Reading roundup: Lady Trent, Kings Rising, graphic novels
4. Smoke and Shadow, part 1 (AtLA comics) -- OK, this one actually sort of begins to redeem the Ursa storyline that so disappointed me in The Search. Spoilers! It bugged me the way things were apparently reset with no ill effects in The Search, so I was happy to see that there are serious reprecussions from Ursa just getting her face back -- her daughter not acknowledging her at all, because she looks completely different -- and how traumatized Ursa is shown to be by her life in the palace, fretting over her daughter because she had to worry about Zuko for so long (and, I would like to think, also because she didn't manage to "save" Azula -- I liked it that she was worried about whether Azula was "safe, warm, happy," because one of the things that bugged me in the show was that it wasn't really shown that Ursa, well, loved Azula; because of the flashbacks, it is totally possible to see this as due to Azula's memories, and Zuko's, but it was something that bothered me, so I was happy to see her actively caring about Azula here), and the way she is terrified of coming back to the palace even though Ozai is no longer in power there. I also enjoyed seeing Ty Lee again, and the difference of opinion between her and Mai about the kid in love with Mai (Kei Lo); the cold way Mai manipulates him makes a lot of sense to me, even though it's not, of course, laudable for her to be leading him on so callously. Oh, and it makes perfect sense to me that Mai, while completely disapproving and actively thwarting her father's actions, would still let hime get away; there's a consummate Slytherin primary for you. Some nice Sokka and Zuko moments, too ("Happy to be there for you, buddy"), which I always appreciate, and Iroh got to be both funny (his method acting and "What do you think? Is my hand-waving filled with enough angst?") and badass. And Zuko got to be badass, too, after all the angst; that was nice. I'm also curious to see how things will go between Kei Lo and Zuko, now that they've met. Also, heh at Kiyi calling Zuko "Zuzu" and him not minding; that was cute.
5. Marie Brennan (swantower), A Natural History of Dragons -- So I checked out this book mainly because of the awesome cover and the equally awesome title. The title, it turns out, is a reference to an in-universe book, and I suspect I would've enjoyed reading THAT book better. But this one was better than I'd been expecting based on some fairly negative reviews on my flist (so, thank you for lowering my expectations sufficiently, ambyr and silverflight8! 'cos with that I was actually able to mostly enjoy it :P)
Let's start with what I didn't like too much: Isabella. I'm actually not sure how much of it is a bug vs a feature, but she didn't work for me particularly well. It might be intentional that young Isabella is not especially... winning, because she is very young and inexperienced here, and the book is being narrated by an older Isabella, who is quick to point out her young self's faults. But the problem is, a protagonist-narrated memoir is kind of the lowest-tension form of narration already, right, because you know everything is going to turn out OK for them in the end (or at least in this case you do) -- even with a first-person POV things could end very, very badly, but with a memoir, not so much. So to carry a memoir, you need a very engaging narrator; Vlad Taltos works for me like that, even in the books set further back in the past along his timeline; Tip works for me like that in The True Meaning of Smekday. Isabella Camherst does not. Or at least this book's Isabella does not; maybe she becomes more interesting later? But in this book she flails a lot, and not in a way I could respect, a character with not a lot of information or training diligently doing her best -- she rushes off half-cocked and does a lot of stupid things that do work out for the better, advancing the plot, but it seems to rely heavily on happy coincidence and authorial favor, which annoys me. Also, the metaphorical dragon in her chest? Lame, and I'm annoyed that it looks like it's here to stay.
But things that I liked about the book outweighed my mild but persistent annoyance with Isabella. First of all, the whole premise is very cool -- I absolutely want to read about Victorians studying dragons! The reasoning behind why the dragons are so poorly understood up to this point is very artificial but sufficiently well shored up that I was fine with suspension of disbelief. And what I did really like was that SPOILERS from here! when Isabella et al discover Rossi's work, they DON'T destroy it. So many fantasy novels (Naamah's Kiss, say, but it's hardly the only one) come with a moral of "bury/destroy the dangerous knowledge because Man Wasn't Meant to Know" -- and I am SO SICK of this trope. Isabella et al are firmly against killing dragons for fun and profit industrial applications, but they realize that the nature of scientific progress is such that someone would be able to duplicate Rossi's achievements anyway, and that the best alternative is actually to USE his work, responsibly, to synthesize the magical material (some kind of plastic, apparently) in a lab, until making it artificially is easier than hunting down dragons for it. Honestly, just for that the book has my favor.
The scientific stuff was pretty well done in general -- the things they didn't know at the time (like sparklings being classified as insects), the misinterpretations based on limited data followed by corrections (like them thinking the dragons were eating their dead and assuming that could be behind the spread of disease), measurements with limited tools, the scientific curiosity that felt authentic. But I do wish more time had been spent on those aspects and less on Isabella getting kidnapped by smugglers and looking for who it could be that was creating the appearance of a haunting (this isn't a Scooby-Do episode!) Also, I wonder if we're headed towards dragons being sentient, with the cemetery and the circle. Not that I have anything against sentient dragons, far from it, but it is quite interesting and unusual to read a fantasy in which they are fantastic, but still beasts.
