Reading Roundup and December meme, day 27: Volha
For the December ramble meme, Day 27, egelantier asked me to ramble about Volha, but I first needed to get my book thoughts down in more usual manner, and as I try to go in chronological order with the books, I should also post my last Reading Roundup of the year. I made it to 50, just barely... but hey, for a while it looked like even that might not happen
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the whole shtick with humorous ladyfantasy in first pov is insanely tough to pull off, step to the left and you're in marysueish chicklit, step to the right and you're in marysueish tough chick with tragic past land, and volha is all and neither
I really agree with this point, and am impressed with how well Volha as a character and Gromyko as an author negotiate this line. I have read a fair bit of western fantasy (mostly urban, but some second-world as well) with female protagonists (let's say Toby Daye, Rachel Morgan, Sookie Stackhouse, Marla Mason, Kaylin Neya, though there are doubtless others I'm not thinking of atm) and I don't think I can think of one that navigates this line better than Volha. Though, I don't think she really needs the tragic past -- her grounding in her work served better for me as antidote to excessive silliness/fluffiness.
(I think part of successfully negotiating this line is also that Gromyko does not seem to want to milk the series for as many books as readers could be persuaded to spend money in -- maybe an upside of the publishing situation in Russia, if kind of a sad one...? -- because valuable book space doesn't have to be taken up by interminable will they/won't they UST and fakeout love interests and pointless break-ups to draw out the romantic line suspense over a dozen books. That is very refreshing!)
i really, really loved - and you're right, it's very, and probably intentionally, reminiscent of pratchett - the juxtaposition of humorous setting and live breathing characters with actual stories to tell.
It does feel really Pratchettian, but with a different spin, and also, very few people can successfully pull off Pratchettian (Rivers of London is the other series I can think of that gave me that feel, but of course in a very different setting), so the mere fact that Gromyko can do it successfully is something I am happy to admire.
wedding (is it a spoiler? i feel like it's not too much of a spoiler)
Not too much of a spoiler, no worries! I started book 4 and they're engaged, and I figure she's not going to break them up three books in, so :) And it's great to have that to look forward to!
BTW, any thoughts, either rec or anti-rec, for God Krysy (assuming you've read it)? As I suspect I'm going to want to keep reading through Gromyko's books even after I finish the Volha four. (Or have I asked you this already? Sorry if I have!)
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the only thing i strenuously anti-rec is 'plus na minus', which is just - honestly, i blame ulanov for this one. it reeks of, like, this specific genre of dude wish-fullfillment shtick, and i don't remember details, but it just enraged and annoyed me when i read it.
my personal gromyko preference order is vv - volha - kamaleynik - cosmopeople, i think.
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I was super-not-impressed by what I perceive to be Ulanov's contributions to the first Kosmo~oluhi book (based on the characters he was writing and the fact that I liked solo-authored book 2 more), so "+/-" was at the bottom of the list, and with your anti-rec I simply won't bother with it.
But it's good to hear that you liked Kamaleynik! I was curious about it based on the fanart-y things that had popped up in Fandom Battle and Volha Konkurs and so on. Maybe I'll read that one next...
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As for the slashiness... I liked it a lot in Kosmo~oluhi (even though the teasing slashbaitiness does irk me a bit), and was even slashing Veres/Morriel a bit in VV (but that's probably my Dragaera issues, so XP) It does seem to lead to banter and hilarity in Gromyko's execution, which is all to the good :)
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