Reading roundup

[hamsterwoman]

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).

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

When I first read about the bloop, it totally freaked me out. Mysterious blooping noise! Like nothing made by man or produced by beast! O.o

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.