Anothing thing I found really interesting, although I'm reserving judgement on how much I like it vs not until I've read more in the series, I think, is one particular aspect of the worldbuilding. I actually didn't realize this would be taking place in AU Victorian era rather than just being straight-up historical fantasy, and I'm still not really sure why the names of the countries are different when the mappings are fairly clear, at least for the main countries (although I still find the geography puzzling). But, anyway, Scirling is clearly England, and Vystrana is Romania (albeit with Polish influences, according to Brennan, which I guess explains the Slavic bits..), and Bulskevo is Russia -- so far, so common, if a bit farther East than normal. Also, I kept trying to figure out why Chiavora (~Italy) was on the side that it was, if I was looking at the map right. But the thing that really caught my eye was the religion, which, rather than being either explicitly or fantasy-Christian, is actually quite clearly rooted in Judaism. The first thing that gave me pause in this regard was the random villager Reveka's name, but there are explicitly Judaic bits throughout -- Isabella and co sit shiva for Jacob in the end, as well as celebrating Shabbath, so apparently even the Magisterian religion practiced in !England is still pretty firmly based in Judaic practice. Isabella also thinks the smugglers, who she thinks are followers of the Temple, may practice niddah, to the point where she thinks claiming she's menstruating may save her from rape, they are purified in a mikvah-like ritual, there's separation between men and women in the temple, and the language of the Temple services is referred to as Lashon, and is thus presumably Hebrew ("lashon" = tongue in Hebrew). And, in one of my favorite touches, because I didn't think anything of the name at first and then the penny dropped, the village priest Menkem Goen is probably a Cohen. It does make me wonder HOW the dominant religion came to be Judaism in this setting. Are we talking some kind of Khazar empire expansion? I thought that might be the case given the name of the boyar, Iosif Abramovich Khirzoff... Or is it just a world in which there simply *was* no Jesus, and so Christianity never came along, and thus Judaism was the only monotheistic religion there to be adopted by the heathens? I don't think I noticed any overtly Christian-associated names among the !English, which was interesting, too. Anyway, this was really neat, whatever the reasoning behind it, and I was very pleased to find a guest blog entry by Brennan specifically on this subject.
It's always an interesting feeling when I get this far down in a write-up and I haven't really said anything about characters yet (except for my gripes about Isabella), since I tend to be a character-centric reader. But the characters here are nothing to write home about. I liked Jacob, and was sad to see him dead by the end of the book: I liked that he loved and wanted to support his wife without being wildly anachronistic about it, and without knowing how to do it especially well. I like Lord Hilford well enough, and am wondering if the initial antoganism between Isabella and Tom and the way he's introduced as brilliant-but-with-a-chip-on-his-shoulder is setting up a later romance between them. Mostly what I'm excited to see in future books is Isabella being a scientist and explorer while also being a mother; this is something really rare that I always want to see more of -- mother characters whose, well, professional lives do not end simply because they have children now, so I'm curious to see how that plays out here. And I wish there were more female characters so that Isabella didn't feel so much "not like other girls". I mean, I understand the limitations of the setting, and I did like Dagmira and her frankly dismissive attitude towards Isabella, but the contrast between Isabella and "all those other women" was annoying. I think this might be an artefact of Isabella being young in this book, and hope there will be less of that feel in the sequels -- some of the older-Isabella asides hint at it, I think? I did really like Isabella's relationship with her father, the way he, too, was supportive of her, but within the limitations of society.
Quote, just one:
Isabella on her father in childhood: "and so to me he was a more distant figure, and perhaps more tolerant because of it; he had the luxury of seeing my misbehaviours as charming quirks of his daughter's nature, while my mother faced the messes and ruined clothing those quirks produced. I looked upon him as one might upon a minor pagan god, earnestly desiring his goodwill, but never quite certain how to propitiate him."
Anyway, I'm intrigued enough that I'm continuing on with the series and have the next two books from the library already.
6. Saga, volume 2 (Brian K Vaughan, Fiona Staples) -- I'm continuing to read Saga in a weird order known as "whatever my library happens to have on the shelf". I'd previously read volume 3, so I'm sort of going backwards, I guess. Except the story itself jumps around, even within the future framing narrative, and I'm not sure if that makes reading out of order less of a big deal, or even more challenging, since, obviously, the order of the segments is chosen on purpose, since it's not just straight-through chronological.
So. It's still impressing the hell out of me with the combination of art, character, and story. I'm not a GN person normally, and mostly they don't even hold my attention enough to get through them -- unless they are comic tie-ins to "regular" book series I already enjoy -- because then they don't have to carry the load of making me like the setting or care about the characters or get to know them. The only standalone graphic novels I've actually enjoyed have been Sandman and Watchmen; I liked both a lot, BUT the uneven art in Sandman bugged me a ton (also, Dream is like, my least favorite of the Endless, and not all stories worked well for me for this reason), and while I was really fascinated by the way Watchmen was put together, it was really hard for me to *like* anybody in this book, though I found Ozymandias the most interesting, character-wise. So it is a new feeling to have a graphic novel where I actually like the main characters and most of the secondary ones, and really like the story it's telling, and LOVE the art.
Spoilers for v2 and v3 from here! All my original thoughts about Alana and Marco are still true in light of this volume, only even more so: Alana the frustrated fangirl who can't get her coworkers to read her favorite book, Marko being adorable in basically all circumstances. The "meet cute" splash page was pretty funny, paired with Hazel's narration. Also, q99 had told me, when I read volume 3, that I hadn't seen Marko at his hottest. I am here to confirm that this is true, and that he is indeed even hotter in volume 2, chapter 10, just as q99 had promised. Also chapter 11. Damn. But I also like how he looks both handsome and goofy at the same time in a lot of those.
