Reading roundup
53. The Way of the Wizard, edited by John Joseph Adams -- pretty good collection. One of the things I was impressed by is the mix of famous and new-to-me names, the number of female authors in the anthology (just a little less than half), and the number of non-Caucasian names (still a distinct minority, but more than one normally sees). ( Individual stories with spoilers )
Here is your comment (yay for emailed comments!), which I shall respond to anon :)
I'm very adamantly NOT in the "wahhhhhh the books should stay in Terre D'Ange forever because IT R THE BESTEST" crown. And yet... I actually found the dramaaaaz in TdA compelling and I kind of groaned when Moirin had to leave again. idk, like... helping care for an emotionally neglected kid, getting used to being married, getting integrated back into a society that's foreign to her, and dealing with the inevitable changes that would occur due to trade with Terra Nova... that seemed like enough of a plot to me. Carey could have even contrived a reason for her to travel around Terre D'Ange if she wanted to keep up the traveling.
And yeah Desiree was a good kid and not terribly like Jehanne. I think so many people commented on how she was just! like! jehanne! because they wanted her to fulfill that role. Including Moirin (this is probably fanwank, although doing the re-read of Dart shows that Carey does more unreliable narrator than I expected.) Also I came away from this book really liking Thierry, when he was a total blank to me back in Naamah's Kiss.
I like Moirin as, like, a person. But yeah she can be flat sometimes. I continue to adore Bao/Moirin, tho. I think he brings out the best in her, characterization-wise, and they're legit pretty funny on occasion. I like that they had some mild jealousy issues (though nothing on the level of Joscelin) in this book, because I find that pretty realistic.
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Apparently the last thing I successfully copied was me blathering about the bloop over on tumblr. Which, while interesting, is not related to Kushiel's Whatever.
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Ahem, anyway, back to Kushiel:
I think I tend to enjoy the parts outside of TDA more on the whole, actually, because (especially in Phedre's books) I would get really sick of the self-congratulatory D'Angeline speshulness and fetes and gossip and fashion. I'm... not very D'Angeline in my temperament, heh.
It is a rather different with the Moirin books, because she is a foreigner in TDA, and so is Bao, and there are interesting things to be explored there (like the street urchin's comment about all the Chinese sailors looking alike) -- I especially enjoy Bao's interaction with the D'Angelines because he is so secure in Chi'in's culture and civilization, while Moirin does tend to regard herself as "wild" -- not in a bad way, but definitely different from the D'Angelines, while Bao seems to have a lot more class issues than cultural issues.
So, yeah, I definitely think Moirin and Bao staying in TDA and dealing Desiree (orphaned or merely abandoned) and the political intrigue while getting used to the society would've made a fine book.
I think so many people commented on how she was just! like! jehanne! because they wanted her to fulfill that role. Including Moirin
I like this interpretation! I definitely feel like Moirin has a HUUUGE blind spot regarding Jehane, seeing her as a much better person than she had been (when Moirin was around, anyway) -- not unlike her early willingness to make excuses for Raphael. I think this can be a genuine character trait/flaw of Moirin's, although I'm not sure it's really intended that way (I'm always a bit iffy on how much subtlety is there in JC's writing, vs reader retcon/after the fact course correction that makes previous authorial intent into unreliable narrator artefacts. I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, but I'm not thoroughly convinced.)
I ended up liking Thierry, too, while feeling like his growth was fairly believable. (Of course, I find I'm predisposed to like people called Thierry because B has a friend with that name whom I like.)
I think he brings out the best in her, characterization-wise, and they're legit pretty funny on occasion.
Agreed! And on them being funny, too. It's one of my favorite things about them, because they (especially Bao) are funny even when in fraught circumstances, or when they are upset with each other. As someone whose primary technique in dealing with spousal conflict is to laugh about it, I really enjoy that, and it makes me like both of them more.
I also thought the jealousy was reasonable and handled with humour and a decent degree of maturity, even when at the end Moirin decided to tweak/test Bao. Phedre and Joscelin's jealousy issues struck me as unrealistic, because of how extreme their reactions were after they had gone through so much together (the beginning of Chosen felt like a reset button to me >.>), but Moirin and Bao's I could totally buy, and cheer for the way they handled them.
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