The Raven Tower sync read post

[hamsterwoman]

For me and ikel89 and hopefully cyanshadow and anyone else who wants to join in!

This entry was originally posted at https://hamsterwoman.dreamwidth.org/1104287.html. Comment wherever you prefer (I prefer LJ).

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Because a series of choices this book made: a present-but-passive narrator voice, a stranger in a new land, coups in the new land -- are tripping me up and sending me into the place where I still seethe with discontent about Conspiracy,

This is so fascinating tI can certainly see all those similarities! But until you mentioned it, I had not thought of Raven Tower in the context of Conspiracy at all, and even now they just feel completely differently to me. Like, despite being present-but-passive, the rock god and Chant are just such different narrators in all respects. The "stranger in new land" -- by which I assume you mean Eolo coming to court -- feels totally different, too, because it's not a professional traveler ending up in yet another new place (that he doesn't like much) but much more like the more straightforward fantasy trope of farmer boy coming to the big city. And the coups pick up in different places. The narrator bit made me think of Fifth Season (second person + rockiness), and the coup of Hamlet (which L has been reading recently, but also I've heard that comparison about the Raven Tower, and it's working really well so far).

I agree with you that the POV is distancing, and there are some things it's making a lot less vivid than they probably would've been otherwise, but I do like the POV on the whole.

- also Xulahns as Chinese... for whatever reason

Nominally egalitarian army, probably? :) It does seem to fit.

[ikel89]

delinquent afterthoughts!

upon reflection, I don't think I'd have liked Raven Tower more if I had read it ahead of Conspiracy. There would have been less stubbed-toe annoyance, but much more confused "why is this a choice she made", but net affection would have been around same.

Re: Chinese, I maintain it's misplaced Six of crows geography plus X & H letter combinations, which register as very pinyin (as opposed to Japanese or Korean for instance).

[hamsterwoman]

plus X & H letter combinations, which register as very pinyin

Good point!

Interesting that you came to the conclusion your meh-ness was not rooted in Conspiracy trauma after all. I mean, in fairness, this book was like the polar opposite of "veselo i strelyayut" , so I'm not surprised it wasn't a hit with you. But of course slower and quieter books HAVE worked for you in the past (Goblin Emperor, e.g.)

[ikel89]

Lbr Goblin Emperor is a veeery different kind of slow book. And for another example -- Chinese scifi could qualify as slow, and I enjoy it (in a manner of soeaking). Yet another angle -- Pillow book. So it's not about pace alone, or rather, what kind of build-up or worthwhile atmosphere the slowness is building, the eventual payoff. (Not to deny the truth of my fondness for весело и стреляют, of course).

[hamsterwoman]

Mmm, I could see the distinction with Goblin Emperor and the Pillow book -- warmth and/or aesthetics -- but I confess that I TOTALLY don't understand why Chinese sci-fi would appeal more than this book. I'm not saying that to say I don't understand how people can like 3BP -- I enjoyed it, after a fashion -- but the things I liked about it were the same things I liked about Raven Tower -- the concepts and the intricacy of (one part of) worldbuilding. And I feel like a rock has about the same personality as 3BP's characters -- not even a divine rock, like a literal rock XP