I still really like Klara, Marko's mother, and also really like his father, whom I didn't get to meet before now 'cos of the reading backwards thing. The scenes between Barr and Hazel and Barr and Alana were actually probably my favorite in the book, especially Alana preening in the new black tanktop thing Barr had made for her and "There is no way that I'm this lucky. My father-in-law is a seamstress?" "He most certainly is not. I'm an armorer." and "Then why did you risk everything to be with him?" "Because you son is so goddamn beautiful." "Ha. I assure you, looks aren't forever." "Oh, I know. I wasn't talking about his looks." -- and the expressions on both their faces. Also, Barr reassuring Alana about Hazel's umbilical cord ("I broke her! [...] I swear, Barr. I'm not as awful at this as I look.") The scenes with little Marko and his parents are neat additions, and I was intrigued by the use of untranslated/unsubtitled Blue -- which I didn't realize was Esperanto until I looked it up; I could understand a lot of it thanks to Italian, actually, especially with context, but it was an interesting choice.
It was very sad to see Oswald here, since I know he dies in volume 3, but I liked him a lot even here, where he was present for less screen time ("Kiddo, I hate disabusing anyone of the notion I'm a genius, but I swear to you, that story was about one thing and one thing only: A quick fucking paycheck." and "Fucking finish me off already, tough guy. It'll only boost my sales.") The Will is becoming a little more interesting to me, though still nowhere on the level of Hazel's family. (The panel where, in his memory/fantasy, he is kissing The Stalk and she goes, "Gross... stubble" was pretty funny, and probably my favorite bit with him, although the look on his face while Gwendolyn is impersonating a Wreath police detective was also pretty great.) The Prince Robot stuff is still bloody weird... although I liked the mouse medic, in the couple of panels before she exploded from the gas/spell. And speaking of critters, the seal pup and walrus pair are cute. The giant, though, is something I would've happily gone through my life without seeing...
Barr: Thankfully, your ship has a decent spinning wheel.
Alana: That's what that thing is? I thought it was a coffee press. Prayed it was a coffee press.
When Alana frees him:
Marko: What's this?
Alana: I have no idea. Just go. I'll buy you some time... which is easily the most badass thing I've ever said.
Marko: This isn't a joke! I'm an enemy combatant.
Alana: You're not my enemy. Not much of a combatant either. [<-- in which she apparently agrees with Marko's mother, heh.]
Izabel: "The old dude's stunt is totally workin and/or not actively harming us. Either way... ...we're home free."
7. C.S. Pacat, Kings Rising (Captive Prince #3) -- Well, that was enjoyable, and a quick read, but book 2 is definitely my favorite, by far, having the greatest ratio of fun tropey things I enjoy to, well, tropey things I enjoy less, and weirdly, also better writing. MAJOR SPOILERS right from the start
"Laurent knows" was not a surprise after the awesome essay (and just general thinking back over the series and talking it over with people), and I quite liked how the "revelation" of it was handled between Damen and Laurent. I also liked the earlier glimpse of Laurent's POV, and the confirmation that even inside his own head he does not think of Damen as Damen: "The Akielon slave would (of course) assume treachery on the part of the Veretian forces, after which he would launch some sort of noble and suicidal attack at Charcy that he would probably win, against ridiculous odds." (Oh, and since it was pointed out that Laurent never calls Damen by his name prior to this, it was really noticeable when he STARTED, after the sex scene, and every other word out of his mouth from that point on was "Damen". Or, more commonly, "Damen, NO", as is only right and proper... but more on that below.)
I also generally liked what we saw of Laurent's POV (and would've welcomed more, though I suppose it's one that should be used sparingly) -- it's properly compartamentalized and twisty and cold, concerned with dignity even in the midst of excruciating pain but being willing to sacrifice it for actual effectiveness.
But then came the tedious section where Damen just wanted to snuggle and be buddies and Laurent was insisting on everything through negotiation and nothing accompanied by feelings, which was realistic, perhaps, to the characters, but not that interesting to read about. Certainly a lot less interesting than the growing closeness between them and wild capers in book 2. And also, I never got a decent read on WHY Laurent was acting like this; it makes sense that Damen wouldn't know, because Damen, but I would've appreciated some explanation, or motivation, or something... I did enjoy the scenes of Laurent winning over Makedon with drinking (and I was wondering if Laurent had tried to cultivate a resistance to drink for just such occasions before he brought it up as an oversight on his part), and the showboating and genuine care about people at the oktaon, and drunk!Laurent and morning-after Laurent looking nauseous at the possibility he might have said something in his cups, and Damen being all "aww, he missed me! I miss you too! :DDDD".
