever and surprising, but it was one of those books where the characters - especially Danielle, the main character - didn't ask the obvious question, the one I'm burning to know, and I find that frustrating. You know the one, where you can't help but think "If only they'd asked that question, they wouldn't be having this problem!!"
Coming full circle back to characters, I have to say that even though I liked starting the story off with Charlotte's attempted assassination of Danielle, it does mean that we don't get to see Armand till the very end and so, because we don't get to see Danielle and Armand together, happy and in love, it's hard to really believe it, to really feel it - and a story like this one, where one lover goes into danger to rescue the other, needs that anchor. It adds to the danger element, the level of risk and tension, and enables the reader to feel as driven as the character to rescue the loved one. Yet, beginning with Armand and Danielle, happy together, would be like starting a firecracker night with the Sleeping Lions "game" (you remember, when you were a kid and it was nap time at school so everyone lay down to play Sleeping Lions): you'd be bored before the story had a chance to get going.
I guess the only way around it is to add character depth, to make time for Danielle to really show us how and why she loved Armand, a man she barely knew before marrying him. All she does is tell us a few times that she loves him - but if I don't get to see it, I can't really believe it, or invest my energy into her adventure.
That was my biggest problem with the story. Aside from that, there's plenty of fun, some clever banter, and the character growth of all three women was subtle and satisfying. I was drawn to the premise, and I like these stories that tackle the "what happened after?" of fairy tales - the happily-ever-after endings never gelled for me, not as a kid and certainly not now (though, I know, they're not really the point of the fairy tales). I'd really like to read the next one, The Mermaid's Madness, which is, as you've guessed from the title, the "true" story of the Little Mermaid. I'm no fan of Disney's versions, so these adult, darker, funny stories are more enjoyable.
Publisher: Daw 2009
Genre: Fantasy
Sub-genre: Swords & Scorcery
Rating: 3 1/2 pints of blood
Here's a great example of the cover letting us know before we've even picked the book up, what kind of story this is. It's slightly cartoony, very colourful, a bit exaggerated (guess that comes under "cartoony" which, I know, isn't actually a word), and clearly fun. There's the silhouette of a fabulous palace behind them, then three clearly spicy and dangerous but sexy women in the foreground. I love the detail in their clothes, they're very well drawn; though Danielle, in the middle, looks a bit too pink in the face. Also, there's a pink swirly thing coming out from between Talia's legs that could have been better placed.
Since she escaped her drudgery to go to the ball where she caught the eye of Prince Armand and danced with him, leaving behind one of her glass slippers which he used to find her, Danielle has known happiness. Her new life as Princess has had its moments, and she keeps trying to befriend the palace servants, but she loves her prince and she's escaped her hellish life as servant to her stepmother and stepsisters.
Until, a few short months after the wedding, her stepsister Charlotte turns up, determined to kill her. Not only that, but she seems to have magical help. With the help of the Queen's maidservant, Talia, who proves that she's not just a pretty face, Charlotte is driven off, but not before baiting Danielle with the knowledge that Armand won't be coming home, ever.
Drawn into the Queen's inner circle, Danielle learns a few more interesting things. Like that Talia is better known as Sleeping Beauty and is quite the martial arts and weapons expert. And that the Queen's other protector is none other than Snow White, a talented sorcerer with a penchant for flirting.
Together the three women must travel to inhospitable Fairy Town to find and rescue Armand from Danielle's stepsisters, but Fairy Town is a duplicitous place, the kind of place where there's a price to pay for everything and gifts can become curses.
I admit it, I am not the right audience for this book. That is to say, I want to read these kinds of stories, but when I do they're just not satisfying enough. It's why I can't get into Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman, and why I have to take even Douglas Adams, whom I love, in piecemeal. The issue isn't prose or plotting or humour, it's character depth. Funny books tend to be light on their characters. I'm not sure why, they just are.
Granted, there was a lot more depth to the Danielle, Talia and Snow than I would get from Pratchett, who, if memory serves me well, presented fairly superficial characters who operated on a basis of stereotypes and a tick here and there. Maybe this is necessary for comedy's sake, and I'm too serious a person. But I don't think so. I need to really know a character in order to sympathise with them. Towards the end, when things really started to go to the shitter for the three would-be rescuers, I did really feel for them. But it took a while.
Prose-wise, it's very readable, if a little slow in a few patches. The humour is mostly in the dialogue and situations, and it has plenty of darkness to help the comedy stand out - but it's not a laugh-out-loud kind of story. At times I had trouble keeping up with the connections the characters made, and I didn't always understand their actions. They seemed to operate on greater knowledge than I, as if during an ad break I got up for the loo and missed the first few minutes of the show on returning.
The dialogue can be quite clever and surprising, but it was one of those books where the characters - especially Danielle, the main character - didn't ask the obvious question, the one I'm burning to know, and I find that frustrating. You know the one, where you can't help but think "If only they'd asked that question, they wouldn't be having this problem!!"
Coming full circle back to characters, I have to say that even though I liked starting the story off with Charlotte's attempted assassination of Danielle, it does mean that we don't get to see Armand till the very end and so, because we don't get to see Danielle and Armand together, happy and in love, it's hard to really believe it, to really feel it - and a story like this one, where one lover goes into danger to rescue the other, needs that anchor. It adds to the danger element, the level of risk and tension, and enables the reader to feel as driven as the character to rescue the loved one. Yet, beginning with Armand and Danielle, happy together, would be like starting a firecracker night with the Sleeping Lions "game" (you remember, when you were a kid and it was nap time at school so everyone lay down to play Sleeping Lions): you'd be bored before the story had a chance to get going.
I guess the only way around it is to add character depth, to make time for Danielle to really show us how and why she loved Armand, a man she barely knew before marrying him. All she does is tell us a few times that she loves him - but if I don't get to see it, I can't really believe it, or invest my energy into her adventure.
That was my biggest problem with the story. Aside from that, there's plenty of fun, some clever banter, and the character growth of all three women was subtle and satisfying. I was drawn to the premise, and I like these stories that tackle the "what happened after?" of fairy tales - the happily-ever-after endings never gelled for me, not as a kid and certainly not now (though, I know, they're not really the point of the fairy tales). I'd really like to read the next one, The Mermaid's Madness, which is, as you've guessed from the title, the "true" story of the Little Mermaid. I'm no fan of Disney's versions, so these adult, darker, funny stories are more enjoyable.