Also, Damen's obliviousness and naivite rather tipped over from "adorably clueless" to taxing my suspension of disbelief/actual fondness for the character in this book. Partly because the evidence keeps mounting and he keeps trying to bound through life like a golden retriever puppy, even while reflecting that he has left behind faith in a just world or whatever. I could buy Damen believing that Jokaste's child is his son (and being willing to go to the same length even for Kastor's, because it's an innocent child and so on). But opening himself up to Kastor who has admitted killing their father? I can understand not being willing to kill him personally, but nobody can be THAT gullible. And being SHOCKED and DISMAYED that Guion -- the Guion who committed himself to the Regent, which is already treason, then turned on the Regent to ostensibly support Laurent -- would not tell the truth in a situation where the Regent clearly has the upper hand? Nobody could've POSSIBLY seen that coming! (I do like that it's Guion's wife who provides the vital testimony, but *sigh*). Also, I did find it sort of sweet till now that Damen is SO PURE that it does not occur to him, despite a TREMENDOUS amount of evidence, that the Regent sexually abused Laurent as a child -- but at some point just it goes beyond "pure" and "sweetly oblivious" into just plain dumb. And the whole thing with the Kingsmeet was such a clear setpiece, so of course Damen was going to draw his sword to come to Laurent's gallant defense, but, ugh. He's been shown to be impulsive, sure (that time in the baths, for one), but I have a hard time believing he would be THIS impulsive in the middle of something THIS important. These are his own sacred laws that he just got done explaining to Laurent! Anyway, at this point Laurent co-ruling Akielos with him is, like, an act of humanitarian aid, because King Damianos *really* needs a power behind the throne, before he trades the kingdom for five magic beans or possibly a bowl of porrige, and while Nikandros tries his best, poor thing, that's really not gonna cut it.
And, OK, the momentous testimony. From a writing perspective, I don't buy the way everybody was suddenly brought over to Laurent's side by a sheaf of old papers. Anybody could've written that! Paschal could be lying! (Also, I do not really understand why he would not have told Laurent about this earlier. Surely this would be the kind of information Laurent would benefit from? Or could, you know, use to gather support and overthrow the Regent earlier? Was he afraid earlier because Govart was still alive? Nicaise was still alive and Paschal was protecting him? though possibly he and Laurent together could've done a better job of it. Anyway, that was weird. I love a good dramatic last-minute reveal, but there has to be a reason for it to be actually last minute, and I don't get what the reason was here... Though I had guessed that the Regent had been behind his brother's death somehow, though not exactly how thoroughly, and I wasn't sure if Govart was mixed up in that or in something else.) But, anyway, the EFFECT of the dramatic revelation taxed my disbelief even more than the way it was handled. Like, OK, I totally buy that Damen would be 100% OBLIVIOUS to any existing discomfort on the Council viz the Regent and his openly pedophile ways -- Damen is 100% OBLIVIOUS to everything except blond hair and blue eyes and thing to do with fighting, it's been established -- but it's still lacking in payoff... unless there was some subtle groundwork laid in book 1 that I no longer remember, and then it's just too long ago anyway. We got some Laurent POVs in this book, I think this could've been seeded a lot better -- shown that the Council was tottering on the edge, torn, starting to distrust the Regent for dragging them to Akielos for some reason.
I thought the brother thing was pounded harder than it needed to be, frankly, or maybe it's just not interesting to me personally with this couple, so I cared less. Like, the umpteen repetitions of "so cold to be sleeping with his brother's killer!" got old, the "duel between ghosts" with Laurent killing Kastor (and chaining up Damen to stay out of his way) was good, and I liked that in Laurent's case the misstep is a feint, and Kastor falls for it (and Damen falls for it, too, because of course), but the symmetry there is really not nearly so fascinating to me as it is apparently meant to be. I did like all the "our brother of Vere" "my royal brother" stuff, and the personal-and-public gifts, which spiced up the tedious "we can never be together" portions, though -- that was about the right level of emphasis for me, but everything else got too much.
I did like Laurent's understanding with Jokaste, and the revelation that convincing Kastor (and presumably the Regent, indirectly) to send Damen to Vere rather than kill him was something I hadn't expected -- even though it's actually nicely mirrored/foreshadowed by the Erasmus short story. I liked Jokaste's final note to Damen, the wistfulness of it, and that she offered him the truth.
I really liked Nikandros and the whole of his relationship with Damen. The way they are old friends, but separated by Damen's kingship now, but also Nikandros still looking out for him as a friend as well as his liege and trying to balance those things, and the hints of what things were like in the past, like Damen (adorably) being jealous that Nikandros gets to go serve at the Kingsmeet with the best of the best and he doesn't.
Oh, and I was very amused that even canon had to make a nod to the epic bro-ship that Damen and Augustus would have had in a happier AU: "Thank you, I know exactly how it would have been. You and Auguste would have been slapping each other on the back and watching tournaments, and I would have been trailing around tugging on your sleeve, trying to get a look in edgewise."
I will say that I was surprised, unpleasantly, by the writing in the book. Not because it was bad -- it wasn't, I think? -- but it seemed to me quite a bit worse than in book 2, for instance. I'll grant that it's probably trying to do a harder thing, but there was just... a lot of jumping around that was confusing, the pacing felt off (even though I stayed up till 3 a.m. reading, so it wasn't exactly a problem). But it felt underedited, and word choice jumped out at me a couple of times in niggling ways (also, an overuse of "fuck") -- I felt like I was reading a less professional product than book 2. Which is weird, because of how long this book has been coming, so I was assuming it was getting a thorough processing meanwhile. But apparently not?
I am... dubious about the happily-ever-after scenario. I mean, Damen basically proposing to Laurent via the "this used to be one kingdom" thing, and Laurent later saying the same thing was sweet. But, uh. So, uh. How are they planning to rule their newly united kingdom exactly, though? I mean, from the point of view of succession? Given that Damen has no heir after all (only a nephew of dubious legitimacy) and neither of them has any other family left whatsoever? Jokaste as surrogate mother? I mean, she looks like Laurent and is similar to him in other ways, it's been established, and it does not seem likely that Laurent would have sex with a woman, plus he seems determined to be the last of his family (for some reason... I mean, I would've expected him to want Auguste's line to live on, so...)
Also, while I enjoyed seeing the way Damen's own experiences as a slave changed the way he looked at slaves, his determination to abolish slavery is laudable, but it's sort of thrown out there airily while I can only assume this would take a lot of work and an enormous cultural shift. I guess it'll give Laurent something to do...
Quotes coming later (probably) because my Kindle is trying to download some update or something...
5. Marie Brennan (swantower), A Natural History of Dragons -- So I checked out this book mainly because of the awesome cover and the equally awesome title. The title, it turns out, is a reference to an in-universe book, and I suspect I would've enjoyed reading THAT book better. But this one was better than I'd been expecting based on some fairly negative reviews on my flist (so, thank you for lowering my expectations sufficiently, ambyr and silverflight8! 'cos with that I was actually able to mostly enjoy it :P)
Let's start with what I didn't like too much: Isabella. I'm actually not sure how much of it is a bug vs a feature, but she didn't work for me particularly well. It might be intentional that young Isabella is not especially... winning, because she is very young and inexperienced here, and the book is being narrated by an older Isabella, who is quick to point out her young self's faults. But the problem is, a protagonist-narrated memoir is kind of the lowest-tension form of narration already, right, because you know everything is going to turn out OK for them in the end (or at least in this case you do) -- even with a first-person POV things could end very, very badly, but with a memoir, not so much. So to carry a memoir, you need a very engaging narrator; Vlad Taltos works for me like that, even in the books set further back in the past along his timeline; Tip works for me like that in The True Meaning of Smekday. Isabella Camherst does not. Or at least this book's Isabella does not; maybe she becomes more interesting later? But in this book she flails a lot, and not in a way I could respect, a character with not a lot of information or training diligently doing her best -- she rushes off half-cocked and does a lot of stupid things that do work out for the better, advancing the plot, but it seems to rely heavily on happy coincidence and authorial favor, which annoys me. Also, the metaphorical dragon in her chest? Lame, and I'm annoyed that it looks like it's here to stay.
But things that I liked about the book outweighed my mild but persistent annoyance with Isabella. First of all, the whole premise is very cool -- I absolutely want to read about Victorians studying dragons! The reasoning behind why the dragons are so poorly understood up to this point is very artificial but sufficiently well shored up that I was fine with suspension of disbelief. And what I did really like was that SPOILERS from here! when Isabella et al discover Rossi's work, they DON'T destroy it. So many fantasy novels (Naamah's Kiss, say, but it's hardly the only one) come with a moral of "bury/destroy the dangerous knowledge because Man Wasn't Meant to Know" -- and I am SO SICK of this trope. Isabella et al are firmly against killing dragons for fun and profit industrial applications, but they realize that the nature of scientific progress is such that someone would be able to duplicate Rossi's achievements anyway, and that the best alternative is actually to USE his work, responsibly, to synthesize the magical material (some kind of plastic, apparently) in a lab, until making it artificially is easier than hunting down dragons for it. Honestly, just for that the book has my favor.
The scientific stuff was pretty well done in general -- the things they didn't know at the time (like sparklings being classified as insects), the misinterpretations based on limited data followed by corrections (like them thinking the dragons were eating their dead and assuming that could be behind the spread of disease), measurements with limited tools, the scientific curiosity that felt authentic. But I do wish more time had been spent on those aspects and less on Isabella getting kidnapped by smugglers and looking for who it could be that was creating the appearance of a haunting (this isn't a Scooby-Do episode!) Also, I wonder if we're headed towards dragons being sentient, with the cemetery and the circle. Not that I have anything against sentient dragons, far from it, but it is quite interesting and unusual to read a fantasy in which they are fantastic, but still beasts.
Anothing thing I found really interesting, although I'm reserving judgement on how much I like it vs not until I've read more in the series, I think, is one particular aspect of the worldbuilding. I actually didn't realize this would be taking place in AU Victorian era rather than just being straight-up historical fantasy, and I'm still not really sure why the names of the countries are different when the mappings are fairly clear, at least for the main countries (although I still find the geography puzzling). But, anyway, Scirling is clearly England, and Vystrana is Romania (albeit with Polish influences, according to Brennan, which I guess explains the Slavic bits..), and Bulskevo is Russia -- so far, so common, if a bit farther East than normal. Also, I kept trying to figure out why Chiavora (~Italy) was on the side that it was, if I was looking at the map right. But the thing that really caught my eye was the religion, which, rather than being either explicitly or fantasy-Christian, is actually quite clearly rooted in Judaism. The first thing that gave me pause in this regard was the random villager Reveka's name, but there are explicitly Judaic bits throughout -- Isabella and co sit shiva for Jacob in the end, as well as celebrating Shabbath, so apparently even the Magisterian religion practiced in !England is still pretty firmly based in Judaic practice. Isabella also thinks the smugglers, who she thinks are followers of the Temple, may practice niddah, to the point where she thinks claiming she's menstruating may save her from rape, they are purified in a mikvah-like ritual, there's separation between men and women in the temple, and the language of the Temple services is referred to as Lashon, and is thus presumably Hebrew ("lashon" = tongue in Hebrew). And, in one of my favorite touches, because I didn't think anything of the name at first and then the penny dropped, the village priest Menkem Goen is probably a Cohen. It does make me wonder HOW the dominant religion came to be Judaism in this setting. Are we talking some kind of Khazar empire expansion? I thought that might be the case given the name of the boyar, Iosif Abramovich Khirzoff... Or is it just a world in which there simply *was* no Jesus, and so Christianity never came along, and thus Judaism was the only monotheistic religion there to be adopted by the heathens? I don't think I noticed any overtly Christian-associated names among the !English, which was interesting, too. Anyway, this was really neat, whatever the reasoning behind it, and I was very pleased to find a guest blog entry by Brennan specifically on this subject.
It's always an interesting feeling when I get this far down in a write-up and I haven't really said anything about characters yet (except for my gripes about Isabella), since I tend to be a character-centric reader. But the characters here are nothing to write home about. I liked Jacob, and was sad to see him dead by the end of the book: I liked that he loved and wanted to support his wife without being wildly anachronistic about it, and without knowing how to do it especially well. I like Lord Hilford well enough, and am wondering if the initial antoganism between Isabella and Tom and the way he's introduced as brilliant-but-with-a-chip-on-his-shoulder is setting up a later romance between them. Mostly what I'm excited to see in future books is Isabella being a scientist and explorer while also being a mother; this is something really rare that I always want to see more of -- mother characters whose, well, professional lives do not end simply because they have children now, so I'm curious to see how that plays out here. And I wish there were more female characters so that Isabella didn't feel so much "not like other girls". I mean, I understand the limitations of the setting, and I did like Dagmira and her frankly dismissive attitude towards Isabella, but the contrast between Isabella and "all those other women" was annoying. I think this might be an artefact of Isabella being young in this book, and hope there will be less of that feel in the sequels -- some of the older-Isabella asides hint at it, I think? I did really like Isabella's relationship with her father, the way he, too, was supportive of her, but within the limitations of society.
Quote, just one:
Isabella on her father in childhood: "and so to me he was a more distant figure, and perhaps more tolerant because of it; he had the luxury of seeing my misbehaviours as charming quirks of his daughter's nature, while my mother faced the messes and ruined clothing those quirks produced. I looked upon him as one might upon a minor pagan god, earnestly desiring his goodwill, but never quite certain how to propitiate him."
Anyway, I'm intrigued enough that I'm continuing on with the series and have the next two books from the library already.
6. Saga, volume 2 (Brian K Vaughan, Fiona Staples) -- I'm continuing to read Saga in a weird order known as "whatever my library happens to have on the shelf". I'd previously read volume 3, so I'm sort of going backwards, I guess. Except the story itself jumps around, even within the future framing narrative, and I'm not sure if that makes reading out of order less of a big deal, or even more challenging, since, obviously, the order of the segments is chosen on purpose, since it's not just straight-through chronological.
So. It's still impressing the hell out of me with the combination of art, character, and story. I'm not a GN person normally, and mostly they don't even hold my attention enough to get through them -- unless they are comic tie-ins to "regular" book series I already enjoy -- because then they don't have to carry the load of making me like the setting or care about the characters or get to know them. The only standalone graphic novels I've actually enjoyed have been Sandman and Watchmen; I liked both a lot, BUT the uneven art in Sandman bugged me a ton (also, Dream is like, my least favorite of the Endless, and not all stories worked well for me for this reason), and while I was really fascinated by the way Watchmen was put together, it was really hard for me to *like* anybody in this book, though I found Ozymandias the most interesting, character-wise. So it is a new feeling to have a graphic novel where I actually like the main characters and most of the secondary ones, and really like the story it's telling, and LOVE the art.
Spoilers for v2 and v3 from here! All my original thoughts about Alana and Marco are still true in light of this volume, only even more so: Alana the frustrated fangirl who can't get her coworkers to read her favorite book, Marko being adorable in basically all circumstances. The "meet cute" splash page was pretty funny, paired with Hazel's narration. Also, q99 had told me, when I read volume 3, that I hadn't seen Marko at his hottest. I am here to confirm that this is true, and that he is indeed even hotter in volume 2, chapter 10, just as q99 had promised. Also chapter 11. Damn. But I also like how he looks both handsome and goofy at the same time in a lot of those.
I still really like Klara, Marko's mother, and also really like his father, whom I didn't get to meet before now 'cos of the reading backwards thing. The scenes between Barr and Hazel and Barr and Alana were actually probably my favorite in the book, especially Alana preening in the new black tanktop thing Barr had made for her and "There is no way that I'm this lucky. My father-in-law is a seamstress?" "He most certainly is not. I'm an armorer." and "Then why did you risk everything to be with him?" "Because you son is so goddamn beautiful." "Ha. I assure you, looks aren't forever." "Oh, I know. I wasn't talking about his looks." -- and the expressions on both their faces. Also, Barr reassuring Alana about Hazel's umbilical cord ("I broke her! [...] I swear, Barr. I'm not as awful at this as I look.") The scenes with little Marko and his parents are neat additions, and I was intrigued by the use of untranslated/unsubtitled Blue -- which I didn't realize was Esperanto until I looked it up; I could understand a lot of it thanks to Italian, actually, especially with context, but it was an interesting choice.
It was very sad to see Oswald here, since I know he dies in volume 3, but I liked him a lot even here, where he was present for less screen time ("Kiddo, I hate disabusing anyone of the notion I'm a genius, but I swear to you, that story was about one thing and one thing only: A quick fucking paycheck." and "Fucking finish me off already, tough guy. It'll only boost my sales.") The Will is becoming a little more interesting to me, though still nowhere on the level of Hazel's family. (The panel where, in his memory/fantasy, he is kissing The Stalk and she goes, "Gross... stubble" was pretty funny, and probably my favorite bit with him, although the look on his face while Gwendolyn is impersonating a Wreath police detective was also pretty great.) The Prince Robot stuff is still bloody weird... although I liked the mouse medic, in the couple of panels before she exploded from the gas/spell. And speaking of critters, the seal pup and walrus pair are cute. The giant, though, is something I would've happily gone through my life without seeing...
Barr: Thankfully, your ship has a decent spinning wheel.
Alana: That's what that thing is? I thought it was a coffee press. Prayed it was a coffee press.
When Alana frees him:
Marko: What's this?
Alana: I have no idea. Just go. I'll buy you some time... which is easily the most badass thing I've ever said.
Marko: This isn't a joke! I'm an enemy combatant.
Alana: You're not my enemy. Not much of a combatant either. [<-- in which she apparently agrees with Marko's mother, heh.]
Izabel: "The old dude's stunt is totally workin and/or not actively harming us. Either way... ...we're home free."
7. C.S. Pacat, Kings Rising (Captive Prince #3) -- Well, that was enjoyable, and a quick read, but book 2 is definitely my favorite, by far, having the greatest ratio of fun tropey things I enjoy to, well, tropey things I enjoy less, and weirdly, also better writing. MAJOR SPOILERS right from the start
"Laurent knows" was not a surprise after the awesome essay (and just general thinking back over the series and talking it over with people), and I quite liked how the "revelation" of it was handled between Damen and Laurent. I also liked the earlier glimpse of Laurent's POV, and the confirmation that even inside his own head he does not think of Damen as Damen: "The Akielon slave would (of course) assume treachery on the part of the Veretian forces, after which he would launch some sort of noble and suicidal attack at Charcy that he would probably win, against ridiculous odds." (Oh, and since it was pointed out that Laurent never calls Damen by his name prior to this, it was really noticeable when he STARTED, after the sex scene, and every other word out of his mouth from that point on was "Damen". Or, more commonly, "Damen, NO", as is only right and proper... but more on that below.)
I also generally liked what we saw of Laurent's POV (and would've welcomed more, though I suppose it's one that should be used sparingly) -- it's properly compartamentalized and twisty and cold, concerned with dignity even in the midst of excruciating pain but being willing to sacrifice it for actual effectiveness.
But then came the tedious section where Damen just wanted to snuggle and be buddies and Laurent was insisting on everything through negotiation and nothing accompanied by feelings, which was realistic, perhaps, to the characters, but not that interesting to read about. Certainly a lot less interesting than the growing closeness between them and wild capers in book 2. And also, I never got a decent read on WHY Laurent was acting like this; it makes sense that Damen wouldn't know, because Damen, but I would've appreciated some explanation, or motivation, or something... I did enjoy the scenes of Laurent winning over Makedon with drinking (and I was wondering if Laurent had tried to cultivate a resistance to drink for just such occasions before he brought it up as an oversight on his part), and the showboating and genuine care about people at the oktaon, and drunk!Laurent and morning-after Laurent looking nauseous at the possibility he might have said something in his cups, and Damen being all "aww, he missed me! I miss you too! :DDDD".
Also, Damen's obliviousness and naivite rather tipped over from "adorably clueless" to taxing my suspension of disbelief/actual fondness for the character in this book. Partly because the evidence keeps mounting and he keeps trying to bound through life like a golden retriever puppy, even while reflecting that he has left behind faith in a just world or whatever. I could buy Damen believing that Jokaste's child is his son (and being willing to go to the same length even for Kastor's, because it's an innocent child and so on). But opening himself up to Kastor who has admitted killing their father? I can understand not being willing to kill him personally, but nobody can be THAT gullible. And being SHOCKED and DISMAYED that Guion -- the Guion who committed himself to the Regent, which is already treason, then turned on the Regent to ostensibly support Laurent -- would not tell the truth in a situation where the Regent clearly has the upper hand? Nobody could've POSSIBLY seen that coming! (I do like that it's Guion's wife who provides the vital testimony, but *sigh*). Also, I did find it sort of sweet till now that Damen is SO PURE that it does not occur to him, despite a TREMENDOUS amount of evidence, that the Regent sexually abused Laurent as a child -- but at some point just it goes beyond "pure" and "sweetly oblivious" into just plain dumb. And the whole thing with the Kingsmeet was such a clear setpiece, so of course Damen was going to draw his sword to come to Laurent's gallant defense, but, ugh. He's been shown to be impulsive, sure (that time in the baths, for one), but I have a hard time believing he would be THIS impulsive in the middle of something THIS important. These are his own sacred laws that he just got done explaining to Laurent! Anyway, at this point Laurent co-ruling Akielos with him is, like, an act of humanitarian aid, because King Damianos *really* needs a power behind the throne, before he trades the kingdom for five magic beans or possibly a bowl of porrige, and while Nikandros tries his best, poor thing, that's really not gonna cut it.
And, OK, the momentous testimony. From a writing perspective, I don't buy the way everybody was suddenly brought over to Laurent's side by a sheaf of old papers. Anybody could've written that! Paschal could be lying! (Also, I do not really understand why he would not have told Laurent about this earlier. Surely this would be the kind of information Laurent would benefit from? Or could, you know, use to gather support and overthrow the Regent earlier? Was he afraid earlier because Govart was still alive? Nicaise was still alive and Paschal was protecting him? though possibly he and Laurent together could've done a better job of it. Anyway, that was weird. I love a good dramatic last-minute reveal, but there has to be a reason for it to be actually last minute, and I don't get what the reason was here... Though I had guessed that the Regent had been behind his brother's death somehow, though not exactly how thoroughly, and I wasn't sure if Govart was mixed up in that or in something else.) But, anyway, the EFFECT of the dramatic revelation taxed my disbelief even more than the way it was handled. Like, OK, I totally buy that Damen would be 100% OBLIVIOUS to any existing discomfort on the Council viz the Regent and his openly pedophile ways -- Damen is 100% OBLIVIOUS to everything except blond hair and blue eyes and thing to do with fighting, it's been established -- but it's still lacking in payoff... unless there was some subtle groundwork laid in book 1 that I no longer remember, and then it's just too long ago anyway. We got some Laurent POVs in this book, I think this could've been seeded a lot better -- shown that the Council was tottering on the edge, torn, starting to distrust the Regent for dragging them to Akielos for some reason.
I thought the brother thing was pounded harder than it needed to be, frankly, or maybe it's just not interesting to me personally with this couple, so I cared less. Like, the umpteen repetitions of "so cold to be sleeping with his brother's killer!" got old, the "duel between ghosts" with Laurent killing Kastor (and chaining up Damen to stay out of his way) was good, and I liked that in Laurent's case the misstep is a feint, and Kastor falls for it (and Damen falls for it, too, because of course), but the symmetry there is really not nearly so fascinating to me as it is apparently meant to be. I did like all the "our brother of Vere" "my royal brother" stuff, and the personal-and-public gifts, which spiced up the tedious "we can never be together" portions, though -- that was about the right level of emphasis for me, but everything else got too much.
I did like Laurent's understanding with Jokaste, and the revelation that convincing Kastor (and presumably the Regent, indirectly) to send Damen to Vere rather than kill him was something I hadn't expected -- even though it's actually nicely mirrored/foreshadowed by the Erasmus short story. I liked Jokaste's final note to Damen, the wistfulness of it, and that she offered him the truth.
I really liked Nikandros and the whole of his relationship with Damen. The way they are old friends, but separated by Damen's kingship now, but also Nikandros still looking out for him as a friend as well as his liege and trying to balance those things, and the hints of what things were like in the past, like Damen (adorably) being jealous that Nikandros gets to go serve at the Kingsmeet with the best of the best and he doesn't.
Oh, and I was very amused that even canon had to make a nod to the epic bro-ship that Damen and Augustus would have had in a happier AU: "Thank you, I know exactly how it would have been. You and Auguste would have been slapping each other on the back and watching tournaments, and I would have been trailing around tugging on your sleeve, trying to get a look in edgewise."
I will say that I was surprised, unpleasantly, by the writing in the book. Not because it was bad -- it wasn't, I think? -- but it seemed to me quite a bit worse than in book 2, for instance. I'll grant that it's probably trying to do a harder thing, but there was just... a lot of jumping around that was confusing, the pacing felt off (even though I stayed up till 3 a.m. reading, so it wasn't exactly a problem). But it felt underedited, and word choice jumped out at me a couple of times in niggling ways (also, an overuse of "fuck") -- I felt like I was reading a less professional product than book 2. Which is weird, because of how long this book has been coming, so I was assuming it was getting a thorough processing meanwhile. But apparently not?
I am... dubious about the happily-ever-after scenario. I mean, Damen basically proposing to Laurent via the "this used to be one kingdom" thing, and Laurent later saying the same thing was sweet. But, uh. So, uh. How are they planning to rule their newly united kingdom exactly, though? I mean, from the point of view of succession? Given that Damen has no heir after all (only a nephew of dubious legitimacy) and neither of them has any other family left whatsoever? Jokaste as surrogate mother? I mean, she looks like Laurent and is similar to him in other ways, it's been established, and it does not seem likely that Laurent would have sex with a woman, plus he seems determined to be the last of his family (for some reason... I mean, I would've expected him to want Auguste's line to live on, so...)
Also, while I enjoyed seeing the way Damen's own experiences as a slave changed the way he looked at slaves, his determination to abolish slavery is laudable, but it's sort of thrown out there airily while I can only assume this would take a lot of work and an enormous cultural shift. I guess it'll give Laurent something to do...
Quotes coming later (probably) because my Kindle is trying to download some update or something...